Motorola XTS3000

[coolguy]

Hello. I have a couple questions to ask about my XTS3000.

I have a XTS3000 Model III (3) I borrowed from a friend, and it is setup to RX only our Trunking System. I am just wondering if anyone on here would know how to enter other Talkgroups into it. Because right now it just has the our main OPS talkgroups in it for our police. And would like to enter other talkgroups into it for my ZONE they might decide to use sometime. Like other talkgroups for the police, and the talkgroups for the Ambulance and MTO Enforcement (which are all on our same Trunking System). If this is easy to do, or you need something like a System Key or some other type of file on the software to do this, let me know. If it can't be easily done, then no big deal was just wondering. So if it can easily be done, I can enter them in and have these other talkgroups in there to listen to when and if they decide to use them.

Second question. When I am sitting on a Talkgroup, after a certain amount of time the red light (on top of the radio) will start blinking a few times then stop. When it does this, I am missing the RADIO COMMS when they are talking. But once it stops blinking, I will hear all the COMMS just fine. It's just when that Red Light starts blinking, is when I won't hear any talking from the radio, even though they are still talking on that talkgroup. Does this mean for some reason it is just re-scanning the Control Channels in the radio or doing something else. Is this normal, or is it a certain setting in the software I need to change to make that Red Light stop blinking after a certain amount of time and so I won't miss any of the comms when they are talking.

I will be waiting for any replies from anyone on here that can help me out.

Thanks

[RBMTS]

You will need a system key in the CPS to make any changes to the trunk profile setup in the radio.

In regards to the blinking led, there could be several reasons for that. One of them is that the radio is trying to affiliate with the trunk system. You say that the radio is setup to receive only. Well it might be, but maybe not depending on how it was programmed. Just because a radio "bonks" when keying up on a talk group does not mean that xmit is turned off. If the radio is indeed trying to affiliate, the radio could be easily bricked by the sysop. If you are not 100% familiar with how to program an XTS onto a trunking system, you might not know if the radio is really set or not set to affiliate.

My suggestion is don't play with it. Turn it off and give it back to the owner. Or delete out the trunking profile from the radio (if that is ok with the owner) and use if for other conventional frequencies.

Just my two cents.

[KE4ZNR]

As RBMTS correctly states you need a valid system key to be able to modify trunked system parameters such as talkgroups. Are there ways around this? Yes, but once you start going down the road of programming talkgroups you have not been given explicit permission to have in the radio you run a high risk of the radio being inhibited (bricked).
We will do that on the system I help manage. Once a radio has been inhibited it is very difficult to get it back working.
Not worth the trouble or risk in yalls case but if you want to make a paperweight out of the 3K it is up to you.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Originally Posted by coolguy

Hello. I have a couple questions to ask about my XTS3000.

I have a XTS3000 Model III (3) I borrowed from a friend, and it is setup to RX only our Trunking System. I am just wondering if anyone on here would know how to enter other Talkgroups into it. Because right now it just has the our main OPS talkgroups in it for our police. And would like to enter other talkgroups into it for my ZONE they might decide to use sometime. Like other talkgroups for the police, and the talkgroups for the Ambulance and MTO Enforcement (which are all on our same Trunking System). If this is easy to do, or you need something like a System Key or some other type of file on the software to do this, let me know. If it can't be easily done, then no big deal was just wondering. So if it can easily be done, I can enter them in and have these other talkgroups in there to listen to when and if they decide to use them.

Second question. When I am sitting on a Talkgroup, after a certain amount of time the red light (on top of the radio) will start blinking a few times then stop. When it does this, I am missing the RADIO COMMS when they are talking. But once it stops blinking, I will hear all the COMMS just fine. It's just when that Red Light starts blinking, is when I won't hear any talking from the radio, even though they are still talking on that talkgroup. Does this mean for some reason it is just re-scanning the Control Channels in the radio or doing something else. Is this normal, or is it a certain setting in the software I need to change to make that Red Light stop blinking after a certain amount of time and so I won't miss any of the comms when they are talking.

I will be waiting for any replies from anyone on here that can help me out.

Thanks

[coolguy]

Ok. Thanks for the info. I thought that I might need a System Key of some sorts to make corrections or to add other Talkgroups onto my XTS I am using, but wasn't 100% positive. So I just thought I would ask anyone on here just to find out for sure.

I know about the Trunking System, and I know that this XTS3000 I am using is only set up to RX only for our Trunking System I am monitoring. So there is no worries there in that part.

Thanks again for the info. That is all I needed to know. I just thought if it was straight forward or something easy to do to add or make corrections to the Talkgroups on this XTS3000, but obviously not.

[RBMTS]

Originally Posted by coolguy

I know about the Trunking System, and I know that this XTS3000 I am using is only set up to RX only for our Trunking System I am monitoring. So there is no worries there in that part.

Just be careful. Those are the same words I heard from a guy I knew. He insisted that his radio was RX only (swore on it up and down). His opinion greatly changed when I brought up Unitrunker and showed him what was happening at the system level and how his portable was trying to affiliate. The radio was even programmed for a RID that was already in use. Double ouch! I've never seen a battery come off a radio so quickly.

I'm not questioning your knowledge or disputing you, but unless you are familiar with CPS and the trunk programming of the specific XTS3000 radio you have in your hands, you may not really know what it is setup to do and or if that is impacting a different actual user on the system. Just something to keep in mind.

Enjoy it if you know it is safe.

[MikeOxlong]

Originally Posted by coolguy

When I am sitting on a Talkgroup, after a certain amount of time the red light (on top of the radio) will start blinking a few times then stop..

Originally Posted by coolguy

I know about the Trunking System, and I know that this XTS3000 I am using is only set up to RX only for our Trunking System I am monitoring. So there is no worries there in that part.

[FFPM571]

How long til the post about how to fix an Inhibited XTS3000???

[Skypilot007]

Originally Posted by coolguy

Ok. Thanks for the info. I thought that I might need a System Key of some sorts to make corrections or to add other Talkgroups onto my XTS I am using, but wasn't 100% positive. So I just thought I would ask anyone on here just to find out for sure.

I know about the Trunking System, and I know that this XTS3000 I am using is only set up to RX only for our Trunking System I am monitoring. So there is no worries there in that part.

Thanks again for the info. That is all I needed to know. I just thought if it was straight forward or something easy to do to add or make corrections to the Talkgroups on this XTS3000, but obviously not.

The red blinking light means the radio is attempting to affiliate to the system you are monitoring. The radio is transmitting and that is why you are missing comms while the red light blinks. Who ever programmed the radio for passive monitoring did a poor job. I would give it back to them and not use it to monitor the system until its programmed correctly. The proper methods of programming are out there in different places around the net. Just research "no affiliate scan" www.p25.ca is a very good source of information also.

[coolguy]

Ok. Thanks for all the info and your help.

That is all I wanted to know was just if it was possible to add or make changes to the talkgroups.

Thanks again.

[WayneH]

Some system programmers will program radios as "RX only" which means that the radio ID is defined in the database with the dispatch (or group calling) ability disabled. That gives it the ability to function like any other radio but not interfere with whatever's being monitored.

So it is a likely possibility.

[coolguy]

Yah this radio is only Programmed for RX only on our Trunking system. So it doesn't interfere with this system at all. I use Trunk88 to monitor our system and everytime I have the radio on, nothing comes up on the screen from that radio to show that it is affiliating to the system on our tower. So there is no worries on my end about it interfering with the system.

This radio is working just like a normal radio, to transmit on the Conventional channels I have put in it to talk on and just for RX only to monitor our Trunking System. And it comes in handy when I have my scanner with me and if I happen to be out for quite awhile and the batteries die in my scanner, all I have to do is switch my XTS3000 on, and continue listening to our police, if there happens to be something good going on or not. This way I won't miss any comms, until I get back home and replace the batteries in my scanner.

Thanks again for the info.

[MikeOxlong]

Originally Posted by WayneH

Some system programmers will program radios as "RX only" which means that the radio ID is defined in the database with the dispatch (or group calling) ability disabled. That gives it the ability to function like any other radio but not interfere with whatever's being monitored.

So it is a likely possibility.

It would be if he was a user of the system and not somebody who's borrowed a radio from a friend who isn't a user of the system either.

The fact that his radio is transmitting but he's not seeing it on Trunk88 tells me somebody has changed the input bandplan (this is a VHF system he's talking about) and control channel inputs.

[gatekeep]

Originally Posted by MikeOxlong

It would be if he was a user of the system and not somebody who's borrowed a radio from a friend who isn't a user of the system either.

The fact that his radio is transmitting but he's not seeing it on Trunk88 tells me somebody has changed the input bandplan (this is a VHF system he's talking about) and control channel inputs.

Agree. Either that, or the Tx Power softpots are zeroed or the finals are removed.

[Skypilot007]

Either way it seems to me that this partucular radio was not programmed by a system administrator so it must be setup as a no affiliate scan scheme. If you are seeing the red light blinking on the radio the no affiliate scan setup was not done correctly. Changing the band plan on VHF/UHF systems is another way to prevent affilation but something else was overlooked if the radio is making affilation attempts. Harmless as they may seem as you are seeing nothing light up in trunk88 the affiliation attempts are causing you to miss transmissions as you mentioned above. Something was over looked, find that issue and you'll have a clean setup that functions just like an subscriber radio. Happy hunting.

[MikeOxlong]

The big clue is in his first post where he says he is sitting on a talkgroup.

[TheManBornWithin]

Originally Posted by WayneH

Some system programmers will program radios as "RX only" which means that the radio ID is defined in the database with the dispatch (or group calling) ability disabled. That gives it the ability to function like any other radio but not interfere with whatever's being monitored.

Is this available on all systems? When I had the county program some trunking radios for us, I had asked if he could add in the fire TGs as RX. He said he wished he could but it wasn't possible. Unless he didn't know how? Or if the radio is to be used for transmitting, it can't have RX only talkgroups as well?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[wlmr]

Originally Posted by TheManBornWithin

Is this available on all systems? When I had the county program some trunking radios for us, I had asked if he could add in the fire TGs as RX. He said he wished he could but it wasn't possible. Unless he didn't know how? Or if the radio is to be used for transmitting, it can't have RX only talkgroups as well?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

All or nothing with system level programming. The radio ID is either Rx only or is allowed to Tx. Can't be set TG by TG.

[coolguy]

Yes on my radio the RADIO ID is set to RX only. Otherwise it would be showing up on my TRUNK88 screen all the time I turn the radio on. And all this time since it was programmed, a long time ago. If it was transmitting on our Trunking System, someone would of noticed it by now and said something or tried to find out who has the radio. So once again the radio is set to RX only to monitor our Trunking System on this radio. So everything is all good.

Thanks for all the info again.

[KS4VT]

Originally Posted by coolguy

Yes on my radio the RADIO ID is set to RX only. Otherwise it would be showing up on my TRUNK88 screen all the time I turn the radio on. And all this time since it was programmed, a long time ago. If it was transmitting on our Trunking System, someone would of noticed it by now and said something or tried to find out who has the radio. So once again the radio is set to RX only to monitor our Trunking System on this radio. So everything is all good.

Thanks for all the info again.

If you mean to say that the ID in the system that the radio is assigned to is set for "Dispatch Disable", then your statement is not correct. The radio still communicates with the network and the Administrator still sees all affiliations and has total control of the radio. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean that it isn't talking to the system.

You never said what system or what frequency band that you are monitoring, so there are a lot of assumptions where it comes to the bandplan, such as VHF, where you can modify it and still not be seen.

[MikeOxlong]

Hmmm, red light flashes, loses comm's for a few seconds.

It's transmitting. Any moron can figure it out.

It's obviously not transmitting on the input to any control channels since Trunk88 is not seeing it.

Since the OP is in Ontario and he mentions EMS, he's listening to the Bell Mobility Radio Fleetnet system which is VHF.