MCS2000 VHF 110W Low Power?

[nrembis]

Ive found no reference to what the MCS2000 110W VHF radio gets cut back to when low power is selected.....anyone know? 45-50W?

[Will]

The TX power on both HIGH and LOW are set in the alignment section of the programming software. Low power is usually set to 60 watts and much lower the transmitter PA can go into unstable operation and draw excessive current.

During alignment you have to watch the TX current draw, the TX gets very inefficient and can overheat.

[nrembis]

Thanks Will, Ive never had to set one to low power before. Our county 911 center asked me if I could cut the power back on them because both the engine and rescue truck we have on the FD is hitting the repeaters on 3-4 towers in the county, the system is a steered voting system and they dont really want radios over 50W on it, Im not going to cut the power back and risk burning up a radio, so county is just gonna have to deal with it.

[Will]

So all you need is the 18" antenna......

[nrembis]

So all you need is the 18" antenna......

Thats what we use now...due to height of the fire aparatus, we have always used 1/4wave antennas for clearance and still manage to hit multiple repeaters....i think county dispatch just needs to deal with it, too bad, LOL

[motorola_otaku]

\i think county dispatch just needs to deal with it, too bad, LOL

Unless you have a need for long-distance simplex coverage you are really throwing your money away using 110W radios on a voted system.

What you are describing is called over-voting - you are lighting up two or more of the receiver sites with a signal over the acceptable threshold which confuses the comprator and causes it to bounce around between sites while someone is transmitting. It's probably driving your dispatchers nuts with the fluctuating audio on their consoles, and if the transmitter is simulcast it really sounds like garbage repeated. A county in my area is fighting this same issue with their vollie FDs who ran 110W+ on simplex for years then didn't want to turn the power down when the county consolidated dispatch and put up simulcast countywide repeaters with voted receive.

Running the least amount of power necessary in a simulcast environment is good engineering practice. Try it with 40W radios -or even 25W- in your POV or chief vehicles and see how it works - you'll probably be surprised.

[com501]

Been a while since I used an MCS2000, but besides the hi/lo power, I think you can assign a button and/or per mode.

The voted system can be set low, on simplex high for that hot dog cooker effect.

Like was said earlier, watch how low you go, and check the current and whether the radio is stable at your low power setting. I understand the constraints of budget, so 'just buy another radio' doesn't always work. At least what you have is narrowband compliant....