I have heard some APX radios announce the channel with the channel name. In the CPS all I see is channelone and zoneone. From what I've read, I can take a .WAV file and convert it to a Motorola file so that the APX radio will see it and I can use that file for channel assignment. Is this the only way to get the radio to announce the channel name?
Yep.
You have to make sure the wav file fits criteria though:
---Wav files MUST BE less than or equal to 58 Kilobytes (in size) and saved as 8.0 kHz and 16 Bit Mono, and file names MUST BE limited to 32 characters including the .wav file extension. In 8.0 Khz and 16 Bit Mono, 58K is equivalent to a two to four second sound file.
Once the wav files match the specs above then you go into APX CPS and navigate to:
Tools->VA Converter Utility
Then you have to pick the folder where the wav files are stored and where you want the converted files to end up.
Then let the program convert them to mva files.
Then you still have to go into the codeplug and go to Radio Ergonomics->Voice Announcements->Voice Announcements List and add the final converted mva files to the list so you can then select them in the Zone/Channel Fields.
Motorola makes it a giant pain the butt to use the CA/VA features.
Marshall KE4ZNR