OVERVIEW 3 - 1
CHAPTER 3
OVERVIEW
General
The MTM800 with Enhanced Control Head is Motorola’s latest and most advanced digital mobile 
TETRA terminal. This terminal generation is based on a new digital platform technology which takes 
care of the linear modulation type of terminals to support the TETRA needs. It covers Trunk Mode 
Operation (TMO) as well as Direct Mode Operation (DMO) and among other new features it is 
supplied with extended code and operating memory capacity to support all new market 
requirements. The MTM800 with Enhanced Control Head TETRA terminal ensures a high audio 
quality.
To achieve high spectrum efficiency, the MTM800 with Enhanced Control Head uses digital 
modulation technology and sophisticated voice-compression algorithm. The voice of the person 
speaking into the microphone is converted into a digital bit stream consisting of zeros (0) and 
ones (1). This stream is then modulated into a radio-frequency (RF) signal, which is transmitted over 
the air to another MTM800 with Enhanced Control Head. The process is called digital modulation.
Digital Modulation Technique
The MTM800 with Enhanced Control Head is a 380–430 or 410–470 MHz mobile that can operate 
in dispatch mode. It uses two digital technologies: π/4 DQPSK and Time Division Multiple Access 
(TDMA).
π/4 DQPSK is a modulation technique that transmits information by altering the phase of the radio 
frequency (RF) signal. Data is converted into complex symbols, which alter the RF signal and 
transmit the information. When the signal is received, the change in phase is converted back into 
symbols and then into the original data.
The TETRA system can accommodate 4-voice channels in the standard 25 kHz channel as used in 
the two-way terminal.
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is used to allocate portions of the RF signal by dividing time 
into four slots, one for each unit.
Time allocation enables each unit to transmit its voice information without interference from other 
transmitting units. Transmission from a unit or base station is accommodated in time-slot lengths of 
15 milliseconds and frame lengths of 60 milliseconds. The TDMA technique requires sophisticated 
algorithms and a digital signal processor (DSP) to perform voice compression/decompression and 
RF modulation/demodulation.