Not new to scanning, new to trunking...two questions

DougWare · #1 (**permalink**) 10-24-2009, 12:41 PM

I recently purchased a Pro-164. So far, I'm loving it!

However, I have two questions that I'm sure someone can easily answer...

1. NC Viper (a statewide system of SmartZones) of well over 100 zones/sites/towers. I would like to add about 8 of these to my scanner (the three different counties that I spend most of my time in, and several counties have multiple towers). What's the best way to do this? Do I need each tower as a different bank? Can I enter multiple "sites" into the scanner as one bank, which is what I was trying. However, I was getting a lot of control channel type noises, which I assumed is frequency overlap. Anyway, what's the best way to do this?

2. The Johnston county EDACS system seems to have switched most of their talkgroups to a to digital (they are listed as Type: D). I've read that some analog scanners scan track digital talkgroups with limitations. It's not a major issue if I can't, but I'm not going to be able to listen to the digital talkgroups without a digital scanner, correct?

Thank!

AlabamaRS · #2 (**permalink**) 10-24-2009, 05:35 PM

answer to number 2 is no, Edacs digital is pro voice format & cannot be monitored with ANY scanner

tommyscan · #3 (**permalink**) 10-24-2009, 05:55 PM

Best to isolate in separate banks so you can toggle them off/on.

N8IAA · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 12:55 AM

AlabamaRS is correct about the Johnston County EDACS system. It is a mix of analog and digital, but is ProVoice. It can not be heard on any scanner made now. The Viper system has digital TG's that can only be heard on a digital scanner. Digital scanners can hear analog and digital TG's. More of what you can monitor in your location can be answered in the North Carolina forum further down the forums page

The people on that forum have more info than you can imagine.
HTH,
Larry

N1BHH · #5 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 08:24 AM

Just taking a quick glance at the system, if you are traveling through any of the zones which have the same system ID, you could put the zones all together. If they have different system ID's, then they need separate banks. Because, here in Massachusetts, the State Police operate on a statewide system of Smart Zones and because there are other systems that use some frequencies used in some of the zones, you have to eliminate those control channels if setting up a statewide bank in your scanner. But you can set up those in another bank which you can turn off when you are in the zone you wish to monitor.

So here we have one System ID, in North Carolina you have 4 System ID's. You can decide to put each zone in it's own bank or put them together in one bank, depending upon what the System ID's are. Of course if one zone has loads of activity and the others don't then you may want to separate them geographically. It's all a matter of what and how much you want to listen to.