BCT15 - Hold on one TGID?

[ManChicken]

Scanner noob here, just got a BCT-15 and am having fun trying to figure it all out.

My main question is the 'HOLD/RESUME' button while scanning a trunked system - in my case EDACS. I created a system/site and programmed in all the appropriate frequencies using the great DB here, and got it into 'ID SEARCH' mode successfully.

While listening, if something interesting starts happening on a specific talk group, I figured I could just hit HOLD and have it 'stick' to that talk group ID. However, this seems to not be the case exactly; If I hit HOLD, I will generally hear around 3 or 4 calls/responses, sometimes more, but then it will just quit and I get nothing. It seems like when they respond quickly to whatever was going on when I heard the initial traffic and hit HOLD, I'll get all of those conversations - and indeed on the front display I'll see it bouncing back and forth from the control channel freq to one of several different freqs in the pool. But then after no traffic occurs for a few seconds, I'll just get silence forever until I un-HOLD and go back to scanning.

So, I guess ultimately my question is, does HOLD mode not really do what I want it to do while in a trunked system, and if not, is there some other way to be scanning and quickly lock on to the current TGID and track it indefinately?

Thanks in advance for any light shed; The manual is pretty terrible so far.

 

[DaveIN]

Do you see "finding control channel" during the ID Hold? If so the radio has lost lock on the control channel and is trying to find it.

Do you have a Radioreference database link to the system?

 

[ManChicken]

Do you see "finding control channel" during the ID Hold?

No, everything looks the same as normal (except with 'HOLD' on at the top).

Do you have a Radioreference database link to the system?

Yes, it is the Denver Public Safety system: http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=259

I've been playing around all last night and today, and maybe things are working right. Yesterday I created a Group and entered a few TGIDs in it. Then I went into 'ID SCAN' mode, and hit hold when some traffic occurred. This seemed to track the talk group just fine.

However, right now I am back in 'ID SEARCH' mode and I've now held on a few different TGIDs, and it seems to be tracking just fine too - even with very long delays between conversations (sometimes minutes).

So, maybe this has been working all along and I had just been very unlucky prior to now, holding on a talk group that did become inactive after a short time, and then un-holding at exactly the same point the group became active again (which is what led me to believe I was missing everything).

Thanks for the response, I'll keep playing/learning!