DMR Help

[Larry1275]

How do i put in DMR chs in sds 200 scanner 151-154 mhz for SMECO -Electric cooperative

 

[737mech]

Do you have the DMR upgrade key in the new SDS200?

 

[Larry1275]

Yes i do

 

[737mech]

Is the system in the Radioreference database? If not you'll need to know the freqs and color code. Create a new favorites list with Sentinel and enter what you can. System/System type/Department/Site/ID search on/ try color code search if you don't have it.

 

[hiegtx]

How do i put in DMR chs in sds 200 scanner 151-154 mhz for SMECO -Electric cooperative

Is this the license for what you want to monitor?

FCC Callsign WQUB769 (SOUTHERN MARYLAND ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE INC)

FCC Callsign WQUB769 (SOUTHERN MARYLAND ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE INC)

www.radioreference.com

If so, that is licensed as a DMR trunked system, with five sites, two frequencies for each, with two of the sites are in your county.

To monitor it on your SDS200, you can do one of two things:

Program each site, using each pair of channels, as a MotoTRBO Trunked system.
Use the Favorites list editor, by either selecting it from the drop-down Edit menu, or by clicking on the small icon that resembles a star with a pencil on it, just under the w for the drop-down View menu.
With the Favorites editor screen open, click on the green 'plus' sign under Systems to add a new system.


Now you can create a new system choosing MotoTRBO Trunk as the system type.


Give it a name. For simplicity, I used SMECO.
Click on the system's name so that you get to where you can add departments and sites,

With the Departments tab selected, click the green plus button to add a department. Again, for simplicity, I used SMECO.
For the trunked system to work, you must have a department with at least 1 talkgroup entered. Since, at this point, you may not know which, if any, talkgroups are in use, just use a 'dummy' TGID of 1. With the Department selected, click the plus button to add a talkgroup.

I've left the service type as 'Custom 1" because that generic type is enabled by default. You could use types Utilities or Business if you prefer. Whichever service type you use, make sure that it is enabled in your Sentinel profile.

Now, click back on the system's name so that you can select the Site tab & add a site.
I used Leonardtown for the site at your location.

Now, click on the site's name so that you can add the frequencies.

Since you do not, yet, know the LCN #s or color codes used, leave the LCN field at 0, and color code set to Search.
Using the steps above, also create a site for Lexington Park, the other site in your county.

Under the Options tab for the system, be sure to set it to ID Search, since, as yet, you don't know the talkgroups.

Save the system & exit the Favorites editor.

To find the LCNs and color codes, you'll need to write this new system to your scanner. In your Profile, be sure that the SMECO list is et to be downloaded to the scanner, and set to monitor.

continued,,,,,,,,

 

[bearcatrp]

That seems like allot of work to listen to a frequency. For us that use the zip code and distance, would I be able to hear DMR provided I activate the correct service and have the DMR activated? Would assume it would be under business.

 

[hiegtx]

That seems like allot of work to listen to a frequency. For us that use the zip code and distance, would I be able to hear DMR provided I activate the correct service and have the DMR activated? Would assume it would be under business.

Not in this case, since the system is not in the database. For a system, not in the database, someone would need to submit the necessary details to get it added. So, manually program it, along the lines of the steps above, then use System Status and the LCN Finder to document it. Or if the user has one of the SDR dongles, and one of the various programs to use with it, get the details that way.

Of course, if it was already in the database, then append it to a Favorites list, or scan by using location control, making sure that the listed service types are enabled.

 

[hiegtx]

..........continued

With the system loaded in your scanner, press the Menu button & scroll down to Analyze.
View attachment 99871
(Screenshots are from my 536HP, connected to my PC via ProScan. While the SDS200's display may look different, the menu choices are identical.)

Press E(yes) to access the Analyze menu.

System Status, if the site is active, will show you the Color Code, and how many frequencies are being used (after you leave that up for a while, if the system is not really active).
View attachment 99872
Press E to access the System Status
That gets you to a screen where you enter the name of the system. If, instead of entering the name, you simply hit Enter, then you would see all the systems you have programmed in a Favorites list. Select the system from the list & press Enter.
Or, use the Scroll knob to enter the letters in the system's name. You would only need to enter either the first letter, maybe the first few, before pressing Enter to see which systems matched what you have entered. Use the 4 and 6 keys to scroll left and right while entering the name. (For the SDS200, you can use the system & channel soft keys to scroll back & forth.)

Once you have the system name selected, then you'll need to choose a site. After selecting the system, you'll see all the sites you've programmed.
(This is a local system here, that has multiple sites, used for illustration.)

Choose the site you want & press E

Let the scanner sit on the site, You can get an idea of how active it is, and also see the color code used & the number of frequencies that are in use.
To use the LCN Finder instead, choose it from the Analyze menu.

Here again, you'll need to enter the system name & select a site as was done for the System Status,

Let the LCN Finder run until it finds all the LCNs. Since none of the sites in your system have more than two, if it's a regular business day, it may find them fairly quickly. The local system and site I'm using for the screenshots has ten frequencies.

Once you've found the LCNs, put the scanner into Mass Storage mode & read the information back into Sentinel. You'll get a pop-up message that the data you are reading from the scanner does not match what is in Sentinel, so tell it to save the changes, making Sentinel match what the scanner has found. Be sure & edit the system to make sure that the color code is set correctly (the System Status page would show the color code that was found).

With the system set to use ID Search, any talkgroups found will show up as only the TGID. As, you listen to them, you can hear how they are being used & enter them into your system's details with the applicable text tag. Be sure & submit the information you've found to the database.

 

[N7OLQ]

The simple but temporary cheater way to listen to a single freq is to use the VFO mode. While scanning, hit 'Channel' soft-key, punch in the freq, hit the Channel button again (not Enter). Hit Func, then the MOD soft-key repeatedly until it says AUTO. It will decode DMR on that freq. You can hit Resume to "search" or spin the knob.

 

[Larry1275]

i got smeco in sds 200 under dmr chs and working good thanks
hiegtx

 

[ka3jjz]

I have condensed hiegtx's excellent writeup into our wiki below. I only made a few minor changes, changed the tone to third-person neutral (as is wiki policy) and included all of his screenshots.

Entering an Unknown MOTOTRBO system using Sentinel - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Corrections and additions welcome

Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

Please be sure to submit your findings to the database. It's users like you who get data into here. You can use our wiki to collect the information as you learn more.

Mike