XPR3500E No Way To Exclude Empty Channels From Ch Selector

[tropiradio]

I've got a XPR3500E (UHF) which has the unlimited turn channel selector. Firmware is 2.22.02.3001, codeplug 22.22.15.

I am using CPS v2.134.76.0 (last version that will work on Win7 without being forced to "upgrade" to Win10).

Only 3 channels programmed in zone1, however turning the channel selector bellow ch1 or above ch3 gets the "unprogrammed" label on the display, and the usual error tone.

In the past with other radios with unlimited turn channel selector, checking the option General > Virtual Channel Stop solved this issue as it will prevent the radio from accessing any unprogrammed channels, but this option is not present in this radio.

Also tried setting the Home Zone, and Home Channel options (General section) but that does not make any difference in terms of limiting access to only programmed channels.

Furthermore the General > Power Up > Desired Channel Zone and Desired Channel doesn't exist either so no way to use it. The only option present in that section is MDC Status.

I am confused, what am I missing here? Any ideas or suggestions much welcomed.

 

[mmckenna]

I have some Kenwood's that have a group selector knob that does that.

I usually just program in the same channels into the unused slots until it's full. End user doesn't know/care.

 

[tropiradio]

I was thinking of doing that, as the number of channels is really limited to 16, at which point the original 3 channels will reappear, so basically even though the radio has the unlimited turn channel selector, it can only access 16 channels of the zone. Problem is that I cannot assign the same names of the existing channels to the additional ones, so not really an option as I don't want to set slightly different labels to the same channel and confuse the end user. Not to mention that in this case this not being exactly a very professional solution.

The firmware that came with these radios is really weird. Actually I checked another equivalent LA radio (DEP570E) with slightly older firmware v2.21.01.1002 and it does have both the Virtual Channel Stop, and also the Power Up channel and zone setting options and works just fine only allowing access to the channels in the zone that have actually been created/programmed.

On the XPR3500E as a test I also tried creating an additional zone, and just setting up two channels, and delete the original zone. But the newly created zone has exactly the same problems in that it accesses all the unprogrammed channels in the 16 channel zone.

I wonder if there is a way to disable the unprogrammed channels in a zone, so they will not show up when turning the channel selector, but I can't find anything related in the CPS.