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A few P7100 questions.

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TDR-94

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Hi,

I have some questions pertaining to the P7100.

When the talkgroups are set in programming to 'unencrypted' does the radio only unmute for analog and digital Provoice traffic? If an encrypted call is transmitted on any talkgroup set to unencrpyted does the radio just ignore it or does the radio unmute for the garbled/undecoded transmission? Does the amber LED light when receiving encrypted calls if there is no key? Does it only light if the radio is transmitting an encrypted call?.

Basically,does the radio give any indication that there is encryption in use on a talkgroup when set to unencrypted? I haven't seen or heard any indicators.I'm really kind of interested in seeing how much encrypted activity is actually in use on the system out of my own curiousity.

I also have a question about the full keypad 7170 system model? How is the Direct Entry supposed to work on the radio. When I hit the SYS1 key the SYS = 1 comes up on the display and when a put in a system number on SEL SYS and then the M key the radio just returns the display to the current system selection I'm already monitoring with a confirmation beep.

When I Direct Entry Groups I hit the GRP2 key and the GRP = 1 comes up on the display and when I enter any number on GRP SEL the radio very briefly flashes the talkgroup name of that group number I selected,but then immediately returns the display back to whatever group the radio was previously on with a confirmation beep. I also noticed that if you hit the up ^ arrow key after hitting the GRP key the radio jumps to group 17 and then another press to 33 and another press to 49 and then stops,but you can reverse with the same increments back to 1 with the down arrow key.

It just doesn't seem to do anything in either case. It goes through all the motions,but it's not really going to what I select.Is something not set properly?

The last question I have is,how long does it take for the battery to die when the radio has no bars left on the battery indicator? This thing has been showing no battery left for 6hrs. without any beeping low battery indicator or shutting off lol!
 
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Radioman96p71

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Any talkgroup set to digital will unmute on analog and any digital calls, encrypted or otherwise. If the group is actually running secure then you will hear the very annoying garbled audio, the light will remain green for RX. I believe an orange LED only works if you have a proper key loaded.

Direct Entry only works on whatever the knob ISNT set to. e.g. if the top knob is set to Systems, you can change groups with direct entry. In your case, the top knob is set to groups, so whenever you direct key a group to go to the radio acknowledges that. Then when the radio logic checks the position of the knob, it realizes the two don't match and reverts back to the knob position. There really isn't a workaround for this, the ^ and V arrows will move the groups up or down 16 at a time since the knob is 16 position. I'm not sure why your system direct entry wasn't working, how many systems do you have in the radio? If you type a number higher than the max systems it will revert back to the original setting.

Depending on the version of your code in the radio, the battery meter can be pretty accurate or not even close, they released several updates that addressed the battery meter being flaky. The latest works pretty well. The battery could also be having issues if there is a dead cell, the voltage is low but there is still plenty of power left in the good cells so the meter reads low. I was thinking there was some way to relearn the battery meter by running it all the way dead but that might be a different radio.
 

TDR-94

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Hi Radioman96p71.

The selector top knob on this radio is set to select the systems.I have 5 systems,but 4 are all the same site/tower just different arrangements of talkgroups from that site to scan in different combinations .The 5th is comprised of conventional mutual aid channels.

I have 255 talkgroups in the radio(64 for 3 systems and 63 for 1 system) plus the 18 conventional mutual aid channels in another.

Neither system or group direct entry seems to do anything.
 

TDR-94

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Could the problem be that I'm using many of the same talkgroups in each system and the radio gets confused?
 

Radioman96p71

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It is possible, Harris / MA-Com radios seem to really like their quirky behavior. Nothing jumps to mind from your description here what the issue could be, feel free to drop me a PM here and I'd be happy to take a look at your personality file and see if I can reproduce the issue here.
 

ElroyJetson

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DO NOT ASK ME FOR HELP PROGRAMMING YOUR RADIO. NO.
When the selected talkgroup is programmed for unencrypted, the radio will unmute for analog, provoice, and any encrypted transmission even if the key does not match. In the latter case, you will hear digital garbled junk rather than voice audio.

The radio WILL only show an orange LED if there is a key loaded. The orange LED means "key is present and in use".

I can't specify what happens if the radio is programmed for encrypted operation (Key no...) but I can find out. But I won't be able to load a key.

The answer regarding direct entry behavior is this:

Think "blocks of 16 groups (channels) at a time." This is how the radio works.

With the channel selector knob set to 1, the channels that can be accessed via direct entry are 1, 17, 33, 49, 65, etc. If you were to direct enter 35, the radio would go to the same BLOCK of channels (talkgroups) that contains the 35th entry but it would choose the FIRST of those channels if the channel knob is set to 1. It would choose the seventh channel in that group if the selector is set to 7. Get it?

I have well over 500 talkgroups in my own radios. Here's how I set them up:

Side up/down buttons are set to system. Front up/down buttons are set to talkgroup.
Rotary is set to talkgroup as well, and pretty much ignored most of the time as my radio is
mostly used as a glorified scanner.

I have the choice of putting on scan or system front covers on any P7100 and I find from experience
that I prefer the scan front. The extra buttons of a system front don't actually get any use.

Things might be different if I used the radio to transmit more often, though. For simply listening,
I think the scan front is a better choice.
 

TDR-94

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When the selected talkgroup is programmed for unencrypted, the radio will unmute for analog, provoice, and any encrypted transmission even if the key does not match. In the latter case, you will hear digital garbled junk rather than voice audio.

Yeah,I finally heard a ENC TG and the garbled audio was almost ear piercing loud.When I hear P25 ENC calls with a scanner it isn't as loud or irritating by comparison to what's coming out of the P7100.

The answer regarding direct entry behavior is this:

Think "blocks of 16 groups (channels) at a time." This is how the radio works.

With the channel selector knob set to 1, the channels that can be accessed via direct entry are 1, 17, 33, 49, 65, etc. If you were to direct enter 35, the radio would go to the same BLOCK of channels (talkgroups) that contains the 35th entry but it would choose the FIRST of those channels if the channel knob is set to 1. It would choose the seventh channel in that group if the selector is set to 7. Get it?

So in my case if the selector knob is set to select systems does this still work the same way? If I want to direct access say TG 23 out of the 64 TG's I have set as system 1.How would I do this if the selector knob only goes to 16? Still a little confused.


I have well over 500 talkgroups in my own radios. Here's how I set them up:

Side up/down buttons are set to system. Front up/down buttons are set to talkgroup.
Rotary is set to talkgroup as well, and pretty much ignored most of the time as my radio is
mostly used as a glorified scanner.

That's a good button configuration,wish I would have thought of that lol! I was hoping the Direct entry functioned more like the way it does on some of the scanners I've used, then it would make it more of a glorified scanner!
 

ElroyJetson

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When you direct enter systems or talkgroups, the radio will move to the BLOCK of 16 systems or talkgroups that you selected. Then the actual position of the rotary selector will determine which system or talkgroup is actually accessed.

For example, with the rotary on 1, if I direct enter any group number from 17 to 32, the radio will go to group 17. If I direct enter any group number from 33 to 48, it will go to group 33. In both cases the group it goes to is the group associated with the channel selector position no. 1.

I just verified this on my own P7370.

It SHOULD work the same way if you have the rotary set to systems instead of groups.
 

TDR-94

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Ok, I think I got the jist of it now.

That's pretty much what happens when I hit the GRP button and press the up/down arrows,but it still doesn't actually seem to go to one of those 16 interval groups.It just quickley goes back to the the group the radio was already on after a short beep and I never seem to hear any transmissions for that brief period that it displays that group before reverting back.

I'll have to try it again after I give the battery a fresh charge.

Thanks
 

TDR-94

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Ok,

I first tried to entering group 19,then other combinations it very quickley flashed the talkgroup in that position,but reverted right back to the talkgroup in position 1 that I already had the radio sitting on.When I use the up/down arrow keys after entering GRP SEL it does the 16 interval talkgroup switching
1,17,33.49,but still immediately riverts back to the talkgroup I have the radio already set on,which was in position 1.Nothing actually changes the group that I can tell.

The selector knob has no bering on selecting any talkgroup with this radio.It doesn't switch anything related to groups.It just switches through the 5 systems that are programmed into the radio,nothing else.

This radio goes through the motions when performing the Direct entry as described in the manual,but nothing actually directly changes the talkgroups except manually scrolling up or down the list by using the arrow keys by themselves without the use of the direct entry function.

I dunno.
 

ElroyJetson

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As you said earlier, your rotary selector is programmed to system rotary instead of talkgroup rotary operation.

The behavior you described after direct entering a talkgroup number is exactly what it should do. Get used to it because you can't change it.

For the way you have your radio programmed, it is working as it is designed to work. There is no problem. It is just ...quirky. But that's M/A-Com!

My recommendation is to reassign the radio's buttons to what I use. Side buttons for system selection, front buttons for group selection, and group operation on the rotary control IF it's important for you to quickly access a specific talkgroup and there are more than 16 talkgroups in the list for the system you are listening to.

After many years of experience I believe that my setup is the most efficient way to set up the radio if you have more than 16 groups in any system or more than 16 systems.
 

TDR-94

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My recommendation is to reassign the radio's buttons to what I use. Side buttons for system selection, front buttons for group selection, and group operation on the rotary control IF it's important for you to quickly access a specific talkgroup and there are more than 16 talkgroups in the list for the system you are listening to.

After many years of experience I believe that my setup is the most efficient way to set up the radio if you have more than 16 groups in any system or more than 16 systems.


Thanks.I'll keep that configuration in mind the next time the radio is in need of programming.I would like to be able to quickly go to a specific talkgroup without having to scroll through the whole list and your method does look to be the best compromise.
 
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