Help me setup Systems and Groups

[mur]

Hello,

Just purchased a 396xt and got premium member to download data straight to freescan
New to scanning and am a bit confused on how I should setup the Systems and Groups here in the Bay Area.
I live in San Jose and will mostly be listening to Santa Clara Area for Police and Fire. sometimes I would just like to listen for San Jose, Is this how I should set it up. can someone post on how they set theirs up

So Should I set up

System 1 San Jose
Group1: police
Group2: fire

System 2 Santa Clara
Group1: San Jose
Channels: Police
Channels: fire
Group2: Sunnyvale
Channels: Police
Channels: fire
Group3: Mountain View
Channels: Police
Channels: fire

What if I just want to listen to police for the entire South Bay
any help would be greatly apprieated thank you

[mur]

I am still a bit confused on whats the best way to set this up, can someone email me their systems and groups so I can better understand the process? I am premium member and have access to the RR Database but am still confused

Are people creating Systems by Counties or Cities?

[W8RMH]

It looks like you are on the right track.

Assign System/Site/Group Quick Keys to everything.

The just turn each system/site/group on and off as needed.

I set up my scanner geographically so I can turn sites on and off as I travel.

[b52hbuff]

Originally Posted by mur

Are people creating Systems by Counties or Cities?

I do both. I setup cities just like you said. Consider that there are more than 10 cities in Santa Clara County, so assigning Group Quick keys per city isn't going to work out.

So just like you, I have:
System / City
Group 1 / Police
Group 2 / Fire
Group 3 / Public Works
....

I also use a similar setup for a county. So within Santa Clara County:
Group 1 / Sheriff
Group 2 / County Fire
Group 3 / County PW

...

The other thing to consider is that if you eventually want to use location based scanning, you want to group systems by geography.

Another hint is to include the system and group quick keys in their respective names. So you might have:
1/San Jose
1/SJ Police
2/SJ Fire
3/SJ PublicWorks

Hope this helps...

[mur]

Thank you, I am thinking this makes sense, Mountain View and Sunnyvale came over with PD and FD in the same group, I separated these groups so I can assign similar Quick Keys.

System 1 - San Jose (Quick Key 1)
Group SJPD (Quick Key 1)
Group SJFD (Quick Key 2)
Group EMS (Quick Key 3)
Group Parks and Rec (Quick Key 4)
Group Public Works (Quick Key 5)

System 2 - Santa Clara County (Quick Key 2)
Group Mountain View PD (Quick Key 1)
Group Sunnyvale PD (Quick Key 1)
Group Santa Clara PD (Quick Key 1)
Group Mountain View FD (Quick Key 2)
Group Sunnyvale FD (Quick Key 2)
Group Santa Clara FD (Quick Key 2)
Group Mountain View PW (Quick Key 5)
Group Sunnyvale PW (Quick Key 5)
Group Santa Clara PW (Quick Key 5)

System 3 - Hollister Hills (SVRA)
Group CALSTAR (Quick Key 3)
Group State Parks (Quick Key 4)

Does this seem to be somewhat correct? Anything I'm missing?
Thank You

[b52hbuff]

You're welcome.

Scanning programming is a personal preference. I can give you some background as to how and why to program in a certain way. I can tell you why I prefer it. Ultimately, the best course is to see what works for you.

One thing you might not know is that multiple systems can be assigned to the same system quick key. And for the record, there can only be twenty groups for system. There can also be multiple groups assigned to the same group quick key...

So when I see how you program system 1, this is the way I prefer to do it. Assign a system to a major city and then use groups for the various agencies within that city. Since systems can be enabled or disabled based on geographic locations, it makes sense to group a city into one syste. You can define a location as a point and a radius. For system 1, the location could be the center of SJ and a radius of about 15 miles.

I don't really like the way you've programmed your second system. You've grouped multiple jurisdictions into a single system. You could achieve something similar by splitting all of these cities into different systems and then assigning them all to a common all of them to system key 2.

System 2 (QK 2)
Mountain View
1/MV Police
2/MV Fire
3/MV PublicWorks

System 3 (QK 2)
Sunnyvale
1/SV Police
2/SV Fire
3/SV PublicWorks

System 4 (QK 2)
Santa Clara
1/SC Police
2/SC Fire
3/SC PublicWorks

Now when you press QK 2, all of the systems assigned to the key will become active. These are separate systems, so each system can have a point/radius definition that only defines a specific city.

Also note that if you intend to program the Santa Clara TRS, it will have to be a separate system. A TRS and a conventional frequencies cannot be programmed into the same system...

The final word is to try experimenting small with one or two systems. If it works for you, keep going. If not, then make a change...

[mur]

b52hbuff,

I just realized what your name says, lol, that is one of my favorite planes along with the P51 Mustang, Corsair,Wildcat and the A10 Warthog.

Anyways, I would agree, my System 2 setup is a bit cluttered and not very effective, I've been trying to figure out a better way for a few days now, I should have logged in earlier
I'm in the process of figuring out using qk keys and turning on and off systems/groups
Your structure is much more practical and effective, thus I am creating a new 996 file now.
You speak of a GPS locator, I assume you have attached one to your 396xt.
I am thinking of the BC-GPSK, would this be considered a good choice, would you suggest another?
Again I thank you for the response, the 396xt is a bit overwhelming and although I'm reading the "Easier to Read" website I still find it a bit of a challenge.
Thank you

[b52hbuff]

Originally Posted by mur

Your structure is much more practical and effective, thus I am creating a new 996 file now.

You speak of a GPS locator, I assume you have attached one to your 396xt.
I am thinking of the BC-GPSK, would this be considered a good choice, would you suggest another?

Everything has pros and cons. As I said in an earlier post, I prefer the organization of having each jurisdiction in its own system. The departments within that jurisdiction are groups.

The pro in this case is that your systems are ready for location based scanning.

One of the cons is that it makes it harder to enable/disable groups. If you're only scanning one system, then it is easy to press Fn-<#> to enable/disable a group. If you're scanning multiple systems, then you need to wait for that system to be active before you press Fn-<#>. Just for the record, scanning multiple systems assigned to a singe key is no more onerous than monitoring two or more systems assigned to two different keys.

Another thing to consider is to set the hold time to 1 second. The default is 0 seconds. The result is that the radio will scan through systems so quickly that you won't be able to see the system name. It will change too quickly.

I actually don't have a 396XT. I have older 396T and 996T radios. The 996T has a more primitive GPS interface, and I never used it.

I do have an HP-1, which also supports GPS operation, so I'm familiar with the concepts. I was an early adopter, so the Uniden wasn't available when I got my radio. I opted for one of these:
Amazon.com: Garmin 18x PC GPS Navigator Unit: GPS & Navigation

You might want to search the Uniden forum to see what others have posted for recommended GPS. I know that the GPS 18 would work with the 396XT. But I don't know pros/cons in comparing the Garmin and Uniden...