When building a custom audio library from individual words or phrases, it's useful to be able to quickly play those words from the raw files stored on your Windows PC instead of going through the entire process of building and downloading a custom audio library to the 7330 only to find it doesn't work.  The way most of us play a custom word on Windows is to run Audacity, import the file, then play it. (See 7330 manual page 23-13.)

It can be even simpler to play a word with SoX.  (See page 23-11.)  Normally, SoX is invoked at the Windows command line with the program name

Let's say we want a message to be appended to the Repeater Initial and Normal ID Messages while the repeater is operating on battery power.  We have wired our Logic Input #4 to detect a power failure.  

We program User Message #1 with the speech we want to hear, like this (see page 6-63):

; Say "power fail thirteen point two volts" or whatever the actual voltage is
99 33 0015 9960 0148 0766 9852 01 00 9960 0150 *

You can test this message with this command:

99 34 0015 *

Bridgecom Systems provides documentation for connecting Bridgecom repeaters to the S-COM 7330.  This example sets up the following configuration:

• the Bridgecom repeater decodes the CTCSS tone and the 7330 generates the CTCSS encode tone.
• the 7330 generates all IDs and repeater timing.

Here's how to set this up.

The most common way to execute a macro on only one controller is to use different macro names for each site.  This way the macro names don't collide when DTMF is decoded by multiple controllers. 

For example, you can have control macros to enable and disable transmitters.  You could make the first two digits of the macro name unique and keep the last two digits the same.  So the Enable Transmitter macro could be named 8801 on one controller and 7701 on another.  The Disable Transmitter macro could be named 8800 on one controller and 7700 on another.

You can include an If/Then/Else command in a macro to execute one or more commands based on  the test of a controller data type at run time.  The test will return true or false.  The meaning of true and false depends on the data type.  See page 5-21 for details of the supported data types and page 3-9 for more detail of each data type.

Most of today’s electronic manufacturing is done in Surface Mount Technology (SMT), developed in the 1960s. It was formerly done in Through-Hole Technology (THT), which is now considered a secondary operation by assembly houses.

The 7330 main board contains 710 components, the majority of which are SMT. What’s involved in SMT manufacturing? It starts with the board.

A benefit of the 7330’s highly flexible design is its ability to generate tones in old or obsolete formats, allowing it to breathe new life into radio systems that may otherwise have to undergo expensive upgrades. For example, a customer recently needed a tone encoder for a legacy Plectron paging system. Here’s what we did and how you can program Plectron tone page macros into your Release 1.8 or newer 7330.

Background

For repeater builders who don’t enjoy soldering wires to the small solder cups on D-subminiature cable connectors, there’s a simple solution: breakout boards, also known as terminal boards.

 A breakout board lets you connect wires to a D-sub via convenient screw terminals. Boards are available with male or female DE-9, DE-15, DA-15, and DB-25 connectors, and some come with plastic enclosures.