Finding and monitoring trunked systems

[Jonesym20]

Are there any links, or maybe someone could help, for what to do after a control channel is found and then monitoring the system.

I search the 800 mhz frequencies and can hear control channels well. I also get bits and pieces from conversations, obviously I can't follow them cause they switch frequencies so quickly.

how can hold on a control channel and follow the trunking? (Can I, or do i have to program the frequency in as a specific system?)
How will I know just exactly what type of system it is?
How will I know which other control channels belong to this specific system? There are bunches of these control channels so won't some belong to different systems?

Thanks, if this is already on wiki or there are links on it, I'm sorry, I couldn't find them.

 

[ka3jjz]

Trunking scanners - all of them - are designed to read the control channel and then display the talkgroups (think of users) as they are decoded and resolved. You cannot easily just look at a control channel and determine what kind it is; however the database on this website is quite extensive - so you can look up your system yourself and determine the type. In most cases, all of the control channels that belong to that system are also found there. It is very likely that a system will have more than 1 control channel; this reduces channel loading and stress on the transmitter. In many cases, the channel changes once a day.

Yes, trunktrackers require that you know what kind of system you are attempting to program.

In the off case the system you want to monitor is not on the database, there are tools available to determine what kind of system it is, but that's beyond the scope of this discussion. Determining where you are (city/county/state will do) and using that information to look at the databases is the place to start.

73s Mike