Motorola DLR 1060s Range Testing Question

[ScenicView]

I have some new DLR 1060s and wanted to test them out. My wife stayed in the house with one while I drove around with the other. I was clearly out of range with my HS, but never got the three no signal beeps. It led me to believe I was always in range, but the HS in the house received nothing. The HS in the house did get the three no signal beeps.

When I got home, I turned off the HS in the house and only then got the no signal beeps.

Does anyone know what might explain that?

 

[JASII]

I am confused by your post. The first two sentences make sense, but when you refer to "HS", I assume that you are referring to a HotSpot or some sort, but I don't get what the "HS" has to do with not getting the "three no signal beeps."

If you simply want to perform Motorola DLR1060 range testing, verify that you can talk to each other when you are within sight of once another. I have had DTRs, but not DLRs, but I assume they operate the same. You need to have the same Channel and Code selected. (Yes, I KNOW there might be a mode that allows "All Code Receive", but I don't want to confuse the issue at the moment.)

Once you have verified that you can talk to each other within sight of one another, then leave her home and you start out in the car. I still have Garmin automobile GPS receivers, so it is easy for me to readily tell how far I am from a know POI (Point Of Interest). In our particular neighborhood, we generally get about 1 mile reliably, especially with one in a vehicle and one home.

Just to reiterate, the HS that you refer to, assuming it IS hotspot, has NOTHING TO DO with the DLR1060s, unless they have some new mode that I don't know about!

 

[SteveSimpkin]

A few definitions of "HS". I think in this case he means Home Station.

HS

What does HS stand for?

acronyms.thefreedictionary.com

 

[ScenicView]

Sorry. Like many things, it made sense at the time. HS is handset.

Basically both handsets were out of range of each other, but only one of them gave the three beep unable to transmit sound.

The handset I was driving around with gave the usual ok to transmit squawk even when the other handset could not receive the transmission or transmit.

 

[n1das]

The DLRs are great little radios. RF range and performance is identical to the DTR series radios when the DTRs use the 3.5" 1/4 wave antenna. I have owned a fleet of DLR1060s and later sold them to a friend after stepping up to the DTR 600/700 series. The only reason I sold them was that I had too many radios and needed to unload some of them. I sold my DLR fleet to a friend for his business and at first he wasn't sure what he was going to use them for except maybe as rental radios for his customers. Now he uses them all the time in normal day to day activities for work and pleasure and won't part with them.

You were most likely getting into other DLRs or DTRs in the area that are operating at their factory defaults. The radios will talk to each other right out of the box at the factory default settings. Many people leave them at the factory defaults and use them right out of the box like FRS bubble packs. I use the talkgroup scan feature in my DTRs to scan the default public channels in the DLRs and DTRs to listen for activity. I have been noticing increasing activity on the default channels in my travels as these radios seem to be getting popular. I have been finding them mostly in large urban areas and busy retail districts. Costco Wholesale near me uses them and I regularly hear them when I'm in range.

To prevent getting into other DLRs and DTRs which can make it hard for range testing, set the 4 digit radio Profile in all DLR radios in your fleet to something other than the 0000 default. This is a radio wide setting. Pick a favorite 4 digit number easy to remember but hard for others to guess. Don't use something obvious like 1234. You don't need the CPS to set the 4 digit radio Profile. The instructions are in the owner's guide. Setting a 4 digit radio Profile will secure your channels so that your DLRs will only interact with your DLRs and nobody elses. It will be easier to do range testing when you know for sure that your DLR will only talk to your other DLR(s) and no others. No other DLRs or DTRs will hear yours too. While technically not encrypted, they can be made very secure. They are not monitorable on any consumer grade receiver (i.e., scanner) (so don't even bother trying).

 

[n1das]

I am confused by your post. The first two sentences make sense, but when you refer to "HS", I assume that you are referring to a HotSpot or some sort, but I don't get what the "HS" has to do with not getting the "three no signal beeps."

If you simply want to perform Motorola DLR1060 range testing, verify that you can talk to each other when you are within sight of once another. I have had DTRs, but not DLRs, but I assume they operate the same. You need to have the same Channel and Code selected. (Yes, I KNOW there might be a mode that allows "All Code Receive", but I don't want to confuse the issue at the moment.)

Once you have verified that you can talk to each other within sight of one another, then leave her home and you start out in the car. I still have Garmin automobile GPS receivers, so it is easy for me to readily tell how far I am from a know POI (Point Of Interest). In our particular neighborhood, we generally get about 1 mile reliably, especially with one in a vehicle and one home.

Just to reiterate, the HS that you refer to, assuming it IS hotspot, has NOTHING TO DO with the DLR1060s, unless they have some new mode that I don't know about!

The DLRs operate like the DTRs but a few things were changed and improved. The end users sees channels instead of talkgroups, probably because the concept of a channel is easier for users to grasp than a talkgroup (WTH is a talkgroup?). It's more familiar nomenclature. The end user doesn't need to know the nitty gritty details of how the radio programs and operates. The older DTR 410/550/650 had a lot of nice features for a professional digital on-site business radio but they were too much radio for the average business radio user in a retail environment. The DLRs are Motorola's answer to that. DLR = Digital Lightweight Radio according to Motorola.

The DLR and DTR 600/700 Talk Permit Tone (TPT) chirp is essentially the same as the NEXTEL DirectConnect chirp. This is a faster 1800Hz chirp than the DTR 410/550/650 chirp which was inherited from the NEXTEL Off-Network DirectTalk chirp. The User Not Available error tone in the DTR 410/550/650 models is replaced by 3 low pitched beeps in the DLRs and DTR 600/700, making a "doo-doo-doot" sound. The DTR 410/550/650 models were very NEXTEL-like in their behavior since they shared a common design with a Motorola iDEN phone when they were designed.

Motorola also changed the other beep sounds in the DLRs and DTR 600/700 models. The loud and annoying 2300Hz peep sound used as a "roger beep" on a receiving DTR radio was changed to a soft de-doom sound but is turned off by default. The 2300Hz "dee-deet" sound at the start of an incoming call in the old DTRs was changed to a soft do-deem sound and is off by default. The private call TPT and roger beep sounds (off by default) are also different. The volume of all tones are adjustable with the CPS.

Since the DLRs don't have a display or a channel knob, the DLRs have voice prompts to speak the channel name and other status messages. The channel names can be customized in the CPS.

The DLRs and the DTR 600/700 models are easier and more straightforward to program compared to the older DTR 410/550/650 models. The 4 digit Profile and Profile ID mode are new features the older DTRs don't have. There is no "All Code Receive" in them just like in the older DTRs. I was not surprised to find the new DTR 600/700 models adopted the DLR way of programming going forward.

The DLRs and the DTR 600/700 models are fully backward compatible with the older DTR 410/550/650 models. I had my DTR650 fleet, DLR1060 fleet, and my DTR700 fleet all working with each other in public and private groups. I also had the DTR700 fleet and the DLR1060 fleet working with each other on Profile ID mode channels which the older DTR650 fleet doesn't have because the DTR 410/550/650 models don't have the Profile ID features.

The DLRs are great little radios.