XTS5000 that i'm about to light on fire, has RX issues.

[madrabbitt]

I have an XTS5000 thats really been a pain in my butt. Im seriously about to "lose it on the fireline"

Currently, it does not like to recieve anything but significantly strong channels. To quanitfy this, it'll recieve any other portable on simplex within a mile or two, but not further, even if an identically programmed radio is right next to it. It will not recieve repeater outputs on some of our further repeaters even when other units recieve just fine.

I have made sure that:

1. Squelch threshold in all personalities are set low. All are set to 2. Other radios in the fleet are set between 2 and 4 in most cases.
2. I have cloned it from an identical XTS5000 model 3, both via radio to radio clone, and using CPS to clone. Both radios are identical except for one single thing (see #4)
3. It has been tuned and aligned within the last year. The tech even re-cased it (for another issue) and visually inspected its internals including the antenna port.
4. I have tried multiple antennas to rule out a part failure. We are using larsen aftermarket gain whips in the correct bandwidth (upper VHF). I have also tried motorola OEM wideband and OEM VHF correct bandwith whips. HOWEVER. This radio is one that is normally used in an XTVA. Therefore it has the Motorola OEM RF adaptor between the antenna and antenna port. I *HAVE* swapped out that adaptor to confirm it was not the problem...
... And it actually recieves WELL when in the XTVA connected to an external antenna. Which is really confounding the problem.


Anyone have any wild *** guesses on anything else to try before i give up on this thing and salvage its parts?

 

[FFPM571]

try another alignment... a lot can change in a year

 

[madrabbitt]

That was on my list.

I may have to send it to a legit shop, since im in the middle of nowhere this summer, and there is no in-house radio tech in this district.

Im also wondering if the previous one wasnt done correctly, because that tech had never touched a moto before since that agency was 100% BK/Relm.

 

[MTS2000des]

There are certainly a lot of so-called "teknishuns" that think they know everything because they can watch a YouTube video and that qualifies them as a SME (subject matter expert).

Any full service MSI dealer with a shop should be able to do an alignment and full PM on that radio per MSI published specifications. With the right equipment a tech should be able to put that on their service monitor, run the auto tune routine to get a baseline (and auto tune may bring it back to working well), a GOOD tech will then look at the softpot deltas and see how far off they are, and manually adjust to get peak performance, or take note of softpots maxed out and find out why.

That radio should NOT be in service in an IDLH setting until a QUALIFIED person with CORRECT tools go through it and address the issues.

 

[cmdrwill]

That radio should NOT be in service in an IDLH setting until a QUALIFIED person with CORRECT tools go through it and address the issues.

Exactly...

 

[madrabbitt]

Exactly why I think I need to shoot it off to a Moto service center rather then pass it off to the agency people.
The previous tech who went thru it was more then qualified, with the right equipment, but has had a career of servicing Relm, BK, and Thales HT's. The only equipment with the big M on it in that agency was the infrastructure.

Also, I completely agree with the above. This radio lives in an XTVA in my POV. Its purely an off-duty monitor radio.

I carry a XTS2500i and XTS5000r, both of which are agency property on duty in addition to the BK's im issued. Both of those XTS's get APM and tuning from a shop local to my off-season duty location, but on the agency's dime.

Shipping my "problem child" out to get looked at will be out of pocket, so that was a last resort, which I guess i'm going to have to do.
Good thing today is a 12 hour OT shift.