User's Manual

Network Organization — CHAPTER 2
P800 User’s Manual 19
Profiles
A profile is a set of up to 16 user groups. All sorts of
configurations are possible within this simple
architecture. Police officers on the same shift might
make up a profile, for instance. Within this profile,
each police station within the network might be
assigned a user group. So the profile would connect all
the cruisers from 16 stations for an entire shift.
Officers from each station would most likely be in
“push-to-talk” contact with one another; all other
officers on the same shift would most likely monitor
the other groups for “listen-only” access to all other
calls within the profile. But this is only one possible
configuration.
Members of a talk group
are not necessarily
scanning the calls of the
same listen groups.
A user group might just as easily include officers from
several stations: a SWAT team, for example, or a
special emergency task force might require the
collaboration of special personnel or equipment from
different police stations, or even other agencies.
• In conventional FM radio broadcast systems,
users with this sort of relationship would create an
“ad hoc” profile by tuning to one channel for talk-
group privileges and scanning an entire bank of
channels to monitor the conversations of other
groups.
• In the IP-backbone OpenSky digital network,
members of the same talk group automatically
receive every voice message addressed to the
group, and monitor the voice messages of every
other user group in the profile.
Each user in the OpenSky network can be assigned as
many as 16 profiles by the network administrator. At
any time during a network session, users can select the
profile that suits their needs with a simple twist of the
Profile Selector knob. The Active Profile Number is
displayed in the radio’s menu Display and Control
Area.