XTS 3000

gcowan99 · Post by **gcowan99** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:24 pm

Thanks in advance for the help!

I am a member of a volunteer fire department in NE Indiana, Our county currently Has a simulcast smartnet digital system and My xts 3000 III (smartnet radio) is on that system. My question is it possible to upgrade this radio to smartzone, or to progam it to use only one site of the indiana project hoosier safety smartzone system? If it is upgradeable how much can I expect to pay to have it upgraded, if it can be programmed on one site, how difficult is it to do? Our county radio shop guys say using a smartnet radio on only one site of a smartzone system is not possible, but the project hoosier safety Rep. say it is possible?

Thanks again for all the help!

Grant

Post by **wavetar** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:30 pm

It's certainly possible to program it to a single site of a SmartZone system. We have 17 Fire Departments which have older Smartnet Maxtrac & Spectra C5 base stations set-up exactly that way. In fact, with most SmartZone systems only having a single dedicated control channel per site, you could program it to work from up to 8 different sites using the WAC AMSS configuration.

That said, it's a whole other story whether or not the system admins will allow a non-SmartZone radio onto the system...the FD's here are the only ones to receive permission to do so.

As far as cost to upgrade, I believe it's been posted here in the past to be about $700 to upgrade to SmartZone from SmartNet.

Todd

ExKa|iBuR · Post by **ExKa|iBuR** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:39 pm

Todd;

From a system administrator's perspective, what would be the difference between programming a radio for Smartnet on just one site of a SmartZone system.... or programming a radio for SmartZone, but only programming in the control channel(s) used at one particular site.

I realize this doesn't help this guy's situation, as I gather he's trying to do it without upgrading, but I'm curious how that would work. I assume it WOULD work, but would there be a difference from any administration point of view (ie...would they even know).

-M

gcowan99 · Post by **gcowan99** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 6:30 pm

thanks for the help! As I understand it project hoosier saftey is ok with programming it that way but, but our county radio shop won't do it because either they don't know how or it takes too much work? They have always just said the smartnet won't work. On a Separte topic how hard is it to adapt a template from one model number to another?

Post by **wavetar** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:17 am

ExKa|iBuR wrote:Todd;

From a system administrator's perspective, what would be the difference between programming a radio for Smartnet on just one site of a SmartZone system.... or programming a radio for SmartZone, but only programming in the control channel(s) used at one particular site.

I realize this doesn't help this guy's situation, as I gather he's trying to do it without upgrading, but I'm curious how that would work. I assume it WOULD work, but would there be a difference from any administration point of view (ie...would they even know).

-M

Not really any difference, except you get Motorola stating "we will not support your SmartZone system if you allow non-SmartZone radios onto it".
I can see their point, since SmartNet radios won't roam in the same fashion as SmartZone ones. Then when the customer has a problem with coverage (ie: his radios won't switch sites when it needs to) they cry that the system is no good. And believe me, most customers will make no distinction between using the 'right' radio & using 'theirs', it'll still be somebody else's fault.
As I said, the FD's were a special case & it was worked out with Motorola. They were programmed as WAC AMSS with the primary & back-up control channel for 4 surrounding sites. Since they don't move & there's literally no way to hit anything beyond those four sites anyway, it was allowed.

Todd

Post by **wavetar** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:23 am

gcowan99 wrote:thanks for the help! As I understand it project hoosier saftey is ok with programming it that way but, but our county radio shop won't do it because either they don't know how or it takes too much work? They have always just said the smartnet won't work.

The radio shop might very well want written permission before they'll program a SmartNet radio onto the system, that might be the stumbling block. The actual programming is less complicated...everything's pretty much the same except you only enter 4 or 8 control channels instead of up to 32.

gcowan99 wrote: On a Separte topic how hard is it to adapt a template from one model number to another?

Using the Windows CPS, it's very easy! Once the template is built for the first model, the information can be dragged & dropped from one model to another...even between portable & mobile! This wasn't possible with the DOS RSS & it's a real time saver. There's still a few settings to tweak manually, but 90% can be dragged over.

Todd

gcowan99 · Post by **gcowan99** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 2:36 pm

Thanks again for the help!