TYT-MD380

[liamcarbin]

Can someone explain Zones, Groups and contacts etc in laymens terms.

Anyone help with the software too, its constantly crashing when i press send to radio

[Admiral]

Last first, try the USB program mode, ie just switch the radio on into normal listening mode and then send instead of switching on whilst pressing PTT and top button.

If you imagine programming an anyclone type radio, you have about 5 blocks of up to 60 channels which you can input any frequency, a zone is the same as a block, you put the pre-programmed channels into the zone, so you can have a zone for GP7PEs timeslots and talkgroups, and you can have a zone for shopwatch with theirs, the zone is then selectable from the front of the radio.

My reference to a channel can be the same frequency but with a different timeslot.

Contacts, they are talkgroups, so 'contact100' is talkgroup 100, you can rename it to whatever you want, ie 'BUILDERS' but it's still TG100, groups are just a selection of your contacts (TGs) in one encompassing group.

That probably didn't help much but made sense in my head.

[liamcarbin]

Last first, try the USB program mode, ie just switch the radio on into normal listening mode and then send instead of switching on whilst pressing PTT and top button.

If you imagine programming an anyclone type radio, you have about 5 blocks of up to 60 channels which you can input any frequency, a zone is the same as a block, you put the pre-programmed channels into the zone, so you can have a zone for GP7PEs timeslots and talkgroups, and you can have a zone for shopwatch with theirs, the zone is then selectable from the front of the radio.

My reference to a channel can be the same frequency but with a different timeslot.

Contacts, they are talkgroups, so 'contact100' is talkgroup 100, you can rename it to whatever you want, ie 'BUILDERS' but it's still TG100, groups are just a selection of your contacts (TGs) in one encompassing group.

That probably didn't help much but made sense in my head.

Thanks, it does make sense. I shall try putting in the rest of the freqs I have tomorrow.
I appreciate all the help you have been giving me

[Admiral]

Stick with it, I'm not the brightest bulb in the corridor, but I managed to get my head around after a few hours of messing about.

[liamcarbin]

Stick with it, I'm not the brightest bulb in the corridor, but I managed to get my head around after a few hours of messing about.

The difficult thing im finding with it is attaching the bloody belt clip

[BK]

The difficult thing im finding with it is attaching the bloody belt clip

Put the first screw in with the clip upside down, then rotate it into position to put the second screw in.

[liamcarbin]

Another question,

can I scan multiple zones? or does the radio only scan the channels that are in the zone you are on?

[Admiral]

Well, good question, you assign a scan group to a channel, so you can stick as many frequencies into the scan group as you want, but that could get messy, so in theory if you want you can have one channel scanning many channels.

On the point of scanning, not sure if it's just me, but if I have frequencies that I choose to TX on but also scan through, I create an extra scan channel.
So, for example, if I had the 8 analogue PMR446 channels in a zone, I would have channels 1-8 without scan, and then create channel 9 that has a scan group of the 1-8, so when monitoring on channel 9 I get to scan 1-8, and if traffic appears on channel 3 I can manually go there to TX, if I had scan on all 8 channels then if it stopped on channel 3 and I chose to talk back, then when the channel went quiet it would start scanning again and maybe end up on channel 8 where someone else is talking.

Hope that makes sense.

[liamcarbin]

Well, good question, you assign a scan group to a channel, so you can stick as many frequencies into the scan group as you want, but that could get messy, so in theory if you want you can have one channel scanning many channels.

On the point of scanning, not sure if it's just me, but if I have frequencies that I choose to TX on but also scan through, I create an extra scan channel.
So, for example, if I had the 8 analogue PMR446 channels in a zone, I would have channels 1-8 without scan, and then create channel 9 that has a scan group of the 1-8, so when monitoring on channel 9 I get to scan 1-8, and if traffic appears on channel 3 I can manually go there to TX, if I had scan on all 8 channels then if it stopped on channel 3 and I chose to talk back, then when the channel went quiet it would start scanning again and maybe end up on channel 8 where someone else is talking.

Hope that makes sense.

Thank you very much.

Just updated to the experimental firmware, presume everything went well. Got a working radio

So in theory now if I dont set a talkgroup on one of my programed channels, I will still hear the transmissions? my firmware version is the same as it was before

[Admiral]

Yes, if you haven't defined a TG or TG group to the channel it will display the first TG in the radios memory, it may be worthwhile to change the first TG to TG666 (or whatever none standard) and name it something that you recognise as a none programmed TG like 'PASSTHROUGH' or something so as you know it's the hacked firmware letting the TG through, you can still assign known TGs and they will display as normal.

[liamcarbin]

Me again (Sorry) how do i decipher this into something meanable
Using DSD ive monitored a very strong DSD signal.

TG10 CH2 - CH1 - RID 201/222

TG10 I guess is Talkgroup 10, CH im guessing is repeater slot, and RID ?]

EDIT - Seems this is a cap+ system. Is there anyway to set up the radio for a cap+ system?

[Admiral]

RID is just radio ID, ie the number entered into the mobile to identify it on the network. Part of the argument elsewhere about DMARC.

[liamcarbin]

RID is just radio ID, ie the number entered into the mobile to identify it on the network. Part of the argument elsewhere about DMARC.

Cheers - Do you know how i would program a cap+ system in? Ive added the freqs to the radio etc the led indicator flashes from red to green indicating its picking something up but no audio.

The cap+ is using channels 3/4 how would I get them in

[Admiral]

Capacity plus or Cap+ is receivable on your set, I'm not the greatest on this stuff as I'm still learning too, but cap+ usually means they have too many TGs to realistically use 2 timeslots so they have multiple frequencies, usually the WTR search will give you all the frequencies to go with a cap+ system. So you can stick all of the frequencies into a zones, plus all the TGs and both timeslots, it sounds hard but it really isn't.

I'm sure dome of the pros will put me right if that is too simplistic, but from an earwigging point of view it's about right.

[liamcarbin]

Capacity plus or Cap+ is receivable on your set, I'm not the greatest on this stuff as I'm still learning too, but cap+ usually means they have too many TGs to realistically use 2 timeslots so they have multiple frequencies, usually the WTR search will give you all the frequencies to go with a cap+ system. So you can stick all of the frequencies into a zones, plus all the TGs and both timeslots, it sounds hard but it really isn't.

I'm sure dome of the pros will put me right if that is too simplistic, but from an earwigging point of view it's about right.

Thank you once again, I shall continue playing. Unfortunately the WTR comes up with no results