The settings needed to get location updates to work in MOTOTRBO radios

Some background

In EMEA, MOTOTRBO radios with with a 1 in their model name - as well as the R7 and ION - support GNSS. GNSS is the blanket term that covers GPS; Beido; Galileo; QZSS and GLONASS.

GNSS is there to allow the organization, using the radios and system, to track the location of their personnel. This may be for security reasons or to improve operational efficiency. It does not allow the user to send their location to another user nor will allow them to use the radio as a navigation aid (it is however possible, to view ones location from the menu on a display-model radio).

To get GNSS data from radios in the fleet, some sort of PC-based software application is needed. This application requests location updates from the radios by means of Motorola Solutions' LRRP protocol. LRRP is quite efficient in that the application only needs to send one request to obtain continuous location updates from a radio.

Conventional and Capacity Plus

In order for a radio to send its location to the application, the following needs to be configured:

1. Each radio needs a unique ID.

Although this may seem obvious, it's important because the radio ID will be included in the location update packet.

2. GNSS needs to ticked.

This turns on the GNSS receiver. If you're not using GNSS, it#s better to leave this off as it'll contribute, in a small way, to battery discharge.

2. The constellation may be fixed.

Some models don't allow you to choose the satellite system. If it is selectable, you can choose the constellation that works best for your part of the world. This setting is hardware dependant.

3. Set the ARS ID.

In conventional and Capacity Plus systems, ARS essentially makes the radio tell the application that it's there when the user switches on (or changes channel and/or site - see below).

This setting is important because the ARS radio is what the radio will send its location updates to when requested.

The Radio ID chosen must be that of the control station or MNIS connected to the location tracking application host. Using an invalid or non-existant Radio ID will result in a data storm.

4. Decide when ARS messages should be sent.

This setting is not important when it comes to GNSS but will have an impact on the systems' ability to process many location updates. It is possible to set this to disabled in which case, the radio will only send location updates and one ARS when switching on.

5. Will you use Enhanced GNSS?

Enhanced GNSS work together with data revert and allows the radio and system to pass location updates on a seperate data revert channel. The system needs to be set up to support data revert. Enhanced GNSS schedules location updates on the data revert channel so as to minimise the chances of contention. If there are many radio on the channel/system all sending regular location updates, the cumulative result is the ability to do more location updates per channel.

6. Will you use data revert channels?

Data revert allows the system owner to have the radios send their location updates over a separate dedicated data channel. The location request (application->radio) still comes through on the voice/trunked channel but the response from the radio is always sent on the programmed revert channel.

7. Should location updates be confirmed by the control station / MNIS?

You can have the receipt of location updates confirmed. My preference is unconfirmed as this will reduce the amount of traffic on the channel/system. The downside with unconfirmed, is that there is no way of knowing whether the updates was received.

8. Will you use single CSBK data?

Single CSBK data is another feature that significantly increases the location update rate per channel. Rather than sending the complete coordinates, the radio only sends a truncated bust only containing the least significant digits of the radios coordinates. The repeater then adds most significant digits before passing this onto the application.

9. On a display model, do you want the user to disable GNSS?

There is a menu option that will allow the user to turn GNSS on or off. When turned off, the radio will not give any location update. Disabling this feature removes it from the utilities menu option and prevents the user from turning it off.

Capacity Max

The settings needed for a radio to send location updates are almost the same when used on a Capacity Max system, except ARS is not used.

Capacity Max also supports data revert as well as Enhanced GNSS.