Motorola MTR2000 with Zetron HEAR Decoder Failure

[BlueDevil]

The local hospital is experiencing a failure with their HEAR (Hospital Emergency Administrative Radio) system. The system consists of a Motorola MTR2000 base station radio, a Zetron H.E.A.R Decoder, and a Zetron Model 284 tone remote unit. The issue is that received audio is not making it to the Zetron Model 284 tone remote unit. The radio will transmit and pass transmit audio from the tone remote unit just fine.

Apparently, a radio tech from the company the hospital uses for their radio communications services recently performed some "Preventative Maintenance" on the system. I do not know exactly what this included but the system started experiencing issues immediately/shortly after the radio tech completed the PM. It seems like the Motorola MTR2000 is functioning normally. I am thinking there might be an issue with the connection between the MTR2000 and the Zetron H.E.A.R. Decoder or between the Zetron H.E.A.R. decoder and the Zetron Model 284 tone remote unit. I have been searching for the manual for the Zetron H.E.A.R. Decoder but have not been able to find anything online. The Zetron H.E.A.R Decoder is powering up and shows "DECODER IDLE" when I took a look at it this afternoon.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of setup that might be able to offer some constructive advice/suggestions/recommendations?

 

[kb4mdz]

Well, at its most basic, the Zetron 284 is "just" a tone remote, tied to the H.E.A.R. decoder and radio with a telephone pair (assuming only 2W operation.) And if the original build was done well, there should be a way to unplug the 284 from its location, walk it up to the radio/decoder combo, and plug it into a jack there, and test it.

Here's what I think you'll need:
A handheld radio programmed with the frequencies of the MTR2000, but the reverse of Transmit & Receive. AND a DTMF keypad.
You need to know the H.E.A.R. codes that your decoder & 284 are supposed to respond to.

(Oh, among other things, the hospital needs to hold the radio shop's feet to the fire. )

You should be able to transmit on the handheld to the MR2000, and send the DTMF code and it should decode, and respond. accordingly. Audio levels are very important!! If the hospital has its own inhouse telephone tech, they should be able to do an end to end test of the phone line from where the Decoder is to where the 284 is.

I'll look up more and try to find what I can in the bit-locker.

 

[a417]

Apparently, a radio tech from the company the hospital uses for their radio communications services recently performed some "Preventative Maintenance" on the system. I do not know exactly what this included but the system started experiencing issues immediately/shortly after the radio tech completed the PM.

As this falls under life/safety, you ring up that tech's company and you drag them back down there to fix their mistakes. That tech should know what "he did", and what is preventative maintenance is, and you have him (and his supervisor, preferably) there to rectify the situation. This would be one of those things that personally I'd get someone out of bed on a night or weekend to fix, especially if there's a reasonably good suspicion that something they did caused it. If it was a community repeater for the dogwalkers, that's different...but this, no. This is a hospital.

that company comes back immediately to fix it, they explain how why it happend to your satisfaction, and you don't pay a dime. If not, you ring up a competitor to come in and give you quotes/estimates/repair. You have the hospital bring in the legal people, risk management, security, etc. so that if there's any finger pointing, it's going towards those who should be held accountable.

 

[BlueDevil]

Well, at its most basic, the Zetron 284 is "just" a tone remote, tied to the H.E.A.R. decoder and radio with a telephone pair (assuming only 2W operation.) And if the original build was done well, there should be a way to unplug the 284 from its location, walk it up to the radio/decoder combo, and plug it into a jack there, and test it.

Here's what I think you'll need:
A handheld radio programmed with the frequencies of the MTR2000, but the reverse of Transmit & Receive. AND a DTMF keypad.
You need to know the H.E.A.R. codes that your decoder & 284 are supposed to respond to.

(Oh, among other things, the hospital needs to hold the radio shop's feet to the fire. )

You should be able to transmit on the handheld to the MR2000, and send the DTMF code and it should decode, and respond. accordingly. Audio levels are very important!! If the hospital has its own inhouse telephone tech, they should be able to do an end to end test of the phone line from where the Decoder is to where the 284 is.

I'll look up more and try to find what I can in the bit-locker.

The MTR2000 operates as a simple base station in simplex mode (TX/RX: 155.3400). In our system we don't use any DTMF codes to open the receiver or decoder. The base station operates with a TX/RX Tone of 146.2 Hz.

I actually work for the Fire Department and handle a lot of the mobile and portable radio programming and maintenance for many of the public safety agencies in my area. I was on site today while the radio tech was trying to troubleshoot the problem. I was hoping to get a chance to look over the base station before the tech arrived but the cabinet was all locked up. Then once the tech showed up, I got a little suspicious that he may have no idea of what the problem might be when he immediately broke out the service monitor. Then for one reason or another the radio power supply ended up failing. Not sure if it was due to age and doomed to fail or if it was something the tech did to cause it to go out. A bad problem made worse.

My experience with radios has taught me to start ruling out the small simple things first. I did notice that the 2-wire connection in the back of the Zetron H.E.A.R. Decoder was completely lose. There was almost no chance for that 2-wire cable to be making a connection. I am unable to confirm but my suspicion is that 2-wire is probably what is carrying/connecting the audio back to the tone remote unit. I have a feeling if I was able to go back and gain access inside the radio cabinet and tighten the 2-wire connection on the back of the tone remote we may be back up and operating normally.

 

[mmckenna]

...but the cabinet was all locked up.

Do you have a 2135 key? If not, you can get them off e-bay, or let one of us know and we can assist you.

 

[BlueDevil]

Do you have a 2135 key? If not, you can get them off e-bay, or let one of us know and we can assist you.

I am not sure if its a 2135 but I have the key for the PM1500 mounting bracket...

 

[mmckenna]

I am not sure if its a 2135 but I have the key for the PM1500 mounting bracket...

Give it a try.

 

[kb4mdz]

a417 is absolutely right. If the tech or company does not know how the system should work, and cannot demonstrate that, that's a more serious problem than just your hospital's.

One other suggestion I have if you can open the cabinet is to take pictures of it "As-is"

DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!

in fact, if the same company/tech comes back, have THEM open the cabinet, but not touch anything until you have taken pictures. Front, back, etc. Also, have him walk thru the programming of the HEAR decoder while you watch and write down the parameters.

Yes, simple things first. The hospital's telecom department should be able to test the phone line between the base and the remote; in-house wiring should have practically no loss end-to-end.

BTW, when I was doing this stuff, my service monitor was pretty much the first thing I started up; if only to turn it on and let it boot up and warm up. So, I'll give your tech a pass on this, but that's just me.

You say it doesn't use DTMF; pulse dialing?

 

[BlueDevil]

a417 is absolutely right. If the tech or company does not know how the system should work, and cannot demonstrate that, that's a more serious problem than just your hospital's.

One other suggestion I have if you can open the cabinet is to take pictures of it "As-is"

DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!

in fact, if the same company/tech comes back, have THEM open the cabinet, but not touch anything until you have taken pictures. Front, back, etc. Also, have him walk thru the programming of the HEAR decoder while you watch and write down the parameters.

Yes, simple things first. The hospital's telecom department should be able to test the phone line between the base and the remote; in-house wiring should have practically no loss end-to-end.

BTW, when I was doing this stuff, my service monitor was pretty much the first thing I started up; if only to turn it on and let it boot up and warm up. So, I'll give your tech a pass on this, but that's just me.

You say it doesn't use DTMF; pulse dialing?

I like the picture idea. I have started doing that on many of my projects. I tried to do it here as best and much as I could. Thankfully there are not many components to this setup.
I get letting the service monitor booting up. Once up and running he immediately started using it. I think he may have been trying to test the antenna relay.

 

[BlueDevil]

Unfortunately, in this case I am just trying to help out the hospital with getting this issue resolved. I don’t have much pull or authority to demand the company or the tech fix the issue immediately. The company doesn’t plan on addressing anything until Monday… I am going to try and get over to the hospital before then in hopes my key will let me in the cabinet.
I am definitely planning on having a chat with the hospital admin in charge of overseeing this issue. Knowing the company, I’m sure the hospital is paying top dollar for the work performed by the tech. It seems like the hospital should have a key on site for the cabinet, maybe that is just me. It is their equipment.

 

[BlueDevil]

Give it a try.

My PM1500 bracket key is a 2135. Now I really want to try and get over to the Hospital this weekend.

 

[a417]

Unfortunately, in this case I am just trying to help out the hospital with getting this issue resolved. I don’t have much pull or authority to demand the company or the tech fix the issue immediately. The company doesn’t plan on addressing anything until Monday… I am going to try and get over to the hospital before then in hopes my key will let me in the cabinet.
I am definitely planning on having a chat with the hospital admin in charge of overseeing this issue. Knowing the company, I’m sure the hospital is paying top dollar for the work performed by the tech. It seems like the hospital should have a key on site for the cabinet, maybe that is just me. It is their equipment.

I'd talk to risk management about why this outside vendor didn't think it was necessary to come fix the issue they created over the weekend, preventing a licensed and registered emergency department from communicating with the prehospital providers.

A little bit of language will get the hospital to put the heat on these clowns. You need to advocate for the community, and you need the hospital to take the lead...as it is their issue.

 

[a417]

It's going to be a 2135.

 

[BlueDevil]

I'd talk to risk management about why this outside vendor didn't think it was necessary to come fix the issue they created over the weekend, preventing a licensed and registered emergency department from communicating with the prehospital providers.

A little bit of language will get the hospital to put the heat on these clowns. You need to advocate for the community, and you need the hospital to take the lead...as it is their issue.

I completely agree with you and plan on having a professional conversation with the administrator. They seem to be very receptive to my input so far. I have no formal education or training in radio troubleshooting and there have been several red flags that have come up throughout this issue.

 

[a417]

I completely agree with you and plan on having a professional conversation with the administrator. They seem to be very receptive to my input so far. I have no formal education or training in radio troubleshooting and there have been several red flags that have come up throughout this issue.

I'll be honest, this sounds like the hospital is handling it poorly. I am not sure what kind of system you use, I see that you use HEAR radios...but i'm not entirely sure about how often (like if your system has migrated to cell phone based call ins ,etc - and the frequency of each being used). I have been woken up on for a lot less and dealt with irate administrators asking "why this and that" on things that were not 'mission critical', yet were misunderstood to be.

Granted different systems need to be designed for different usage cases, but notification radios / HEAR, regional systems usually 'just need to work'. Old protocols I used to operate under were written 'for usage in the absense of direct radio communication with the recieving hospital' and radios were used on every patient, every call...and others morphed into the HEAR radio being a 'formality' or required by licensure and not really used, so I'm not sure what your local usage case is - but in my mind it doesn't change the severity of an outage.

1. ER admin should be up the hospital admin's asses about why their prehospital radio isn't working.
2. Local agency admins should be notified that standard communications is off-line (and commensurate backup protocols are activated).
3. Hospital admins should be up the ass of the company about why they can't fix (admittedly what they caused) in a timely manner.
4. Accounts payable should be notified about stopping payment on that PM contract bill until this is completed.
5. Security should be looking in to who accessed what and when, and possibly restricting access in the future.
6. Risk Management should be talking to Legal about eliminating this substandard contractor from current agreements.
7. Maintenance should be contacting other companies in the area about taking over urgently, etc.

All of these things together are cheaper and less urgent than being named in a lawsuit because something they should have, but didn't, caused a deleterious outcome of a patient/s.

Best case scenario? Company fixes it and no one gets hurt, they get dropped as maintenance providers for the radios and get PNG'd from the property.
Worst case scenario? Being named as defendants in a wrongful death case.

 

[BlueDevil]

Besides checking for loose wires what else are common points of failure that would be good to check?
Remember this radio is transmitting fine with good audio. No audio is being received at the remote desk unit and the volume is up. I could get the green LED to light up yesterday when keying up a portable while standing near the radio. I don’t know if audio was making it back to the remote base as it was down 4floors in the ER and there is no speaker on the base station radio itself. Do those antenna relay switches get stuck in one position?

 

[a417]

Besides checking for loose wires what else are common points of failure that would be good to check?
Remember this radio is transmitting fine with good audio. No audio is being received at the remote desk unit and the volume is up. I could get the green LED to light up yesterday when keying up a portable while standing near the radio. I don’t know if audio was making it back to the remote base as it was down 4floors in the ER and there is no speaker on the base station radio itself. Do those antenna relay switches get stuck in one position?

I would look at the wireline connections on the backplane. Look at the 2 wire connection to make sure it's good. If you have the opportunity, disconnect both ends of the wireline, check for continuity on the pair, and then reconnect it.

 

[BlueDevil]

I should be able to do that no problem.

 

[a417]

..and you'll start to carry a 2135 key on your keychain and feel the power of the hero flow thru you.

 

[mmckenna]

Sure does sound like a wireline issue.
If the green RX LED is lighting up when you transmitted with your portable, then it sounds like the radio is working. If you have a telephone butt set, you can check the output for audio, then start working down the chain towards the remote. I think you'll find a loose connection, or someone working in one of the telephone closets disconnected the circuit that had no dial tone on it (have had that happen before, tech needed a pair and just searched for the one with no dial tone on it and took it.)