Taxi Driver Online

We are a small firm in South Devon that still use two way radios for dispatch and normally everyone can hear everything going over the radio drivers included. However, yesterday, without warning we have now found that the office can speak to the cars and the cars can speak to the office but the other drivers cannot hear what other cars are saying which is useful for things such as other drivers not knowing addresses etc. Can anyone make any suggestions before we get a specialist in please. We have changed the radio set and we have a repeater but I would not have thought that this would make any difference would it?

If you've only just started up you would have been on car to car. After 12 months you'll go onto base to car only.

Spangles

The way in which your radios are working now is how most taxi radio systems normally work. The base station transmits on one frequency and the mobile on another so given the car can only listen to one frequency, you hear the base and not the other mobiles. That how the licence says it should be.

It can be made to work the way you had it but I'd guess you'll have to get the radio engineer back in to do that.

Bill

What you have now is "Duplex", what you had before is "Simplex".

In Simplex one frequency is used, so if you "Press to talk" (PTT), usually by pressing the mic button, you transmit but can't receive, let go of the button and you receive but are not transmitting.

In Duplex two frequencies are used, when you PTT you can still receive.

It is possible that the car radios are receiving both frequencies, the base station may have been switched to Simplex and it has sent instruction via the radio system to the car sets to do the same. This depends on the radio system and facilities it provides of course.

Look for a button that has options for D or S, maybe Dup or Sim and switch it to Simplex.

The advantages to Duplex I outlined on here before, quite some time ago, I will see if I can find the thread.

_________________
Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

As to the two way radios...

I quote me from some time ago...

Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 2:25 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just maybe I can clarify one little bit, re 2way radios.
I have two operators certificates which I need when I have my other hat on as a Charter Skipper (hence "the fish").
First is "Restricted Certificate of Competence in Radio Telephony - VHF only".
Second is "Maritime Radio Operator Certificate of Competance SHORT RANGE CERTIFICATE".
These certificates mean I had to do do the courses and the exams.
I'm not going into all the frequency debacle so you can breathe easy.
What stands out from the training is simplex and duplex transmissions.
Simplex is a two way radio.
Duplex is more like a phone (but you can get on some radios).
In simplex both radios use one frequency. When you press to talk (PTT) you can't hear.
In duplex when you PTT you can still hear as the radio is receiving on another frequency.
The excersise that stands out is when "simplexing" you can still do other things, steer the boat, change the revs or otherwise cover other things.
When "duplexing" it all goes to ratsXXt - the human brain can't do it.
The Instructor I had used a demo on a computer. All you had to do was steer the boat up harbour (up arrow = up revs, down arrow = cut revs, left and right arrows = steer.) Nothing fast like driving a car (or cab) just obey navigation marks, buoys etc. We (the class) had a play, easy easy, for kids we thought.
Then the same with simplex radio call going on (space bar for PTT) - still easy enough - no accidents.
Then a duplex radio call - disaster - all the class would have gone aground, hit other vessels or otherwise have had accidents.
Compared to a car this is all done at a very slow speed, there are variables like wind, tide etc, but no gear changes, braking, stopping and starting etc.
Bottom line, I will not use a phone when driving (even with bluetooth). I will and do, use a SIMPLEX two way radio. I would use a bluetooth system with a phone if it would convert the phone in use to a simplex device.
Hope this helps with why 2 Way Radios are allowed and Phones are not.

_________________
Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

Chris

To my knowledge, no mobile radio in use in the taxi trade can receive on two different frequencies at the same time nor can they transmit while still receiving.
A base station (or repeater) can receive while transmitting but requires either two antennas or a specially tuned duplexer to achieve this.
Also I don’t know of any taxi radio that can be reprogrammed by an over the air signal.

The original post isn’t clear on exactly what was changed so if it’s not working the way they want it then as I say, it’s a quick call to the radio engineer.

It amazes me that given that virtually everyone has a mobile phone these days why companies are still using bulky old radio equipment to do the same job.
Most of the equipment out there is already about twenty years old and in another twenty, all the people who can maintain them will probably be dead.

Bill

They probably use radios because it works, not sure how mobile phones will do the same job, but it's interesting, maybe there are apps out there that do the same thing? Going back to the question, would he be better off texting the jobs to the driver if he don't want the others to here them, but it would be a ball ache to keep doing that, is there a way to do it from the booking screen?

I guess my last comment wasn’t quite fair (or thought out) because they’re doing everything by voice.
What I should have said is that I don’t understand why those working with pdas still fit radios with all the associated messing about.

Bill

Bill,
I am not aware of vehicle/base radios that can switch duplex to simplex to be honest, but I am aware that Marine Band radios can and do. But they do it by selecting a sim or dup channel - like on a CB where the channels do not display a frequency but a channel number.

I was trying to figure out why a commercial set up would use Sim then change to Dup all on its own. Could just be the selecting of a channel as in Marine Band, then the car sets switching over to the strong signal they receive. To be honest I don't know, but something did it to their radio setup.

I am going to be interested if and when they resolve it.

_________________
Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

It sounds to me like the drivers radios were programmed ? Ie channel 1 as car and channel 2 as base,
When they transmit they transmit as car, but because there radio is on scan,they are hearing other cars.on the channel 2, also by changing to channel 2 they can also talk to other cars, useful to a small company,where there's no one at the base.

We operate a lot on "talk through" it sounds to me like your base station is set up like ours with a switch to toggle between the two so with Talk through disengaged at base the drivers can no longer talk to each other unless it is put on again

_________________
Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

The advent of mercury (and others) meant drivers only know what they are doing/getting and couldnt hear what the others were doing... bad bad bad


I was on radio just as mobile phones came about, suddenly youd see the "inner circle" parked, on the phone, then vanish on a long job

_________________
Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most