Fire Tone-out issues? 396XT

[daveharpe]

I have a BR330T and a 396XT. The 330T works great with FTO on a local fire dept frequency. I programmed the 396XT (by hand) with the same information and it does not work correctly. Modulation modes, frequencies, etc. are identical...but the 396XT just doesn't catch the tones.

When I put it in FTO search mode it sees the tones properly, but it just doesn't trigger the alert.

Any ideas?

 

[DaveNF2G]

It sounds like you have not configured the XT's alert parameters.

 

[daveharpe]

it's configured

It's configured identically to the 330T - same alert tone, mode, etc.

 

[DaveIN]

In the search mode you leave the A and B tone blank and it will find them. If you just want the XT to alert, you program the A and B tone and park it on "Standby".

 

[daveharpe]

yep...

...exactly. It's the same way the 330T works that I've been using for the past two years. That's what's odd...I'm very familiar with the setup and it's not working the same way. Wondering if the radio needs to go back...

 

[daveharpe]

ah...found it

Two things:
- Modulation mode "auto" was not choosing the correct mode
- Somehow analog AGC was set to off

Changing modulation mode to "FM" and AGC to "on" fixed it...

 

[wmbio]

I have the same issue dave, I'm trying your fix as we speak and it works GREAT. Now the next problem for us old folks, the A&B tone numbers at the bottom of the screen flash/blink so fast they are hard to read. Lets fix that next.
Thanks wmbio

 

[daveharpe]

Ah! Here's another piece to the puzzle...
I'm using Freescan to program the 396XT. Apparently the current version (0.8E) has a bug in it with the fire tone out programming.

The Freescan software currently does not support setting the modulation mode and AGC. So apparently when you transfer your settings back to your scanner, it resets these to the default (which is modulation mode AUTO and AGC ON). The AGC ON is correct, but modulation AUTO was screwing me up.

There is also a bug in setting up visual alerts. Regardless of what color/cadence you choose in the Freescan Visual Alert section, visual alerts are always set to "OFF".

So if you use Freescan to program your scanner, you need to be careful to reset your modulation mode and visual alerts if you use the Tone Out feature (until an update comes out at least).

 

[ka3jjz]

Make sure that you report these bugs in the FreeScan forum (on the same site you got the software, there's a button for the forums). Assaf is working on version .9 right now, so it will be important for him to know this, if he doesn't already 73 Mike

 

[DaveNF2G]

Another potential "issue" is that the XT falses on such things as morse code identifiers and alert tones, and sometimes even on feedback.

 

[KE4ZNR]

I have the same issue dave, I'm trying your fix as we speak and it works GREAT. Now the next problem for us old folks, the A&B tone numbers at the bottom of the screen flash/blink so fast they are hard to read. Lets fix that next.
Thanks wmbio

Easy to fix that:
Menu->Tone-Out For....->Tone-Out Setup->Select Channel->Enter->Set Delay Time->Change to "Infinite".

Now whenever a tone-out pair is received the A & B tones will stay on the screen until you clear them out for the next tone out.
Marshall KE4ZNR