APX6000XE Help

[adamdenne]

Hi guys,

New to the whole P25 stuff. We recently switched over to the APX6000XE radios at my fire department, my chief who is older then dirt itself has no idea how to add channels to our radios. Currently we have a base load of our different fire towers but no local pd or so. They too run off the same 700 system. Is it possible for me to add these channels to our radios myself? Or will I need to request our parish ("county" in Louisiana) tech guy and have him add them. I am an authorized user and dont have to worry about affiliation or stealing an ID# as one is already assigned to this radio. Or will I have to get one for those channels? Also where is the best place to locate the APX CPS Software? Any and all help GREATLY appreciated.


A Denne

 

[cdnsnipe]

Is it possible for me to add these channels to our radios myself? Or will I need to request our parish ("county" in Louisiana) tech guy and have him add them.

Considering the radios are being used for public safety/life support, I think you should get all programming done by your radio tech. The APX software isn't exactly user-friendly and radio techs spend hours watching training videos and reading bulletins from Motorola to make sure the radios work when lives depend on them.

I am an authorized user and dont have to worry about affiliation or stealing an ID# as one is already assigned to this radio. Or will I have to get one for those channels?

Each radio (portable/mobile/base) as a unique ID programmed for the whole trunked radio system.

Also where is the best place to locate the APX CPS Software? Any and all help GREATLY appreciated.

CPS must be purchased and licensed directly from Motorola. There are other less legal, less reliable sources for software but again these radios are being used in a critical function. Why take the risk?

I hope this helps. Stay safe!

 

[cmjonesinc]

Apx programming is a deep pool to jump into. Especially if you've never programmed a radio for a trunked system before. I would let a radio shop take care of it for you. There's a lot of variables that go into programming those radios and a mistake could be the difference in life and death.

 

[KE4ZNR]

As others have said the 6000XE is a several thousand dollar agency asset and not a scanner for you to program to your personal whims. Are you allowed to customize the Dept Fire Truck just to suit your personal preferences? The radio is not yours...it is a dept asset.

Most agencies have policies in place as to who can have access to their talkgroups in public safety grade radios and in my municipal radio shop we do not program another agencies talkgroups into a radio without a signed acceptance letter from the head of said agency. Do you have a signed letter from the PD Chief giving you access to his talkgroups and allowing you to have those talkgroups programmed into the agency asset you are using?

Save yourself a lot of grief: buy a scanner or Unication Pager for the talkgroups you wish to monitor that are not already programmed into the APX.

No offense but you are in way over your head here.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Rule of thumb for programming trunking radios. If you haven't been given a system key...take it to someone who has.

 

[KM4WLV]

As others have said the 6000XE is a several thousand dollar agency asset and not a scanner for you to program to your personal whims. Are you allowed to customize the Dept Fire Truck just to suit your personal preferences? The radio is not yours...it is a dept asset.

Most agencies have policies in place as to who can have access to their talkgroups in public safety grade radios and in my municipal radio shop we do not program another agencies talkgroups into a radio without a signed acceptance letter from the head of said agency. Do you have a signed letter from the PD Chief giving you access to his talkgroups and allowing you to have those talkgroups programmed into the agency asset you are using?

Save yourself a lot of grief: buy a scanner or Unication Pager for the talkgroups you wish to monitor that are not already programmed into the APX.

No offense but you are in way over your head here.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Marshall hit the nail square on the head.

I'm coming up on my 24th year in public safety & I carry a radio every day for our local P25 system. Each of the departments/agencies in my county have a specific fleetmap designed & approved for that agency. A fleetmap is basically a spreadsheet that shows what talkgroups are programmed in the radio. If your department doesn't have the law enforcement channels you're asking about then there's a good chance that the PD Chief doesn't want them in there. Plus it is pretty much a common practice for system admins to password protect radios today as a tool to help prevent unauthorized programming.

We recently had someone that found a way to circumvent the password protection on a radio he was issued to use on our P25 system & added a number of TG's for law enforcement he had no reason to have. He got busted when his radio affiliated to one of those talkgroups and they knew it was an ID that shouldn't be showing up there. Long story short, he's no longer with the agency & just about faced criminal charges for it.

As Marshall said if there are talkgroups you'd like to hear that aren't in your radios then I'd look into purchasing a Unication G4 or G5. There are TG's I'd love to have in my radio, but there not any that would benefit me nor do I have a need to be able to transmit on them. I have a G5 and it works great for that purpose, in addition to being the unit I carry for QCII (2 Tone) paging. I'd caution you against trying to do anything to modify the programming........