Pro-164 trunking issues

Ok I've programmed the red and blue control channels for Portland. Either I did something wrong or its very quiet in Portland. It goes quite a while before I hear something. My first question is do I program all of the red and blue control channels or just the multnomah county ones...I'm baffled.

which system? if this 1 Portland Public Safety 700MHz P25 Radio System Trunking System, Portland, Oregon - Scanner Frequencies you will need a digital scanner & one the will cover the 700Mhz band

puzzleriddle said:

which system? if this 1 Portland Public Safety 700MHz P25 Radio System Trunking System, Portland, Oregon - Scanner Frequencies you will need a digital scanner & one the will cover the 700Mhz band

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There is only one TG on that system, so I doubt that's it.

uncledenny48 said:

Ok I've programmed the red and blue control channels for Portland. Either I did something wrong or its very quiet in Portland. It goes quite a while before I hear something. My first question is do I program all of the red and blue control channels or just the multnomah county ones...I'm baffled.

Click to expand...

The system you are trying to program has multiple "sites". While you can throw all of those frequencies into one bank, I would program each site into its own bank. Actually, you don't need to program in all of the sites. I would definitely program in the first one (Backbone) and maybe two of the ones closest to you.

Are you using programming software? Many of these sites have been rebanded and in order to correctly program them, the software is required. Also, for right now, make sure the bank is set to OPEN. A (+) will appear beneath the bank number when scanning.

uncledenny48 said:

Ok I've programmed the red and blue control channels for Portland. Either I did something wrong or its very quiet in Portland. It goes quite a while before I hear something. My first question is do I program all of the red and blue control channels or just the multnomah county ones...I'm baffled.

Click to expand...

Are you programming this system?
Portland Public Safety Radio System Trunking System, Portland, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies

If so, which site? The system has been rebanded, and most of the sites require a custom band plan to track correctly. With the Pro-164, that can only be entered with software, not through the keyboard alone. Also, if you're trying to enter all of the sites in the same bank, you need to separate each site's control channel from the others with a non-blank FM frequency. (See this thread. It's referring to a Pro-96, but the same theory of using a non-blank channel between the site frequencies would apply to your model as well.) You could also enter each site in a separate bank, as Tweekerbob suggests.

For the Portland system, you'll need (at the very least) control channel frequency 858.7375. Although for proper tracking you do need a custom band plan, you won't miss very much without it.

pro-164

Ok thanks what do you mean custom banding, I did just become a premium member, do I need to download something?

All that you wanted to know on rebanding, and more...

Rebanding - The RadioReference Wiki

uncledenny48 said:

Ok thanks what do you mean custom banding, I did just become a premium member, do I need to download something?

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You should put in all 4 control channels because they do change them, but not often. The current CC is 859.4625.

Unless new freqs. have been added recently, all 24 freqs. in the simulcast system are not affected by rebanding.