Noob question re: TRBO trunking

[ElroyJetson]

I know Motorola trunking fairly well, but have had zero interaction with MotoTRBO trunking modes.
I'm now part of a project to try to switch a customer over from being a Radio One slave, to becoming fully independent.
They are tired of the awful service they're getting from Radio One. They just bought a number of R7s from R1 for use on their own fleet,
all provided for by R1, and after two months all the R7 radios show registration denied upon power-up. With customer service that good,
it's no wonder they reached out to another vendor!

My question, to cut to the chase, is...in a Tier 3 trunking system, is there an equivalent to a system key that is required to program trunking data?
If we can do it, we can earn money just by fixing what R1 won't. And if not, we'll be proposing an alternative that gives them the freedom to
leave R1 and their awful customer service behind.

 

[Firebuff880]

@ElroyJetson

For a subscriber to work on Capacity Max, it must be programmed from the Radio Management Server, as the Radio ID and profile data must be placed in the Subscriber Access Control (SAC) portion of RM, and then updated into the Capacity Max System Server (CMSS)!

What you describe, "after two months all the R7 radios show registration denied," is usually the case of a one technician tripping over another, or the system failing over from a primary CMSS to a backup, but the techs have not kept the databases in sync between them, a manual update process. Thus, the affiliation fails.

Unlike other MOTOTRBO topologies, taking responsibility for a Capmax system is not a trivial endeavor.

 

[KevinC]

If you're referring to this system then I'm pretty sure you will need RM to program them, which I believe needs to talk to the CMSS.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Our plan is not to access a system used by R1, it's to pull them off their R1 owned and operated system and put them on their own privately owned system. I will not confirm or deny which system they are currently using but the company in question has operations in most states and each operation is fully independent with regard to selecting its radio communications solution.
I believe we can drop them down to a lower tier DMR system and allow them to utilize their existing radios.

It is well known that they got "salesmanned", the salesman selling them features they neither asked for nor needed, to improve the bottom line.

They use ONE of their seven assigned talkgroups. They have explicitly said that one channel is all they ever need or use.
We can drop them down to a single group or conventional system if that's feasible.
However, there is a catch that must be explored and understood: Their existing radios operate in the 800 MHz band. I don't know the landscape when it comes to setting up a conventional DMR 800 system. Not sure if licensing is going to be harder than a UHF system.

 

[GTR8000]

Sounds like they should hire a company that already has knowledge and experience when it comes to this sort of thing, rather than relying on people that are unsure of the technology and licensing process and have to ask how to do it on a hobby forum. 💀

 

[ElroyJetson]

We are quite experienced in commercial communications in the UHF and VHF bands and have TRBO experience but this poses a little bit of a learning curve, nothing we can't handle with some careful education. And there aren't any TRBO specific forums that I know of so this will have to do. Worst case scenario, the customer will reinvest in a UHF Icom IDAS system that meets their coverage requirements and is fully owned by them without monthly access fees. IDAS has better audio quality than TRBO does and costs less as well for comparable coverage.

 

[TampaTyron]

The radios can be wiped to remove CapMax/RM connection and restored to normal CPS. If you can get an 800MHz (or 900MHz) freq, then you could reuse them. If they cannot reuse them, then sell (or trade in) and reinvest in UHF.

I have many dozens of deployed Cap Max systems under my belt (both as a manufacturer AND as a shop).

I am building 3 systems in my staging bay right now. I have mor ethan 10 in procurement/design at this moment. I build CapMax from scratch, not going through CCSI/Staging (they are not all perfect, but way better than System ID 1, CC 0 default trash).

TT