NXDN Caller ID Programming

[kenwoodgeek]

Hi, everyone. Well, the time that been rumored about at my company for many years has finally come at our location. We are going digital next week. The new repeater is going in on Monday. Specifically, we are going from an analog UHF system to conventional NXDN. We have already been running NX-800Hs for years, so these old radios are finally being put to work doing what they were designed for. (I finally ripped out the last of the mixed in TK-8180s and TK-8150s. Woo hoo!)

It is my responsibility to go through and reprogram over 200 NX bus, base, and portable radios between our two neighboring locations. Our small two-way radio company has already sent us more dusty NX-800s that already have the updated codeplug with the two digital channels on it. I ripped the codeplug off of one of those, and I will be going through my location's fleet reprogramming tomorrow.

The codeplug shows the channels as being very basic NXDN conventional channels. In order to get caller ID on these radios (which is what the boss would prefer if possible), I need to program them like I did when we were running FleetSync. As I've mentioned in the past, the thousands of radios in our company have a 7-digit FleetSync ID written on top in paint marker. These numbers are what I have used to program and identify the radios with. Each radio transmits its company-assigned FleetSync ID, and I program that radio into our base radios' FleetSync ID list with the bus number as an alias. For example: 1104479 - Bus 4823. I know this is a messy system, but it's what I've found easiest. That way the radio ID can always stay the same. I just have to update the bus number that that radio is reinstalled in on the base radio. I've actually memorized all the 7-digit ID numbers of our radios and can match them to the vehicle I've installed them in by memory and a list on my phone.

I need to know if this same system, using the same 7-digit numbers, can be used with NXDN. I haven't had a whole lot of time to play around in the KPG-111D, but it looks like NXDN doesn't have "Group" and "Individual" IDs like FleetSync does, but a radio ID number and ID name or something like that? Can someone explain to me how it works in NXDN and if it is possible to keep the radios with their same IDs and have the base radios programmed to show an alias/vehicle number when those radios key up?

Thank you in advance! I could probably find an answer to these questions with enough searching, but I've been incredibly busy, and time is running short before the start of school (and before I start programming tomorrow).

 

[mmckenna]

I need to know if this same system, using the same 7-digit numbers, can be used with NXDN. I haven't had a whole lot of time to play around in the KPG-111D, but it looks like NXDN doesn't have "Group" and "Individual" IDs like FleetSync does, but a radio ID number and ID name or something like that? Can someone explain to me how it works in NXDN and if it is possible to keep the radios with their same IDs and have the base radios programmed to show an alias/vehicle number when those radios key up?

The nice thing about NXDN is that it will send out the radio alias out.

So, you can assign unique radio ID's to each radio. That can be a vehicle ID number if you want, or some other number, your choosing.
You can also program in a radio alias name in the radio itself that gets transmitted out, so you can enter "Bus 1234".

When that radio transmits, it sends out "Bus 1234" and if all the other radios are set up to use caller ID and display the radio alias, they'll see "Bus 1234" on their displays.

No need to go through every single radio and update an alias list. Just program the individual radios the way you want.

 

[mmckenna]

If you are using the same programming file for all the radios, it gets really easy, just hit program and then the "Consecutive write" option. That'll open the program window and let you change NXDN ID, plus the alias (as well as MDC ID, if you are going to run any analog stuff). Should be really easy to update all these radios.

Consider adding a Read password and Write password on your radios. I've done that on all ours, and it keeps people with bootlegged software/cables from helping themselves to programming data.

 

[kd4efm]

Ditto 👆👆👆

 

[kenwoodgeek]

Thank you, Matt. You're always a big help!

I appreciate all that info. The lack of an alias list to have to update every year will be incredibly helpful. It's much easier to change the radio alias name on that radio when I put it in a new vehicle. This will be nice as well because periodically we have operations where a bus from the neighboring location needs to communicate on our channel (or the driver changes the channel accidentally) and vise versa. Since I'm programming their radios as well, we will be able to see bus numbers from outside our location. How cool! I'm super excited about this switch now.

I had no idea what the Consecutive Write option did. That is also an incredibly helpful tool that I will be using. Thank you for the password suggestion as well. I will definitely consider that.

In order for the caller ID system to work, I assume each radio needs "Caller ID Display" set to either "RAN" or "RAN and Selcall" and the "Over-the-Air Alias" box checked?

 

[mmckenna]

Thank you, Matt. You're always a big help!

Happy to help.

In order for the caller ID system to work, I assume each radio needs "Caller ID Display" set to either "RAN" or "RAN and Selcall" and the "Over-the-Air Alias" box checked?

I think so, on vacation and I can't remember the exact details, but the help files in KPG-111 are really good.

I don't recall the setting, but there's also one where you can write a thing to the radio that pop up when someone reads the radio. Can't recall the name, but @kd4efm probably can. Anyway, when someone reads the radio, it'll pop up the screen. I put in my phone number and e-mail address so if someone is trying to read the radio, that info pops up, even without the password to read the radio. That way anyone who ends up with the radio knows who it belongs to.

With the consecutive write, it makes it easy to program individual radios quickly. I still save a file for each individual radio so I've always got a reference for each one.

Make sure you play with the audio settings. The standard NXDN audio settings on the NX-x00 series isn't great out of the box. Some tweaking really improves the audio on them a whole bunch. I think with the right settings, the 12.5KHz mode sounds as good as 12.5KHz analog.

 

[Silent99]

Any specific suggestions on tweaking the audio settings?

 

[mmckenna]

It's a big document that goes into a lot of detail. It's not something that will fit on here, and I'm not going to type it all out. You could try searching on NexEdge Audio Rev 2.0 and see if someone else has posted it.

However, here's a snippet from the document that gives some good starting places:

• Audio Settings based on Noise Environment
  • *1 Noise Suppressor can be used to reduce background noise
  • *2 In a very noisy environment it is recommended to lower the microphone sensitivity and for the user to keep their mouth close to the microphone.
  • *2 It is also recommended to use the combination of RX Audio Equalizer “High Boost” and TX Audio Equalizer “ Low Boost”

 

[mmckenna]

Here it is.

I've been using this for about 10 years now, and it really improved the audio over the 'stock out of the box' audio. It still requires the person programming the radios to try the settings and make adjustments based on their own specific needs, test, repeat.