APX Let's hear your voice! (APX radio profiles)

[thedanderzone]

Hello all,

Wondering what you are all running for your radio profiles, if you've deviated at all from the default setting.

We are an EMS-only agency who occasionally are in noisy environments, but nothing too crazy like a fire department would be. We also run primarily on analog conventional channels. We have 10 APX6000Li portables with the intention of purchasing enough to outfit the rest of our fleet within the next year. All operate with either an XE500 mic or a standard PMMN4065A mic (intentions of outfitting all radios with XE500.)

Our current setup that seems to work the best is as follows (settings are the same between radio and remote speaker mic):

TX
Noise reduction: Aggressive - we haven't noticed a degradation of audio quality with this setting in normal environments.
Group setting gain: Reduce feedback
Group setting audio equalization: XTS

RX
Alert tones volume offset: -15
Group setting audio equalization: Reduce feedback

We've tested these settings quite extensively on both analog and digital conventional with great success. Much better than the default settings, and would likely work well for fire department applications as well. We also disabled all of the intelligent lighting and enabled the solid green color for the top display as the majority of our personnel felt as though it was easier on the eyes at night.

It really is a slick setup for us.

Dan

 

[tunnelmot]

Thank you posting up your real world settings. I don't run APX but real data can be difference between stellar and subpar audio performance.

 

[APX8000]

I’ve been playing with various different settings and profiles with both APX6000s and 8000s. I’ll have to post them up later for others to try out as I’d love to hear input from others. I have found that the default RX profiles aren’t any worse or better than any combinations I’ve come up with mostly because so many agencies use the default TX settings.

 

[thedanderzone]

Signal-Zero,

I certainly agree with you there. The big place we see improvement with the "reduce feedback" is when our personnel key up in the trucks and forget to turn their portables off. The reason we changed our alert tones volume offset to -15 is to as closely match our channel announcement with the receiving audio. Otherwise, our channel announcement would blow our ears up and our receiving audio would be nowhere near loud enough.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Profiles do make a difference.
A while back a new P25 system came online and their radios were muffled and not sounding well.
A month or so after it officially came online FD used an ops channel to do radio profile testing. They announced the agency radio profile they were testing and then did some radio checks and used the same messages back and forth to test.
I heard some big differences in how it sounded and they reported back on their end how different profiles sounded better or worse.
They did testing in a quiet room, near the engine, siren in background and i think scba alarm going off. Kind of wish i would have recorded that for future use.

 

[thedanderzone]

That would've been nice to record! We kind of did the same thing, though we rarely find ourselves in loud situations. We also have some pretty significant dead zones (still on analog conventional, and one repeater to cover maybe 150 square miles.) We cover more than 150 square miles, but we also get dispatched from another dispatch center. The problem begins when we are on the edge of our service area and using portable radios. Identifying a radio profile that allows for the best audio in ALL situations is key for us.

 

[APX8000]

I also have a pretty good audio profile for XTL/XTS radios if anyone wants to try them out and report back.

For the APX, you may need to keep a separate profile for analog vs digital as well. I’ll post a few up later. Make sure you click the expert view to see them.

 

[Danny37]

I also have a pretty good audio profile for XTL/XTS radios if anyone wants to try them out and report back.

For the APX, you may need to keep a separate profile for analog vs digital as well. I’ll post a few up later. Make sure you click the expert view to see them.

I'm interested in the XTS series audio profile, just got my hands on a sweet xts2500.

 

[thedanderzone]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw enough of a difference to have two different profiles. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind (at least on the side of the programmer) is that most end users aren't going to take the time to change their profiles on the fly. I could be wrong, and if I am, please correct me. I'm just thinking about our own personnel. But what I'll end up doing is assigning the particular profile to the specific channel/talkgroup rather than keeping "last selected" as the default option. We don't have the "Extreme 1-sided operation" available to us, and we also didn't like the "loud audio" option either, so as of right now, we have no use for changing profiles on the fly (one exception is our SWAT medics who MAY want to use the surveillance option.)

Unfortunately, we don't use digital really at all with the exception of our statewide trunked system which is primarily for interoperability right now. Until we either start using that for our primary operations or end up with a P25 conventional repeater (ha, I make myself laugh) we'll be focusing on a profile to optimize analog operations.

 

[APX8000]

For most users, it’s easier to just leave the option to change the profile out of the menu. Then just assign it as needed. Can even strap profiles to the channels for specialized units so a surveillance profile will shut off tones, backlighting etc once the channel is changed to that tac. The options are there which is good.


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[K2NEC]

I also have a new 2500 that I would want to try it out on. Let's see it! I have been able to tweak the settings to my liking but there might be something more suitable out there and I am all ears (pun intended).

 

[APX8000]

Sorry guys. I’ll get it posted up tomorrow after work. I’d really like some feedback on the digital side.


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[APX8000]

XTS Settings:

TX Audio Control Per Module
Analog, Digital and Securenet AGC checked for External and Internal Mic
AGC Output -3
Total 12
Noise Suppression checked
Attenuation Level Advanced

RX Audio Control (Treble Control)
Analog -6
Digital -9
Securenet -6

Please let me know what you think compared to default, what areas you tweaked, etc. Good or bad.

 

[APX8000]

APX Settings (all TX).

Basic Default
Noise Reduction Group Setting - Normal
Gain / Sensitivity Group Setting - Normal
Audio Equalization - Normal

My Custom (similar to my XTS settings above...spoken words seem a little clearer than default)
Noise Reduction Group Setting - Normal
Gain / Sensitivity Group Setting - Custom
Analog, Digital and Securenet AGC all checked
AGC Gain Control Output -3
AGC Gain Control Total 12
Audio Equilization - Normal

My Custom "Aggressive" (adds a small cut down a bit on background noise)
Noise Reduction Group Setting - Aggressive
Everthing else same as above

My Custom "Aggressive" XTS (seems to get a little louder audio)
Same as above with the addition of Audio Equalization Group Setting - XTS

When I say "seems" thats to my ear testing with the audio coming out of another APX with default settings.

Let me know what you think. Test away. I'm running the latest firmware and Motorola seems to have the default pretty good and I really can't tell that much of a difference in the profiles so I'll take any suggestions.

RX Settings are all default. I've found most agencies using the default TX settings and haven't found any good combinations but will try out what thedanderzone posted above.

 

[thedanderzone]

Awesome, thanks! If I'm deciphering this correctly, we have just about the same "aggressive" profiles, we just happen to use ours 100% of the time. Your gain settings seem to be the same as selecting "reduce feedback" unless there is something different that occurs when you select "custom" and then check the three boxes for AGC.

I'm still pretty new to the profiles, so I'm curious to try that out.

 

[xplorer417]

can u post the xtl one i’m curious to try it out

 

[APX8000]

can u post the xtl one i’m curious to try it out

Scroll up. It’s before the APX. I use the same setting on the XTS/XTL.


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[APX8000]

Awesome, thanks! If I'm deciphering this correctly, we have just about the same "aggressive" profiles, we just happen to use ours 100% of the time. Your gain settings seem to be the same as selecting "reduce feedback" unless there is something different that occurs when you select "custom" and then check the three boxes for AGC.

I'm still pretty new to the profiles, so I'm curious to try that out.

The different profiles check off different boxes and change the figures. So you could technically click Custom and set it exactly the same as one of the factory options. I think your reduce feedback may play with the gain a little...I have to check it in CPS.

I can say I did not like the factory Xtreme one-sided or loud audio profiles.

I haven’t tried the Pass Filter checked on the 8000’s yet but would be interested in, knowing if it works good. I would think with the aggressive checked it would knock it down anyway. Would also like to try the wind reduction from normal to a little more aggressive.

Play play play...see what works in YOUR environment. A firefighter is going to need something different than a PD motor unit, helo, pump operator, etc. But my goal is to find a pretty good custom across all fields and especially for my use.




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[xplorer417]

oh ok thanks i didn’t know they were the same