Connect Plus optimized roaming settings

[Anderegg]

Looking for optimal roaming settings for Connect Plus programming. Multi site system, but it tends to lag on switching and I seem to always be on 1 or less bars and not able to hear the other party, forcing me to force a roam to get a higher RSSI site. Hoping to find some settings that don't allow that, but also don't auto site switch while I am in the middle of a back and forth conversation.

Paul

 

[jmazza7371]

One of Connect Plus's main gripes is the radio's "dumb" algorithm. It only relies on the acquired control channel's RSSI level in order to decide if it should stay latched or search for another control channel based on the neighboring list. It sucks because while you're stuck on a control channel with 1 bar, another site is available with much better signal strength. Motorola is fully aware of this shortcoming but never did anything about it.
The only way to mitigate is to raise the RSSI so it will search for a better option sooner. But that has some negative side effects.

 

[Anderegg]

What should I look out for if testing with raised RSSI? I am guessing maybe the possibility of infinite site searching?

 

[jmazza7371]

I don't know what your setting are right now, but we use 118 and 107 in our portable configuration. I don't remember the entry field names.You may play with the 118 value by dropping the RSSI to say, 116 and see how it performs for you. These values differ from system to system and it depends on site overlap and site RF Power settings. Good luck.

 

[Anderegg]

I'll give those a try...mostly have issue on the mobiles as we drive and the county has hills. The portables are mostly deployed at a single site, and only have issues when were are in poor coverage areas and they go site searching through 60 sites while I am trying to key up.

 

[TampaTyron]

What band and how dense (far apart) are the sites? What band? Mostly mobiles or portables? Do 6550/4550s work better or worse than 7550/5550s ?I have optimized quite a bit of Mototrbo roaming. A lot of Mototrbo starts to break down when the portables are rx'ing the site around -100 to -105 in UHF. So, in that scenario, I would want it to roam at -92 to -95 (before getting to edge of coverage area. This will also depend on site density. Agree Connext Plus algorithm is dumb. CapMax is much better, but it is up to each system owner to determine if the cost is worth upgrading. TT

 

[Anderegg]

On the southern California Fisher Connect Plus 450-470MHz system, 5 primary mountains in my county. An additional issue I am having is the repeater outputs are much much weaker relative to the receive capability of the repeater, meaning I can get into it full signal while barely able to or loosing reception for receive. We use XPR4550 mobiles and XPR6550 portables...I had a personal XPR7350 on at one time, much better performance. There are several transition areas where terrain causes a site switch need, where the radios lag on the blip of maybe half a signal bar...high traffic freeway routes so it's pretty common. I should also mention the radios are on current firmwarez, but ancient and have never been, and will never be, aligned since leaving the factory, which could be part of the RX issues. Below is my as last programmed roaming CPS screen. Let me know what to fill in and I will spit the new programming in for testing...and thank you for helping.

 

[TampaTyron]

Sorry for the delay. I have been in Aspen, Colorado working on a large Capacity Max system with several major issues. I would lower (move closer to zero) the preferred and minimum RSSI values by 3db at a time and test for a few days to a week to see if it gets any better. Preferably, I would develop a test scenario where you move from site A to then Site B then site C, etc with hopefully some crappy roaming areas in that mix. Then, run that same scenario several times with each change in values and write down/note the pros and cons of each test. Like others may have alluded to above, it isnt a very good algorithm. So, for your values I would go to 101 preferred and 105 minimum. If that helps, then lower it again by 3do. You want to see where it breaks and then go back one step. TT