MDC-1200 Signaling

[Gezelle007]

It's not in the MDC-1200 options menu. Go to the OPTIONAL FEATURES menu and click the CONVENTIONAL tab. You have to set the MUTE HOLD TIME (ms). And in order to set it to catch the Post-PTT ID, it will have to be set pretty high for those who are long winded.

I recently just flashed my Kenwood to do MDC1200, and it works fine, but when receiving ID's, it doesn't mute the data like DOS does on Motorola radios. Is that what you were talking about? Or is MUTE HOLD TIME something else?

 

[cduda603]

regarding reprogramming the chip..

We have Kenwood TK-790 mobiles in our ambulances and they all have plug-in MDC-1200 aftermarket boards. I can't remember if they are Midian or Cimmaron, but it was an option when ordered. They are set to transmit MDC-1200 on post.

A few things to consider though:
1. Whatever the ID # is on the board is it, period. In order to reprogram the ID number the board transmits, you have to open up the radio. Comapred to Motorola where you can have a different MDC "system" or ID per channel if you want, all controlled from the software.

2. The Kenwoods do not have the capability of decoding the MDC received, so you will hear the annoying "squaaaaawwwwwk instead of the "bleep" and it will also not display the ID number being received. Compared to Motorola, where you can also set call lists so instead of decoding "1234" it will say "TOWN PD CAR 123." The ICOM's however, do have the same features as the Motorola, but we chose the Kenwood because the ICOM's have a quirk when you change the channel, it takes it off SCAN. We monitor both the Town and County, and alot of people forget to hit scan again when they change the channel to talk to one or another.

Personally, I like the Kenwoods over the Motorola because of their ease of programming and I don't like to be limited to 16 channels on scan. Just wish it had the MDC decode capability. The Kenwoods support Fleetsync, both encoding and decoding, but our Town decodes MDC only at the console now. We are trying to get a grant for a Midian decoder at the console that will do both MDC and Fleetsync, and then will eventually switch to Kenwood and use Fleetsync, no MDC board for saved costs. They run over $100 per radio.

In regards to reprogramming the on-board chip, does this take a certain cable or software to do so? Also, regarding the PTT sidetone, is there a way from the fpu that you can make the sidetone on head 1 instead of head 2? Thanks