PL Number

[71LONGBED]

I am fairly new to the hobby, but spent lots of time (and money ) on my CB radios in the past. I dug out the scanner my father gave me years ago. Now I am trying to learn the "ins & outs" of this hobby.
My question is about the PL number. I looked it up on Wiki and know what it is and understand how it works. Is there and audio on this frequency, or is it just send code to unlock the squelch? Should I have the PL number programed into my scanner? Thanks in advance.

 

[n4voxgill]

i have about 10 scanners and have never programed a PL. I never needed it. When ducting is occuring I like to hear the distant stations, and with PL enabled you can't hear most of them.

 

[71LONGBED]

Thanks for the quick reply. I won't worry about them...

 

[n2mdk]

It really depends upon where you live, if your in a heavy RF area like a big city, then it can be needed to stiop things like intermod. When I lived in NYC I had to have the code squelch turned on to keep the radios silent.
If you live in an area where the same frequencies are used in adjacent areas you also might want to use it to only hear your local frequency.
Most of the time it's only needed for transmitting and not receiving.

 

[Highpockets]

Thanks for the quick reply. I won't worry about them...

Using pl is a two each his own, kind of thing. I like it because I have an outside antenna about 30 ft up, and receive pd's that use the same frequency, it helps to tell what pd is talking, and one at a time, with no pl's one may talk over the other, it may be hard to understand either one. Just a thought.

 

[nyquiljunkie]

ive found at least in my area, if I use a bank all programmed with the PLs for the local area, they often call other areas in the county for assistance and they are on separate PL# on the same freq.
if they are not in the list you miss whats going on sometimes.

I have found as a clueless noob, knowing the local unit ID# and fire/ems id# is better, since they open each traansmission with an ID# to whom they are calling o who is talking back.

then again I live out in the middle of nowhere.
in a city it might be much different.

 

[71LONGBED]

I have found as a clueless noob, knowing the local unit ID# and fire/ems id# is better, since they open each traansmission with an ID# to whom they are calling o who is talking back.

then again I live out in the middle of nowhere.
in a city it might be much different.

I too, live out in the boonies. I have a few channels not being used, maybe I'll through a couple PL #'s and see if I hit anything. As far as the ID#'s, that's what I've been doing myself. Thanks guys.

 

[gmclam]

...My question is about the PL number. I looked it up on Wiki and know what it is and understand how it works. Is there and audio on this frequency, or is it just send code to unlock the squelch? Should I have the PL number programed into my scanner? Thanks in advance.

PL is Motorola's trade name for "CT". CT means continuous tone. It is just a sub-audible tone and is not modulated nor does it contain additional audio.

 

[BaLa]

i have about 10 scanners and have never programed a PL. I never needed it. When ducting is occuring I like to hear the distant stations, and with PL enabled you can't hear most of them.

I always enable it but don't actually store it..

So I just put it in CT mode, or search mode...that way it's displayed but it doesn't lock out any other PLs.

 

[Grog]

Each area is different, my two main counties of listening (home and work) both use the same frequency for a LE munual aid repeater, but with different CTCSS tones, so without them I'd have to hear both of them all the time. The same is with the statewide fire/EMS freqs, without the tone enabled I'd hear medical calls from 80 miles away.

The same could be said for my county fire frequency of 159.165, only used by two others in NC BUT also was used by the VA state police, I'd hear them even on my HT without the tone. So that's one big reason I switched from the pro 93-2053 to the pro 97/2055 scanners.

 

[71LONGBED]

I don't think my scanner has the CTCSS mode so it's a nonissue anyway. I have a Hyperscan 2030. It was given to me years ago by my father. I do like hearing what's going on, but I'm feeling like I'm missing alot because of the trunked systems and the CTCSS.

 

[n2mdk]

You can be missing things not being able to get trunked systems, but your not missing anything because of CTCSS. It can only block things you may not want to hear, and possibly identify stations that may use the same frequency.

 

[W4KRR]

Your scanner may not support PL, so it would be a non issue for you.

Lots of people don't like or use PL, but I always use and program the PL tone if known. Around here, there are many frequencies that, because of noise or other interference, would lock up the radio and prevent it from scanning if it weren't for PL. In addition, I monitor a lot of business frequencies that have multiple users, the use of PL insures that I hear only the business I want and not the other users.