Hurst P25 Radio System Questions and Issues

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KI5IRE

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I scan the HEB area an noticed that the Hurst Fire Department does not have a fire tone, that I know of in their digital system on their Fire Alarm channel like the other area deparrtments, but their Tone Out is on a conventional analog channel. I have it set up in my favorites list for the Fire Tone channel which is located on 855.9875 for when they tone out so I'll hear it at night or just know that it is them and what is being dispatched, and then the Fire Alarm channel on the Hurst P25 system. I have noticed that after the tone, there is silence, I'm guessing that's the time between when they tone and dispatch, but I sometimes only her the back end of the actual dispatch and miss the initial dispatch. Does that seem like something in my scanner like its holding on that channel too long and then they start the dispatch and my scanner doesn't catch the open squelch on the P25 channel? If it helps, I am on a BCD436. Also have any of you from my area that might scan Hurst ever heard a tone for any reason on Hurst's digital Fire Alarm channel?

Hopefully I am making any sense, I am new to scanning with an actual scanner.
 

hiegtx

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I scan the HEB area an noticed that the Hurst Fire Department does not have a fire tone, that I know of in their digital system on their Fire Alarm channel like the other area deparrtments, but their Tone Out is on a conventional analog channel. I have it set up in my favorites list for the Fire Tone channel which is located on 855.9875 for when they tone out so I'll hear it at night or just know that it is them and what is being dispatched, and then the Fire Alarm channel on the Hurst P25 system. I have noticed that after the tone, there is silence, I'm guessing that's the time between when they tone and dispatch, but I sometimes only her the back end of the actual dispatch and miss the initial dispatch. Does that seem like something in my scanner like its holding on that channel too long and then they start the dispatch and my scanner doesn't catch the open squelch on the P25 channel? If it helps, I am on a BCD436. Also have any of you from my area that might scan Hurst ever heard a tone for any reason on Hurst's digital Fire Alarm channel?

Hopefully I am making any sense, I am new to scanning with an actual scanner.
The fire tone feature on the Uniden scanners, including the 436 as well as other, previous, models, only works when holding on the expected frequency for the tone-out. It does not revert to normal scanning (which would be needed for the P25 channel/talkgroup to be received) after a matching tone is received. See Fire Tone Out - The RadioReference Wiki for more information. To do both (tone out as well as scan the TGID), you'd need a second scanner.

What you might consider doing is setting the Fire Alarm Dispatch talkgroup as a priority channel. That way, the scanner would switch to that when scanning the system, if there was radio traffic. You also could add an alert tone, and/or set the alert LED to a specific color such as white, for an eye-catcher, and set it to flash.
 

KI5IRE

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The fire tone feature on the Uniden scanners, including the 436 as well as other, previous, models, only works when holding on the expected frequency for the tone-out. It does not revert to normal scanning (which would be needed for the P25 channel/talkgroup to be received) after a matching tone is received. See Fire Tone Out - The RadioReference Wiki for more information. To do both (tone out as well as scan the TGID), you'd need a second scanner.

What you might consider doing is setting the Fire Alarm Dispatch talkgroup as a priority channel. That way, the scanner would switch to that when scanning the system, if there was radio traffic. You also could add an alert tone, and/or set the alert LED to a specific color such as white, for an eye-catcher, and set it to flash.



I don't use the FTO feature, I just use the FTO that they transmit to wake me up in the night or to know that it's Hurst dispatching.

Hurst isn't the only channel I scan and they are provided mutual aid by Bedford and Euless automatically, so should i also set Bedford and Euless as priority as well? What exactly does the feature do?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

hiegtx

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I don't use the FTO feature, I just use the FTO that they transmit to wake me up in the night or to know that it's Hurst dispatching.

Hurst isn't the only channel I scan and they are provided mutual aid by Bedford and Euless automatically, so should i also set Bedford and Euless as priority as well? What exactly does the feature do?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You could, instead, set the conventional frequency that Hurst uses for tone-outs, as a priority channel. That way, the scanner will flip to that when active, although not necessarily when it's busy scanning a trunked system. If all they use it for is the tone out itself, then the voice dispatch with the run details is over on the trunked system, that may do what you intended. You can also set a "negative" delay on the conventional frequency, so that the scanner will not hang there too long.
 

KI5IRE

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You could, instead, set the conventional frequency that Hurst uses for tone-outs, as a priority channel. That way, the scanner will flip to that when active, although not necessarily when it's busy scanning a trunked system. If all they use it for is the tone out itself, then the voice dispatch with the run details is over on the trunked system, that may do what you intended. You can also set a "negative" delay on the conventional frequency, so that the scanner will not hang there too long.

Will setting one talkgroup our channel as a priority interrupt a transmission? Like If I have my Alarm channel as a priority and I'm listening to a fire on a Tac channel and the Alarm channel dispatches say a medical call while there is a transmission open on the Tac channel will the Alarm channel (priority channel) interrupt the current transmission or wait til after it completes to switch over?
 

hiegtx

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Will setting one talkgroup our channel as a priority interrupt a transmission? Like If I have my Alarm channel as a priority and I'm listening to a fire on a Tac channel and the Alarm channel dispatches say a medical call while there is a transmission open on the Tac channel will the Alarm channel (priority channel) interrupt the current transmission or wait til after it completes to switch over?
It will briefly interrupt it. The more channels you tag as priority, the longer the interruption will be. However, it is a very brief break in the audio. I have maybe 8 or so channels tagged that way, and it's only a minor hiccup. I know some people do not use the Priority feature, because they want zero breaks, but as ling as not too many are selected, it does not interfere with my listening.

On the Miscellaneous tab of the Profile edit window, you can set the interval between checks for Priority channel activity. You choices are 1 to 10 seconds, in one second steps. I generally use 4, as this minimizes the breaks, but still checks often enough for me to avoid missing something on the channels I am most interested in. That Misc. tab is also where you set the list to use Priority by default, or leave it turned off. (You can toggle it on and off on the scanner by hitting the Function key, then pressing the "." (no) key. Your modes for Priority are Off, Priority DND (the scanner will not interrupt a conversation to check for Priority), and Priority (which will interrupt to check the priority flagged channels).

If setting a Priority within a trunked system, you must also activate Priority ID Scan. That's a selection on the Options tab for the System in the Favorites List Editor.
 

KI5IRE

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It will briefly interrupt it. The more channels you tag as priority, the longer the interruption will be. However, it is a very brief break in the audio. I have maybe 8 or so channels tagged that way, and it's only a minor hiccup. I know some people do not use the Priority feature, because they want zero breaks, but as ling as not too many are selected, it does not interfere with my listening.

On the Miscellaneous tab of the Profile edit window, you can set the interval between checks for Priority channel activity. You choices are 1 to 10 seconds, in one second steps. I generally use 4, as this minimizes the breaks, but still checks often enough for me to avoid missing something on the channels I am most interested in. That Misc. tab is also where you set the list to use Priority by default, or leave it turned off. (You can toggle it on and off on the scanner by hitting the Function key, then pressing the "." (no) key. Your modes for Priority are Off, Priority DND (the scanner will not interrupt a conversation to check for Priority), and Priority (which will interrupt to check the priority flagged channels).

If setting a Priority within a trunked system, you must also activate Priority ID Scan. That's a selection on the Options tab for the System in the Favorites List Editor.

Is P-Ch priority? Also, I am just marking my alarm channels on the Hurst P25 and Bedford Fire Alarm and Euless Fire Alarm on the FWRRS NE Site, so what all do I need to set those up properly?
 

jasday

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Hurst FD has their station alerts set up on the analog channel as that's what they use to use for all communications prior to going to the p25 system. It's expensive to set up each station with updated radios, relays, lights, etc, so they opted to continue to use what they already had in place. No need to create the wheel all over again, especially if it works. There are not any tones on the p25 system that I have heard.
 

hiegtx

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Is P-Ch priority? Also, I am just marking my alarm channels on the Hurst P25 and Bedford Fire Alarm and Euless Fire Alarm on the FWRRS NE Site, so what all do I need to set those up properly?
P-Ch is Priority.

For the trunked systems, you do need to enable priority in the system options as well as tag the TGID.

For conventional, just tag the channel.

One you have them set correctly, then turn on Priority in your profile in Sentinel & set the interval you want for checks.
 
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