Always wondered about this if thier was a difference, instead of plugging in control channels and alternates to listen to whichever system, as for the talkgroup id's is it good to put them in, or just let it scan and find them? I guess my question is Is thier a difference between the 2? i guess what also i am wondering is if the scanner is in "scan" mode it will eventually pick up the talkgroup id's? Like thier are no "hidden" talkgroups that the scanner will not pick up while it is searching/scanner....sorry if this seems like a dumb question , but i was just wondering?
General question
- Thread starter hawkeye32
- Start date
- Status
JoeyC
Senior Member
"Scan" generally means to monitor those TGs you program in. "Search" will find any talkgroup and listen to it (unless its locked out). Keep in mind that across different scanners they may use different terminology. Some RS scanners use Open and Closed as terms - where open means searching and closed means scanning only those programmed in. Other than that, your question is vague.
How this works depends on the specific model scanner you are using. But generally speaking, in order for a trunk tracking scanner to "follow" a conversation, it must be "scanning" a control channel frequency which has been set to the correct mode (MO, LT, ED) of the TRS.
You can use a "search" function to sequentially listen to (raw) frequencies, and in theory the scanner will stop on each to let you listen. But what you get is 'pieces' of different conversations because each individual transmission on a TRS is on a random channel of the system.
ok sorry for being vague i do have the 2096 ,i see the talkgroups in the database, and i alwayss have my scanner on bellfleetnet zone 1 and MPSCS and i just noticed new talkgroups, but i don't have those? I was just curious to myself why my scanner has not picked them up,when its on all the time, so thats why i was wondering if their are "hidden" talkgroups, that the scanner will not pick up while scanning the trunked banks, like i say sorry for being vague, just not good at explaining things...
Your term "hidden TG" escapes me. If they are using a TG, then certainly it is being broadcast on a control channel. Have you ever used UniTrunker or equivalent?
Is your scanner set for "ID SCAN" or "ID SEARCH". If it is on Id Scan the most you will hear are the TalkGroup ID's that you have programmed in. If it is in ID Search it will be able to pick up any talk group that becomes active (somebody transmits on it). Even if you have them all programmed in or set to Search there are sure to be some talkgroups that are not active as much as others. Some are special event talkgroups and the like and some that have names like 1TAC05 that are used only during things like pursuit/standoff/protests etc. I think most users will agree that in any specific area you will have a relatively small number of TG ID's that you will hear regularly, all day. In my area SouthEast of Ottawa ther are two that are most prevalent. The last time I looked at my logging page they both had 6000ish hits (i don't remember how long a time it took to do that) and the next most active one had 800ish. Don't quote me on those numbers but you get the idea.
Yup ok thanks, ya i have my scanner set to id search,i'm fairly new to digital scanner, but am quite old to the analog way, thanks for the input, i'll just leave the scanner as is , like i say i have the bellfleetnet zone 1 in and the mpscs , but maybe bout a handfull of id's , also have windsor's public safety in but thats ona diff scanner, 898t but again thank you for the input
- Status
