Aastra RCT User Guide

USER'S GUIDE

Radio Control Terminal

RCT

Version 2.0

Copyright© Ericsson Enterprise AB 2001.
All Rights Reserved.

EN/LZT 103 36 R1A

Contents

CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................3

CHAPTER 2 GETTING STARTED..............................................................................................................5

THE CHANNEL LIST WINDOW ..........................................................................................................................7

Title Bar.......................................................................................................................................................8

Menu .............................................................................................................................................................9

Channel sub-menu....................................................................................................................................10

Configuration sub-menu..........................................................................................................................12

Help sub-menu..........................................................................................................................................13

Toolbar.......................................................................................................................................................14

Heading Bar..............................................................................................................................................15

Status Bar ...................................................................................................................................................16

The Function bar......................................................................................................................................17

The Radio window....................................................................................................................................18

THE AUDIO WINDOW ......................................................................................................................................19

CHAPTER 3 BASIC FEATURES ................................................................................................................21

CHOOSING A ROLE...........................................................................................................................................21

ASSIGNING A RADIO CHANNEL ...................................................................................................................... 23

Choosing a radio channel.......................................................................................................................24

Setting Selection .......................................................................................................................................24

Setting Individual Volume.......................................................................................................................25

Channel commands..................................................................................................................................26

DE-ASSIGNING A RADIO CHANNEL................................................................................................................27

SELECTING A RADIO CHANNEL FOR RECEIVING .......................................................................................... 28

SELECTING A RADIO CHANNEL FOR RECEIVING AND TRANSMITTING......................................................29

DE-SELECTING A RADIO CHANNEL ................................................................................................................ 30

RADIO CHANNEL INDICATIONS......................................................................................................................31

Squelch indication....................................................................................................................................31

Squelch on an Idle channel.....................................................................................................................32

Most recent Squelch indication..............................................................................................................33

PTT own/other indications.....................................................................................................................34

ADJUSTING INDIVIDUAL VOLUME SETTING FOR A RADIO CHANNEL........................................................35

TRANSMITTING ON A RADIO CHANNEL (PTT).............................................................................................38

MUTING TELEPHONY MICROPHONE(S )..........................................................................................................39

SELECTING AUDIO DEVICES............................................................................................................................40

iii

ADJUSTING VOLUME ....................................................................................................................................... 41

MODIFYING BUZZER SETTINGS......................................................................................................................42

G ETTING HELP ................................................................................................................................................. 43

About Radio...............................................................................................................................................44

About Audio...............................................................................................................................................45

CHAPTER 4 ADVANCED FEATURES ....................................................................................................47

CROSS-COUPLING CHANNELS ........................................................................................................................ 47

PLAYBACK........................................................................................................................................................51

CHAPTER 5 CONFIGURATION................................................................................................................52

FILTERS.............................................................................................................................................................54

COLUMNS..........................................................................................................................................................55

DEFAULT ROLE................................................................................................................................................57

OTHER OPTIONS...............................................................................................................................................58

APPENDIX...........................................................................................................................................................61

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS...........................................................................................................61

iv

Welcome to Radio Control Terminal and MD110 CS

The Ericsson MD110 CS is a state-of-the-art control communications system. This User’s
Guide has been prepared especially for the operators of the RCT (Radio Control Terminal). The
operator is the user accessing the radio functionality in the MD110 CS.

The RCT consists of both hardware and software. The user interface is a screen-based series of
windows controlled by a mouse and keyboard. This User’s Guide is therefore designed for
operators who are somewhat familiar with the Windows NT/Windows 95 user interface and the
ways to operate a mouse. However, the information provided in the guide will hopefully be
clear enough to assist beginners as well.

1

2 Welcome to Radio Control Terminal

Chapter 1
Overview

This User’s Guide starts by a brief overview of RCT. It then gives an introduction to the RCT
and describes the main windows of the user interface.

The features of the RCT are placed under two main headings: Basic Features and Advanced
Features .

Basic features

• Choosing a role

• Assigning a radio channel

• De-assigning a radio channel

• Selecting a radio channel for receiving, or receiving and transmitting

• De-selecting a radio channel

• Radio channel indications

• Adjusting individual volume settings for a radio channel

• Transmitting on a radio channel

• Muting telephony microphones

• Selecting audio devices

• Adjusting volume

• Modifying buzzer settings

• Getting help

3

4 Overview

Advanced features

• Cross-coupling channels

• Playback

At last the User's Guide contains information on how to configure the RCT.
The functions the operator is allowed to perform throughout the application are based on the

user profile and the role selected by the operator (see Chapter 2
Getting started). A gray (disabled) item indicates a function which the operator is not allowed to
perform (e.g., assigning/de-assigning a channel, channel cross-coupling, etc.). Text boxes and
buttons of dialog boxes will only be enabled if their access is allowed by the operator’s privilege
level. All mouse or “click” instructions in this guide refer to the left mouse button if not stated
otherwise.

This User’s Guide takes the operator step by step through the functions and features performed
by most operators in normal everyday operations, but not necessarily in the consecutive order in
which the various windows will appear on the screen.

Chapter 2
Getting started

Each operator can act in a number of different roles, e.g. day operator, night operator, etc. These
roles define the radio channels that will be assigned when the operator logs on, and the

privileges and limitations of the operator when performing a specific role. The privileges and
limitations define if the operator may modify the selection of the assigned channels and in that
case how, the volume range available to the operator, and if a channel may be cross-coupled
with other channels.

Each operator shall be assigned at least one role. A number of operators may be assigned the
same role(s). These roles, which are created and maintained by the RCT administrator (the
person responsible for setting up the RCT to suit the needs of the users, i.e. operator(s) and
supervisor), are stored in a database.

When the application is starting, it must connect to the database and retrieve the user profile
data and the user configurations data. Next, the application must get the roles available for this
operator. When the operator chooses one role, or accepts the default role, the application will
retrieve the role data. When the necessary data has been retrieved, the application presents the
corresponding user interface and proceeds with the radio channel set-up.

5

6 Getting started

Start the application in one of the ways defined by Windows NT. The startup window will
appear briefly on the screen.

The startup window displays the:

• Product name (RCT)

• RCT version (2.0)

• RCT product copyright information

Now you are logged on to RCT. Keep in mind that the features to which you have access
throughout the entire RCT operation depend on the privilege level to which you have been
assigned. Privileges, such as assigning/de-assigning a channel or channel cross-coupling, are
determined by the Supervisor .

The RCT consists of two main windows: The Channel List window and the Audio window.

The Channel List window

Title bar

Icon button

Menu Toolbar Heading bar

Getting started 7

Status bar Filter setting Role Date/time

The Channel List window displays a list of 0-12 radio channels which have been assigned to
operator with information about each channel.

The operator must be familiar with the following features of the Channel List window (which is
based on Windows NT):

8 Getting started

Title Bar

The Title Bar gives the name of the window, “Channel List”. When the right mouse button is
clicked on the Title bar, or any mouse button is clicked on the icon button to the far left, the
System menu appears:

The System menu gives access to commands for manipulating the window. Click anywhere on
the desktop to remove the System menu.

The buttons with symbols shown in the upper right-hand corner of the window are, from left to
right:

• minimize or iconize window.

• maximize window (symbol then changes to "Restore" to restore window to normal size.

• close window or exit application.

Menu

Beneath the Title Bar is the menu containing the sub-menus Channel , Configuration, and Help.

Click Configuration, then Menu to hide the menu.

Getting started 9

Open the System menu as described above and click in order to show it
again.

10 Getting started

Channel sub-menu

The Channel sub-menu contains the following commands:

• Assign - assigns new radio channel to the channel list.

• De-assign - allows operator to cancel an assigned radio channel.

• Idle - sets the currently selected radio channel in the list to Idle mode (de-selected).

• Rx - sets the currently selected radio channel in the list to receive only mode .

• Rx/Tx - sets the currently selected radio channel in the list to receive and transmit mode.

• Individual volume - displays individual volume level setting for each radio channel.

• Cross Coupling assists in setting up a radio-radio cross-coupling group (X/C). The group

may have up to 4 radio channels (the channels must be in Rx/Tx mode). The cross-coupling
group name may have up to 15 alphanumeric characters.

Getting started 11

Note: Some functions in the Channel sub-menu are dimmed (disabled) when no channel is
selected or the operator is not allowed to perform this function.

12 Getting started

Configuration sub-menu

The Configuration sub-menu contains the following commands:

• Function Bar - if checked (√), the Function bar will be displayed; if not, it will be hidden.

• Toolbar - if checked (√) the Toolbar will be displayed; if not, it will be hidden.

• Status Bar - if checked (√), the Status bar will be displayed; if not, it will be hidden.

• Menu - if checked (√), the menu will be displayed; if not, it will be hidden.

• Filters - displays a sub-menu for setting filters

• Options… - displays options for customizing the RCT.

• Save current configuration - stores the current settings in the operator configuration.

Help sub-menu

The Help sub-menu contains the following commands:

• Help - displays contents of the on-line help file.

• Search - displays the standard search dialogue for searching the help file.

• About RCT… - contains a short description of RCT such as name, version, copyright, etc.

Getting started 13

14 Getting started

Toolbar

Each button in the Toolbar is associated with a function. The Toolbar looks like this:

The Toolbar can be moved to the desktop or to any side (vertical or horizontal) of the Channel
List window, in addition to its regular position. This is known as floating and docking Toolbar.
The Toolbar looks like this when floating:

The following table shows the Toolbar buttons and their functions:

Command Button Description

Save Current
Configuration
Assign assigns new radio channel to channel list

automatically saves configuration when button has been clicked

De-assign allows operator to cancel an assigned radio channel

Cross-coupling assists in setting up a radio-radio cross-coupling group with up

to 4 radio channels

Individual volume individual volume level setting for each assigned radio channel

Mute mutes microphone for telephony

Help activates on-line help function

PTT allows operator to transmit to mobile units

Getting started 15

Heading Bar

The Heading Bar has several column headings: Channel Id, Rx/Tx, X/C, Volume, Squelch,
Message.

• Channel Id shows the identification of each radio channel . The channel name may contain

up to 25 alphanumeric characters. Optionally, an icon may also be used to identify the
channel (small symbol in front of channel name in Channel Id column).

• Rx/Tx shows if the channel is in receive and/or transmit mode and also squelch and PTT

indications. If no text is displayed in this column, the channel is in Idle mode.

• X/C shows the cross-coupling group in which each radio channel is a member (if any).

• Squelch shows when the start time of the last call or current call (hour, minute, second). The

start time of the latest Squelch among all channels is indicated with bold text.

• Message lists error or information messages concerning the channel.
Note: Click on the space between the columns and drag to change the width of columns. All

columns except the Channel Id column may be hidden. See Columns.

16 Getting started

Status Bar

The Status Bar indicates from left to right: general information or function of menu item being
pointed to with mouse; filter setting; role file currently active; date and time.

"For Help, press F1" is a help/information message.

"All" is the currently active filter ( see Filters) which determines the channels visible in Channel
List window.

"DayShift.rol" is the name of the role file currently active ( see Choosing a role). This changes
according to the role selected.

Date and time is updated every second.

Getting started 17

The Function bar

The Function Bar is a small window which behaves much as the floating toolbars in Windows.
It contains important controls which make it possible to use one or more applications without
taking up valuable screen space.

The Function Bar makes the most important functions of the Channel List and Audio windows
easily accessible. It contains the following functions:

• Show/Hide - shows or hides the Channel List window in either normal or minimized state.

• Speaker only - toggles the active audio device for the radio audio between the loudspeaker

and currently selected device.

• Volume - displays the Volume set-up dialogue in the Audio window for setting the radio and

telephony volume on all audio devices.

• Mute - disables telephony speech

• PTT (push to talk) - activates transmission on all radio channels selected for both monitoring

and transmission

The Function Bar window is always on top of other windows and will also show Squelch
indications. If the Audio window is not active, the audio function buttons are dimmed and can
not be used.