CP100d Audio Quality Issue Help

[TechPhil]

Hello,

I will start with the fact that i would consider myself an amateur with radios. However, I do have an IT Engineering degree and have been in Telecommunications for a long time so I do understand a lot with analog/digital communications.

Sooo... My place of employment without me went out and found Motorola Radios (CP100d) and a repeater ( Motorola SLR 5700 ) . They used a vendor to install it and i wasn't impressed with them from day one.....

They originally programmed the radios with analog, and then we just went to digital programming.

After this switch , the audio quality sounds very horrible. To a point to were we don't even know whos talking. Very muffled and almost sounding like people are holding their noses while talking....

We are wondering if there are any pointers that anyone could give to help resolve this... The company just says thats how digital sounds.... Which I don't agree with at all....

 

[Tech21]

How was the audio before the switch?

 

[talkpair]

Have you tried simplex communications to rule out a repeater problem?

 

[mmckenna]

We are wondering if there are any pointers that anyone could give to help resolve this... The company just says thats how digital sounds.... Which I don't agree with at all....

Digital sounds different. But it should be fully understandable.

Sounds like the shop gave your employer the 'taillight guarantee'. That's lazy technician'ing.

Unless you have programming software/cables, there's not much you can do. Either get the shop to come back and help, or find another shop.

 

[RadioGuy7268]

Tonal quality is definitely diminished with MotoTrbo/DMR compared to Analog. That said, you should be able to get something pretty decent out of a basic DMR repeater setup.

Without knowing what's in the profile, it's hard to say what could be changed that would make an improvement. If you're using audio accessories, that can add another twist to the mix.

I'd agree with lodging a complaint with the vendor.

 

[TechPhil]

How was the audio before the switch?

It was analog and we knew who was talking and wasn't muffled sound. This was when everything was programmed analog, same radios/repeater.

 

[TechPhil]

Digital sounds different. But it should be fully understandable.

Sounds like the shop gave your employer the 'taillight guarantee'. That's lazy technician'ing.

Unless you have programming software/cables, there's not much you can do. Either get the shop to come back and help, or find another shop.

Yeah, thats the problem I don't have the software/cables as I am not a registered vendor. I have reached out to my Motorola Sales rep separate from the actual vendor to see about talking/working with another.

They also, couldn't tell me why it seemed like we were getting interference on the channels that they were programmed to. They stated sounds like someone may have started using your FCC registered channel... Youll have to work with the FCC to figure it out.... I would have figured the company would have tested channels before assigning to a customer.....

BCI Communications if anyone was wondering....

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, thats the problem I don't have the software/cables as I am not a registered vendor. I have reached out to my Motorola Sales rep separate from the actual vendor to see about talking/working with another.

If you don't have cables and software, there's nothing you can change from the radio that will impact this.

If you do have software/cables for the radios/repeaters, there's are tweaks that can be made, but you need to be very careful. Before you make -any- changes, you read the device and save that file. Then save it again somewhere else. That way you can always go back to the original config.

But, I'd strongly suggest NOT messing with the radio settings. Let a trained/experienced tech handle this. Trial and error takes a long time, and there are things in the settings that you should not be changing without the proper test equipment.

They also, couldn't tell me why it seemed like we were getting interference on the channels that they were programmed to. They stated sounds like someone may have started using your FCC registered channel... Youll have to work with the FCC to figure it out.... I would have figured the company would have tested channels before assigning to a customer.....

BCI Communications if anyone was wondering....

Holy ****, get another radio shop. Blacklist these guys. Never pay them another cent.

It's not uncommon to have licensed co-channel users in urban areas. There's ways to deal with this. They totally blew you guys off and took your money. That's the tech taking zero responsibility and walking away.

 

[TechPhil]

If you don't have cables and software, there's nothing you can change from the radio that will impact this.

If you do have software/cables for the radios/repeaters, there's are tweaks that can be made, but you need to be very careful. Before you make -any- changes, you read the device and save that file. Then save it again somewhere else. That way you can always go back to the original config.

But, I'd strongly suggest NOT messing with the radio settings. Let a trained/experienced tech handle this. Trial and error takes a long time, and there are things in the settings that you should not be changing without the proper test equipment.



Holy ****, get another radio shop. Blacklist these guys. Never pay them another cent.

It's not uncommon to have licensed co-channel users in urban areas. There's ways to deal with this. They totally blew you guys off and took your money. That's the tech taking zero responsibility and walking away.

Yeah, I was going to trial and error it with some spares... but I don't have the software . I did reach out to our Motorola Rep to get an account setup we will see how far she can go to possibly getting me the software. But I did find another shop basically saying the same thing as yall, and am sending them a few to check out...

An, I sent your last message to our Admin Team to see it wasn't just me saying that

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, I was going to trial and error it with some spares... but I don't have the software . I did reach out to our Motorola Rep to get an account setup we will see how far she can go to possibly getting me the software. But I did find another shop basically saying the same thing as yall, and am sending them a few to check out...

An, I sent your last message to our Admin Team to see it wasn't just me saying that

BCI has a flashy website, but it sounds like they are sending you bottom of the barrel technicians. In other words, they are not willing to work for your money. Escalation within the company would be an option, but they may just keep charging you for service calls and not really fix things. Beware if they start telling you they need to rip and replace your entire system to get it to work correctly. Many shops put sales way out ahead of service.

There are good radio shops/technicians out there. Trick is finding them. What you are going through is similar to my past Motorola experiences. I switched to another brand when I replaced my trunked system and never regretted it. Motorola is a pretty good company, but their local shops are often lacking.