25
CONVENTIONAL FEATURES
SECTION 5 CONVENTIONAL FEATURES
5.1 INTRODUCTION
An overview of the conventional operating mode
is located in Section 3.7.2. The following information
describes the features unique to analog and Project 25
(digital) conventional operation. Refer to the
preceding “Radio Wide Features” section (Section 4)
for information on features common to all operating
modes.
5.2 MONITORING BEFORE TRANSMITTING
With conventional operation, you may need to
manually monitor the channel before transmitting to
make sure that it is not being used by someone else. If
you were to transmit while someone else was using the
channel, you would probably disrupt their conversa-
tion. With SMARTNET/SmartZone and P25 Trunked
operation, monitoring is performed automatically.
Monitor conventional channels automatically or
manually as follows:
Automatic Channel Monitoring
If the selected channel is programmed for Busy
Channel Lockout (also called Transmit Disable On
Busy), monitoring is performed automatically. Refer
to Section 5.4 for more information on this feature.
Manual Channel Monitoring
The automatic monitoring just described may
occasionally disable the transmitter when the channel
is not in use, such as if the repeater has extended hang
time. In this case, you may not want to use it and the
channel must then be monitored manually as follows:
Busy Indicator
- With scanning disabled, note if the
multi-function indicator on the front panel is steady
green. If it is not, the channel is not being used and a
call can be transmitted. If it is green, a carrier is being
detected, so the channel may be busy (see following).
Monitor Mode
- There may be times when the busy
indication is displayed even though no one is using the
channel. Monitoring should then be performed by
disabling Call Guard squelch (or group ID detect on
P25 channels). This is usually done by selecting the
Monitor Mode (see following) or by the Normal/
Selective option switch (see Section 5.5.2).
5.3 MONITOR MODE
The monitor mode unsquelches the receiver and
monitors the channel even if a carrier is not detected.
Other features of this mode are as follows:
•
Call Guard (CTCSS/DCS) squelch is disabled on
analog channels and NAC and group ID detect are
disabled on P25 (conventional) channels.
•
Busy Channel Lockout is overridden (see next
section)
•
Scanning temporarily halts
The Monitor Mode operates as follows:
1. To monitor the transmit frequency for activity
before transmitting, briefly press the
MON
option
switch. The display then indicates “MON” (see
Figure 2-3 on page 12) and the receiver
unsquelches.
2. To monitor the receive frequency instead, press and
hold the
MON
option switch until a tone sounds
(approximately 2 seconds). This can be used, for
example, to improve reception if intermittent
squelching is making a weak message difficult to
understand.
NOTE: If microphone off-hook detection is
enabled, the opposite of the above occurs.
3. To disable the monitor mode and return to normal
operation, press the
MON
option switch again.
If off-hook detection is enabled, taking the micro-
phone off-hook monitors the receive frequency similar
to step 2. However, the receiver unsquelches only if a
carrier is detected (see Section 4.8). Pressing the
SEL
SQ
option switch disables Call Guard squelch/P25
group ID detect but not scanning and P25 NAC detect
(see Section 5.5).
