Traveling with the P25RX

[turnpike61]

Planning a trip across multiple states. Does anyone have advice on how to maximize my use of the P25RX for roaming as I drive? Should I program just the state police, etc., in the device ahead of time and let it scan all those control channels as we go, or set it so it stops on the first it finds in any state and holds it?

Thanks.

 

[btt]

Check this thread if you haven't already.

Using the P25RX On The Road

As there is a ton of info now I'll ask the question here and apologize in advance if it has been covered elsewhere. Has anyone taken this on the road and loaded control channels for P25 systems that are along the route. If so did it locate and scan said systems? Kinda like the Uniden GPS system...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[turnpike61]

Thanks.

 

[dispatchgeek]

I run my P25RX as a daily driver in my vehicle. It lives in my center armrest and is connected via Bluetooth to a visor speaker. That being said, I roam the statewide sites on my commute. It still works out very well for me. I need to find a viable mobile display option, but other than that, it's great!

(Yes, I've used Goldmyne99's app in my home shack.)

 

[turnpike61]

Well, nothing good to report. I had a really difficult time with BT connectivity in our vehicle. The device would connect, then disconnect, then connect again. I don't think I ever caught a single transmission while BT was connected, which wasn't much. I used an external powered speaker, but could not get enough volume out of the device even at full gain.

Our vehicle unfortunately has not aux in, unlike my commuter vehicle which does, so I was attributing my BT woes to the older (2011) commuter car, and was using Aux-in. However on this trip I wanted to enjoy the BT and the display, but this would not work for me.

At our beach house it worked great as a stand-alone or with the laptop, but not much success on the drive.

Is there a BT update that I missed or does everyone else have great success with BT?

Thanks.

 

[btt]

Is there a BT update that I missed or does everyone else have great success with BT?

I was hoping others would respond. Honestly, I haven't heard of many issues with Bluetooth audio. I think you are maybe the 3rd or 4th person out of everyone so far that has reported issues with this. The P25RX Bluetooth module does learn up to 8 MACs (they can all be the same). It definitely can be beneficial to pair multiple times even if it is the same sink device (Bluetooth speaker). If all 8 "MAC slots" on the P25RX are filled with the same device, it will try to connect by a factor of 8x in the same time period. In general, it is better to power the Bluetooth speaker before the P25RX device if they have already been paired and you have Bluetooth-on-powerup enabled in the P25RX configuration. On in-vehicle devices, it may be better to pair multiple times, and ensure that you did program the Bluetooth to be enabled on power-up. You can always double-click (or whatever you programmed the button for) to do the Bluetooth pairing (which also enables Bluetooth). You may have to wait some time for the connect process in a vehicle in this case. I hope this helps.

 

[detroit780]

Well, nothing good to report. I had a really difficult time with BT connectivity in our vehicle. The device would connect, then disconnect, then connect again. I don't think I ever caught a single transmission while BT was connected, which wasn't much. I used an external powered speaker, but could not get enough volume out of the device even at full gain.

Our vehicle unfortunately has not aux in, unlike my commuter vehicle which does, so I was attributing my BT woes to the older (2011) commuter car, and was using Aux-in. However on this trip I wanted to enjoy the BT and the display, but this would not work for me.

At our beach house it worked great as a stand-alone or with the laptop, but not much success on the drive.

Is there a BT update that I missed or does everyone else have great success with BT?

Thanks.

I have no issues connecting to my car or my wife’s car via BT and the same connecting to a Bose home speaker and a Bose sound link always connects quickly and sounds great

 

[kruser]

I was hoping others would respond. Honestly, I haven't heard of many issues with Bluetooth audio. I think you are maybe the 3rd or 4th person out of everyone so far that has reported issues with this.

I don't think I've ever reported anything with BT connectivity with my P25RX.
Probably because I've never had any issues with it that I can recall.

I don't use the BT feature that often but have paired it with different makes of BT speakers and over the ear headphones and most recent, an Icom VS-3 BT headset made for the Icom amateur transceiver and communication receiver models.
No problems pairing the P25RX to anything for just an audio playback device.
I also paired it to an older Samsung G5 cell phone that worked but the phone's audio speaker is already crud sounding so that was turned back off. Not the fault of the P25RX at all in that case, just a worn out phone.

 

[cmjonesinc]

I have one of mine in my vw connected to Bluetooth with the factory radio and it works great. I'm in the process of transitioning it to an external speaker though since I like to have my phone paired to my cars bluetooth. I bought a Bluetooth speaker that also has an aux input. I opened the speaker up and tapped in to the power circuit to power it directly from the vehicle. I also tapped in to the on/off switch and the volumes buttons. I had several unused factory switches in my car so I got the appropriate stuff to use them for the controls. Just haven't had any free time to hook it all up yet. My other one got kidnapped by a friend, but from what I understand it's working well on factory bluetooth in his jeep. On the older firmware I had some issues getting one of them to pair initially. Had to power cycle it and the radio a few times. But once the initial pair was completed I never had any issues getting it to reconnect.

 

[turnpike61]

I was hoping others would respond. Honestly, I haven't heard of many issues with Bluetooth audio. I think you are maybe the 3rd or 4th person out of everyone so far that has reported issues with this. The P25RX Bluetooth module does learn up to 8 MACs (they can all be the same). It definitely can be beneficial to pair multiple times even if it is the same sink device (Bluetooth speaker). If all 8 "MAC slots" on the P25RX are filled with the same device, it will try to connect by a factor of 8x in the same time period. In general, it is better to power the Bluetooth speaker before the P25RX device if they have already been paired and you have Bluetooth-on-powerup enabled in the P25RX configuration. On in-vehicle devices, it may be better to pair multiple times, and ensure that you did program the Bluetooth to be enabled on power-up. You can always double-click (or whatever you programmed the button for) to do the Bluetooth pairing (which also enables Bluetooth). You may have to wait some time for the connect process in a vehicle in this case. I hope this helps.

Thanks. Well, I've no problem pairing with my speakers (although they too, drop out sometimes), but the car we were using on this trip. It would connect, then disconnect, then connect, etc. Over and over. I thought it was BT interference, but other devices turned off didn't help.

Just took it on another trip, and brought a new powered speaker and audio cable to make sure BT wasn't an issue this time. The telescoping antenna I had connected to the back of the device snapped within 2 hours of starting out, and of course I lost my magnetic antenna on the previous trip. Batting 0 so far with my P25RX on the road I'll keep trying.

 

[btt]

I lost my magnetic antenna on the previous trip.

I'll send you a DM with a link to a replacement.

 

[pcman67]

Well, nothing good to report. I had a really difficult time with BT connectivity in our vehicle. The device would connect, then disconnect, then connect again. I don't think I ever caught a single transmission while BT was connected, which wasn't much. I used an external powered speaker, but could not get enough volume out of the device even at full gain.

Our vehicle unfortunately has not aux in, unlike my commuter vehicle which does, so I was attributing my BT woes to the older (2011) commuter car, and was using Aux-in. However on this trip I wanted to enjoy the BT and the display, but this would not work for me.

At our beach house it worked great as a stand-alone or with the laptop, but not much success on the drive.

Is there a BT update that I missed or does everyone else have great success with BT?

Thanks.

I had an issue like that with BT connecting/reconnecting and found it was related to a baby monitor (does both video and audio) that operates on the 2.4Ghz band sitting near the P25RX causing Bluetooth interference. Once I powered off the nearby baby monitor, it was fine.

Only thing I can think of is some device or perhaps car WiFi hot spot running on 2.4Ghz causing interference? Just a guess. Otherwise, I’ve not had any issues with BT connectivity other than that.

 

[turnpike61]

I'll send you a DM with a link to a replacement.

Thank you Todd!

 

[turnpike61]

I had an issue like that with BT connecting/reconnecting and found it was related to a baby monitor (does both video and audio) that operates on the 2.4Ghz band sitting near the P25RX causing Bluetooth interference. Once I powered off the nearby baby monitor, it was fine.

Only thing I can think of is some device or perhaps car WiFi hot spot running on 2.4Ghz causing interference? Just a guess. Otherwise, I’ve not had any issues with BT connectivity other than that.

Yeah, I was thinking interference as well. The vehicle has an internal GPS/WIFI hotspot and various devices inside owned by my family, all operating. I think I will be fine with the powered speaker, which seems to work well.

Thanks.

 

[djbisme]

I was hoping others would respond. Honestly, I haven't heard of many issues with Bluetooth audio. I think you are maybe the 3rd or 4th person out of everyone so far that has reported issues with this. The P25RX Bluetooth module does learn up to 8 MACs (they can all be the same). It definitely can be beneficial to pair multiple times even if it is the same sink device (Bluetooth speaker). If all 8 "MAC slots" on the P25RX are filled with the same device, it will try to connect by a factor of 8x in the same time period. In general, it is better to power the Bluetooth speaker before the P25RX device if they have already been paired and you have Bluetooth-on-powerup enabled in the P25RX configuration. On in-vehicle devices, it may be better to pair multiple times, and ensure that you did program the Bluetooth to be enabled on power-up. You can always double-click (or whatever you programmed the button for) to do the Bluetooth pairing (which also enables Bluetooth). You may have to wait some time for the connect process in a vehicle in this case. I hope this helps.

I started having problem with my bluetooth connection yesterday, and glad I saw this post. The first part (1 sec or so) of each transmission was being cut-off. I verified it with my SDS100, which heard the whole transmission. Sometimes the audio would pulse in and out as well. When using the PC Audio option it worked fine, so I knew it was bluetooth related. I went through the pairing option with my speaker two more times, and everything cleared up.

I've always had a love/hate relationship with bluetooth (mostly hate, honestely). It seems to do what it wants and connect to whatever it wants randomly. But I know it's here to stay...and convenient when it does work. =)

 

[ronsk74]

I was hoping others would respond. Honestly, I haven't heard of many issues with Bluetooth audio. I think you are maybe the 3rd or 4th person out of everyone so far that has reported issues with this. The P25RX Bluetooth module does learn up to 8 MACs (they can all be the same). It definitely can be beneficial to pair multiple times even if it is the same sink device (Bluetooth speaker). If all 8 "MAC slots" on the P25RX are filled with the same device, it will try to connect by a factor of 8x in the same time period. In general, it is better to power the Bluetooth speaker before the P25RX device if they have already been paired and you have Bluetooth-on-powerup enabled in the P25RX configuration. On in-vehicle devices, it may be better to pair multiple times, and ensure that you did program the Bluetooth to be enabled on power-up. You can always double-click (or whatever you programmed the button for) to do the Bluetooth pairing (which also enables Bluetooth). You may have to wait some time for the connect process in a vehicle in this case. I hope this helps.

I just received my P25RX-II yesterday and I like it. Learning the btconfig so I'm not past the newbe stage yet. But as far as bluetooth goes, there will be as many variations of BT use as there are users. If anyone is like me with a wife who thinks a scanning device is just noise, I'm ordering a single BT earbud so when we're watching tv in the evening I can enjoy both and she can enjoy one 😁. I'll use it that way in my truck too but the garage is mine so an amplified plugin speaker will be typical.