IP Site Connect and multiple talkgroups question...

[wavetar]

My IPSC knowledge is limited...we've never sold an IPSC system. So, for knowledge's sake, I configured a two site setup in the shop and have been testing/learning on it.

Functionally it works fine. Now, the following scenario and questions may stem from incomplete knowledge on my part, but here goes:

I set up 3 channels in Zone 1...OPS 1, OPS 2, OPS 3. Each uses a corresponding talkgroup of 1, 2 & 3 for the 'contact name' & RX 'group list'.

In the channel pool, I set up two channels, one for each frequency pair, and named them 'Site 1' and 'Site 2'. They do not reference any talkgroups at all. I then entered these channels into the Roam List.

As I say, functionally this seems to work fine, but the radios will show 'Site 1' or 'Site 2' on the display, instead of 'OPS 1', 'OPS 2', or 'OPS 3', once they've roamed to a site. Not so bad for portables, since you can look at the channel selector and see what channel you are on, but for mobiles there's no way of knowing what channel the radios is residing on without doing a quick up/down with the channel selector to see the channel name pop up in the display briefly.

I cannot believe this is proper operation & must be missing something simple. Anybody have any suggestions?

Todd

[Bill_G]

I'll ask our guys at Day Connect.

[Bill_G]

Their response is : Yep. That's the way it works. The radio will display the CHANNEL POOL name when the radio is in standby. It will display the ZONE name when it receives a call. They said what you can do is create multiple Channel Pools off the same repeater with different time slots and different names and different roam list. It gets complicated, but you can get your displayed front panel names to correspond to your desired talk group names with slight changes in spelling as the subscriber roams.

OPS1 and OPS.1
OPS2 and OPS.2

etc

Hope that helps.

[escomm]

Boy it would be great if the people writing Motorola's CPS actually programmed and used the radios their software programs!!!

[Bill_G]

What meaning is this the screen of helpingness?

[wavetar]

They said what you can do is create multiple Channel Pools off the same repeater with different time slots and different names and different roam list. It gets complicated...

This is what I was afraid of, lol. Not so bad for a customer with a few different talkgroups, but Motorola should change the firmware to have the radio show the zone channel name, and view the Channel Pool tag with a button press. That would be much simpler for overall programming & allow you to use tag names like 'Site 1', or 'Location X'...then you could tell what site the radio was on with the button press.

[glink]

Hi Wavetar. I have experienced exactly the same issue. I've created a zone for each repeater site, then added talkgroup channels to each zone, naming each one exactly the same per zone, so the display at least makes sense. Our region is EMEA, so we use the DP3401/3601 portables. The issue gets complicated with DM3401 mobiles, which only have a numeric display. When the radio roams to a new site, the channel display number changes.Try explaining that to a customer! The Moto programmers really should try out their kit before releasing firmware
Cheers

[JtB]

In EMEA we have an IP Site Connect System Integrators guide which explains among other things how to configure a radio for roaming across multiple sites. What you have to remember is that whenever a radio roams to a new channel, the radio display changes to reflect the new channel. This way the user always knows which is the current home channel (which is not always the same as the selected channel).

For the above system configuration I suggest you setup the radios as follows:

1) Create two zones and call them something like Site1 & Site2.

2) Create 3 channels in the Site1 zone and call them something like OPS1-S1, OPS2-S1 & OPS3-S1. Configure your talkgroups, contact names & RX Groups for these channels and set the Tx/Rx Freq and color code accordingly for the repeater at site 1.

3) Copy the above channels into the Site2 zone and call them something like OPS1-S2, OPS2-S2 & OPS3-S2. Then modify the Tx/Rx Freq and Color Code for the copied channels accordingly for the repeater at site 2.

4) Create 3 roam lists called something like OPS1, OPS2 & OPS3 and place:
Channels OPS1-S1 & OPS1-S2 in roam list OPS1
Channels OPS2-S1 & OPS2-S2 in roam list OPS2
Channels OPS3-S1 & OPS3-S2 in roam list OPS3

5) Specify the following roam lists from the following channels:
OPS1 roam list from channels OPS1-S1 & OPS1-S2
OPS2 roam list from channels OPS2-S1 & OPS2-S2
OPS3 roam list from channels OPS3-S1 & OPS2-S2

The above configuration will be very intuitive for your users. All they need to do is select channels 1, 2 or 3 and the radio will change zone automatically depending on which site it roams to. Not only will the radio display show which channel is selected, it will also show which site the radio is on. For example, if channel 2 is selected then the radio will display OPS2-S1 at site 1 and OPS2-S2 at site 2.

[wavetar]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I follow what you say & will certainly do so if/when we implement a system. Still doesn't change the fact it could be so much easier & straightforward with a minor firmware change, but we can only work with what we're given! Thanks again.

Todd

[wavetar]

I'm in the middle of setting up a 6 site system for a customer & have learned a lot in doing so. I originally followed the procedure outlined by JtB above, and it worked fine with a few caveats.

In my particular case, the radios have the first 8 channels set as IP Site Connect channels, the last 8 channels are simplex. When using Zones to define the different repeaters, I had to replicate the simplex channels in every zone, other wise it would show "unprogrammed" on the screen for those channels once the radio roamed onto any other zone.

Although replicating the simplex channels in the multiple zones worked, I was able to simplify things by moving everything into the channel pool, which allows me to have one 'master' Zone with the simplex channels included, no other replication needed. This also allowed me to program a different site repeater for each of the radio's default locations in the 'master' zone...they don't actually travel much & will reside in their 'home' area much of the time, so this helps avoid roam waiting times upon power up, as they default to the local site immediately.

Anyway, if anyone needs a copy of the codeplug to see how things are setup, I'd be happy to send it out.

Todd