I have tried searching this, but I must be using the wrong terminology. How many Talkgroup IDs can be stored for a Motorola APCO P25 trunked system? If I recall correctly, the 325P2 had a limit of 500. I suspect that the SDS 100 is either 500 or more.
SDS100/SDS200: How Many Talkgroup IDs Can Be Saved On A Motorola APCO P25 Trunked System?
- Thread starter JASII
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The 325P2 and 996P2 have a limit of 25,000 'channels', which talkgroups fall under. I suspect that the x36HP and SDS series can hold at least that many, if not more due to the microSD card method of storage.
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It's part of the 1 MB limit on a favorite list size, so a mix of talkgroups,sites and ID.
I have had all of Ohio's MARCS loaded and over 600 unit ID. It is still under 600k.
I have had all of Ohio's MARCS loaded and over 600 unit ID. It is still under 600k.
marksmith
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The 325p2, 996p2, and their predecessors the 396xt and 996xt have a limit of 500 items for each system. All are based on the same architecture.
Frequencies plus talkgroups = 500 maximum. I would also add that once the firmware was upgraded to handle unit IDs, that these fell within that 500 limit too. So it is frequencies plus talkgroups plus unit ID'S total cannot exceed 500 per trunking system on these radios.
The 25,000 channels answer is nonsense. It only applies if you are going to enter all conventional frequencies only and no trunking systems. Anyone who tries to put more than 500 talkgroups in a system will soon find it impossible. You can put all you want into Freescan. You will see an error once you hit 500 items and anything over that will be ignored.
This limitation was inherent to the dynamic onboard memory limitations of the radio.
You can get around this a little by entering the system multiple times and splitting the talkgroups into the duplicated systems. You will actually be scanning partial systems with each system scan pass, but it's the only real workaround.
Any radio with an SD card, like the sds100, sds200, 436, 536, etc does not have this limitation. The limit for these radios is the favorites list cannot exceed 1mb in file size. No limit on the number of talkgroups as long as you stay within the 1 mb.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Frequencies plus talkgroups = 500 maximum. I would also add that once the firmware was upgraded to handle unit IDs, that these fell within that 500 limit too. So it is frequencies plus talkgroups plus unit ID'S total cannot exceed 500 per trunking system on these radios.
The 25,000 channels answer is nonsense. It only applies if you are going to enter all conventional frequencies only and no trunking systems. Anyone who tries to put more than 500 talkgroups in a system will soon find it impossible. You can put all you want into Freescan. You will see an error once you hit 500 items and anything over that will be ignored.
This limitation was inherent to the dynamic onboard memory limitations of the radio.
You can get around this a little by entering the system multiple times and splitting the talkgroups into the duplicated systems. You will actually be scanning partial systems with each system scan pass, but it's the only real workaround.
Any radio with an SD card, like the sds100, sds200, 436, 536, etc does not have this limitation. The limit for these radios is the favorites list cannot exceed 1mb in file size. No limit on the number of talkgroups as long as you stay within the 1 mb.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Thanks Mark I get tired of saying it, plus you did it more fluently.
IMHO, that is one of the major limitations with these (and I have a 996p2 and a 325, plus several older versions) I use one to monitor a few dozen low volume EMS, and 3 high volume, and no UID.
I'm in a small, rural area and have 500+UID just with Sheriff and County Fire, no local PD (they have no logic anyway).
marksmith
Member
If you create the system twice in the radio (same frequencies in each) and then pick half the talkgroups and put them in one and the others in the other, you can effectively scan everything with a new limitation of 1000 between the two.
I have a substantial system and a ton of radio id's that I split into 3 systems.
Put the police in one, fire in the second, and public works, parks, and the balance into the third.
I put each system on a different quick key, so I can quickly reduce what I am scanning on that system to the targeted stuff, such as a police chase or a major fire without having to listen to the rest of the stuff.
It is sort of like using quick keys for departments but I do it at the system level so I can include several hundred key radio id's with the categorized channels.
When scanning all 3 "systems" it takes an extra second as it goes from sub system to subsystem and locks the control channel, but I find it to be a very good workaround, that allows me more talkgroups and radio id's as well as a department-like control over received traffic.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Well aware and that is how I used to do it, starting with the HP1 I no longer need to worry about it. Plus , at home I have plenty of radios to cover it.
I have a favorites list on both my x36s and HP1s with a single trunked radio system in it, and it has 1900 talkgroups and over 12,000 radios listed. FL size is currently 847KB so I still have tons of room for expansion.
I expect the SDS FLs will be very similar to the x36s.
I expect the SDS FLs will be very similar to the x36s.
marksmith
Member
That is the way I solve it too.... buy more radios and dedicate them to certain traffic.
Still the best answer, and with the new 100/200 I am really impressed at their reception.
Due to their size though, I still consider the 396xt and 325p2 to be great radios, so I do what I need to make them work best even though they are getting long in the tooth for current day systems.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
marksmith
Member
Buying another radio always solves the problem, even if you have to invent the problem first.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Well, I am missing the boat on something here. I saved a number of IDs, but when I run a Trunk Search, it simply displays the TGID # and not the alias. With the BCD325P2, if an alias was programmed, it would display during the Trunk Search. Is that simply a change with the SDS100 or is there some other setting that I am missing?
teknishun
Member
I do not have a numeric answer for you, but I can tell you that I have a single favorites list on the SDS100 and SDS200
and BCD-436HP that contains the entire TxWarn P25 database and every TG listed therein, for all areas it covers.
I have that FL duplicated 19 times with the only change being the site that I am monitoring. That favorites list
only has just one site.
The SDS100 and SDS200 have no problem at all loading all 19 of those huge FL simultaneously.
I use the Sentinel software and not any of the third party ones.
I think it would be impossible to give a numeric answer beyond "the size of the file cannot exceed 1MB".
The number of systems will impact this, as well as sites, departments and of course channels. One FL with a single system, single site and single department could "tolerate" X channels. Another FL with two systems, two sites and two departments would tolerate Z channels, Z being less than X. That's because the parameters for each system, site and department all contribute to the total file size. And then you throw in Radio IDs. . .
I have yet to see anyone post that "1 MB isn't big enough for a Favorites List" except for perhaps those that duplicate "stuff".
The number of systems will impact this, as well as sites, departments and of course channels. One FL with a single system, single site and single department could "tolerate" X channels. Another FL with two systems, two sites and two departments would tolerate Z channels, Z being less than X. That's because the parameters for each system, site and department all contribute to the total file size. And then you throw in Radio IDs. . .
I have yet to see anyone post that "1 MB isn't big enough for a Favorites List" except for perhaps those that duplicate "stuff".
slicerwizard
Member
Not true. The limit reflects how many talkgroups could be checked per decoded OSW.
Actually, on the repeater/system side, OSW. But, Mark is correct in that the scanner's limitation is due to the memory limitations on the radio.
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OR people like a couple of different Hams that posted here on RR that they wanting to enter the entire U.S. Ham RP database in one FL. I think it would take almost 4MB to do that. But if one travelled across the U.S. that is an interesting idea. I think they realized it would need to be broken down into multiple FLs, but by asking I hope they saved some time or had what they may have suspected confirmed.
One thought would be to make one RP database FL per state rather than trying to maintain all in one huge FL. Might be easier to maintain in that form, as well.
marksmith
Member
I actually crashed into the 1meg limit, but I had a favorites list that included a dozen or so fairly big trunked systems, plus around 15,000 unit ID'S in one, and several thousand in others.
The 1 Meg limitation is only a notational procedural limit though, because all you have to do is put the systems in more than one favorites list. I don't know how many favorites lists you can scan at once but I have scanned quite a few. Several Meg at a time.
Any bigger, and you start scanning more than you can reasonably monitor in a scan cycle.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
marksmith
Member
If you are calling the Unit ID Name the "alias", then you might need to add that available field to your display on the SDS100. It does not come as a programmed standard field on the 100.
Also, instead of swapping it out with unit ID field, I moved the service type field to another one, and used the field under the talkgroup description because the field is longer and can hold a longer description, up to the characters available for an ID name.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
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