FleetNet - Multiple Zones

Setina

Craig Anthony
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 24, 2023
Messages
18
Location
London, Ontario
Hello

I've finally picked up a BCD996P2 and am learning how to use many of the features. I can now set up quick keys to turn on and off certain sites. I know, it's a small leap in a giant mountain of knowledge. I have 6 sites so far. I'd really like to set up the scanner for FleetNet across Ontario (all four zones) but not sure how to do so. I believe it would involve making four sites for each, but then there's different towers involved as well.

1) Could I simply add all the control channels for the different towers to my individual zones?

I know that I could break down each site into groups with each city per Zone but that seems ridiculously complex.

2) I know I can purchase a GPS unit for this, and am considering it... my question though is, is there not a limit as to how much can be imported into the scanner? Do people simply dump the entire database into their scanner when they use the GPS puck?

Thank you in advance
 

mciupa

Member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Messages
8,353
Rather than one Quick Key per site, consider one Quick Key per zone. If you look at the pic I attached, I have put ten sites in one zone. Also, you will see the talkgroups I am interested in. The only limitation was twenty talkgroups per category. I chose my " must haves "

You could look at the route you are likely to drive in Zones 1,2,3,4 and put the towers closest to the highway. Duplicate my set up from Zone 1 for 2,3,4 with my suggestion.

I never took my 996 mobile, that is my base configuration. The Quick Save Group would be the unknowns I found while searching.
You'll also noticed I changed the sites to their city names at the bottom of my FreeScan. profile What's a Mowat?,Britannia? Charlton? . . I'd rather know instantly which site I'm listening to, numbers and building names are irrelevant to me.


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Noseybody

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2021
Messages
105
Location
Eastern Ontario Canada
Not sure if this will help, In my area, zone 3 on my 436HP I set up all zone 3 in the beginning. Turned out It was a bit much. I have since only kept repeater, sim, TAC ...... province wide and my own area, the area to my east, west, the area to my north. Even then it can be quite busy and miss some and choose to avoid some. Trial and error, what ever works for you. Load what you think yo want to hear, fine tune it from there. Something I hear time and time again. the more you scan, the more you miss (something like that :) and it is true
 

Setina

Craig Anthony
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 24, 2023
Messages
18
Location
London, Ontario
Thank you for the reply. So I could add all of the Zone 1 cities into a single quick key. I had thought about this but my next question would be, doesn't this slow down the scanning? ex. Would I miss out on some conversations the more cities I add to the Zone? I know I can set the hold time to 0 seconds in Freescan but this seems counterproductive.
 

mciupa

Member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Messages
8,353
There is duplication of frequencies with what you are suggesting. Essex and Britannia are much the same. You will be driving in Mississauga, and see an Essex County talkgroup show up and you'll think "Cool, that's 400 km's away" But that is not the case at all. You are picking up the Britannia control channel on the Essex site.
 

gb_allen

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 13, 2024
Messages
7
I'm looking for help sorting out the Bell FleetNet system. I'm interested in Zone 1 and Zone 2 areas as they cover my area around Peterborough. With the examples of Essex & Britannia above in mind as it reflects what I'm seeing. There are 121 unique Freqs used in these two zones 40 of these are listed as control channels on at east one of the sites in Zone 1 or 2.

I have a few questions to bug you with....


- So if I understand, if two sites have the same control channel the traffic on a talk group in Essex will be replicated in Britannia because of the common Control channel, correct? Making it look like I'm able to pick up traffic stops on the 401 & the Allen.

1- Some freqs are control channels on one site and a Talk freq on another is there any duplication like above also?

2- Why is it that I hear the same comms on one site appearing as one talk group, and the exact comm appears as a different talk group on another Site (running two scanners at a time)? Is it possible to have overlapping talk groups or linked groups?

3- Using an SDS200 scanner, setup with detailed trunking information displayed, more often than not, the "Site ID " does not get populated, Is there any way to resolve this? I'm using ARC536Pro software to log traffic and I can't find a way to see which sites are hosting the logged traffic.

Any help would be appreciated... Thanks in advance.. Gb
 

Gymbag

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 12, 2004
Messages
382
Location
Oxford County
Essex and Britannia are in two different parts of the province? Not sure you would be able to hear them in the Peterborough area, that being said FleetNet does use a lot of the same frequencies in different parts of the province.
 

slicerwizard

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2002
Messages
7,643
Location
Toronto, Ontario
1) Absolutely not

2) No

3) Sounds like it might be patch related

4) So you've got the scanner set to bounce between multiple sites? So it'll hit a site's control channel, then latch on to a voice call before it sees site ID info...
 
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