General Update 30-01-09
Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:32 pm
This is just an idle way of dealing with more than one thing needing to be written up. None of which are much in themselves.
Firstly :- I've recently had a report of MRMap ceasing to work when connected only to the web server, no radios involved anywhere. No web reports were being received and the 'Catch-up' function reported that fairly recently received reports were in fact a significant number of days old. This turned out to be due to the clock on the computer taking some fairy time and nipping off into the future, somewhere in March in fact. I've no idea what caused this but it has happened to my computer on odd occasions. This time it wasn't me. Either way it happened and MRMap (or the server) didn't like it one bit and stopped working. Dave will no doubt know why it should cause this effect but it seems it's something to look out for. When signals you know were received from the job you had yesterday suddenly appear as '31 days old' then it's time to suspect this has happened.
Secondly :- The next version of the Simoco programming software has now been released. This is v5.49 and is available on the TMC site at http://www.tmcradio.com
The only new addition in this release is an ignition sense GPS report. This is triggered when the ignition sense line goes high and would normally be used to tell if your vehicle was being taken for a spin without you being in it! However, TMC have very kindly added a different status number to this report which can be independantly detected as it's not the same number as a standard GPS report. We don't do it yet of course as this is new but if anyone can see a reason why you might want to know that your vehicle's engine has just been started then let me know and we'll have a look at it. The ignition sense contact on an SRM9030 vehicle radio is pin 3 on the D-15 power connector. As far as I can tell without having a play, if this pin is connected to the positive supply pins then the radio will send a position report (or at least it's callsign) as soon as the ignition is switched on. I can certainly see how this connection might be used to detect that a remote, fixed site rebro or repeater had lost mains power and switched to battery if the ignition sense contact was connected to the battery supply line but not to the mains PSU.
This is one that's more for your imagination than for any immediate practical use to us I suspect, but someone out there might see something I've missed.
Third :- No news as yet on the distance-based GPS reporting that is due in a future release of the programming software but as with the ignition sense option, TMC have agreed to look at adding a distinct status header to the report which would enable us to differentiate between the types of GPS report we are receiving. There are reasons in the pipeline why we would want to be able to do this and the fact that we can make requests like this, which cost us nothing, is the reason we use Simoco radios.
Fourth :- TMC have with this release, implemented the Channel Zones (banks) function in series 9 SRM9030 and SRM9022 vehicle/base radios. I've just tested this and it works as you would expect. Instead of having to wade through every channel in the list on your radio, you can now separate off the various banks so as an initial test, I separated the UKSAR channels from the seven high band UK-General ones. I programmed a button on the control head as 'Zone Up' and pressing this switches between UKSAR and UK-General. Once you are in a particular zone, you can scroll through all the channels in it using the normal up/down buttons. You can enter a scan bank into a zone if you wish and it will be selected as a channel when scrolling through so I have seven high band UK-General channels plus a scan bank which scans them all. You could also have your scan banks set up as a separate zone if you prefer.
You can program the radio so that it opens a particular zone and channel at switch on. Unfortunately this only works with series 9 SRMs and the soon to be released SRP9180 portable. Series 9 SRMs can be identified by the words 'P25 Upgradeable' on the paper logo strip on the SRM box and by the fact that the second character in the serial number on the back of the radio is 'R'.
Another use for the channel zones is where you have low band links to more than one remote rebroadcast site. Using a firmware upgrade, it's possible to arrange for a remote channel-changing function to be implemented where a different selcall sequence, interpreted as a channel change instruction by the remote radio, is entered into each 'channel'. The actual RF frequency of these channels is exactly the same for each one, only the selcall sequence changes. A number of teams in the Lakes currently use this system. This is explained in greater detail in another blog posting on this site.
Using channel zones, two or more remote sites can be controlled by the same low band base SRM9030 if more than one link channel is used. Each site is represented by it's own link frequency entered into a different channel zone. Switching between remote sites now just involves changing channel zones.
The main advantage of this method is that virtually any number of low band-linked, remote sites can be controlled and operated by one low band radio and antenna at your base. Using different blocks of zoned 'channels', all sites are independant of each other and all can operate on any UKSAR channel but only one radio at your base is needed. It does follow that only one site can be used at any one time of course.
Zoned channels potentially have a number of uses and are not just for keeping blocks of basic channels apart or reducing the number of channels you have to scroll through although these are valid uses of course.
Finally :- The next model of SRP9100 portable, the SRP9180 will be available in its VHF form sometime near the end of this year. Anyone interested in the UHF version, this will be out in a couple of months time. Both versions are rated IP67, that is you can have them under one metre of water for 30 minutes if you're that way inclined. Both have Motorola-style side connectors for the GPS speaker microphone and a sixteen-way switch on the top that can be programmed for a number of functions. Of much greater interest, they are inherently P25 digital enabled. After I sent in a performance report some time ago which was made up of observations from teams, TMC have agreed to have a look at the IP rating of the GPS microphone itself as this is the bit that is out in the weather.
Firstly :- I've recently had a report of MRMap ceasing to work when connected only to the web server, no radios involved anywhere. No web reports were being received and the 'Catch-up' function reported that fairly recently received reports were in fact a significant number of days old. This turned out to be due to the clock on the computer taking some fairy time and nipping off into the future, somewhere in March in fact. I've no idea what caused this but it has happened to my computer on odd occasions. This time it wasn't me. Either way it happened and MRMap (or the server) didn't like it one bit and stopped working. Dave will no doubt know why it should cause this effect but it seems it's something to look out for. When signals you know were received from the job you had yesterday suddenly appear as '31 days old' then it's time to suspect this has happened.
Secondly :- The next version of the Simoco programming software has now been released. This is v5.49 and is available on the TMC site at http://www.tmcradio.com
The only new addition in this release is an ignition sense GPS report. This is triggered when the ignition sense line goes high and would normally be used to tell if your vehicle was being taken for a spin without you being in it! However, TMC have very kindly added a different status number to this report which can be independantly detected as it's not the same number as a standard GPS report. We don't do it yet of course as this is new but if anyone can see a reason why you might want to know that your vehicle's engine has just been started then let me know and we'll have a look at it. The ignition sense contact on an SRM9030 vehicle radio is pin 3 on the D-15 power connector. As far as I can tell without having a play, if this pin is connected to the positive supply pins then the radio will send a position report (or at least it's callsign) as soon as the ignition is switched on. I can certainly see how this connection might be used to detect that a remote, fixed site rebro or repeater had lost mains power and switched to battery if the ignition sense contact was connected to the battery supply line but not to the mains PSU.
This is one that's more for your imagination than for any immediate practical use to us I suspect, but someone out there might see something I've missed.
Third :- No news as yet on the distance-based GPS reporting that is due in a future release of the programming software but as with the ignition sense option, TMC have agreed to look at adding a distinct status header to the report which would enable us to differentiate between the types of GPS report we are receiving. There are reasons in the pipeline why we would want to be able to do this and the fact that we can make requests like this, which cost us nothing, is the reason we use Simoco radios.
Fourth :- TMC have with this release, implemented the Channel Zones (banks) function in series 9 SRM9030 and SRM9022 vehicle/base radios. I've just tested this and it works as you would expect. Instead of having to wade through every channel in the list on your radio, you can now separate off the various banks so as an initial test, I separated the UKSAR channels from the seven high band UK-General ones. I programmed a button on the control head as 'Zone Up' and pressing this switches between UKSAR and UK-General. Once you are in a particular zone, you can scroll through all the channels in it using the normal up/down buttons. You can enter a scan bank into a zone if you wish and it will be selected as a channel when scrolling through so I have seven high band UK-General channels plus a scan bank which scans them all. You could also have your scan banks set up as a separate zone if you prefer.
You can program the radio so that it opens a particular zone and channel at switch on. Unfortunately this only works with series 9 SRMs and the soon to be released SRP9180 portable. Series 9 SRMs can be identified by the words 'P25 Upgradeable' on the paper logo strip on the SRM box and by the fact that the second character in the serial number on the back of the radio is 'R'.
Another use for the channel zones is where you have low band links to more than one remote rebroadcast site. Using a firmware upgrade, it's possible to arrange for a remote channel-changing function to be implemented where a different selcall sequence, interpreted as a channel change instruction by the remote radio, is entered into each 'channel'. The actual RF frequency of these channels is exactly the same for each one, only the selcall sequence changes. A number of teams in the Lakes currently use this system. This is explained in greater detail in another blog posting on this site.
Using channel zones, two or more remote sites can be controlled by the same low band base SRM9030 if more than one link channel is used. Each site is represented by it's own link frequency entered into a different channel zone. Switching between remote sites now just involves changing channel zones.
The main advantage of this method is that virtually any number of low band-linked, remote sites can be controlled and operated by one low band radio and antenna at your base. Using different blocks of zoned 'channels', all sites are independant of each other and all can operate on any UKSAR channel but only one radio at your base is needed. It does follow that only one site can be used at any one time of course.
Zoned channels potentially have a number of uses and are not just for keeping blocks of basic channels apart or reducing the number of channels you have to scroll through although these are valid uses of course.
Finally :- The next model of SRP9100 portable, the SRP9180 will be available in its VHF form sometime near the end of this year. Anyone interested in the UHF version, this will be out in a couple of months time. Both versions are rated IP67, that is you can have them under one metre of water for 30 minutes if you're that way inclined. Both have Motorola-style side connectors for the GPS speaker microphone and a sixteen-way switch on the top that can be programmed for a number of functions. Of much greater interest, they are inherently P25 digital enabled. After I sent in a performance report some time ago which was made up of observations from teams, TMC have agreed to have a look at the IP rating of the GPS microphone itself as this is the bit that is out in the weather.