GIMPCan anybody here take an image and convert it to the splash screen format needed for an XL?
I want this to be my splash screen.
View attachment 141766
GIMPCan anybody here take an image and convert it to the splash screen format needed for an XL?
I want this to be my splash screen.
View attachment 141766
Well, it is a computer… not like the days of old where the radio was mostly hardware defined.Update of critique: With display illumination (top, front, and keypad) set to max and always on, it will cause a temperature rise of about 15 degrees F as compared to its off/cold state. As determined by my FLIR hand held thermal imager. And that's not counting additional heat if you were to do any transmitting.
I've found that the radio display sometimes does not turn on with activity, and may require a subsequent received transmission before it turns on. It seems to not have a "wake up display on any control activation" feature.
It would have benefitted greatly from having a light sensor on it to auto control the LCD lighting levels. You definitely have to make adjustments manually if you go between light and dark environments and need to use the display.
Very interestingly, it appears that EDACS functionality is a baseline capability, not requiring the ordering of any options to enable it.
I say this because my radio's feature package, as confirmed by its birth certificate and internal data, does not include any EDACS enabling features, yet EDACS works perfectly. However, my county is being charged 2000 dollars per radio (before discounts) so that each radio
can get the EDACS/P25 trunking package. Delete the EDACS package and the P25 trunking package is 1500 dollars by itself, but if you di d that, you'd likely still have EDACS functionality.
This means I've found an overcharge that would likely apply to EVERY XL-185 and 200 radio bought by this county and its cities.
With tens of thousands of radios possibly involved, the overcharges become an impressive sum.
The agencies have been reporting it for years.I still use a P7100 for the trunked mode FCC test menu functionality. Wish the 185 had that. So I can gather data and see if the very frequent noise problems I'm hearing on many transmissions is on the subscriber side or is consistently on the TX of specific repeaters.
The noise issues are sufficent that if I were in a responsible position I'd be demanding that the radio techs get to the bottom of it. At times it is severe enough to affect intelligiblity.
You don’t tune a Unity radio that way either… You mostly use the TCXO adjustment from the front panel while on the bench.Got curious today, fired up RPM2 with the intent of taking a look at the XL calibration data.
But there's no entry for any XL model. I looked very carefully. Trying to read via the radio information button gives the expected error,
radio not connected or not in program mode.
So the RPM2 radio maintenance tools don't support the XL radios? What is used to align an XL, then?
the RPM2 radio maintenance tools don't support the XL radios? What is used to align an XL, then?
So this pretty much sums it up… Officially, it seems you cannot adjust the power output with tools available to the end user. See the attached file, which is from the maintenance manual. It takes you through many steps, but at the end of the day, “Do not return a radio to service if any transmit power level exceeds the respective limits listed in Table 7-5.” is the end of the road. There is no procedure listed to correct a radio that is out of spec… I presume the next step is to contact the TAC.I was hoping to at least be able to make TX power adjustments. I've got a stack of HP 8920B communications service monitors, I can measure power output. I want to trim down the "RF Safe" power level to as low as it can possibly go. All the way down to zero if that's possible. Just as one extra layer of safety when using the radio as a scanner. (which is all the time for me.)
You probably wouldn't like the "Green Radios" then.Having done additional reading in the manual, I see it now. TX power output is one parameter adjusted via the FPP functionality, by creating a test personality with conventional channels in it, and using the channel edit capability.
To me that almost seems like a step backwards. I'm very used to working with radios where you connect to the radio via the service software, connect the radio to test equipment, and make all adjustments via the software. You don't have any need at all to touch the radio during the alignment process.
L3HARRIS dropped the ability to switch channels/groups incrementally up or down with anything other than the selector knob.The selector knob and channel entry (select channel directly) are the only ways to change channels/groups. This started with the XG-100P and carried over to the current XL-xxxP variants.That wouldn't stop me from liking them. I'm just kind of surprised that Harris chose to take a "less automation friendly" approach to aligning the radio.
I set a power-up password on the 185 and discovered that when you do this, it also works to allow/deny programming. Without entering the password, RPM2 won't read the radio. And you have to enter the password into the radio itself, not into RPM2 to read it. I LIKE that feature, as it makes the contents of my radio a private matter that can't be bypassed just by reading it with RPM2. (But there's probably some super secret override.) I've got it set to wipe after 5 bungled password attempts. Something I expect will never happen as long as I maintain control of it.
I find it odd that I can't set up the 185 so that group up and group down can be assigned to two buttons. A function I have always used in previous radios. I use it to access groups above 16 on the list.
I may be able to do something similar using the zones function with the ABCD switch, which I am currently not using at all, but I don't really know how zones work in this radio yet. Of course I'll figure it out soon enough.
Now, in R16A, you can set the ch/grp knob to systems and the side buttons to ch/grp…L3HARRIS dropped the ability to switch channels/groups incrementally up or down with anything other than the selector knob.The selector knob and channel entry (select channel directly) are the only ways to change channels/groups. This started with the XG-100P and carried over to the current XL-xxxP variants.
It should be the default setup for new mission plans… set them all to SYSTEM/CHANNEL BANK. (Note the greyed out value to the right listing 1/2/3/4.) not doing this essentially limits the number of channel banks available.LukeB, if the radio shows CONNECTED with an IP address showing, then you're almost there. You've made it through the hard part.
Under tools-preferences-miscellaneous-general, select Enable Wifi, default connection type to wifi, and service name to match the radio's service name which is also referenced in network configuration. Not sure if this last step is absolutely essential but it helped me.
It took a lot of effort and many attempts to get wifi programming working correctly, and in fact I still don't have it perfect, but since I now have a USB cable I jus use that instead.
I'm unclear on how to configure the ABCD control to access group/channels 1-16, 17-32, etc...