TB8100 Base Station/Repeaters - Frequently Asked Questions

This section provides answers to questions that are frequently asked about the TB8100.

What is a Reciter?
What is a SIF?
What is a SFE?
What is the Power Save SFE on the TB8100?
What is the Alarm Reporting SFE on the TB8100?
What is the Advanced Profiles SFE on the TB8100?
How can I remotely connect to a TB8100 base station?
Can I use the TB8100 in an MPT 1327 trunked network?
How can I use the TB8100 base station as a repeater?
Why are other vendors' EIA specs different to the TB8100?

What is a Reciter?

The TB8100 reciter contains the receiver and the exciter. It also contains the 'brains' of the base station.
The reciter has the following functions:

• controlling base station operation
• holding licenses for optional features
• collecting fault alerts from other modules and generating alarms
• running Task Manager.

For more information on this, please see the TB8100 Modules page.

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What is a SIF?

A TB8100 SIF is a System Interface card, which provides line audio, digital inputs and outputs and other interfaces such as a coaxial relay drive output, transmit key and receive gate. Several SIF options are available and you can choose the one most suited to your application.

Each SIF consists of a board that is fitted inside the reciter. Generally the reciter is supplied with the requested card already fitted.

A SIF is not needed if the TB8100 is to operate as a basic repeater. The reciter can route the audio internally from the receiver to the exciter.

SIFs available are:

• Isolated 600 Ohm Audio
• Isolated 600 Ohm E&M
• TaitNet/RS232
• TaitNet MPT Trunked

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What is a SFE?

The TB8100 has a range of powerful capabilities, but some of them are only available with a software licence (Software Feature Enabler).

Tait's software licencing system means that you can select and pay for those features that you need, rather than buying a base station/repeater that has many features you may not use. This gives you much more flexibility because additional features can be added simply by upgrading the software.
You can either order a base station with the features you need already licenced or obtain licence keys later on.

The following three additional software feature sets (SFE's) are available for the TB8100 base station:

• Advanced Profiles
• Alarm Reporting
• Power Save

For more information on SFE's, please see the Software Feature Upgrades page.

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What is the Power Save SFE on the TB8100?

Power Save Mode is an upgrade that uses an advanced software control system to dramatically reduce the power consumption of the entire TB8100 base station.

A Power Saving SFE licence enables the TB8100's power saving capabilities. You can configure a power saving level for three different modes (Normal, Sleep and Deep Sleep), and determine how the base station makes the transitions into these sleep modes.

For more information on this, please see the Software Feature Upgrades page.

In addition, the Installation and Operation Manual contains a functional description of power saving. This can be found on the Technical Support website. (You will need to be registered to view this page).

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What is the Alarm Reporting SFE on the TB8100?

The TB8100 base station can:

• monitor external alarm inputs to the base station
• initiate alarm notification using Task Manager
• provide alarm information to a remotely connected Service Kit
• dial up an Alarm Centre to report on alarms for forwarding to email server.

An Alarm Reporting licence enables alarm centre connectivity. Using the Alarm Centre, you can monitor an entire network from a central location. This means that you don't need to manually connect to each base station to check it. At the first sign of trouble, a base station dial up an Alarm Centre and provides it with a list of recent alarms and other status information. If configured, the Alarm Centre can also forward the base station current status to an email server.

For more information on this, please see the Software Feature Upgrades page and the Alarm Reporting Upgrade product information sheet on the Tait Partner Information website.

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What is the Advanced Profiles SFE on the TB8100?

Advanced Profiles is an upgrade that enables the full flexibility of the TB8100 base station. Many of the most advanced features of the TB8100 base station are enabled by this upgrade, such as:

• a complete 16-tone panel for community repeater applications and for advanced remote control using subaudible signalling.
• full configurability of the audio path. Different parts of the path can use different frequency responses.
• channel configuration using custom channel and signalling profiles. This increases the number of configuration options.
• Task Manager can have up to 200 enabled tasks, giving far greater scope for system control and alarm management (without the SFE, the TB8100 can have up to 20 tasks).

Task Manager is a type of programmable logic controller that allows the user to customise the operation of the base station.
Every ten milliseconds the Task Manager checks the state of the TB8100:

• alarms
• inputs
• internal flags
• counters and timers.

Depending on the state of each of these parameters the Task Manager is capable of triggering a wide range of user defined actions.

The Task Manager can be used to:

• control the notification of base station alarms, via email, on air (RF) pips, or paging
• handle the base station's response to digital alarms
• control external equipment
• execute front-line diagnostics and service recovery operations within seconds of the fault occurring
• replace intelligent back planes and external switching/changeover.

For more information on this, please see the Software Feature Upgrades page.

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How can I remotely connect to a TB8100 base station?

The TB8100 Service Kit can be used to remotely connect and log on to the TB8100. This connection uses a modem at the site. The full capabilities of the Service Kit can be used to monitor the base station, carry out diagnostic tests and make configuration changes.

To support multiple base stations at a site with only one PSTN line, the TB8100 can be integrated with third party Asynchronous Port Switch (APS) modules.

For more information on this, please see Application Note TN-742-AN 'Remotely Monitoring and Configuring the TB8100 Base Station' and TN-906-AN 'Connecting to TB8100 Base Stations via an Asynchronous Port Switch' on the Technical Support website. (You will need to be registered to view this page).

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Can I use the TB8100 in an MPT 1327 trunked network?

The TB8100 base station is suitable for use as channel equipment in MPT 1327 trunked networks with Tait infrastructure. If you intend to use the TB8100 base station in a trunking system, the following modules should be specified:

• A Reciter with a TaitNet MPT Trunked or TaitNet/RS232 system interface.
• A PMU with internal 13.8V DC 40 Watt auxiliary power supply. This is used to supply power to the T1711 Channel Management Modules (CMMs) via the reciter's 15-pin system interface connector.

Trunked operation is configured in software using the TB8100 Service Kit.

For more information on this, please see Application Note TN-745 'Using the TB8100 in TaitNet Trunked Networks' on the Technical Support website. (You will need to be registered to view this page).

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How can I use the TB8100 Base Station as a repeater?

The TB8100 base station can operate as a standalone, community or linked repeater. The audio path from receiver to exciter can be configured within the reciter module.

In a community repeater, multiple talk groups use the same repeater but only hear calls that belong to their own talk group. A TB8100 base station with an 'Advanced Profiles and Task Manager' license can be set up to operate as a community repeater using CTCSS or DCS tones. The built-in signalling tone processing can handle up to 16 tones or codes per channel.

Linked repeaters can use TB8100 equipment for the links as well as for the repeater.

For more information on this, please see Application Note TN-743 'Using the TB8100 Base Station as a Talk-Through, Community or Linked Repeater' on the Technical Support website. (You will need to be registered to view this page).

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Why are other vendors' EIA specs different to the TB8100?

This is relevant to the USA.

Some customers have compared EIA specs published by Tait to those published by competitors and found them to be very different.

The issue is the version of EIA test method used to generate the specification. This issue arises mostly in the way selectivity is tested and the associated results.

The EIA603 method for testing selectivity was defined in 1998. This has been superseded by EIA603-B. It was revised to reflect a more realistic system. The new method gives a lower result for selectivity than the previous test. This is because it is a tougher test and more dependent on the channel filter shape plus demodulation process (rather than the previous test which was more dependent on the local oscillator's phase noise performance).

For radio buyers and users comparing specs from other vendors they may incorrectly interpret the TB8100 as being inferior to a competitor's product due to the fact that the standard has changed along with the method and limits, especially when other vendors quote against the older test specification.

When comparing RF performance specifications an understanding of the test method is essential.
For example, the TB8100 UHF band, narrow bandwidth selectivity figures measured on the SAME product for EIA-603 is 85dB compared to a TIA/EIA-603-B result of 46dB.

The different measurement results can be very clearly seen in the TB8100 Specification Manual (December 2004) issue. On page 25 we have presented the various selectivity measurement methods customers have asked for based on three standards (EIA-603, TIA/EIA-603-B and ETSI). Not understanding the test method each result relates to will make any specification comparison impossible.

To gain a copy of the TB8100 Specification Manual, contact your nearest Tait representative.

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