MDC1200 and QCII - APX CPS 28.00.03 and FW 28.31.00

[Tech21]

APX CPS now allows you to setup one conventional analog personality to decode and encode MDC and QC II under one conventional system.

 

[KK6ZTE]

Hopefully they'll allow QC2 values to be defined in the RM database instead of the template soon. I've been pushing that for a while. This is quite a nice feature enhancement though.

 

[MTS2000des]

Firmware 29.00 just dropped and added real dBm display to conventional and trunked RSSI

 

[Tech21]

Firmware 29.00 just dropped and added real dBm display to conventional and trunked RSSI

This will be nice when testing for BDA's and at least getting a ball park number without having to manually convert in a spreadsheet. Doesn't replace using the proper test equipment obviously but you can at least compare between a radio and the test equipment to see if there at least close.

 

[MTS2000des]

Yep, typically when we do a pre-walk and do preliminary testing, the RSSI of a control channel is good baseline. Never a sub for proper BER pattern test, but a good ball park to know where to start.

 

[cpg178]

Updated to 29 today, did they remove this feature? Can't find an option to enable the MDC/QC2 feature, I did disable the Instant Recall feature and have expert view on, not seeing anything.

 

[Tech21]

Updated to 29 today, did they remove this feature? Can't find an option to enable the MDC/QC2 feature, I did disable the Instant Recall feature and have expert view on, not seeing anything.

This needs some clarification. If you have the digital tone signaling option, it allows you to use those tones in a conventional analog MDC/QCII system and it will encode/decode MDC/QCII on a single channel and the QCII alert tones available with the digital tone signaling option to be used in a conventional analog system.

 

[GTR8000]

Updated to 29 today, did they remove this feature? Can't find an option to enable the MDC/QC2 feature, I did disable the Instant Recall feature and have expert view on, not seeing anything.

You set the conventional personality System Type to MDC, and you'll see the QCII options.

 

[KevinC]

This will be nice when testing for BDA's and at least getting a ball park number without having to manually convert in a spreadsheet. Doesn't replace using the proper test equipment obviously but you can at least compare between a radio and the test equipment to see if there at least close.

But PLEASE don’t forget about the uplink side. Too may BDA’s are installed with “RSSI looks good, we’re done”.

 

[Tech21]

Also according the release notes for 29.00.01. Read/Write passwords will apply to both read and write. No more locking down one or the other, it's all or none. A forgotten password reset procedure is going to be added now. Unfortunately that will require calling Motorola and getting password reset file from them.

 

[cpg178]

You set the conventional personality System Type to MDC, and you'll see the QCII options.

Yeah, when I set to MDC I see a tone signaling list(edit: this appears to have been a thing for a while and is far from new) option where I can select a tone list I created but it errors out unless I set that to none or select QC2 as my signaling type. After reading Tech21's reply looks like this only works if you have the digital tone signaling which I understand to be QA09000, I have GA09000 which is just 'tone signaling' so guess I am SOL, not sure why you need that to do something with analog but thats the M way.

 

[GTR8000]

Yeah, when I set to MDC I see a tone signaling list(edit: this appears to have been a thing for a while and is far from new) option where I can select a tone list I created but it errors out unless I set that to none or select QC2 as my signaling type. After reading Tech21's reply looks like this only works if you have the digital tone signaling which I understand to be QA09000, I have GA09000 which is just 'tone signaling' so guess I am SOL, not sure why you need that to do something with analog but thats the M way.

GA09000 is the mobile version of QA09000, both are the same option.

I meant to say Conventional System in my previous post. That's where you'll find the QCII options have been added to the MDC system type.

 

[cpg178]

Thanks for clarifying the option being the same, was just about to reply that I stumbled upon the new QC2 category within the Conventional system display. Thanks for the help as always GTR.

 

[Asmitty0010]

GA09000 is the mobile version of QA09000, both are the same option.

I meant to say Conventional System in my previous post. That's where you'll find the QCII options have been added to the MDC system type.

Do you need to have the radio in voice mute mode and parked on the QCII channel for it to play the tones (like a minitor in alert mode) or will it still play the tones if the radio is monitoring the channel or scanning? (Minitor in scan or monitor mode)

 

[GTR8000]

I haven't been able to get the radio to alert to any of the tone sets in the Tone Signaling personality in analog mode. I've tried a few different models and have gone through just about every combination of settings, and even with the radio parked on a channel, it won't alert. I wonder if the feature is either not as described in the release notes, or they just screwed up the implementation of it and it's not actually working as described.

 

[Asmitty0010]

Ahhh okay thanks. I was hoping this firmware would have fixed any shortcomings but doesn’t appear to have done that.

 

[GTR8000]

This is the most current setup I'm testing out. The radio will not alert on an analog conventional frequency for the tones in the Tone Signaling profile.

The radio is not in scan when testing, and the frequency and tones have been verified as accurate (not to mention I'm using another APX to transmit the tones, and the test radio alerts just fine using the old school QCII method). I purposely have the QCII table left default in the MDC/QCII profile, as filling it in would kind of defeat the purpose of being able to use the tones in the Tone Signaling profile, otherwise it's just the regular old school QCII analog decoding with the two soft boops to alert.

Anyway, yes the radio is at FW R29, yes I'm using CPS R29, yes the radio has QA09000 that functions perfectly on the trunked system paging talkgroup using the same set of tones, etc.

I'm sure it's something obvious that I've overlooked. Or maybe it's something dumb like the conventional profile needs to be set to Mixed Mode RX even though the paging channel is analog. I'll probably test that next. 🤷‍♂️

 

[cpg178]

I got this working yesterday, I was only able to get it to alert for the AB/CD tone set that I put inside the MDC Signaling system, but if you have the same tones in the tone signaling list that is attached to the personality it will use those alerting features (Standard, Music etc). Because I have the tone list selected, and I do not have it checked to auto shut off the call alert the radio will beep like a Minitor until I ack it. Not sure if this helps anyone, I am not sure if the intended feature was to use the Tone List for decoding the call alert, but it sure would be nice if you have it trigger for more than 2.

 

[GTR8000]

Yeah, that did the trick. Silly me for not realizing that you have to duplicate the tones in both places, and that you can only decode whatever fits in the MDC/QCII profile. Leave it to MSI to come up with something so convoluted and counterintuitive.

 

[cpg178]

Yea... I had it working on a test channel but it did not work on the actual channel I wanted it to work on it. Turns out I forgot to enable Call Alert Decode. 50 steps for one feature thats the Motorola way! In good news I know with 28 you could not use the instant replay feature with MDC/QC2 but using both works fine for me