Multiple Freqs For 1 Entity, But Only Few Used?

[kingshootr]

Let the noob-ing begin!

I'm loading up all the freqs that are shown for my area (rural county 100 miles from many metro area, no trunking anything as far as I can tell) and there are 10's, if not over a 100 freqs "registered" to the likes of the state, a huge mining company, etc.

Why, or is it normal, that out of all these frequencies only very few (2-3) are regularly utilized? After monitoring and logging for a few days/week, should I delete the ones with no activity? Does it slow down the scanning process or is it no big deal to just leave them being scanned?

Thanks.

[jrholm]

I wouldn't delete them if they are public safety stuff. Business stuff I probably would. The reason I would keep the public safety ones is they may be quiet now, but if IT hits the fan they will magically come alive.

[SteveC0625]

Originally Posted by jrholm

I wouldn't delete them if they are public safety stuff. Business stuff I probably would. The reason I would keep the public safety ones is they may be quiet now, but if IT hits the fan they will magically come alive.

And there generally won't be lots and lots of quiet public safety channels.

What you may want to do over time is determine which frequency pairs are repeaters and then delete the input ones. Particularly in public safety, the input side is the mobiles and portables which will be difficult to pick up at any distance. The output side is the stronger signal being the "repeated" frequency and usually the base station output as well.

On the other hand, some systems still have the capability to disable the repeater so that the units in the field can talk with the base with much less chance of unauthorized ears hearing what they have to say. Depending on the geography and other factors, it's handy to have the input channels available to listen to. But it can be annoying as the signals from the portables and mobiles are not as strong and may chop in and out depending on distance, etc.

There will also be some public safety channels that are quiet much of the time like the secondary fire channels. When they get a big fire, they'll send the entire thing to the secondary channel leaving the primary channel open for dispatch of other incidents and agencies.

I always found much of the business and governmental traffic to be of little interest so I usually skipped programming them in to the scanner. YMMV depending on what you want to hear. Good luck.