R30 RT Systems R30 has update available

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dmaria

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Your report of a DOA R30 is the first I've seen. All I know of were in perfect working order upon receipt so I'd say this is a rare occurrence.
And yes, RT's software is slow to start. If that really bugs you (it did me!), go with Icom's software. Icom's software is very fast but of course is also limited in what it can do. It does what it is supposed to do though very well and without error.

Not really complaining - just disappointed. I have 5 Icom radios and they make some good stuff. RT Systems did finally call me back last night. They said they would look into the bugs, The slow starting they were aware of, but they said it was because the R30's memory layout was so different (something to do with the banks) and that was the cause. I did comment that with the speed of todays computers I thought it had to do more with the optimization of their program. No way is there that much info to translate.
 

kruser

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Not really complaining - just disappointed. I have 5 Icom radios and they make some good stuff. RT Systems did finally call me back last night. They said they would look into the bugs, The slow starting they were aware of, but they said it was because the R30's memory layout was so different (something to do with the banks) and that was the cause. I did comment that with the speed of todays computers I thought it had to do more with the optimization of their program. No way is there that much info to translate.

I wonder what Icom does differently to make their software so lightning fast compared to others?
It really is a world of difference!

I should add that RT's software is also very slow with the Icom R8600. I'm not sure I buy the reasoning they gave you though. Their software is very slow to open even when not reading any data like it would be the first time it is started.
Other than the slowness, RT's software does make editing several changes in a bank of memories a breeze compared to Icom's software where bulk edits are not permitted. One almost needs both packages.
Because of the past bugs in RT's software, I'm still leery of it and will just read my R30 or R8600 into the respective Icom software first before I use RT's software to make any changes. This allows me to easily restore either model back to the way they were if RT's software decides to have a mind of its own and write bogus data in some fields.
I've had one version of RT's R30 software change each P25 value back to some default value before after doing a write back to the radio.
The same happened with my R8600 once after doing some bulk edits and RT's software completely ignored either the bandwidth (FM or FM-N) or the step size once and wrote some default value to the radio. That's when I ended up purchasing Icom's software for both as it was a major pain to correct.
In RT's credit, they did fix these issues with software updates but I'm still cautious!
 
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Hit_Factor

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Icom tech support asked me to send it to a repair depot in Michigan

My neighbor runs the depot in Michigan. So I asked him earlier this evening if he had any r30 repairs. He said not even one.


73, K8HIT
Icom: IC-7300 IC-PW1 ID-5100A ID-51A Plus 2 IC-R30 Hytera PD782G Uniden SDS100 DVMega SDRplay RSPduo
 

dmaria

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Just tried the RT software again. It's seems they resolved the NXDN import issue from RR. It now imports and copies correctly. But... they seemed to have introduced another bug in the process. There are two DMR stations in the small county that I am playing with that import correctly, but when you copy them to the memory channel they show up as dpmr. Before all the posts begin about the R30 not supporting DMR, I am well aware of that, but it is still a bug.
 

dmaria

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Found another bug in the RT software. If I set up my preferred settings in the the R30, then save everything to the SDcard, everything works well. Now read the R30 with the software. Then write to the R30 using the software. If I try to save the settings to the SDcard I get an error that says I have 4 bluetooth devices connected and I have to delete all but 1. If I do a partial reset on the R30 it works again, until I write to the R30 using the software. This is repeatable.
 

dmaria

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Received an email from RT Systems. They released an update to fix my issues. I haven't tried it yet.
 

golftango

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my r30 is coming tomorrow from dx engineering to replace a euro model r20 i've had for many years and, to be honest, gathered dust because it was so lackluster on sw. i have nearly a dozen rt systems programs by now and am generally very pleased with them, but i'm not hearing anything positive about the r30 version. in fact, i just started it up for the first time so i could start inputting some freqs and it took about a minute to start up. i figured it was initializing stuff on the first start, but on subsequent starts (with no data file) it still takes 5x-10x as long as any other rt program.

in doing my research i saw the icom and the butel software, but the butel offering seemed very strange. it seemed to imply that it only worked with the sd card, yet said you needed to connect the radio, not just plug the sd card into a reader, so i avoided it. but now i'm thinking of getting it for just one reason--how it handles radio reference.

the rt systems software all (unless i'm really missing something) only let you access your state and county. i have no idea why this is and if i'd badly needed more access i would have called and *****ed at them. butel, otoh, lets you see all the categories such as nationwide and military and aviation common. you know, the exact stuff you're going to need to populate 2000 memories! anyway, it might be worth the $15 to pull in the data in r30 format, export in csv and then try to import the csv file into rt systems. anyone think this is possible? or anyone know how to access more categories in rt software? i'm pretty sure they have a web form input method, but it's very slow and prone to me making mapping errors.

/guy (73 de kg5vt | wqpz784)
 

golftango

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just realized butel has a 30-day trial. also, i found another thread which says that you can mount the sd-card to read and write although that's not what butel says in the description. with all the problems with rt, it might not be a bad idea to have both methods although butel is missing the control of the radio menu system and other functions that make rt so useful.

/guy (73 de kg5vt | wqpz784)

"I don't know why, but it is difficult to mistake a navy man. ... they have always been just the best and bravest and nicest fellows I ever met, though given to the use of profane language." ~H. Rider Haggard - King Solomon's Mines
 

palmerjrusa

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Your report of a DOA R30 is the first I've seen. All I know of were in perfect working order upon receipt so I'd say this is a rare occurrence.
And yes, RT's software is slow to start. If that really bugs you (it did me!), go with Icom's software. Icom's software is very fast but of course is also limited in what it can do. It does what it is supposed to do though very well and without error.

Sucks about your ic-r30, have bought and owned many, many Icom receivers over the years and never had a problem with any of them. My TH-D74A from HRO had a problem out of the box and they immediately replaced it so you should have no problem getting your replacement.
 

dmaria

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Sucks about your ic-r30, have bought and owned many, many Icom receivers over the years and never had a problem with any of them. My TH-D74A from HRO had a problem out of the box and they immediately replaced it so you should have no problem getting your replacement.

I sent it back to HRO and they were able to get it to do a full reset. I called them and asked how they did it, but the gentleman wasn't there that day. Anyway - they sent it back to me and all is well now.
 

palmerjrusa

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I sent it back to HRO and they were able to get it to do a full reset. I called them and asked how they did it, but the gentleman wasn't there that day. Anyway - they sent it back to me and all is well now.

Good news!
Would be interesting to know how they performed the full reset.

A little while back my ic-r30 froze completely, only way I could turn it off was by removing the battery. Turning it on again it would once more freeze up when I tried to execute a reset. After trying several times and getting the same result I remembered I'd removed and reinserted the sd card the last time I'd used it. I again removed the card and reinserted and that solved the problem, so who knows what the problem actually was.
 
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