XTL1500 (not) DOS muting

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fogster
Posts: 386
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:38 am
What radios do you own?: XTS2500/5000, XPR7550/5550

XTL1500 (not) DOS muting

Post by fogster »

These days I'm largely a fan of the Kenwood NX5000 series, but they're very bad at muting MDC1200. I have both an XTL5000 and an XTL1500 I'm tinkering with. I'm seeing similar weirdness on both. I've got a bunch of XTS portables I'm familiar with that have served me well, but the XTLs have me scratching my head.

DOS Muting does not appear to work at all on the XTL1500. On the XTL5000, I was able to make it work by setting it to "1800Hz Only." On the XTL1500, regardless of setting, the infernal MDC1200 squawks come through unfiltered. The radio is able to decode them and display them on screen, so it knows they're there. It's just not muting them. I have a CDM1550 on the bench next to it that reduces the noise to an inoffensive chirp.

Here is the configuration, pretty basic. I have a single zone of 12 channels, with all channels belonging to a single conventional personality. The personality is mixed-mode RX, and is RX-only. All channels are Part 90 stuff at 12.5 kHz deviation. There is a single MDC system, set up for DOS muting, and the personality is set to use that MDC system. All 12 channels are in a scan list, with no priority configured.

The scan list does not seem to be the problem. Subsequent communications during the hold time do not mute the squawk. Turning scan off and parking on a channel does not change anything, either.

Do I just have something configured wrong? I am noticing that MDC IDs only display while in scan, but not when parked on a channel with scan off, which is... interesting.

Also strange, and not a problem I recall on the XTSs I've worked with: with 11 analog channels and 1 P25 (conventional) channel, the P25 channel is never heard during scan. It is my local police department, so the signal is nice and strong. I initially theorized it was maybe something with priority scan, and enabled "Late Entry Fast Unmute." (Also, I configured that priority scan is not actually enabled.) This did not help. If I select the P25 channel with scan off, they sound fine.

Is this a known bug? Am I just stupid and missing an obvious setting? (You can just answer the latter half of that question if the answer is "Yes" :lol: )
User avatar
fogster
Posts: 386
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:38 am
What radios do you own?: XTS2500/5000, XPR7550/5550

Re: XTL1500 (not) DOS muting

Post by fogster »

Huh, I think I found it. "PTT ID" has to be checked under the "Signaling" tab of the personality.

The help text suggests this is used to toggle transmitting a PTT ID, but enabling it caused DOS muting to start working. Now, to really aggravate hams on the local 70cm machine... ;)
Jim202
Posts: 3609
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2001 4:00 pm

Re: XTL1500 (not) DOS muting

Post by Jim202 »

Shut off the MDC signaling on the ham channels. Most of the ham repeaters only are looking for PL. No need for MDC on the PTT on those frequencies.

This is where zones come in handy. Use one zone for the public safety and another for the ham frequencies.

I am on the fire dept. here in the town I live in. I always use a different radio for the public safety work. It is too easy to say the wrong thing on the wrong frequency with just one radio.

Jim
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