Halifax Regional Programming of GRE PSR-600C

[UFOMAN]

This request is specifically directed to those of you who live and scan in the Halifax Regional area of Nova Scotia.
I have had a GRE PSR-600C for about two years now. I bought the key for Win500 and downloaded the frequencies from RR and programmed the scanner myself. It works … and I suppose I should be satisfied.
That said, I don’t feel that I’m getting optimum performance out of the radio … and I believe it’s the way it’s set up. One of you know better, I’m positive.
Other posters have mentioned specific towers in the area … have they set up their scanners to only take signals from those specific towers? If so how is that accomplished?
I would like to have the radio set up like a cell phone … with a “roaming” ability, so that if I’m in the Truro area, the radio will find the tower putting out the best signals for the various talk groups digitally as well as any local analog signals that might be of potential interest.

Over the past thirty years, I’ve owned three other scanners ( still have them) and had a lot of fun using them. I picked the hobby up again a couple of years ago and discovered my old Radio Shack Pro-60 scanner was no longer any good for HRM police and fire and many of the other frequencies that are now on this trunked system.
So, I guess my question is: What’s the best way of setting this radio up to get the most out of it and with the best performance/signal strength? I live in Dartmouth … in an area sometimes referred to as the “Portland Valley” where, apparently, signal strength is compromised by the low elevation, Shearwater, and god knows what other (extraneous) signals that interfere with and degrade what the scanner picks up.
I would like to cover all the bases as far as the frequency spectrum goes … but I do not want to fill spaces with frequencies simply to have a lot of frequencies. That is pointless. On those occasions when I take the radio in the car and drive to the Annapolis Valley, Truro, South Shore or Eastern Shore, I would like to be set up to monitor area frequencies specific to those areas as well as RCMP, EHS and FIRE talk groups that would be active.
Should I set up V scanners for each of those areas? Or is this necessary … and, at what point would one switchover to the “new” area you’re moving through?
If you can help me get out of the woods that I seem to be in here, it would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps, you have this radio and also use Win500, if you could send me a XML file of your configuration I could use it as a template to re-set my scanner. There must be a better way than I ‘m presently using. I need your expertise and experience.
Thanks, in advance, for any and all input on this.

 

[novascotian]

I have more or less the same questions that you do with the handheld version of your scanner. I am still learning how to program it using Win500 trial version, and still not sure whether or not to go to ARC500.
Anyway I had thought before I got this that it would have way more than 20 scan lists and was going to put different sites into different scan lists.. For example put Geizers in list 1, Preston in 2, etc... and not only that, would actually have several scanlists for each.. one for Geizers HRP, one for Geizers HR Fire etc... of course that would add up to a whole lot of scan lists and I quickly found it impractical.. Now I have gone with putting all 32 TMR control frequencies in as one system, so that as I travel around the scanner will at least look for a new CC when the one it was on gets too weak. So basically now I have this overall system and several scanlists for the different services... HRP, RCMP, HRF, and other trunk services of interest like DNR etc.. The trouble with this is that I guess when driving around locally or stationary it latches onto one site and will stay there unless it gets very weak. I still do not know if it stops on the first usable one or does it stop on the best one... beats me, at least for now...

Right now I still have a couple of scanlists with nothing, so I think I might put in a couple that have just the sites for the Valley as I drive there... so I would put in just the sites around Windsor and in the valley and switch over to them when i get in that area.. but really it does seem like no point, as I guess when a m out of range of the Halifax area ones ... Sackville mostly.. it will look for a site down that way.

the V folder idea is a good one that I eventually want to pursue. not sure yet how complicated it is to change folders... and how long it takes...

So far it is working very well, I mean in terms of hearing things in the metro area. I guess that nine times out of ten it stops on Geizers for me, In theory I guess I would like to make it listen to lets say Preston but really no way to do it. And the only way you know which one it is on is to see the frequencies and to know which are on which site. On my old scanners i could put an alphatag with each control frequency and it would therefore tell you right off which site it was on...

Maybe you have come up with things that I havent yet. I have a long background with the TMR but not with this scanner...

 

[novascotian]

I forgot to answer your question about specific sites.. you would set up a system with just two frequencies, the ones for the site you want... lets say it is Geizers... just put in its main Control channel and its alternates... the problem really is that for every one of these you do you have to separately enter tallkgroups... and depending on how many you want you will use up the memory of the scanner... I think there are only 1800 spots... but I could be wrong on this...

 

[hfxChris]

I was kind of hoping some of the PSR-500/600-wielding locals on here would have commented by now, but I guess not...

My familiarity with the PSR-500/600 is fairly rudimentary, and I just downloaded a copy of Win500 and I've been playing with it for a little bit now. I'm still not really sure how the scanner scans through the system frequencies assigned to the TSYS object. I would have thought it starts at the top of the list and works its' way down, stopping each time it receives a control channel to decode it, then moving on to the next - however novascotian your observation makes it sound like the first usable control channel frequency it comes across in the list, it stops on and only scans that one.

Now I did notice in Win500, when you're configuring the TSYS object there's an option on the right-hand side of the window called Multi-Site Mode, with three options: Off, Roam and Stationary. I looked this one up just now, and it appears if you set it to roam it will "roam" like a cell phone and "lock on" to the nearest tower, probably great for travelling in the car. Stationary it looks like will scan through all of the system frequencies, stopping when it finds a control channel, and I guess then moving on to the next frequency in the list. I would say if you're using it at home, stationary is the best option.

As for what control channel frequencies? If you're using it at home in Dartmouth, I would definitely not recommend having all 32 frequencies programmed, because that's just going to slow down how long it takes to scan through all of them. Just program the primary and alternate control channel frequencies for the local sites, which for Dartmouth would be Geizers Hill, Preston and maybe Maritime Centre.


Hope that helps..

 

[darrylcn]

Hey Chris, better late then never.. : ) I don't do much reading here during the work week. On to the topic; I have a PSR-500 that I'm very familiar with so I might be able to expand on what Chris has said hopefully without creating more confusion.

I have all the towers in NS' Primary CCs (and the alternate one at Mar Ctr) programmed into my scanner and there's no slowdown. Shortly after I got the scanner last spring I unchecked the Scan all control channels each pass (I think it's similar to that) in PSREdit and it's much faster. The other stuff I've done and found is below. Provided I was clear enough if you read on you'll see what I mean:

The beauty of the CCs for systems like Nova Scotia uses is that as you move around, they can repeat. A tower site in the valley can use the same CC as one in Halifax or CB since they are far enough apart to not interfere with each other. It's a two-for-one deal in your scanner's memory. I have the approx 20 Primary channels from Yarmouth to CB programmed into mine and have set the scanner to Roam. I drove to Irwin Lake Chalets last weekend and it worked flawlessly from Clayton Park to there, where it picked up Hilden and Shubie for the weekend. With the scanner set to Roam and the thresholds tweaked, it stays on a given tower that has a good signal until you move. When at home if I move mine the wrong way it might grab Sackville and occasionally make a "brrrrrrrrrp" sound on an HRP channel as the signal strength fluctuates mid conversation, but when that happens I just re situate the scanner to the sweet spot in my apartment that makes it only grab Geizer's and it's fine. As long as I see CC01 in the display (for my scanner that's Geizers), no issues. I think this is the setup you want, UFOMAN.

I have the CC page on this site loaded into my iPhone as screenshots (so I don't need a cell signal to see this site) so that if I'm in the middle of nowhere and find that there's an Alternate CC I need to add I can do so 'in the field' as it were. The only site I've heard that regularly switches to its alternate is Maritime Center but there may be others. Mar Ctr is the only site I have programmed to use either a pri or alt CC. The rest all have only their primary CCs programmed. That's why I have them on my phone, so I can add as/if needed, but it hasn't been required yet. I have about 12-15 empty spaces for CCs in my scanner if I need to add some alternates.

Nova Scotian, if I read your post correctly you're talking about programming in the TGRPs for each CC freq, that wasn't required on mine, the scanner and system take care of that behind the scenes. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. I have mine set up as follows:
-- At the top of the pile, a TSYS I labeled 'NSTMR'. This is the system I'm connected to, IE Nova Scotia's TMR.
-- For that TSYS I have a bunch of CCs, the Primarys, (and one alternate) for all the towers on the system. This tells my system what frequencies to listen for when it's trying to lock onto a tower that it's going to listen for talkgroups on. Of those talkgroups, it'll only play those that I have enabled when I'm scanning.
-- Within that TSYS that I've told what CCs to listen to I have every TGRP that I want to listen to on the system, whether it's an HRP, RCMP, Fire, EHS, etc etc... These are organized into scanlists (ie 1, 2, 3 etc on the scanner's keypad).
Note that I only had to program the system, the CCs and the talkgroups one time. I have non HRP groups in one scanlist, HRP in another, Fire in their own, EHS in their own. It's seamless and easy to adjust what I'm scanning. I know there is a configuration floating around where Fire is its own system, police is its own, etc. Once I knew 'just enough to be dangerous', I spoke to the person that set that up (it was loaded in mine for about the 1st 4 months I owned it) and we agreed that it's not necessary to do it that way, and it will cause slowdowns when you enable more than one 'system'. Couple that with the scanner scanning all CCs each pass (that's the box I unchecked) and with a delay on each object and you'll be lucky to get the start of any conversation. This may have all been greek to you, apologies if so..

The only thing I use V Scanner folders for now that I have it how I want it is for storing configurations for places I visit outside NS. No need to load them as you move around NS. That's how I had it before and it is much better this way. I know my scanner pretty well now, I don't feel like I miss anything unless there's a lot of traffic on the system like on a Friday/Sat night, but that's what the Fav/Skywatch button is for. Unchecking the Scan all CCs in PSREdit doesn't seem to have any downside.

Of course if you wanna skip trying to make sense of what I wrote above I'd be happy to email my config to either of you guys if you wanna try it out. The only caveat is that it's a PSREdit file. And also that it's set up how I want, IE the jail in every scanlist along with the 2 in flight refueling freqs for NS. Can't see why you'd wanna disable those, but I guess there are some weirdos out there that aren't obsessed with airplanes All you'd have to do would be sort, turn on/off the talkgroups in a scanlist to tailor them to your needs. The complicated sounding stuff like the system/scanner config wouldn't have to change. If you want to try my setup you'd have to install PSREdit, but it's free for 30 days. That way you can try it and if you find something's crazy about my config I can answer your questions or update my own config if you're correct. That way we both benefit.

Any questions just let me know. I don't know everything but I have a nearly year old PSR-500 that I am _100%_ happy with based on my settings. Took a lot of reading and experimenting to get it how it is now, but I have it dialed in to how I want it.

 

[novascotian]

Not sure if you guys know that I (novascotian) = marscan. I have just obtained a PRO-106 so I presume identical to the PSR-500. This will take a lot of getting used to compared to a traditional scanner, That multicolour LED was impressive, at least at first... anyway now I have loaded pretty much everything in I want... As I mentioned I loaded all 32 frequencies in as one system.. but have backed off on that and now only have the 16 primaries plus alternates for Maritime Centre, Sackville and Geizers.. the latter two as I still recall them being used, but of course maybe not anymore. I am in Sackville and find that it stops on Geizers prettymuch always. My assumption is that it stops on the first usable cc, not the strongest. I am closer to the Sackville tower but I entered the CC's in the frequency order... starting with 860.0125 and working up... so Geizers comes before Sackville... I ought to reenter them backwards or maybe this radio ahs a reverse scanning order button.. not sure and it isnt with me at the moment... see if that makes a difference. Generally speaking you cannot go wrong with Geizers.... though I know that there is a certain amount that I might hear on Sackville or another local one that isnt on Geizers... no perfect solution to that I guess. For example I would like to listen to the RCMP on the eastern shore and for that I could make it listen to Musquodoboit Hbr but then I would miss a lot of the in-town stuff.... so I think I need to set up a separate system with just Musq Hbr in it and that t.g. and scan both the main one and that dedicated one...

I havent quite grasped the options mentioned re roaming etc... will have to reread your posts... I thinnk this is a crucial item.... the difference between Off, Roam, and Stationary...

I am using Win500 on the 30 day trial..... wondering if other software would be better....

One thing I havent grasped is how to get to a certain frequency manually.... Lets say Daryl I want to park on an AAR frequency. How do I do that? On my other scanners I would know that it is part of a bunch in bank 7 and go to say 701 and then manually go up until i find it or maybe even I would knwo it was specifaclly at 721 and just go there directly. How do you do this on this new scanner.. my list of conventional frequencies is just a big jumble that only comes together by assigning to scan lists... so how do you find anything specific in a manual sense... yep I guess that is a noob question but I have only had this a week or so....

by the way are you guys able to get into the local forum site... I see it has a brand new opening page, and also many links to my own site which is interesting in itself.... but I cannot sign in.....

 

[darrylcn]

Nope, didn't know your identity till now, hopefully I can help you out though, I got a lot of knowledge from your site/posts over time.

As for the tuning of an object, I think you can based on object number, but I don't do it due to the way that I have mine programmed. I'd have to look it up. Between scanlists of all TGRPs that are pretty fine tuned and the very useful Favs and Skywarn buttons I'm all set. For my Favs button I have about 8 items and my Skywarn has about 3, so I can really dial it down to just the few things I want to hear. Not much help probably, but they are useful as long as the few things or one thing you wanna hear doesn't change too often. But theres still the temp lockout option too, I love it since it's undone with a power cycle. Or the Find function, if you're really lost.

I don't know how to better explain the Roam feature better than the Easier to Read manual, Roam is like a cell phone or the actual radios if it's set up right, Stat will pick up each of the towers in range and Off just uses the first one it finds.

 

[novascotian]

Yes I can see that the skywarn and favouriites would be good. Right now I have the ATIS at Halifax on the Skywarn I have plans for the favourites scanlist as well....

So on those options.... with Off it takes the first usable, with Roam it takes the best one, and with Stat it does all the in-range ones so that from here in Sackville it would actually use several sites... ... somehow I think I have this wrong... guess I just need to experiment. Having them all in is the way to go I think and maybe keep it on roam and it will work anywhere.. .just like it does in my other scanners... My only wish above that is to be able to listen like I said to the eastern shore or colchester to catch some of that traffic... From home I mean... so for that I would have to have a separate system that excludes the local Halifax sites.... does that sound reasonable?

 

[darrylcn]

You have it right on the roam stuff, I leave it on Roam all the time. Also, FYI most or all of the towers in HRM should be broadcasting the same talkgroups, Geizers for example seems to do all the HRP stuff as there are radios using each if their talkgroups connected to it. I think you have it more or less figured out with the exception of listening to far off stuff, if no TMR radios are set to a talkgroup you're after it won't broadcast them. Last night I was hearing Lunenburg RCMP and Bible Hill Det on Geizers for a while but it went away. The sites are 'smart' in that way.

 

[hfxChris]

Not sure if you guys know that I (novascotian) = marscan.

Hey marscan! I had no idea. Glad to see you picked up a Pro-106!
Yep, it's virtually identical to the PSR-500. And if I'm understanding the instructions correctly, you've got it dead on with the multisite options (off/roam/stationary). Based on my understanding stationary would make it function more like the bank/channel scanners of the past, where it scans one CC and then moves on to the next in your list, and the next etc. Roam probably would be best for say doing a cross-province trip, so it's not constantly stopping on distant CCs which may be unusable. It should always find the strongest tower in range.

Also, FYI most or all of the towers in HRM should be broadcasting the same talkgroups

I wouldn't assume that. It should be true of the local dispatching talkgroups (DISP-C or East Primary) but the operations talkgroups (OPS2-R for example) may only be affiliated to one or two sites in the metro area. Same for some of the more fringe stuff, like the Musquodoboit RCMP TG is sometimes affiliated with the Preston site, but it wouldn't be on Geizers.

 

[darrylcn]

Ok, similar. I was thinking things like Primary Central for HRP and stuff being more likely to be heard than Kings RCMP, but you make a good point.. It's not concrete, I just picked up Musquodoboit on Geizer's a minute ago so it varies. I wrote that hurriedly at Costco while walking trying to avoid the crowd at that place.. Lesson learned.

 

[hfxChris]

It's not concrete

Nothing is concrete on a system like this

 

[novascotian]

Thanks for the comments.... I am pretty much up on trunking.. affiliations and all that... Yes almost for sure all the HRP ones will come thru Geizers but I dont think they each necessarily are always on Sackville or MC let alone Preston or Tantallon... but mostly I was thinking of the tg's from outside the city that sort of border... for example the Eastern Shore tg is more likely to be on Preston than it is on Geizers... same with RCMP Hants West on Sackville but not on Geizers... so that is why I woulld like to listen to Geizers AND Sackville.. that's the concept anyway.

By the way and you guys probably know this... but you know how vhf 138-150 and then like 160 up to 174 has a different structure in the US compared to here... well there is a command in Win500 to change to the Canadian structure... so when I go to put in 143.895 for example, on the US default it changes to the nearest valid US frequency.. 143.90.. but with this command checked off it goes in just as I enter it ... I asked Don Starr about this issue directly and he told me of it, though once he pointed it out it was obvious, and I felt dumb for not noticing the feature on my own.

 

[darrylcn]

Nothing is concrete on a system like this

That's for sure!

 

[UFOMAN]

I'm a lot happier now

Considering your input, I thought it incumbent on me to update you on where I'm at with this programming conundrum. I focused all of my attention to this over the weekend and, although I will be adding frequencies for local fire and police of areas in the Valley and Truro, I'm more than happy with the way this is set up now.
In the "System Frequencies" section of Win500, I entered all those I'm likely to encounter on a road trip and set the 500C up to "Roam" while leaving the 600C on "Stationary" at least until I can fully understand the mechanics involved. If I run both the 500 and the 600 simultaneously, I find,sometimes they will both hit on the same object ID ... but use different CC's . I'm getting more hits and the transmissions are cleaner,over all.
Both scanners have their respective programs backed up into a V-scanner. I've had to revert to the factory default once with the PSR-600C because I apparently pushed the wrong buttons ... and rather than try to trace what I did wrong, I simply re-programmed ( more like reconstituted) the scanner in the time it took to recall my program configuration from the V-scanner ( 5 secs) ... no fuss, muss, or bother. Use the V scanner if you would sooner work smart than hard to totally re-program. Those of you with computer knowledge may have experienced a hard drive failure ... and learned through bitter experience to back it up. That is the primary function of the V-Scanner.
A good idea is worth stealing. That's why another poster's idea of loading a duplicate program, without the LED lights blasting ... into one V-scanner works great if you're an insomniac like I am.
When you want the colored lights back during the day, simply "Load" the duplicate copy of the program from the V-scanner. At night, totally blacked out.
BTW, access is easy ... Simply "FUNC", then "PGM" to "STOR" your current configuration, or , a version without the LED's ... or "LOAD" that configuration from the V-Scanner.

It is NOT necessary to fill every position with varying configurations for each geographical area.To do so is to defeat, if not negate, the convenience inherent in the scanner's design.
One of you mentioned that the same (CC) frequencies are used over and over at the various sites. Put them all in for those areas you anticipate being in. Those that are used in another area will be skipped over by the scanner,anyway.
So, for example, I didn't bother with frequencies for Yarmouth or Cape Breton, for now. If I need those frequencies, I'll load them using Win500 , and, if it takes more than 20 minutes, I'm doing it wrong.

RR and the people here is a great resource ... as is the "Simplified Manual" site. AND one should refer to a manual with these radios. If a check list is good enough for an airline pilot, then consider the manual as your "checklist" for these radios. Because, unless you're the guy who engineered these,or, you're some kind of a Savant with a photographic memory, there's no way, you could possibly commit all of the operating procedures to memory. For that matter, I'd like to see the designer(s) operate these things without reference manuals.
Now, here's another one to ponder. Is there anything to gain by individually fine tuning each object, TG or TSYS. If so, what controls would be employed, and, are they available within Win500?

Now, I'm looking for Military frequencies that are active and interesting, as well as Search and Rescue, so, if anyone has any suggestions or experience, I'm interested.

Again, gentlemen, thank you all for your thought provoking suggestions.

 

[darrylcn]

Glad you're getting somewhere! I'd start with the in flight refueling frequencies I mentioned being obsessed with. AR20 (thats the refueling area that runs over our heads here in NS) Pri and the lesser used Sec are 341.75 and 349.70. If there's something military related that's cooler than seeing/hearing IFR I haven't seen it.

I'm thinking of duplicating the v scanners with and without LED too, although it is pretty easy to hit the lightbulb button on power up to switch to Stealth mode.

 

[hfxChris]

Both scanners have their respective programs backed up into a V-scanner. I've had to revert to the factory default once with the PSR-600C because I apparently pushed the wrong buttons ... and rather than try to trace what I did wrong, I simply re-programmed ( more like reconstituted) the scanner in the time it took to recall my program configuration from the V-scanner ( 5 secs) ... no fuss, muss, or bother. Use the V scanner if you would sooner work smart than hard to totally re-program. Those of you with computer knowledge may have experienced a hard drive failure ... and learned through bitter experience to back it up. That is the primary function of the V-Scanner.

This is exactly what I used v-folders for on my Pro-96. Save your config to the v-folder, you accidentally F it up or lock out a bunch of talkgroups, it's a quick process to re-load from the v-folder, undo your screwups and unlock all of the talkgroups you had locked out.

Now, I'm looking for Military frequencies that are active and interesting, as well as Search and Rescue, so, if anyone has any suggestions or experience, I'm interested.

I assume you have the Shearwater (CYAW) ATC frequencies programmed?

 

[UFOMAN]

That may the case with PSR-500C .... I'm not touching that one. It's the PSR-600C that I have set up that way. It beats a thick piece of paper folded over the LED. I cannot believe the amount of light that little sucker throws. I'll check out the mid air refuels. I'm an airplane nut from way back. Back in the mid 90's I was lucky enough to be on the inside with Media passes to the old Shearwater Air Show. We would go out to the button and shoot video of the a/c coming in for the show and have the scanner tuned to the ATC frequencies.Two Tomcats requested a low approach touch and go ... because of the scanner I was able to catch it all on video ... full after burner, straight up. Those were the days for sure.

 

[darrylcn]

The program you're using might have an LED intensity setting. PSREdit does, I have mine dialed down to the lowest level so that it's just instense instead of insane. They're just RGB values, I'll post a screen if you want after work tonight.