PSR-500 Failure to Track P-25 Systems Thread

[fmon]

Here is one to try (more good info for GRE) for those of you-all that are having P25 system problems...

Try changing the "Noise Thresh" in the F-Glob menu to its maximum value of 128 (make sure to press F1:Save), and then re-test with supertrack on/off on the TSYS.

Don't find this "Noise Thresh"in Glob menu. However, Glob Atten: ON helps VA STARS (I pick up the Chesapeake tower also). Turn it off, only Hampton Tower is used. I lose distant CC of other trunking systems when Glob Atten is on.

Hampton Tower is all that will function when Atten: ON is selected in VA STARS TSYS scan list.

 

[LEH]

cpunut,

I had manually loaded my local P25 system when I first got the scanner last week (already???). With no talk groups entered, only the wildcard, I still could not receive the P25 system. This is why I started playing with the LED and really noticed the problem.

Now I have made other changes based on this thread since then, but the fairly basic out of the box defaults did not allow me to receive the P25.

 

[DonS]

Don't find this "Noise Thresh"in Glob menu.

That's because, as cpunut said, it's in "F-Glob". I took that to mean we had to hit the FUNC key before selecting the GLOB softkey item.

"Noise Thresh" appears as the 6th item in that menu.

 

[fmon]

That's because, as cpunut said, it's in "F-Glob". I took that to mean we had to hit the FUNC key before selecting the GLOB softkey item.

"Noise Thresh" appears as the 6th item in that menu.

Roger that, thanks Don got it set.

 

[KC1UA]

Maybe because the thread is called: "Failure to track P-25 systems"
Just a thought.....

I posted it here because I missed it in the other thread. This place is always good for some wise ass answer. Sorry to waste everyone's time.

 

[SCPD]

Try scanning with only one scan-list enabled, the scan-list containing only one WildCard on the TSYS of interest. See if that does better than a scan-list with multiple entered TalkGroups.

BTW when you do this, make sure you have the "TGRP Ignore" near the bottom of the Glob menu set to "No". If you have it set to "Yes" the TGRPs entered into the one scan-list will not come up when just the WildCard scan-list is enabled

 

[djg000111]

me too

I first noticed problems when I was using both my Pro-2096 and the PSR-500 to monitor my local Police at the same time. My PSR-500 misses over 90% of the calls that the Pro-2096 received.

Has anybody improved their PSR-500 performance by using information in this thread? I have tried them all and the PSR-500 does not perform any better than the default settings.

Based on the preprogrammed sites in the V-Scanner folders, GRE may already know that the PSR-500 does not work with most P25 systems.

 

[kikito]

Based on the preprogrammed sites in the V-Scanner folders, GRE may already know that the PSR-500 does not work with most P25 systems.

So you're saying that GRE didn't put many if at all, P25 systems in the preprogrammed folders because they knew before releasing the scanner that it wouldn't work right on P25 systems?

That's some heck of an assumption.....

 

[LEH]

and one that doesn't hold a lot of water. The York County (James City/Williamsburg) system does not work and it is in the Vfolders. VS4 SL14.

 

[djg000111]

LEH
Based on your comment, I'll admit that the V-scanner folders assumption was bad.

 

[radios4bill]

Hi Group; Well after having the unit for a week I have solved my tracking problem! I will try to explain. I have found both aftermarket programming softwares good, but this is where my problem came from. There is a NEW P25 System here in Parma Ohio and the tech that put the system together purchased a Pro-2096 to listen to the system in the open mode. He found that the scanner would not track the system so he changed the 9600 settings to Channel low=0, Channel high=65535, Base=851.0125, Offset=0, Step=12.50 and it worked. Well I have been using both PSR-500 aftermarket softwares to program this system and it still would not track. Here is what I found! I was trying to use "P25 Custom" Setting and then changing the "Trunking Tables" to the settings I needed and it still would not work? So I used "P25 Auto" and when you select that setting it won't give you a "Trunking Tables" option, so I went into the scanner programming and you can change the "Trunking Tables" in there. I used the setting I posted and "IT WORKS" I hope this helps GRE, Software Suppliers and End Users! Please let me know if this worked for you! Thanks, Bill

 

[DaveIN]

Good catch Bill! It will be interesting to see if others can use your friends trick to make P25 work.

 

[DonS]

If you set the TSYS type to "P25 AUTO", the radio will overwrite your "Trunking Tables" settings as it receives IDEN_UP messages on the control channel. (You can verify this by monitoring the system for a while, then going into the TSYS and looking at your "trunking tables" - they've probably changed.)

If the radio isn't receiving IDEN_UP messages, then "P25 AUTO" and "P25 MANUAL" should behave the same, if you have the "T Tables" item set to "Custom" and have entered your own custom table data.

 

[mikey60]

Hi Group; Well after having the unit for a week I have solved my tracking problem! I will try to explain. I have found both aftermarket programming softwares good, but this is where my problem came from. There is a NEW P25 System here in Parma Ohio and the tech that put the system together purchased a Pro-2096 to listen to the system in the open mode. He found that the scanner would not track the system so he changed the 9600 settings to Channel low=0, Channel high=65535, Base=851.0125, Offset=0, Step=12.50 and it worked. Well I have been using both PSR-500 aftermarket softwares to program this system and it still would not track. Here is what I found! I was trying to use "P25 Custom" Setting and then changing the "Trunking Tables" to the settings I needed and it still would not work? So I used "P25 Auto" and when you select that setting it won't give you a "Trunking Tables" option, so I went into the scanner programming and you can change the "Trunking Tables" in there. I used the setting I posted and "IT WORKS" I hope this helps GRE, Software Suppliers and End Users! Please let me know if this worked for you! Thanks, Bill

Based on the information you've given, this system is using a non-standard base frequency and step size (800 Mhz is typically a 851.00625 base, and a 6.25Khz step.). Would you be willing to get a 60 second control channel dump of the system and send it to me? I'd like to see if there are any IDEN_UP messages being transmitted.

As far as setting this custom table, in PSREdit, you would set the TSYS to P25 Manual, then click on the custom tables option and set them there. For the 800Mhz range, you really onle need to worry about offset 0 through 4095 (65535 is overkill, and will cause problems should they ever add 700Mhz frequencies).

Mike

 

[fmon]

I set the York/JCC/Williamsburg 800 P25 as in the Parma plan, ran the scanner and loaded back to both Win500 & PSREdit.

Don is correct, it reverted to default
Chlo - 0
Chhi - 4095
Offset - 0
Base - 851.00625
Step - 6.25

The scanner is still tracking the system as before, worthless. However, happy Bill has a solution.

 

[DonS]

I set the York/JCC/Williamsburg 800 P25 as in the Parma plan, ran the scanner and loaded back to both Win500 & PSREdit.

Don is correct, it reverted to default
Chlo - 0
Chhi - 4095
Offset - 0
Base - 851.00625
Step - 6.25

The scanner is still tracking the system as before, worthless. However, happy Bill has a solution.

If you set it as P25 AUTO, T Tables: Custom, then entered your own data, but the data later changed to your above, that indicates to me that the system is sending out invalid IDEN_UP information. If that's the case, you'd have to use P25 MANUAL, to keep the radio from using the IDEN_UP data to overwrite your custom T Tables.

With either P25 type (AUTO or MANUAL), the IDEN_UP data should appear on the PC/IF port if you have "CCDump" set to Yes in the FUNC+GLOB menu.

 

[radios4bill]

Hi Mike; You are correct it changed to 4095! But it still must be set to "P25 Auto" with the "Trunking Tables" set to my Base and Offset. If I use "P25 Custom" it won't track! Let me know if you still want the CC Dump. Thanks, Bill

 

[DonS]

Hi Mike; You are correct it changed to 4095! But it still must be set to "P25 Auto" with the "Trunking Tables" set to my Base and Offset. If I use "P25 Custom" it won't track! Let me know if you still want the CC Dump. Thanks, Bill

Are you making sure, after you set the TSYS type to "P25 MANUAL", that the "T Tables" item is still set to "Custom" and that your custom data is still programmed?

From what I've seen, when it's set to either P25 AUTO or P25 MANUAL, and the "T Tables" item is set to "Custom", it always uses what's programmed in the "Trunking Tables" sub-menu. The only difference I've seen between AUTO and MANUAL is that, for the AUTO type, received IDEN_UP messages will overwrite what's in that "Trunking Tables" menu.

If you have these cases:
1. P25 AUTO, T Tables:Custom, custom table data programmed
2. P25 MANUAL, T Tables:Custom, custom table data programmed
and (1) works while (2) doesn't, that tells me your programmed custom table data is incorrect. The radio receives IDEN_UP messages and, because (1) is "P25 AUTO", uses that data to overwrite your programmed custom table data.

 

[rvawatch]

well for a p25 system here...petersburg trs, the only way i can get it to work is P25 Manual: Default. PSREDIT wont let me set it like that, so everytime i have to go in the scanner and set it manually. Setting it for P25 auto never works for me, altho someone who beta tested said that is what they used. so i dunno.

 

[mikey60]

well for a p25 system here...petersburg trs, the only way i can get it to work is P25 Manual: Default. PSREDIT wont let me set it like that, so everytime i have to go in the scanner and set it manually. Setting it for P25 auto never works for me, altho someone who beta tested said that is what they used. so i dunno.

I just tested this with PSREdit, and the tables were set correctly in the radio... Here are the steps I followed:

* Open the TSYS Object (via Edit or New)
* Change the System Type setting to P25 Manual
* Click on the Edit Tables Button
* Optionally click on the Preload P25 Offsets Button
* Double click on table 00 to bring up the editor
* Enter the correct data. (Offset, ChLo,ChHi, Base and Step)
* Click Apply
* Click Apply Again (to save and exit the table editor screen)
* Click Apply Again (to save the TSYS Object)
* Uploaded to the scanner

When I checked that TSYS object in the radio, I found this:

Type: P25 MANUAL
T Tables: Custom

Pressing SEL on that entry, I found:
Table 01:
Lo Chan: 0
Hi Chan: 4095
Offset: 0
Base: 851.012500
Step: 12.500

Exactly what I entered into the program using the steps above. Is this not happening for you?

Mike