XTL5000 Help programming O5 Soft Keys

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FiremedicJM
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XTL5000 Help programming O5 Soft Keys

Post by FiremedicJM »

I just received an XTL5000 with an O5 control head. Astro 25 CPS installed fine and the cable read the XTL5000 perfectly. I am having only one problem. I bring up the O5 control head in CPS to program the softkeys and it is only giving me a drop down for the emergency button. There are no other drop down menus on any of the softkeys. I am racking my brain to try to figure out what's going on. Has anyone had this issue or heard of it and corrected it.

I have tried the program in compatibility modes and in stand alone Win 7 to no avail

Other than that CPS is working fine, Radio is working flawlessly. Does anyone have any suggestions for me. I have never run into a problem like this that I wasn't able to solve.

Thanks!
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: XTL5000 Help programming O5 Soft Keys

Post by Jim202 »

Trying to program an XTL5000 radio for the first time is not a task the first time attempt by a new person should attempt without reading the help files.

Some of the selections are effected by other selections. You should start with a sheet of paper and put down the information your trying to put into the radio on a channel by channel basis. I normally start by writing down on the left side the channel (mode) and then go across the sheet with first the RX frequency, the RX tone squelch, TX frequency, TX tone squelch, the scan list the channel will use and the name or location the frequency is used at.

Start at the top of the CPS list and work your way down the list. You can also set the radio up with different zones. I like to set mine up based on location. As I drive around, I can select the different zones and have the channels for that area set in that zone. If you do choose to use zones, remember that you will need to push the center button on the left side of the control head to enter the zone you selected with the rotary channel selector. The power button is above it.

I generally set my radios to go on and off with the ignition feed from the vehicle. But there is a selection that also allows you to be able to turn the radio on or off with the power button regardless of if you have ignition power available or not.

Your scan list can only have 15 channels. But you can have more than 15 channels in a zone. If you have more than the limit of the 15 channels, when you move your channel selector, you will get that channel as one of the scanned channels. But this is also depends on how you set up the scan.

You can program the buttons along the bottom of the display for different functions. Like ZONE, SCAN, NUIS DEL, DIR, COLOR and many other selections. You can use the rocker switch to scroll to the other button selections that are not currently showing on the display.

You get to label the zone names, so you can name them anything you want with a limit on the number of characters displayed. Depending on the firmware of the radio, you can get up to 50 zones.

I use to do a bunch of travel for a radio consulting firm and had my zones set up for the different regions or areas I would be in. Had all the ham 2 meter repeaters set up from southern New Hampshire to the New Orleans area. Then when I went west, I had another codeplug made up with the regions into Texas and Oklahoma. Developed the code plugs over the years. Much of the updates were made by asking about the different repeaters as I traveled. The problem is most of the different databases are not correct. The big problem is the required CTCSS tone is either missing or is wrong.

There use to be an option for Multi PL (MPL) in the CPS, but Motorola screwed it up in one of their update versions and is now useless. You originally had the option of placing fixed PL tones on the transmit. Then you could press one of the programmed buttons and have a list of tones you could select by rotating the channel selector. After their stupid update, if you selected the MPL option in setting up the channels, it grayed out your original fixed PL. You lost the ability to have a fixed PL for each of the channels and also be able to press the MPL and then be able to select any of the tones you set up in the MPL table. So that feature has passed into oblivion.

It would take a book to write about all the programming steps and areas to go to and what to do with setting up the radio and the O5 control head. Your better off reading the help files and just playing around.

BUT I WILL TELL YOU TO SAVE THE WORKING CODE PLUG AS A FILE WITH A DATE AND TIME BEFORE YOU DO MAKE ANY CHANGES. THIS WAY YOU CAN AT LEAST GO BACK AND LOAD A WORKING CODE PLUG. For each change you make, put a different name on the saved file, even if it is just the date and time. You also get to select where you save the file. I make a directory with the XTL5000 file name so I can always easily find the code plug files on my computer.

Hope this helps in the vast learning your going to have to walk through to get the radio and control head do what you want them to do.

Jim
C17LVFD
Posts: 122
Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:47 am

Re: XTL5000 Help programming O5 Soft Keys

Post by C17LVFD »

Look for display and menu in the controls section of the tree. Menu is where you add and remove the soft keys.

Hope this helps,
Seth
Seth
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