Armada Software + VP8000

[AF1UD]

I was reading through the offerings for the VP8000 and it shows that 25KHZ wideband isn't allowed. However, I went through the changelog for the armada software and the software allows wideband in the ham bands (both UHF and VHF). I do not see a way to change from wide to narrow (or vice versa) in Armada 1.36.20.

Any help would be great!

 

[kd4efm]

Have to have the option ordered in the radio.

 

[kd4efm]

I just worked up a blank template, here is what I have for you

 

[AF1UD]

I saw that there. I'm not too familiar with the software though. Would Wide 5.0 be 25khz? or just 12.5khz?

 

[MTS2000des]

Wide is 5KHz, narrow is 2.5KHz

 

[kd4efm]

I saw that there. I'm not too familiar with the software though. Would Wide 5.0 be 25khz? or just 12.5khz?

Audio Bandwidth now,
Channel bandwidth is 20/25 or 12.5 analog * IF WE TALK HAM OR GMRS OR MARINE ANALOG, all channels should be NFM otherwise
Digital would be 12.5 FDMA or 6.25 TDMA Phase 2 Trunking
(not referring to NXDN)
DMR for the VP8000 forthcoming but not at this time.

 

[AM909]

I was worried about this, too, when I saw something like "remove 25 kHz wide" on the built option list for our demo radio, which I thought was odd. I haven't reprogrammed it from the factory test load, but checked yesterday and it included wideband test freqs on channels that are now narrowband by regulation (and performed with 5 kHz dev on those channels).

 

[AF1UD]

I reached out to EF Johnson today, and they stated the following:

Below you will find information regarding what we allow in wideband.

144-148MHz range in VHF

If so, that frequency range is allowed regardless of the Wideband being disabled on the radio.

We also allow the SMURS Blue Dot and Green Dot Wideband channels:

154.57 MHz
154.6 MHz

Another thing to mention regarding wideband is that Armada allows wideband receive on any frequency as long as the non-exempt transmit frequency is disabled.

420-450MHz

We also exempt the following FRS/GMRS channels. Those frequencies are as follows:

462.750 MHz
462.775 MHz
462.800 MHz
462.825 MHz
462.850 MHz
462.875 MHz
462.900 MHz
462.925 MHz
465.000 MHz
462.5625 MHz
462.5875 MHz
462.6125 MHz
462.6375 MHz
462.6625 MHz
462.6875 MHz
462.7125 MHz
462.5500 MHz
462.5750 MHz
462.6000 MHz
462.6250 MHz
462.6500 MHz
462.6750 MHz
462.7000 MHz
462.7250 MHz
467.5500 MHz
467.5750 MHz
467.6000 MHz
467.6250 MHz
467.6500 MHz
467.6750 MHz
467.7000 MHz
467.7250 MHz

And also like VHF, we allow the whole UHF band to receive wideband as long as the non-exempt transmit frequency is disabled.

 

[tweiss3]

Interesting, no marine though?

 

[otobmark]

Interesting, no marine though?

Or 70cm amateur.
I would think having cps "flag" wideband where it thinks it shouldn't so as to avoid unintentional violation be would be a better solution. One of my coworkers has such a soft voice that he is narrowband regardless of radio!

 

[tweiss3]

I did talk to a friend on a 70cm repeater, he was using the demo VP8000 they just got. Sounded fantastic. I'm guessing the demo versions have every option, including wideband enabled.

 

[AM909]

Or 70cm amateur.
I would think having cps "flag" wideband where it thinks it shouldn't so as to avoid unintentional violation be would be a better solution. One of my coworkers has such a soft voice that he is narrowband regardless of radio!

I think it was just ambiguously written. Reading all of it, I think all the freqs and ranges specified in the email allow wideband TX, and all other VHF and UHF freqs allow wideband RX only (no wideband TX). I'll find out on my supposedly "wideband disabled" demo when I hopefully get a chance to play with it in the next few days.

 

[AM909]

Just to confirm (finally) that it is as expected. If you try to enter a channel in the narrowband-restricted bands, an error shows up in the Problems tab of the Output window, and you can't write to the radio. Disabling transmit on all such channels makes the error go away.

Having not used Armada before, I have to say "wow!" This is how a real, responsive, Windows, radio programming app is supposed to work. Kudos to its developers!

 

[otobmark]

My desktop (Win11) works fine connecting to VP8000. My MacBook running Win10 under Parallels even works. My toughbook running Win10 says device malfunctioned and not recognized. Missing a driver perhaps? Toughbook is i5 CF31. Toughbook has no problem with NX5xxx radios but then again I'm using the UART selection on cable. Is toughbook just too old?

 

[AM909]

My desktop (Win11) works fine connecting to VP8000. My MacBook running Win10 under Parallels even works. My toughbook running Win10 says device malfunctioned and not recognized. Missing a driver perhaps? Toughbook is i5 CF31. Toughbook has no problem with NX5xxx radios but then again I'm using the UART selection on cable. Is toughbook just too old?

On Win10, after installing Armada, Windows saw the device correctly, but Armada didn't see it. Per tech support, I had to run the Armada install a second time, selecting only the USB LAN driver and not the rest. After that, Armada saw the radio.

 

[otobmark]

I did as you did but no joy. The driver was incompatible (didn’t match hardware), probably with my laptop. My laptop is probably not capable of win11 and that may be an issue.

 

[AM909]

I did as you did but no joy. The driver was incompatible (didn’t match hardware), probably with my laptop. My laptop is probably not capable of win11 and that may be an issue.

Maybe talk to tech support about it. They might have an unpublished driver for you to try.

 

[otobmark]

Suppose I have a radio with codeplug (conventional) and I need to add a trunked system. What is the process? The radio shop will be adding the system (they have system key). Will they read my radio (create template?), add in TRS and shoot back to my radio? Who builds the zones? I could ask many more questions but anyone with the information can probably see where I’m going with this. My preference is that they would have a template with standard zones built (probably 20 zones or more) so I don’t have to manually do it. If they do, what happens to the conventional zones I’ve already built?

 

[kd4efm]

Suppose I have a radio with codeplug (conventional) and I need to add a trunked system. What is the process? The radio shop will be adding the system (they have system key). Will they read my radio (create template?), add in TRS and shoot back to my radio? Who builds the zones? I could ask many more questions but anyone with the information can probably see where I’m going with this. My preference is that they would have a template with standard zones built (probably 20 zones or more) so I don’t have to manually do it. If they do, what happens to the conventional zones I’ve already built?

basically you wont be able to edit the TRS stuff except some of the buttons and what not.
Your conventional stuff you can adjust.


As for the other guys, the toughbook, I am using a CF-30 quad boot, and set the 36xm to USB mode to work on vp6000.

 

[EasternMassScanFan]

How much does Armada cost? Is it a buy it one time thing or do you have to pay some sort of recurring fee?