Generic LE Radio Use Question

[nokoa3116]

I have several weird questions about how the Motorola radios are used every day by law enforcement patrol officers.

When in a patrol vehicle do officers always use the car mobile radio vs their handheld?

In a digital system will talking on ones handheld be heard on ones vehicle's mobile radio, and vise versa. (what I mean by this, will the officer hear themselves in their own car's radio?)

If yes, do officers just turn down their handhelds when getting in the car? I know some use earpieces. It just seems like a thing easy to forget to turn back up when leaving the car.

Do Motorola Portable/Mobile Radios operating on a digital system have the option to block out transmissions coming from a specific radio ID?

A bit of a silly question, I know. I am just curious as to how cops deal with this scenario. Quickly jumping back into cars say in a pursuit, and then using the car radio. Wouldn't there be "feedback"?

 

[hill]

Some departments only have the handheld radios. My local County operated that way for years and I not really sure if all vehicles have a mobile radio now or all still using portables.

Many departments that only have mobile radio coverage use mobile repeaters also sometimes called extenders. These are used when the portables can't have access to the system. If this case the portables use a different radio band to receive and transmit back to the vehicle repeater. The radio traffic is then transmitted on the main radio system from the higher power mobile radio and whatever is received by the mobile is sent out the portable on the extender frequency.

They could hear on a different radio, but two radios right next to each other would most likely desense each other making the other radio hard to receive.

If they are using a digital radio system all have a little delay while the vocoders process the voice before transmitting as digital. Would more than likely sound like an echo.

 

[GTR8000]

1. There is absolutely no way to answer this, as it varies by agency and individual. Some use the mobile, some use the portable.

2. Yes, the transmissions can be heard over either radio, and there is an inherent delay with digital modulation, meaning you get a nasty echo effect that cascades. Eventually it sounds like a hot mess of the most awful feedback you've ever heard.

3. Again, no definitive answer because it depends on the individual.

4. No.

5. Refer to #2

 

[K2NEC]

To answer the first question, it does really depend on department and personal preference.
Some officers use their portable 100% of the time until they are out of the coverage zone and then they use mobile. Some officers turn their portables on only when they step out of the car and use the mobile the rest of the time. Some officers turn their portable down in the car and use the mobile. There is no definitive answer. I think part of it also has to play with the officers having to wait for the radio to affiliate (or in my case, for the radio to find an IPSC site ) and that time where they can't transmit could be life or death.

 

[a417]

Quickly jumping back into cars say in a pursuit, and then using the car radio. Wouldn't there be "feedback"?

Muscle memory.

Put a radio on your hip for long enough, and have one mounted next to your knees in your unit and you will instinctively snap your volume down (or all the way off) on your hip 99 times out of a 100 every time you get in (or propel yourself into) your vehicle. The radio is your lifeline, you learn how to not tangle it quickly.

 

[ai8o]

I have several weird questions about how the Motorola radios are used every day by law enforcement patrol officers.
When in a patrol vehicle do officers always use the car mobile radio vs their handheld?

I was A LEO for 33 years starting in the 1970s
I worked for 4 different agencies.

All those years I used UHF HTs that I carried on my belt.
No Police radios in any of the cars.

The only time I had a radio mounted in my vehicle was a VHF county fire radio,
I was working Evidence, and I had to communicate with the fire marshal, EMA, and arson investigators, using the on scene fire TAC channels.

The HT radios were
mostly HT-220s,
a BK/King HT whose model # I can't remember,
but when viper started up, an MTX-5000.

I liked the MTX-5000 model.
Every channel had a voice announcement that told you what channel you were on when you switched to it.
This was convenient because you didn't have to take the radio out of it's holder, and look at it to see what channel you were on when you switched channels.
16 banks so my radio could affiliate with the local agency just about anywhere in the state.

 

[N4KVE]

Since the officer’s portable, & mobile radio both have the same ID #, the radios can be set to mute when one is transmitting so no feedback will be heard from the other.

 

[hill]

In my area the mobiles and portables each have a different radio ids on the TRS.

 

[jeepsandradios]

Since the officer’s portable, & mobile radio both have the same ID #, the radios can be set to mute when one is transmitting so no feedback will be heard from the other.

What are you talking about. No radio should have the same ID in them. Especially in the trunking world. Duplicate ID's cause a lot of trouble. Even P25 conventional would have different IDs. We use different ID's on our MDC stuff. Where would one go when a FF or Police officer hit his emergency ? There should never be duplicate Id's in radios.

 

[KevinC]

Since the officer’s portable, & mobile radio both have the same ID #, the radios can be set to mute when one is transmitting so no feedback will be heard from the other.

What checkbox exactly is that in CPS?

 

[GTR8000]

Since the officer’s portable, & mobile radio both have the same ID #, the radios can be set to mute when one is transmitting so no feedback will be heard from the other.

Say what? Where do you come up with some of the stuff you post?

 

[N4KVE]

Many locals who use DMR, & use the same ID number on their portable, & base can not communicate with each other because of this feature. There is a box I checked to turn off this feature. In the OP, I don’t see any mention of a P25, or trunking system. And many small cities who can’t afford P25 radios are using DMR radios to save $.

 

[GTR8000]

When I see "Motorola" and "law enforcement" and "digital" in the same sentence, I'm not thinking about DMR and I doubt others are either. But sure, if that helps make your point, let's pretend that most law enforcement using Motorola radios with digital modulation are using XPR radios on MOTOTRBO vs the reality of 95% of them using ASTRO 25 or APX radios on some form of P25. 🤦‍♂️

 

[ecps92]

Slightly OT but related

What ever happened to P54 technology ?

https://www.unh.edu/sites/www.unh.edu/files/departments/engagement_academic_outreach/pdf/ADAPDFs/project-54.pdf

1. There is absolutely no way to answer this, as it varies by agency and individual. Some use the mobile, some use the portable.

2. Yes, the transmissions can be heard over either radio, and there is an inherent delay with digital modulation, meaning you get a nasty echo effect that cascades. Eventually it sounds like a hot mess of the most awful feedback you've ever heard.

3. Again, no definitive answer because it depends on the individual.

4. No.

5. Refer to #2

 

[12dbsinad]

The only time a radio will "mute" is when a radio gets wiped out by the other radio due to close proximity and RF power. More so mobile to portable, unless you have a high enough signal strength to overcome.

 

[jeepsandradios]

Many locals who use DMR, & use the same ID number on their portable, & base can not communicate with each other because of this feature. There is a box I checked to turn off this feature. In the OP, I don’t see any mention of a P25, or trunking system. And many small cities who can’t afford P25 radios are using DMR radios to save $.

Well any radio shop putting the same id in both a portable and a mobile should not be in business. Its stupid. Its bad enough they are using DMR. Public safety is ham radio. SMH

 

[CCHLLM]

I can only speak for two Moto trunk systems in my recent experience, but my assigned APX 8000 portable and APX7500 mobile did not have the same ID. The portable which was assigned to me showed up in the CAD system as my alias with a P suffix and my fixed assigned duty area. The APX 7500 mobile assigned to me showed up as my alias + vehicle number with a V suffix because the mobile was in my fixed assignment vehicle.

For non-fixed duty areas, vehicle numbers, and radios, etc., when the user signs in to the CAD at the beginning of the shift and enters the shift assignment vehicle number, the CAD pairs the user's alias to the vehicle and shows the user's alias and the assigned vehicle number. As to feedback, the portable radio has a mute switch or button assignment on the radio and/or on the speaker mike.

 

[K2NEC]

I can only speak for two Moto trunk systems in my recent experience, but my assigned APX 8000 portable and APX7500 mobile did not have the same ID. The portable which was assigned to me showed up in the system as my alias with a P suffix and the assigned duty area. The APX 7500 mobile assigned to me showed up as my alias + vehicle number with a V suffix because the mobile was in my fixed assignment vehicle.

Especially trunking radios, they should never have the same ID. It's one of the reasons that NAS is a problem because people Dupe ID's and then it messes with the affiliation.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, a lot of good reasons to keep them separate.
If an officers radio gets lost, it's easy to just stun/kill that specific radio. Taking out the mobile also sort of screws with the benefit of having two radios.
On some systems, you cannot have two radios with the same ID. Older systems like Type 2 trunking would allow it, some newer systems it's not even an option.

We use the officers badge number as the portable ID.
We use the vehicle number as the mobile ID.

Makes life a bit easier when there's a radio issue and I need to figure out which radio it is.

 

[CCHLLM]

I was one of the people doing programming and testing, and as the older 3600 system was being replaced, the IDs were reworked to eliminate duplications and accommodate Phase 2. Once the 9600 system went into operation and had been tested and debugged, P2 was put into action.