XTS3000 won't unmute with PL enabled

[PhillyPhoto]

I have a UHF XTS3000 and on one particular frequency with a PL of 100.0 it won't unmute. I can hear it fine on CSQ and it shows the light with the PL enabled. I created a completely new channel for it and set the squelch to 3. I can hear another frequency fine with the same PL. I have the channel setup in a scanner and it works fine with the 100.0 PL so I know it's correct.

Host: R07.71.07
DSP: N8.03.05

[N4KVE]

Are you trying to listen to a repeater? If so & your radio won't decode it, try to listen to another radio transmitting on the same freq & pl. There is a local repeater that none of my Astro Sabers, XTS3000's, or my XTS5000 will decode, but all my MTS2000's will. All the radios are well tuned, & the repeater owner swears his repeater is in spec. Yet, the radios in question will all decode another radio same freq & PL w/o a problem. So try to decode another radio on the same freq. GARY

[Terriers618]

double check that your unmute settings are set properly as well. If unmute is set to AND rather than OR for a parameter such as ID decoding or other value that could be your problem

[Jim202]

You know there is always the possibility that the repeater is not sending out the PL tone at the correct level. With the narrow banding that has recently taken place, I am sure that the radio techs didn't take the time to measure deviation on every radio they changed. More than not, they just changed the software setting from wide to narrow and moved on to the next radio.

I would take the time to put your radio on a service monitor and see just what level of PL deviation it takes for the radio to open up on PL decode. Your radio could also be part of the problem and need a full alignment with the move to narrow band channels.

Some radios will open up at lower PL levels than others. Your just starting to see some of the fallout from the hasty migration by some agencies and companies. It might take some time, but it will settle down.

Jim

[PhillyPhoto]

You know there is always the possibility that the repeater is not sending out the PL tone at the correct level. With the narrow banding that has recently taken place, I am sure that the radio techs didn't take the time to measure deviation on every radio they changed. More than not, they just changed the software setting from wide to narrow and moved on to the next radio.

I would take the time to put your radio on a service monitor and see just what level of PL deviation it takes for the radio to open up on PL decode. Your radio could also be part of the problem and need a full alignment with the move to narrow band channels.

Some radios will open up at lower PL levels than others. Your just starting to see some of the fallout from the hasty migration by some agencies and companies. It might take some time, but it will settle down.

Jim

It's a UHF frequency that's been the same frequency/PL for over a decade. The radio itself just had a full alignment, so I don't think that's it.

I just switched the unmuting from AND to standard with will see if that makes a difference. There's no signaling selected for the channel either.

[Astro Spectra]

There were PL decode bugs in earlier firmware releases but I checked the freqs and 100 Hz was not affected.

[ScannerDan]

I have a UHF XTS3000 and on one particular frequency with a PL of 100.0 it won't unmute. I can hear it fine on CSQ and it shows the light with the PL enabled. I created a completely new channel for it and set the squelch to 3. I can hear another frequency fine with the same PL. I have the channel setup in a scanner and it works fine with the 100.0 PL so I know it's correct.

Host: R07.71.07
DSP: N8.03.05

I have the same issue with one of my UHF XTS3000's too.

[PhillyPhoto]

I have an aftermarket antenna, and I'm hoping that has something to do with it. Sometimes at night there will be quick half-second bursts that come through on the scanner side, so there may be something going on with the repeater as well. Hopefully I can get the antenna swapped out next week.

[Jim202]

I will go back to my original position. Have you fully tested the radio on a service monitor?

Is the radio set for narrow band operation on the channel your having problems with?

Need to check the PL decode on your radio in narrow band mode. I didn't explain this before.

There is always the issue that when the repeater was narrow banded, the radio tech didn't check the PL out on the repeater. It could be low and causing the problem.

You haven't supplied any technical details on where all this stands.

Changing the antenna isn't going to solve your problem.

Jim

[PhillyPhoto]

Have you fully tested the radio on a service monitor?

I don't have immediate access to a service monitor. It was recently aligned with the firmware upgrade. I'm seeing if there are any records in regards to what was done on that end.

Is the radio set for narrow band operation on the channel your having problems with?

I'm not 100% sure.

Need to check the PL decode on your radio in narrow band mode. I didn't explain this before.
There is always the issue that when the repeater was narrow banded, the radio tech didn't check the PL out on the repeater. It could be low and causing the problem.
You haven't supplied any technical details on where all this stands.

I did bump the Ultra Narrow IF filter to 5.76 from 7.8, would that make a difference?

[PhillyPhoto]

Changing the IF filter didn't make a difference. Also, I was able to try another radio out directly and it worked fine. So at this point it looks like it's something with the repeater.

[Jim202]

Changing the IF filter didn't make a difference. Also, I was able to try another radio out directly and it worked fine. So at this point it looks like it's something with the repeater.

It looks like the repeater owner should check the PL deviation output on the repeater. This is a common problem when radios were narrow banded. The radio tech does the software change, but never checks the actual deviation with a service monitor. It takes too long to pull out the service monitor and set it up. So measuring the deviation doesn't get done.

As a note to this problem, some radios will decode the transmitted narrow banded Pl better than others. It is always good to know just how well your individual radios work along this line. But the only way to know that is with a service monitor that can adjust the PL deviation for the test.

Jim

[PhillyPhoto]

I don't think it's a repeater issue at this point. I have another channel that's less the 1 meg lower than this one, and it's doesn't unmute either. I haven't had a chance to take the PL off to verify however. I think there may be another one within that 1 meg range that I don't recall hearing either. I have however heard one 0.24 MHz up from the first bad one, and another a little higher up.

I ordered another antenna thinking the knock off I got was bad, because my overall reception doesn't seem to be as strong as it should be at times, but I won't have that until next week at the earliest.

Could this be an issue with the RF board at this point?

[mike m]

As Jim202 has asked you, have you confirmed the radio is set for narrowband in the 'conventional' menu, 'conventional personality' under 'TX options' first?

Also you mention that the system has been using the same freq and pl for over a decade but the PL levels are not the same now, especially after NB changes this year I'd bet your radios channels are set for WB 25KHz still.

If you can read the radio with CPS go into the CONVENTIONAL menu and in your CONVENTIONAL PERSONALITY pull down tell us if the tx deviation is 5KHz or 2.5 KHz?

Just because you can hear another repeater fine with CTCSS decode enabled has nothing to do with if your radio is set properly.

There are many 25KHz repeaters that when they changed over to 12.5 KHz channel spacings, as JIM202 mentioned, the dev levels may not have been set properly with the result being widely varying CTCSS dev levels that are within acceptable levels on some systems but marginal with other systems.

I recently ran thru this a couple of months ago with another user on another group and we discovered that his channels were all set for 25 KHz spacings and some repeaters worked while others did not.

The repeaters that he was using were all properly set for 12.5Khz but on some of the repeaters the CTCSS TX dev was around 250hz while on other repeaters the level was around 400hz and guess what those with 250hz ctcss dev did not work at all when his radio was set to WB/25KHz channels but those repeaters with the higher CTCSS dev levels around 400 hz would decode fine even with his radio set to 25 KHz channels.

Once he set his channels to 12.5 KHz everything started to play as it should for this individual.

[PhillyPhoto]

If you can read the radio with CPS go into the CONVENTIONAL menu and in your CONVENTIONAL PERSONALITY pull down tell us if the tx deviation is 5KHz or 2.5 KHz?

They were set to 5KHz, I set them to 2.5 now. Only time will tell if it makes a difference. Fingers are crossed!

On a side note, my programming laptop crapped out, and could not get it to work on 2 desktops. Turns out the problem was both operating systems are 64 bit, and I had to setup Windows Virtual PC, and now everything works like a dream. Big thanks to JPOPatents in this thread: http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... 64#p401164.

[PhillyPhoto]

The 2.5KHz did it! It's just a little counter-intuitive that the TX deviation affects to RX side, but I don't care at this point! The reception is a little scratchy in the basement of the building I'm in right now, but that just means it will work even better when I'm outside, considering I wasn't even getting anything outside near the tower before. I'll have to keep this in my back pocket for the future.

Thanks again everyone who helped out!

[ScannerDan]

The 2.5KHz did it! It's just a little counter-intuitive that the TX deviation affects to RX side, but I don't care at this point! The reception is a little scratchy in the basement of the building I'm in right now, but that just means it will work even better when I'm outside, considering I wasn't even getting anything outside near the tower before. I'll have to keep this in my back pocket for the future.

Thanks again everyone who helped out!

Awesome!!!!!

[ScannerDan]

I just checked the configuration of my XTS3000 and sure enough all the personalities were set up for "wide" not narrow band. Changed all TX Deviation to 2.5 KHZ and guess what?? My unit now can hear!!! Thanks all for ur input on the batboard!!!!