help

[rocco23]

I just purchased a radio shack pro-197 digital scanner and it programed by radio shack. My son is new police officer in my town and as a retired officer myself I just want to try to keep tabs on him. I live in Florence, Burlington Co. New Jersey. My problem is I can't get the frequency for Florence 18160 programed into the scanner. I'm receving other Burlington Co. transmissions but still can't get Florence. Flornece does not operate off the Burlington Co. dispatch but instead has their own dispatch. I've been trying for the last couple of days. i hope someone out there can help. Thanks in advance..........

[Highpockets]

Originally Posted by rocco23

I just purchased a radio shack pro-197 digital scanner and it programed by radio shack. My son is new police officer in my town and as a retired officer myself I just want to try to keep tabs on him. I live in Florence, Burlington Co. New Jersey. My problem is I can't get the frequency for Florence 18160 programed into the scanner. I'm receving other Burlington Co. transmissions but still can't get Florence. Flornece does not operate off the Burlington Co. dispatch but instead has their own dispatch. I've been trying for the last couple of days. i hope someone out there can help. Thanks in advance..........

If Florence has their own dispatch, what is the frequency they use, 18160 looks more like a trunked system talk group.

[Danny6569]

what other burlington county systems can you hear ? maybe that would help us out to help you better ?

[fmon]

Rocco

Burlington County is a Motorola Smartzone and requires three custom frequencies tables to be entered.

You can do this with software, or use the Programming Shortcuts link below my signature. These GRE/RS scanners are listed and it's a one page step by step listing for programming frequencies, talkgroup and Custom Frequency Tables

[rocco23]

I'm able to get Burlington and Bordentown on my scanner but still can not pick up florence. I've been trying to program it in but still no luck...

[Highpockets]

Originally Posted by rocco23

I'm able to get Burlington and Bordentown on my scanner but still can not pick up florence. I've been trying to program it in but still no luck...

Read this, maybe it will help:

Programming Shortcut PSR-500/600 RS Pro-106/197 - The RadioReference Wiki

[rocco23]

I guess I should have asked if anyone knew the frequency for Florence?

[Danny6569]

hey rocco23 im sending you a pm to help you make sure you check it ok

[Danny6569]

hey rocco there is no one freqency for florence like there was a while back, they used to be on 154.800 but now they run off a trunked system, which uses numerous frequencies,and florence uses the north section of the county, so you would put all those frequencies in youre scanner which are 500.51250 500.66250 500.78750 500.82500 501.10000 507.25000 507.42500a 507.70000
507.92500a 508.40000 and once you put all those frequencies in then you have to put the talk group id in for florence which is 18160 and this 18160 is not a frequency it is a talk group id if you need anymore help just ask were here to help Danny...
__________________

[robbinsj2]

DO NOT program all those frequencies into the scanner. Follow the instructions which Highpockets linked to and use the following specifics:

#6 - use MOT VHF/UHF system type
#11/12 - use the following frequencies: 508.4000; 507.4250; 507.9250
#21-26 - repeat three times with the following numbers:
380, 529, 380, 500.325, 12.5
530, 558, 530, 502.425, 12.5
559, 759, 559, 506.475, 12.5
#14 skip this step
#17 use 18160

This looks very complicated but follow those directions and take it one step at a time. Once you have it programmed and are comfortable with it, you can go back in and modify certain things like the text label, scanlist number, delay settings, backlight, etc.

To summarize in plainer English, you are trying to program a new scan object (specifically a talkgroup). Once you get into a new talkgroup object you have to tell the scanner which radio system that talkgroup exists on. Since you don't already have all the details of Burlington's system entered, you need to do that now. Once the system is configured, you save those settings and back out to the talkgroup object and finish it up.

Once you get the county's system programmed correctly, programming additional talkgroups is much easier -- you just tell the scanner to use the system settings that it already has stored.

Hope this helped,

Jim

[Danny6569]

why shouldnt he put all the frequencies in ? they are there for a reason, 3 of them are data channels and the rest are voice channels, and there posted in here for a reason, ive checked and talked to some radio maintenance guys that work for burlington county before about this and they said its necessary to put them all in for this kind of system, besides that its not gonna hurt anything to put those few extra frequencies in the radio.

[robbinsj2]

Originally Posted by Danny6569

why shouldnt he put all the frequencies in ?

Because they are 100% useless for trunktracking with a Pro-197, and I don't care what the radio techs told you about that. Ask somebody who knows the scanner. It can hurt to add them, they potentially slow down scanning performance (depending upon where in the list of 10 frequencies the control channels are and what the squelch settings and RF environment are like) and increase the chances of interference from a different system. Radio techs know far more about Motorola transceivers and trunked systems than I do, but many of us here know far more about scanning Motorola radio systems with a Pro-197 than the average radio techs does.

Besides, remember that you're trying to help a beginner, or at least someone who seems to be new to trunking. From reading your post, many beginners would program all 10 frequencies conventionally then be frustrated when performance is abysmal.

Jim

[fmon]

Originally Posted by Danny6569

why shouldnt he put all the frequencies in ? they are there for a reason, 3 of them are data channels and the rest are voice channels, and there posted in here for a reason, ive checked and talked to some radio maintenance guys that work for burlington county before about this and they said its necessary to put them all in for this kind of system, besides that its not gonna hurt anything to put those few extra frequencies in the radio.

Daniel, I wrote the shortcut link mentioned by pockets. You can also get to it under my signature. The short cut is condenced from the scanner owners manual and Jim has substituted the exact info needed to complete programming for rocco23's needs. Control frequencies and Alt Control frequencies are all the scanner uses for all Motorola and all P25 trunking systems.

Fact is, non active control frequencies are useless for his needs cause he wants to program only the one talkgroup which his son will be using.

If the rocco can read and press buttons on the scanner, these clarified (by Jim) steps will get his scanner working to listen to that one talkgroup.

[W2SJW]

I'm going to back Frank up on what he just said as well - regardless of how many frequencies/sites Burlington has that make up it's system, it's still a Moto Type-II system at heart.

The subscriber units are hard-coded in their codeplug programming to only expect CC data to appear on a maximum of 4 frequencies per site, and those frequencies are implicitly specified in the programming table. It's not like a scanner that can jump off & look for other CC's on other frequencies.

Now, if Burlington was a P25 system (specifically - a Harris one, like York Co., Pa), every frequency at a site is fair-game to be used as a CC...

[fmon]

Originally Posted by W2SJW

Now, if Burlington was a P25 system (specifically - a Harris one, like York Co., Pa), every frequency at a site is fair-game to be used as a CC...

However, Mike V's Pro96Com software will identify the exact controls and alt controls of all P25 systems.

[W2SJW]

Originally Posted by fmon

However, Mike V's Pro96Com software will identify the exact controls and alt controls of all P25 systems.

Does that work with the 396XT? I haven't really found anything yet that will show me proper CC data decoding since I sold my PSR-500...

[fmon]

Originally Posted by W2SJW

Does that work with the 396XT? I haven't really found anything yet that will show me proper CC data decoding since I sold my PSR-500...

He has Uniden X series as a decoding scanner model.

[Danny6569]

if the control channels the red and the blue are the only thing mandatory to use then can i ask why all the other frequencies are posted then? i mean if anyone goes and uses software to download the burlington county system, there going to be downloading all the frequencies anyway, i know theres an option to uncheck certain sites and talk group ids you dont wanna download while its in the process of downloading the system, but why not just post the control channels in the data base then ? if all the other are not needed ? it would make it a lot easier when downloading the system in the scanners, what would be the purpose of the other frequencies then if there not really needed ? thats whats drivin me nuts trying to figure out, i was told my numerous radio techs that work for burlington county, and also some police officers that use scanners that all the frequencies are needed, for this type of system, i dont know im just double checking on everything with this, and what would it hurt to put those few extra frequencies in ? i mean would it slow the scanner up that much ? im using the 396 xt here and it works great, the way i have mine set up is i have all 10 sites programmed in, and i currently have 7 unlocked i dont think i could pick the other 3 up in my area unless im driving around, and i have all the tgids in for each site also, i did not make a quick key for the tgids, i think they scan faster without being in a quick key, im playing around with my radio that way right now, trying to see if it is quicker to scan the tgids that way.

[fmon]

Originally Posted by Danny6569

if the control channels the red and the blue are the only thing mandatory to use then can i ask why all the other frequencies are posted then? i mean if anyone goes and uses software to download the burlington county system, there going to be downloading all the frequencies anyway, i know theres an option to uncheck certain sites and talk group ids you dont wanna download while its in the process of downloading the system, but why not just post the control channels in the data base then ? if all the other are not needed ? it would make it a lot easier when downloading the system in the scanners, what would be the purpose of the other frequencies then if there not really needed ? thats whats drivin me nuts trying to figure out, i was told my numerous radio techs that work for burlington county, and also some police officers that use scanners that all the frequencies are needed, for this type of system, i dont know im just double checking on everything with this, and what would it hurt to put those few extra frequencies in ? i mean would it slow the scanner up that much ? im using the 396 xt here and it works great, the way i have mine set up is i have all 10 sites programmed in, and i currently have 7 unlocked i dont think i could pick the other 3 up in my area unless im driving around, and i have all the tgids in for each site also, i did not make a quick key for the tgids, i think they scan faster without being in a quick key, im playing around with my radio that way right now, trying to see if it is quicker to scan the tgids that way.

I have 4 software programs for these GRE scanners and three of them default to Control Channel only option for import. Each also has a check to eliminate the Blue frequencies during import should the user desire. Eliminating the Blue frequency option is normally used for Multi-Site imports where by using them, the Unique Frequency count may exceed 32 which is max for this scanner per TSYS.

The 4th software requires the user to check CC only for "Data Grabber" import. Data Grabber is actually a Windows Copy/Paste feature.



The black frequencies are listed because some scanners require all frequencies to be programmed. E.g. Burlington Co system is digital 3600, the BC's 250D, 785D, 296D and 796D scanners do not have CC only option for VHF/UHF Motorola or P25 systems. All Uniden scanners prior to this group require all frequencies for all Motorola systems. Of course, none prior to the 296D can scan any P25 trunking systems.

All GRE made trunking scanner starting with RS Pro-93 are CC only scanners. Pro-96 is the first to scan digital (3600/9600) trunking systems.

[robbinsj2]

Plus it's good to have all system frequencies there if anyone stumbles upon one (limit search, close call, etc.) and wants to look up which system uses it.

Jim