P25 programming question

[Markb]

Hi All,

I have an XTS5000 and am monitoring several conventional P25 channels. While I am monitoring these channels, Sometimes I show a "valid" 5 digit RID. Other times I just show "1" for the RID (for multiple radios). I know that 1 is still valid, but I see a lot of those on the system. Would this indicate anything other than some of the radios on these channels were programmed with an RID of 1? Could this be indicative of conventional TG's being used or a programming error or anything like that?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[902]

Some radio vendors are plain lazy. The radios ship from the factory with a default ID of 1. It takes effort to keep track of serial numbers, IDs, who the radios are issued to, etc. On the systems you see different numbers come up, a technician deliberately made the unit ID that number.

On the systems that you see a 1 come up for every unit, someone just quickly created a codeplug and blew it into each radio without creating a unique ID for the next mobile or portable.

It's transparent to the users (most cannot see the IDs coming through, and if they do, they may be too busy to look, but if someone presses an emergency button (if it's programmed... the shops who leave units at "1" are also sparse with the "value added"features) it will show up to the dispatcher as a "1" and they would have no idea who that was.

 

[902]

I should add that there are about 14 screens of parameters that need to be filled out for each personality. In an XTS-3000 and Astro Spectra, that means each mode (channel) has those 14 pages behind it. So it takes some time to create a codeplug and when I did a fleet of 400 radios I managed, it took me a few times to get the radio to operate the way I wanted. It's better for the XTS-5000/2500/1500 and for the XTL radios because you can create one personality and tie channels/frequencies to it. More time than some people (I probably should not have put it all on the vendor... they may have offered the service and the agency didn't want to pay for the time) want to put into it.

 

[gary123]

it sounds like lazyness, I have serviced numerous systems where the same id has been reused on multiple radios (cloning uggg) seeing the same ID over and over (unless its comming from a dispatch console) would tell me that the system is not using anytype of unit ID or system access verification.

 

[RKG]

The XTS CPS came out with a clone feature that enables the use of a master fleet cloneplug, but will read the Astro IDs (and certain other parameters, such as MDC IDs) of the target radio before cloning, and preserve them. This is a great boon to those who maintain fleet radios. It sounds like someone responsible for the fleet the OP is listening to is unaware of this feature.

 

[Markb]

Thanks for the info guys!

Mark

 

[mm]

As others have mentiuoned it sounds like most radios were cloned from a master codeplug and the tech who did the programming is not familiar with CPS cloning features.

During radio to radio cloning there is an option called clone wizard that lets the person doing the programming increment the MDC, Astro and individual user ID's so that each successive radio cloned has a unique ID and the programmer was unaware of this feature.

Mike

 

[mikewazowski]

As somebody else has already said, they might not be using P25 ID's so why bother programming them?