Monitoring A Motorola MOTO TRBO Capacity Plus System On A DMR Amateur Radio

[JASII]

I have a friend who is an end user on a Motorola MOTOTRBO Capacity Plus UHF system and wants to monitor just his talkgroup.

He has a DMR amateur radio that can tune those UHF frequencies.

If we program in those frequencies, with the correct Color Code and Talk-group ID (TGID) and scan them conventionally, will he be able to hear most of the traffic on just his talkgroup?

(I think he has a mode that will monitor both TS 1 and TS 2.)

I realize that it probably won't be as good as a genuine radio programmed correctly for the system, but I am just wondering if it is worth trying.

 

[jafarm66]

If the system is trunked the method might not work. Please wait for other advise as I am not very knowledgeable about DMR.

 

[marksmith]

Agree with previous answer.

If this is not a trunked system you would probably be fine.

Since you are talking talkgroups, it appears the system is trunked. Unless the radio you are programming is capable of following trunked activity, you won't be able to follow a specific talkgroup.

However, it should be able to monitor the system. You just would not have ability to follow activity on specific talkgroups unless the radio has the capability.

Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others

 

[mikewazowski]

Please ignore the previous answers as they're wrong.

Your friend is on the right track.

Program each frequency in twice, one for each timeslot. Make sure you've got the color code correct and scan for just the group you want.

It's not pretty but it works.

 

[w4amp]

Above post correct. Put all the police talk groups in one receive group. Then put all the frequencies (slot 1 and 2) into a scan list and you are good to go. The DMR rigs have much tighter front ends than a scanner and work well. Just can't trunktrack.

 

[buddrousa]

I used Mike's method with a TYT 380 as a way to follow a DMR trunking system before DMR was added to scanners. This is kind of the same way Whistler does DMR TRUNKING.

 

[CanesFan95]

Capacity Plus IS trunking, so if you know that the system is Capacity Plus, then that means it's trunked. What system are you trying to monitor? Look for it in the database and post a link here. The use of a talk group ID is required for all DMR, conventional or trunked. So the existence of TG IDs alone doesn't tell you whether or not it's conventional or trunked.

DMR ham radios don't do trunking, and Capacity Plus is a Motorola proprietary trunking format which means you'd have to buy a MotoTRBO radio anyways. But even then, if Restricted Access To System (RAS) in use, having a MotoTRBO radio to trunktrack the system properly still won't work because you won't know the RAS key, which means you'll get no audio.

The more frequencies the system has and/or the busier it is with different talkgroups, the less success you'll have by conventionally scanning each RF frequency (twice - once for each slot) to listen to a talk group. You will miss some transmissions. Again, post us a link to the system.

 

[slicerwizard]

DMR ham radios don't do trunking, and Capacity Plus is a Motorola proprietary trunking format which means you'd have to buy a MotoTRBO radio anyways.

The more frequencies the system has and/or the busier it is with different talkgroups, the less success you'll have by conventionally scanning each RF frequency (twice - once for each slot) to listen to a talk group.

You're contradicting yourself.

 

[CanesFan95]

How so?

 

[sibbley]

Please ignore the previous answers as they're wrong.

Your friend is on the right track.

Program each frequency in twice, one for each timeslot. Make sure you've got the color code correct and scan for just the group you want.

It's not pretty but it works.

What Mike said. Lots of us used this method prior to DMR being available in scanners. A scanner will work best, but, a non-trunking DMR radio will work in a pinch.

 

[mikewazowski]

Here you say you need to buy a MotoTRBO radio since ham radios don't do trunking.

DMR ham radios don't do trunking, and Capacity Plus is a Motorola proprietary trunking format which means you'd have to buy a MotoTRBO radio anyways.

Here you say that scanning the channels conventionally will work with his ham radio:

The more frequencies the system has and/or the busier it is with different talkgroups, the less success you'll have by conventionally scanning each RF frequency (twice - once for each slot) to listen to a talk group. You will miss some transmissions.

I'm sure at this point, the OP has figured out his amateur radio will work. No need for a link to the system.

 

[CanesFan95]

Well, I don't think that was outright saying it'll work. The point I wanted to make is that the more frequencies the radio has to scan through, the longer it may take to follow a talk group, which means you could miss a transmission. And even moreso if the sysetm is busy with other talk groups, cos then your radio has to stop on each frequency for a moment and see if the TG matches and then continue scanning.

This may not be as good as real trunktracking. So maybe I shoulda said you might miss transmissions. Another issue is, do ham DMR radios unmute for RAS?