996P2 Freescan - Is my programing efficient?

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ryradio

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I have a new Uniden 996P2 with Freescan.... I have never monitored trunked systems before nor have I used programming software before. I was concerned if how I programmed my scanner is logical and functional.

Because of the limits of the quick key system of the 996P2 and my desire to be able to listen to only PD or FIRE/EMS separately, I split the same system ( Lake County Public Safety Trunking System, Countywide, Indiana - Scanner Frequencies ) into 4 separate p25 systems. for example....

system 1 - county fire/ems
system 2 - county pd
system 3 - municipalities fire/ems
system 4 - municipalities pd

All 4 use the same control channels.

Is there any issue with functionality that I have the same control channel programmed into 4 separate systems? I am also concerned if there is an issue with splitting up the towns fire and pd talkgroup id's.
 
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kmi8dy

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thats the way i do it and it works fine for me. been 3 years now and no problems. the way i did it was like this. all county law is in a system, all county fire is in another system, and all county ems is in another system. my county sheriffs dept dispatches ALL public service depts. i do the same with surrounding counties. i also put seperate system quick keys for each system, so i can turn them off and on when i want to listen to them or not. also all my systems 71 of them, have the same start up key of # 1. i also program ALL frequencies not just the control channel.
 
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marksmith

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No problem at all to do it that way. I have a few systems done that way.

Even when you listen to them all, you will find you hear a more even distribution of comms from across the system, rather than the police, or whatever is the most active, hogging all the receive time.

Sent from my LG-V410 using Tapatalk
 

ryradio

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thanks for confirming....

on the 996p2 I am limited to 20 groups per system. Then with the new to me "quick key" system (as opposed to just L/O like I am used too)..... I am limited to 9 keys which I had to bundle some of my 20 groups together to be able to toggle them on and off.

merry Christmas.
 

ofd8001

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Guess I'm going to be the odd guy out. . .

While the above would work, I believe efficiency (fewer missed transmissions) would be improved if you were to have just one system and use four different groups:

System: Lake County
Site: Lake County Simulcast
Group 1 - county fire/ems
Group 2 - county pd
Group 3 - municipalities fire/ems
Group 4 - municipalities pd

You would employ Group Quick Keys in this method.

Unfortunately it may take a little more Freescan copying and pasting work. The RR database is more friendly to the line of scanners where more than 20 groups/departments are allowed.

Here is why you could miss transmissions:

When System 1 is being "scanned" it spends about 1.5 - 2.0 seconds "listening" to the control channel for channel grants only on county fire/ems talkgroups. If there are channel grants for a county pd talkgroup, municipalities fire/ems and municipalites pd, the scanner will ignore those transmission.

After that 1.5 - 2.0 seconds, the scanner moves on to System 2 again listening for channel grants for only county pd talkgroups. It would ignore channel grants for county fire/ems, municipalities fire/ems and municipalites pd.

A similar situation holds true for Systems 3 and 4.

You can test this theory by disabling the System Quick Keys for systems 2, 3 and 4. Then change System 1 from ID Scan to ID Search Mode. Most likely you'll hear more transmissions.
 

kmi8dy

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i timed my system and it spends a second or less on each one. unless it is a large system like the vhf aircraft band. i have every freq programmed in and it spends about 4 to 5 seconds on it., but i dont have it running all the time, only when i get bored because my regular systems are very slow. if i remember right the vhf aircraft band has over 900 freqs. on any regular basis i run no more then 6 systems at a time: law, fire, ems, p25 fed, state police state wide, and consumers power ( electric and gas supplier ). all are p25 800, except consumers and they are edacs.
 

ofd8001

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Scanning a system consisting of conventional frequencies is different than scanning a trunked radio system with multiple towers/sites/transmitters.

There is a minimum amount of time needed for the scanner to "process" each trunked site. A scanner can be programmed to spend more time (hold) on a given site, if desired.
 

kmi8dy

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i have my " hold " set to "00". that means that the whole system, any system, will scan at least one complete time around and then move on to the next system.
 
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