Using the P25RX On The Road

[KC1UA]

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 without the Uniden or the GPS? In other words once I'm in an area where a CC is in range, will it hear that system until I'm out of that area.

As I recall I can program up to 16 CC's into the roaming flash, just curious if that will work in this manner.

Thanks.

 

[epersson]

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 without the Uniden or the GPS? In other words once I'm in an area where a CC is in range, will it hear that system until I'm out of that area.

As I recall I can program up to 16 CC's into the roaming flash, just curious if that will work in this manner.

Thanks.

Yes, it works, I did it between Broward and Palm Beach counties when I was down there, the only issue I had was some of the primary control channels weren't correct or the ones active, I don't know which, so I programmed the backups as well. You can either open to all talkgroups with the checkbox, or put the TGIDs you want in a CSV file and put in the WACN and SYSID. I have 3 -4 files with different TGID lists for one or more systems.

 

[KC1UA]

Thanks for the info. I'm hoping I can just enter the CC's into the table and then load them to roaming flash instead of having to search them out and pick them out of the list. I guess I'll try it that way and see how it goes. Some of the CC info I see here at RR is not showing up when I do a search of the device's database.

 

[nosig55]

When I first got the unit back in February, I went from KC to Springfield Mo. It did good considering the frequencies went from 150, 700 and 800 MHz. Some of the sites are spread out in the middle of Mo. and not a lot of radio traffic. It does work.

 

[pcman67]

Thanks for the info. I'm hoping I can just enter the CC's into the table and then load them to roaming flash instead of having to search them out and pick them out of the list. I guess I'll try it that way and see how it goes. Some of the CC info I see here at RR is not showing up when I do a search of the device's database.

Yes, you should not have any problems just entering the CC’s into the table and them load them into roaming flash. I’ve traveled with it in my car and it works great switching between the various systems. I’m very pleased with how it operates in this manner and the overall simplicity of it once you get familiar with the basics of it.

Regarding the database, yes, you may not find the CC’s you are looking for in the built in database of the BTConfig software. I run across this on my local system I monitor as well. Even though it was just updated with the latest FCC database info, there are instances where it differs from the RadioReference database. There are several reasons for this as pointed out in another post, but when traveling I usually just pull the CC’s off the RR database that I’ll need when traveling just to be safe.

 

[epersson]

I set up the CCs I want and save them to a file, then I can load different CC configurations and their TGID groups for different areas. I just pull the CCs out of RR and then copy and past the TG info as well, take a couple minutes of editing to get the column format correct and the additional info like enable and priority.

Also this was posted by BTT in the firmware thread:

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I increased max control channels to 64 in testing version 2021-04-07_1653.

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But just in case others missed it, the best way to configure for this type of traveling application is to set the roaming timeout to something like 300 seconds. This way, the list will not be searched unless they stop talking for 5 minutes straight. If the signal is completely lost while driving, the list will be searched after about 10 seconds. Once the unit start searching, it will only spend some milliseconds on each channel before trying the next. Once it finds a good control channel, it will then wait the 300 seconds again. Hope that description makes sense.
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[KC1UA]

Thanks for the added info. My attempt today was ruined by an unexpected source, the Anker Bluetooth speaker I had been using to date without any issues decided to malfunction once I was on the road. Not sure what happened but after initially working fine it just constantly dropped connection to the point that it was unusable. This also occurred when I switched to a cabled connection between the P25RX and the speaker. Strange. No fault of the P25RX at all. And now strangely enough the speaker is working fine again and I'm listening to the Fairfax VA system as I type this.

Glad to see the CC increase in the latest version. I've updated to it, reloaded the roaming flash file I have, and when I return in a few days I'll try it again.

Thanks again to all that replied.

 

[KC1UA]

Made the ride back from Alexandria VA to Cape Cod yesterday. Prior to doing so, armed with the latest firmware/software I re-did my roaming flash with all primary and alternate CC's from several systems between there and here. Then I very nicely spoke to my bluetooth speaker and asked it if it would be so kind to function on the return trip. It complied, and the results were quite good along pretty much the entirety of the route. This was using the suggested 300 second method above. It heard quite a bit of traffic just sitting on the dash with a Radio Shack 800 MHz antenna attached via a right angle BNC adapter. Unfortunately no bluetooth to the vehicle, this time my better half's Jeep Cherokee with the UConnect system, so it would be nice to be able to see what I was listening to, but that would be the only minor "nit" I would have with this, and it's something out of my control. I ran it just about all the way with a 5V battery pack, and only had to switch to a backup pack in CT. Wanted to try that to see how far the battery packs would carry it, and it did well. The Anker speaker held out for the entirety of the ride. A fun experiment!