XTS-5000, XTS-1500, and XTL-5000 Audio Issue

[Copperonly]

So my county dispatch just switched us for the third time in a few months. So now, we're operating on a narrowband repeater. This is great, right??? The problem is, when I receive the audio from my county dispatch, the audio is missing some stuff. What I mean by this is it sounds like the radio is on priority scan and jumps back to the priority scan channel. The weird part is, the radio only does this when dispatch is talking. When someone else is talking, I can hear them plain as day with no problems, no audio skipping. I have played around with every RX audio setting that I can, then I tried the portables with the speaker mic to see if it was an internal speaker issue. Here's where it gets weirder (not sure if thats a word), it is doing it for all of our Astro25 radios only and when I put the portables next to a scanner, the audio on the scanner is clear as a day. I'm not sure if this is a programming issue and should be placed there, Mars, if it is I'm sorry about that... and I haven't forgotten about you.. Any help and/or advice would be great. Thanks

Also the MDC ID decodes stopped working and theres a symbol on the LCD screen that I cannot track down the meaning of, Its an A3 looking symbol about 3/4 an inch to the left of the battery indicator.

 

[Notarola]

Check that you have the radios set to message trunking. it sounds like your in transmission mode.

 

[Copperonly]

This makes me sound really stupid; however, I have never done anythong with a trunking system. I don't even know where to find that in the CPS...

 

[tvsjr]

Lots of stuff here doesn't make sense. The only "A3" symbol I can think of would be "AES" and should be accompanied by a circle-slash ø indicating that you have selected AES encryption. This would also mean P25 digital, either conventional or trunking. Your scanner wouldn't work so well with this. Perhaps a photo would be possible? How is the scanner programmed (frequency, a trunking system, etc.)?

The Astro25 radios are notoriously picky, since they are DSP based. Many radio shops performed narrowbanding (either infrastructure or subscribers) by a simple reprogramming, never bothering to check alignment. If dispatch has hot enough audio and the repeater isn't properly aligned, excessive deviation or distortion may cause dropouts. I've seen hammy repeaters that would work just fine on your average YaeComWood trash, but wouldn't unmute at all on a DSP-based real radio due to alignment issues.

 

[Copperonly]

I have an encryption module installed in my radio that has AES and DES-OFB. We are currently using OFB, we only have a KVL3000 and there is physically no way that I can load an AES key into my radio.

My scanner has the receive freq programmed, which is 155.7225 with a PL. The TX freq is 159.2775 with the same PL.

I actually think you have hit the nail on the head, I think dispatch audio is more powerful than everyone here thinks and I am doubtful that these "experts" have anything aligned they way it is supposed to be. My radio was sitting next to a Kenwood and the Kenwood was picking up everything just fine and mine was skipping. I personally think Kenwoods are junk though; however, it worked better than mine last night. I want to fix this but I'm wondering if I should wait until the "experts" have their baby up and running...

 

[tvsjr]

That's IP. Someone has configured integrated voice and data (IV&D) which can be used to pass data, text messaging, or (most likely) over-the-air programming. However, that would indicate that you're running in P25 mode (or maybe mixed mode). MDC, which is a specific protocol for use with analog systems, doesn't exist in P25 world - there are IDs passed which are configurable, but it's not MDC. Are you referring to true MDC, or ID display?

Assuming that you are indeed running P25, you can forget the comments about deviation. Bits are bits. If you're getting periodic drops, it's likely a console issue.

 

[Copperonly]

I'm running it in mixed mode... the only reason it is mixed is because of some tactical channels we switched between conventional analog and digital encryption. I believe it was set up that way because it was an easier alternative to talk to other units and when we wanted the encryption, we just move the switch. I know what you're talking about in P25 world as far as the digital ID and that has always been fine. I just changed the personality from mixed to analog and the IP went away, even if my eyes told me it was an A3... Even in analog mode, the radio still skipped audio