EOC Setup help needed

[larrybl]

I am looking for some suggestions here, I have a small EOC center that currently has some VHF, and 800 mobile radios scattered around the office. The Director would like to stuff all these radios in a closet and have a console to operate them.
I have searched this site and read some postings, The question I would have is, do I need a seperate radio for each channel that would be available on the console. Or, could the console change the channel on the radio(s) remotely?

[xmo]

It depends on the radio and the console.

Most console products i.e. Motorola Centracon, Orbacom, etc. are designed to operate base & repeater stations by either DC remote control or tone remote control. Specific DC currents or tone sequences [respectively] have been defined for a variety of functions e.g. PTT, PL disable, repeater on/off, & frequency selection.

Modern consoles are programmable so you can choose which remote control functions you require. In this way you can omit stuff you don't need [like repeater on/off] to get up to eight frequency select choices [in CCII]

To go along with that - you have to have a way to make the radio respond to the console control. Real infrastructure grade radios are available with remote control capability [i.e. MSF5000, MTR2000, Quantar] On the other hand, if you want to use mobile type radios in for this application, they can be converted with a device called a 'remote adapter'. If you get an adapter that supports frequency selection, you have to make sure the radio you are going to use will interface to it.

Certain Radius and CDM mobiles can have frequency [mode] steering through programmable pins on their option connector. Remote adapters are available that will drive these frequency selection I/O's in redponse to console commands.

[kf4lhp]

xmo makes some good points, but I do want to point out that if you are looking at consoles, don't ignore Zetron's offerings (see their website at http://www.zetron.com/ ). They have some very nice products that are a lot cheaper than Motorola or Orbicom.

--mws

[xmo]

"...don't ignore Zetron's offerings..."
_____________________________

Zetron has an excellent selection of products AND the products work well. Zetron provides good support and they're easy to talk to and work with.

A lot of people were afraid that Motorola would someday buy Zetron and then procede to run them into the ground.

The actual selection of a console is a big project and one of the most important questions is: "who is going to install and maintain it?"

If you have a local dealer with a good support track record for a particular brand of console, that could be a big factor in your decision.

[firemed9]

Zetron would be the way I would want to go. It all depends on the tech support you would be able to get post setup.

[nmfire10]

The Zetron 4010 is stand alone console that will probably do anything you would ever need. It can be desktop or rack-mount depending on how you want to set it up. Very customizable and not expensive.

[RKG]

You can think of a "console" as functionally little more than a tone or DC remote, except that it has several "lines" so that it can act as a remote to more than one destination.

Desktop consoles have the remote electronics in the console box, and if you have two or more, each works independently and they are essentially the same a multiple remotes wired in parallel.

Larger consoles consolidate the "remote" electronics in a single unit, which can then be addressed by multiple "console" displays.

A rule of thumb is that you can parallel two or more "desktop" consoles without too much aggravation, but beyond that life becomes easier with the larger console and its central electronics bank.

As xmo points out, since a console is basically a remote (usually a TRC), what it can drive at the other end depends on whether the intended target can be effectively interfaced with a remote -- either via an external remote termination panel or via its own internal termination electronics. This is a function of that input and output signals are available on the backplane of the radio. Some are easy; some are hard; for a few, there are model-specific termination panels out there that access channel change, display, and scan functions; and with some it just can't be done.

In particular, you're going to have a tough time mating a portable radio to a console.

I don't know where you are located, but a guy who has built a lot of these "consoles-driving-control-station" consoles for EOCs is John Surette, at All-Comm. http://www.allcommtechnologies.com/

[larrybl]

Thanks all, I think I found a soultion in the posting...
http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... ht=console

A console would probally be an over kill for this requirement. I also maintain 10 Centracom gold elite consoles.

My EOC only needs to operate 3 VHF and 1 800 mobile radios, and the above setup should work.

Thanks again

Larry

[Will]

In one mobile EOC we used the remote kits to physically seperate the radios so they would not "get into each other". The radios are out of the way also, more operator room. Double shielded cable to each antenna. Just a thaught.

But keep some seperation so you don't get crosstalk on the radios.