How many is too many?

[vonivo]

Is there such a thing as having too many frequencies programed into your scanner so that it will miss some that are being broadcasted?

Model BC246t I have about 50 frequencies stored in 4 systems some groups have 3-10 in them. The scanner says 4% memory used.....man this thing has alot of memory.

And on a side nte if the battries die out i wont loose my programing thats stored permantly unless i delete it right?

 

[jastx]

Is there such a thing as having too many frequencies programed into your scanner so that it will miss some that are being broadcasted?

Model BC246t I have about 50 frequencies stored in 4 systems some groups have 3-10 in them. The scanner says 4% memory used.....man this thing has alot of memory.

The scanner operates as fast as it can. If it does 100 channels per second, it would take one-half of a second to run through 50 frequencies.

Many people use the systems and quick-keys to be able to switch off some frequencies if something interesting is happening on only one of them. Use of the systems, groups and quick keys lets people manage this problem as best suits their situation.

And on a side nte if the battries die out i wont loose my programing thats stored permantly unless i delete it right?

The programmed frequencies and other settings will not be lost when the batteries discharge or are replaced.

 

[vonivo]

thank you for your reply.....where did you get the spec that states it scanns 100ch / sec from?

 

[mancow]

He was using that as an example.

 

[vonivo]

ok thx i was just trying to figure out how many would start to make me loose some of the conversations that i want to hear.

 

[jastx]

thank you for your reply.....where did you get the spec that states it scanns 100ch / sec from?

In the "Specifications" section of the Owner's Manual - top of page 103.

 

[rbm]

Is there such a thing as having too many frequencies programed into your scanner so that it will miss some that are being broadcasted?

The more frequencies you scan and the more active those frequencies are, the more you'll miss.

Even though the scan rate may be 'x' number of channels per second, the more active those frequencies are, the longer it will take to scan through the channels one time.

For example, if your scanner stops on a frequency while they're doing a DL or license plate lookup, you'll miss everything that is happening on all the other frequencies.

 

[Zeus661]

I have about 5000 in my 396T

 

[mtindor]

I don't know if it's like this on all trunking scanners, my 996 is I believe 100 ch/sec - However, if you add just one trunked system into the mix with just a few frequencies and TGs, you add a significant amount of scanning time. From what I can see, if you are going to monitor trunked systems you can forget about 100 ch/sec.

I monitor Ohio MARCS configured with 8 of the local sites and only the TGs for the local eastern Ohio area - and it takes TWELVE seconds just to scan the MARCS system. To me the scanner is useless for anything else if you are going to scan one decent trunked system.

For our local county trunked system I just program the six channels in conventionally in my PRO-90 - and typically once a day the control channel changes and I have to lock it out and unlock the previous control channel. But I don't miss nearly as much on this trunked system by doing it this way (other than not being able to have a radio display to me the TG that is in use) compared to what I would miss if i had programmed it in to the 996 as a trunked system.

Mike

 

[hankv]

I don't know if it's like this on all trunking scanners, my 996 is I believe 100 ch/sec - However, if you add just one trunked system into the mix with just a few frequencies and TGs, you add a significant amount of scanning time. From what I can see, if you are going to monitor trunked systems you can forget about 100 ch/sec.



Mike

I was under the impression that in Trunking each Talk Group IS a channel. I looked at the system and there are hundreds of TG's that your 996 has to scan thru looking for the ones you programmed in - ON EACH CONTROL CHANNEL (I think you said 8). Remember the 996 doesn't "look for" TG's, it reads the TG on the Control Channel and compares it to your list of TG's.

 

[mtindor]

I was under the impression that in Trunking each Talk Group IS a channel. I looked at the system and there are hundreds of TG's that your 996 has to scan thru looking for the ones you programmed in - ON EACH CONTROL CHANNEL (I think you said 8). Remember the 996 doesn't "look for" TG's, it reads the TG on the Control Channel and compares it to your list of TG's.

I don't have all the TGs in - first off, you cant fit them all into one system, and secondly I couldn't hear more of them. Mine is pretty trimmed down but still close to 250 TGs.

And I purposefully always run in ID Search mode - and my understanding was that in ID Search mode it just checks for any active TGs and (a) if there is one or more active TG it will look up in your list of TGs to match it and if not it will just display the TG.

I'm not doubting what you say - because I've only been scanning trunked systems for a week - But it seems to me that it shouldn't have to 'scan' 250 TGs in each system to check and see if one of them happens to be active, especially if I have it in ID Search mode.

I have 8 sites set up for the Ohio MARCS trunked system and about 220 TGs loaded in. So it's going to stop and check between 8-16 control channels to see which ones are active (8 will be active) and check to see if there are any active TGs - then if there is, cross reference them to what is in the scanner and display them? Ok I think I'm following. I don't like it, but I can't do anything about it ROFL.

I guess since the scanner has no way of 'asking' for what's active to make it potentially quicker, it has to stay on the control channel long enough to get that information that the control channel spits out so often (and I'm guessing that's once every second or two).

It's really cool to be able to see whose doing the talking - and great to be able to let the scanner track and handle the active control channel (as opposed to putting them in a conventional group), but it's a bummer at how much this slows down the scanning of everything else overall. I guess it's not the fault of the scanner - it's limited by what data it can get from the control channel and when it can get it from the control channel, since it cannot 'ask' for the information.

Would I give up my 996? No. But definitely it just sits there monitoring only two systems and absolutely nothing else (because I already risk missing too much by it scanning just those two systems).

I don't want to set the hold time too low on each site because I'm afraid that it won't sit on the control channel long enough to get the information it needs to determine if there is activity before it moves on to the next site / system.

Mike

 

[hankv]

And I purposefully always run in ID Search mode - and my understanding was that in ID Search mode it just checks for any active TGs and (a) if there is one or more active TG it will look up in your list of TGs to match it and if not it will just display the TG.

But it seems to me that it shouldn't have to 'scan' 250 TGs in each system to check and see if one of them happens to be active, especially if I have it in ID Search mode.

I don't want to set the hold time too low on each site because I'm afraid that it won't sit on the control channel long enough to get the information it needs to determine if there is activity before it moves on to the next site / system.

Mike

Getting close, and it may be the phrasing, not the concept that we dont mesh on.

I run ID SEARCH - When the scanner stops on a TG I don't want, I lock out that TG, and the scanner wont stop on that TG any more.

The scanner doesn't scan TG's - it finds an active Control Channel and "listens" for TG information - if it finds TG information the scanner then checks to see if you have that TG locked out - if the TG isn't locked out the scanner switches to the transmission and displays the TGID - when the transmission ends, and the channel delay Time expires, the scanner returns to the Control Channel (or maybe it just goes to the next CC) and "listens" again until it's time to repeat the process on the next Control Channel.

 

[mtindor]

Getting close, and it may be the phrasing, not the concept that we dont mesh on.

I run ID SEARCH - When the scanner stops on a TG I don't want, I lock out that TG, and the scanner wont stop on that TG any more.

The scanner doesn't scan TG's - it finds an active Control Channel and "listens" for TG information - if it finds TG information the scanner then checks to see if you have that TG locked out - if the TG isn't locked out the scanner switches to the transmission and displays the TGID - when the transmission ends, and the channel delay Time expires, the scanner returns to the Control Channel (or maybe it just goes to the next CC) and "listens" again until it's time to repeat the process on the next Control Channel.

I'm beginning to wish I had a job where i constantly travel the country and get to stay in a nice hotel while I'm doing it - Because it would be really enjoyable to unlock systems in the various areas when you are visiting them and see what's going on in that area. But, although living in podunk has its benefits, scanner excitement isn't one of them!

Ok I understand what you're saying - Let me ask you this: What do you set your hold time to? 0/1/2? Obviously the longer it holds on a control channel, the less likely it is going to find something on a different system - but the more likely that it is going to positively discover any traffic on the current system it is scanning. Just wondering if I set hold time to the lowest # if it will really make it much more reliable at picking up activity on that system when it listens on that CC for such a brief period of time.

Mike

 

[jastx]

Just wondering if I set hold time to the lowest # if it will really make it much more reliable at picking up activity on that system when it listens on that CC for such a brief period of time.

Why not try a few different settings? It can always be set back to what you started with. That way you'll be able to determine what works best for you.

 

[hankv]

Ok I understand what you're saying - Let me ask you this: What do you set your hold time to? 0/1/2? Obviously the longer it holds on a control channel, the less likely it is going to find something on a different system - but the more likely that it is going to positively discover any traffic on the current system it is scanning. Just wondering if I set hold time to the lowest # if it will really make it much more reliable at picking up activity on that system when it listens on that CC for such a brief period of time.

Mike

I have always used the default (2?), but I normally only run one Trunked System and one Conventional System (5 freq). On the Trunked system I have most of the available TG's locked out because they dont interest me (water works, dog catcher, etc), but if things get REALLY slow I can turn on another system just to have something to listen to.

 

[homeless]

Hello everyone,

I simply store EVERYTHING I want to listen to in seperate banks, and when needed just

lock out the banks that I do not want to hear to speed things up a bit on the scan

process. Your correct that the trunk systems take a real long time to scan through them,

which if you live in areas that use conventional single use frequencies some of those calls

are sure to be missed quit frequently.