Pro-106: Programming Multiple Sites/Counties

[KC9CW]

Looking for some ideas for more efficient scanning.

I have a PRO-106 handheld scanner that I use to monitor our 800 MHz Trunked Motorola Type II SmartZone system sites in my area (Indiana Hoosier SAFE-T).

I have each surrounding county programmed into its' own scan list with the tower sites that are assigned for the counties as its' own system.

When I'm scanning my own county, plus surrounding counties, is it efficient to have the same "system" copied into each scan list instead of just having one big system programmed with every site that I possibly want to monitor? Hope this makes sense.

Example: For my home county, I have the talk groups programmed and the closest tower sites programmed as a system. For a surrounding county, I have another copy of the system using the tower sites for that county, and so on. When I'm scanning multiple counties I'm not sure if I'm doing it the most effective way.

 

[Swipesy]

Back in the day when the PSR500/Pro106 were the popular models the debate raged as to your present method or all in one was the best method. Below is a good understanding of how the Pro106 works on Multi Sites.

Off: As most trunking scanners have always worked - Pick the first decent control channel and park there until it drops to unusable. (I have reason to believe the actual algorithm is doing a bit more than just this in the PSR500/600 but it's just suspicion for now; the official word is pretty much how I stated it and we'll stick to that).

Roam: The scanner looks at the control channels receivable by it and picks the one wherein the decode rate does not drop below what you set as Threshold Lo; what you set as Threshold Hi determines the "goodness" of the control signal that you have determined it should look for. For example, if you set Threshold Hi to 90% and Threshold Lo to 70% then the scanner will look for a control channel with a decode rate of at least 90% and park on that until it goes below 70% at which time it will attempt to find a better quality control channel.

Stat: The scanner will actually park on each decent quality control channel in succession according to how you have the "Check All CC" setting set. If "Check All CC" is set to "No" then the scanner will park on a different decent quality control channel each time it scans that TSYS. If you have "Check All CC" set to "Yes" then the scanner will park on each decent control channel in the list successively looking for programmed talk groups BEFORE leaving that TSYS and moving on to other TSYS's or conventional channels.

The idea, here, is that you can use Roam in a multi-site system so that, while moving, the scanner will attempt to lock on the best site it can find (according to how you set the thresholds) and stay on that site until the quality drops below what you have set in Threshold Lo at which time it will attempt to find a better site matching your Threshold Hi value, if at all possible. It's not a perfect system and has some limitations that, depending on your area and what other systems share those frequencies, can adversely affect the performance. However, if you move around a lot it may be worth experimenting with it (but see my note below).

Stat is intended to allow you to scan through all decent quality control channels while stationary (say, at home or work) so that you can hear all of the available traffic on all of the available receivable decent quality control channels. This can result in a long scan time, however. It will either take many successive passes through the TSYS to get through all of the control channels (if "Check All CC" is set to "No") and you may miss a lot of traffic on a busy system or it will take a long time scanning through the control channels during each pass through that TSYS (if "Check All CC" is set to "Yes") in which case you may miss activity on your other TSYS's and conventional channels. But it's all a compromise and it's up to you how to use these functions.

NOTE: As I wrote above, the system isn't perfect and does have some limitations. One notable problem with all modes (Off, Stat, or Roam) is that the scanner cannot isolate a system by its System ID, it only uses the decode quality as a filter, therefor, if you have other systems sharing some control frequencies with the ones you want to use within receivable range then the scanner might "falsely" lock on those systems and you may not hear what you wanted to; where I live, it is a major problem as I have many systems outside my desired area with good quality control channel signals that share some frequencies with the system I want to monitor. It most adversely affects Roam and Stat modes, since these involve the scanner most frequently checking other listed control channel frequencies but it can affect the scanner even when set to Multi-Site is set to "Off" due to the rapid changes in signal quality even while stationary (I think it is the many mountains toward my east causing rapid signal fades and phase changes on the strongest site's control channel output).

 

[Spitfire8520]

It sounds like the way you are programming is reasonable for what you are looking for. The different systems allows for more control and basically guarantee that you will hear the talkgroups you are looking for in the other county. Programming into a single system and using the Stationary mode is no different besides allowing the scanner to handle the checking of different control channels on its own. It can sometimes be detrimental if you are trying to focus onto a specific county and it cycles through the different sites. The Off and Roam modes are far from perfect and do not hold onto sites all the time. I have had Off/Roam kick me off a site that I could clearly see a couple thousand feet away to a site that was 20 miles away.

The slight downside of programming the sites as individual systems is that there may sometimes be odd and exotic talkgroups that show up on sites due to a number of reasons. Since you have it split up by county, you may not have these talkgroups programmed for each system and therefore miss interesting traffic you never knew you could hear.

I personally move around a bit, so I largely dumped everything into a single system containing 23 different control channels. I do have 3 sites programmed as their own system for if I'm stationary and want to get something really specific. A lot of times, I just end up letting the scanner cycle and then Pause on interesting talkgroups which also pauses on that particular control channel. It does sometimes drop the control channel when doing this if it is getting a weak signal, which results in silence and is indicated by the RSSI display and loss of the T icon.

 

[KC9CW]

I have all of the trunked talk groups for each county that I want to hear assigned to their own scan list with any conventional channel programmed to the appropriate scan list as well so all frequencies and systems are kept in the same scan list without having to worry about it. My thought process when programming the other counties was to minimize the effort the scanner has to do to search for activity on the particular county's talk groups so I only programmed the towers that would contain those talk groups. I'm pretty knowledgeable on our systems (that comes from being a dispatcher plus firefighter).

 

[DJ11DLN]

OP I've never experimented with the multiple-systems approach. Perhaps I should. All I can tell you is that with several sites covering my and several surrounding counties, plus ISP and some other stuff, programmed as a single system on my 197 (all my digital trunking scanners for that matter), I don't seem to miss very much traffic. I do have what little conventional stuff programmed in its own list. I've intended to try your method...but the old "it ain't broke so why try to fix it" inertia has kept me in this mode.

I do have the counties and ISP districts assigned to separate lists as well, so I can "zero in" when something interesting is going on...but most of the time I use just the 2 lists described above and have had what I regard as excellent results.

 

[gewecke]

Using the pro-197 I also do something similar but with one difference. I also program my closest tower site and have it set for STAT or stationary, but I allow a wildcard on each scan list that has talkgroups assigned to it, as well as some conventional stuff on those same lists. I seem to catch everything that my local site affiliates with, and occasionally talkgroups from other areas. I think the programmed wildcard is the way to go if you want to make sure you catch everything. 73, n9zas

 

[ind224]

Don't forget F2 once you have a transmission (TSYS shows above F2 in display) and then F3 (analyze) lets you toggle the CC's and you can see and hear the decode percentage as well as the site # being identified.
I sure wish in addition to the TG and CC displayed we could see the site ID during a real transmission. If anyone can make that happen I have looked all over trying to see if it can be done. I don't think so but I'd love to be wrong in this case.
Last night a "team" was out doing their thing and they covered a lot of miles during the storm. Well, they hit the Moorseville site and I had a hard time decoding. As soon as they got off that site it was playing nice again. I run stationary check all CC on Safe T when mobile.