Frequency Banks

[fireant]

Does anyone have any suggestion on a format to group my Frequency banks I have a pro 95 had it a little over 5 mnths now I was just wandering if anybody had developed a good system I thought about doing it by service but not sure with 100 channels per bank it makes it hard to find in my area 100 in my area to put into one bank any suggestions?

fireant

 

[loumaag]

Well everyone is different, so everyone has an opinon on what is right and as long as you relaize that what is right for one is not right for another then here is how I do it.

First, I have more than one scanner. And of course you didn't say if you were monitoring Trunked or not, but in any case that is not really important, what I do is order things mostly by location. I will set up a specific bank for my local area LE comms and generally stay there. I will program other banks with adjacent LE frequencies and also fire/rescue and other public safety freqs. When something happens that indicates I should be listening elsewhere, I just add that bank(s) into the scan mode.

Now, as to the more than one scanner routine. When your desk/table/console/... :shock: gets really crowded, then you can commit a scanner to a particular agency of interest. This gets easier when they use trunking systems. I do try and keep the older scanners working on the conventional stuff so I can keep the Trunk Tracking scanners for ... well trunk tracking.

 

[qoatzecotl]

I also set up each bank by geographic area...it's much easier in my PRO-96, because of V-Folders, but that's how I do it...

 

[mciupa]

I guess you could set it up by county.
Bank 1 could be Payne County and you could put the Stillwater
site of the OKLA trunk system, the balance of the bank could have
conventional freq's which I see Payne has a lot of.
Next Bank 2 could be Tulsa Co. and the Tulsa site of the OKLA trunk
system, balance of the bank could be Tulsa related.
Continue on with Oklahoma Co. and Oke City ..etc.
Geographical is better than an all EMS or all Fire ,in my opinion.

 

[Voyager]

Does anyone have any suggestion on a format to group my Frequency banks I have a pro 95 had it a little over 5 mnths now I was just wandering if anybody had developed a good system I thought about doing it by service but not sure with 100 channels per bank it makes it hard to find in my area 100 in my area to put into one bank any suggestions?

fireant

I have most of my banks set up by geographic area, but some are by service. For example, I have a bank just for the State stuff, and another for Federal, and even one for Ininerants and common frequencies.

I also have a PRO-96, and all of my V-folders are grouped by geographic area. But, the above banks are included in nearly all of them except the State. The Federal is in all since that is nationwide.

On two of my local banks, I have one with all the local stuff, and another just with my higher priority frequencies. That way, I can select how much I hear. For example, I may just have dispatch channels in the PRI bank, but in my SECONDARY bank, I'll have working channels and adjacent departments.

There are many ways to set up banks. The 'right' way is whatever works for you.

Joe M.

 

[Pro-95]

I posted a question similar to this before and no one went out on a limb to say much. But basically what has been said is true. And I'll re-iterate and emphazise what I'm doing.

First off I sell Pro-95's all day long. We have EDACS + conventional freqs all within the area. This includes the State + 5 Counties + NDF & BLM and a handfull of fire protection districts. I have made a progamming pattern that seems to fit the majority of people buying scanners i.e. not expert users, yet....

So here goes.

Bank 0: Law Enforcement; Sheriffs, local PD's, Special Events = EDACS + Conventional
Bank 1: Fire; City FD's, satellite FD's and VFD's, NDF with NICS (air tankers etc), BLM = EDACS + Conventional
Bank 2: NHP; Nevada Highway Patrol, Road Department, Public Works, NTSB, plus some misc State agencies = EDACS + Conventional
Bank 3: EMS; REMSA (ambulance), Care Flight, Local Hospitals, Red Cross, Search and Rescue = Conventional
Bank 4: Misc NV; Local area government agencies = Conventional
Bank 5: Federal; DoWildlife, More BLM, Parks & Recreation, FBI, CIA, ATS, BATF etc. = Conventional
Bank 6: NSRS; Nevada Shared Radio System - for travelling around the State. = EDACS
Bank 7: User defined - private radio systems, fast food or ????
Bank 8: Mil Air; Military Air Frequencies, AWACS, Air Tankers, Air Combat, Russian-US, NORAD = Conventional
Bank 9: Airports; All frequencies used by all the nearby airports. = Conventional.

This format seems to appeal to the broadest spectrum of scanner purchasers since they can control what they are listening to simply by turning on/off banks. I certainly wouldn't say this is anything other than "what works for us" but maybe it will help you with an idea or two.

By the way there is this WONDERFUL program called Win95.... With this program you can upload/save/modify/download virtually any combination you want. If you have a laptop you already have a V-scanner.

 

[LarrySC]

Simple rule. PGM by area and service. Aircraft / ham / surveillance [low power WT's FM Mics etc] would be service. All others by area. Dont forget to overlap key important freqs rather than use PRI. My county EMS and Chopper freq in every bank in the same place {ch#].

 

[K5MAR]

I guess you could set it up by county.
Bank 1 could be Payne County and you could put the Stillwater
site of the OKLA trunk system, the balance of the bank could have
conventional freq's which I see Payne has a lot of.
Next Bank 2 could be Tulsa Co. and the Tulsa site of the OKLA trunk
system, balance of the bank could be Tulsa related.
Continue on with Oklahoma Co. and Oke City ..etc.
Geographical is better than an all EMS or all Fire ,in my opinion.

FYI, the Stillwater trunking site is not on the air, and may not be for awhile. Here's how I have my stuff set up here.
Bank 1 is all the Stillwater/Payne Cty area stuff except emergency management.
Bank 2 is emergency management, utilities & local aviation.
Bank 3 is the rural OHP trunked systems.
Bank 4 is OKC and Troop A Metro.
Bank 5 is the OKC area trunked systems (Edmond & Norman, I can have both in one bank as I'm seldom in an area where both can be heard.)
Bank 6 is Tulsa trunked.
Bank 7 is North Central Oklahoma
Bank 8 is South Central Oklahoma
Bank 9 is North Texas
Bank 10 is Bedford, Texas area

This is my most commonly used setup. I have setups for other areas of Oklahoma (North East, South East, North West, & South West) that I can load via computer as/when needed.

Mark S.

 

[fireant]

Here is the way I did my banks I travel alot into the okc metro area from stillwater: Bank 0=stillwater metro, Bank 2= edmond, Bank 3=ohp, Bank 4=tinker afb, Bank 5=metro area 2 ex. mwc, del city, etc.,Bank 6=ohp 2 all the low band stuff and repeaters, bank 7=rural areas, Bank 8=norman, bank 9=shawnee. one question I do have is how on win 95 program do i put trunked systems and conventional in the same bank or can you and still trunk ok if you can what mode do i put at the top conv, edacs, motorolla just a question and thanks for all the responses it gave me great ideas with 1000 channels is sometimes a little difficult was used to only 200 channel scanners from the days of old.

fireant

 

[OkRob]

One question I do have is how on win 95 program do i put trunked systems and conventional in the same bank or can you and still trunk ok if you can what mode do i put at the top conv, edacs, motorolla just a question and thanks for all the responses it gave me great ideas with 1000 channels is sometimes a little difficult was used to only 200 channel scanners from the days of old.

fireant

fireant, I'm in the Tulsa area and I have some banks with both Trunked and conventional freqs in the same bank and it works fine. On mine, in the Win95 program, I have the Type at the top of the page set for either Mot or EDACS depending on which system I have in that bank, and then for the conventional freqs in that bank, just set the Rx Mode to FM for the conventional (non-trunked) freqs and you should be set. Works for me here like that. Good luck.

- Rob

 

[fireant]

thanks Rob, just was not sure how and you did a great job with the answer now going to reorganize my banks a little but will be a snap with the great win 95 program

fireant

 

[jerneedog]

Wow...I guess I'm very unorganized with my banks.
Since I'm just starting out, the first use for my scanner was at a NASCAR race,
I had the driver's primary frequencies entered according to their number, then their secondary entered in the 100s: example: Dale Jr.'s primary was on 8 and his secondary was on 108.

Since I only go to a race one or twice a year, I've just started entering frequencies that I come across from scanning or from the internet. I've entered them as I have found them. As of right now...local PD is scattered across my banks and it would be nice to arrange them together. I'll have to work on that.

I don't have any software yet to program my scanner, I've been doing it manually, but if I do get the software for it (Uniden SC200) can I save my current settings and then load in different settings (like when I'm heading out to the races) so I can just load in whichever ones I want?

 

[Dubbin]

Hey jern you may want to take a look at the PRO99 for when you go to the races. All you have to do is punch the car number in and then it gives you all of the freqs linked to the car number. Plus it already has all the cars preprogrammed into it. You can also update the freqs at the track over the air. At only $169 it is well worth it.

 

[jerneedog]

Hey jern you may want to take a look at the PRO99 for when you go to the races. All you have to do is punch the car number in and then it gives you all of the freqs linked to the car number. Plus it already has all the cars preprogrammed into it. You can also update the freqs at the track over the air. At only $169 it is well worth it.

Thanks Dubbin, but I'm not in the market for a new one just yet...I've only had this one for a few months.
I've searched RadioShack's site and I can't find the Pro-99, is it from RadioShack?

 

[qoatzecotl]

Yes, the PRO-99 is from RadioShack...look at the Race Scanners...

 

[K5MAR]

Since I only go to a race one or twice a year, I've just started entering frequencies that I come across from scanning or from the internet. I've entered them as I have found them. As of right now...local PD is scattered across my banks and it would be nice to arrange them together. I'll have to work on that.

I don't have any software yet to program my scanner, I've been doing it manually, but if I do get the software for it (Uniden SC200) can I save my current settings and then load in different settings (like when I'm heading out to the races) so I can just load in whichever ones I want?

In answer to the first, if you group your freqs in an orderly manner, then that makes it easier to find a freq when you need it. Say there's been a disturbance, and one of the officers on the scene tells another to go to channel six, you just know there's going to be some juicy details passed on. But if you can't find that freq in your scanner quickly, or your scanner stops on another freq first, you'll miss it.

As for the second, I don't know what software is currently available for the SC200, but most every software package allows you to save and reload setups as needed. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I've got different configurations for my scanners, depending on where I'm headed. It just takes a few minutes to load the appropriate file, and I'm ready to go! With today's megachannel scanners, software programming is the way to go! You can even print out your files for reference.

Mark S.