User's Manual

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CONVENTIONAL MODE FEATURES
SECTION 5 CONVENTIONAL MODE FEATURES
5.1 INTRODUCTION
An overview of the conventional operating mode
is located in Section 3.9.2. The following information
describes the features unique to analog and digital
(Project 25) conventional operation. Refer to the
preceding “Radio Wide Features” section (4) for infor-
mation 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 be 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. It it is green, a carrier is being
detected, so the channel may be busy (see following).
Monitor Mode - There may be times when a busy
condition is indicated even though no one is using the
channel. Monitoring should then be performed by
disabling Call Guard squelch (or group ID detect on
Project 25 channels). This is usually done by selecting
the Monitor Mode (see following) or by the Normal/
Selective option switch or menu parameter (see Section
5.5.5).
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 Monitor option
switch or select the Monitor menu “Tx Channel”
parameter. The icon is then displayed to indicate
the monitor mode and the receiver unsquelches.
2. To monitor the receive
frequency instead, press and
hold the Monitor option switch until a tone sounds
or approximately 2 seconds, or select the Monitor
menu “Sqlch Ovrd” parameter. This can be used, for
example, to improve reception if intermittent
squelching is making a weak message difficult to
understand.
3. To disable the monitor mode and return to normal
operation, press the Monitor option switch again of
select the Monitor menu “Off” parameter.
The Normal/Selective function disables Call
Guard squelch and P25 group ID detect but not
scanning and P25 NAC detect (see Section 5.5.5).
5.4 BUSY CHANNEL LOCKOUT
The Busy Channel Lockout feature (also called
Transmit Disable on Busy) automatically disables the
transmitter if the channel is busy when the PTT switch
is pressed. When the transmitter is disabled by this