Monitoring safe-t question

[woodtrol]

I’ve noticed my sds100 while monitoring the safe-T network will continuously search sites unless I manually do site hold… why is that? seems it would be best to hold on a strong signal rather than jump to different tower sites.

 

[cubn]

Depends on what you are looking for. If you want to monitor multiple nearby sites the SDS is great.

If you only want to monitor one site at a time, you could only set up one site and put all the control channels in that site but then it will stop in the first frequency with a control channel, not necessarily the strongest site.

The Unication radios will find the site with the strongest signal amongst the sites you have programmed. Works great. When traveling the state.

 

[woodtrol]

When I’m traveling it bounces from site to site, example if I’m in corydon, next to the tower, it will constantly look at other towers… why wouldn’t it just hold automatically to a site with good signal… I feel like I hear the complete call if I hold it to a known close tower… but I’d rather let sds handle it.

 

[west-pac]

When I’m traveling it bounces from site to site, example if I’m in corydon, next to the tower, it will constantly look at other towers… why wouldn’t it just hold automatically to a site with good signal… I feel like I hear the complete call if I hold it to a known close tower… but I’d rather let sds handle it.

You likely need to change the "Range" figure. I don't have a DB scanner, so I don't know what you need to change it to, but that setting will likely help you out.

If you go to the RRDB and look at the coverage map for each tower you'll see that every tower overlaps each of the surrounding towers.

I presume (guessing, since I don't have one of these scanners) if the "Range" on your scanner is '30' miles, you'll hear every tower who's coverage circle is within that 30 mile range on your scanner.

Try changing your "Range" to 1, or 5 miles. That should, in theory, remove some or all of the distant towers.

 

[west-pac]

The red shared area is the coverage area of the French Lick tower in Orange county. If your scanner's range setting (the blue circle) touches the red circle your scanner will try to receive it. You need to make your receive circle (Range setting) smaller. Once you make your Range smaller (the yellow circle) the French Lick tower will be out of your range, and you should stop seeing it on your scanner.

Again, this is just my interpretation of the "Range" setting. Hopefully someone who actually uses this scanner can tell both of us if this interpretation is correct.

 

[AK9R]

If your scanner's range setting (the blue circle) touches the red circle your scanner will try to receive it.

Only if the scanner knows where it is. You would have to key in a ZIP Code or connect a GPS receiver for the scanner to know its location.

 

[woodtrol]

I do have a gps connected to the sds 100. I’ve tried ranges from 1, 5, and 10. I’ll keep playing with that setting but so far it still keeps looking at multiple sites regardless of control channel signal level.

 

[AK9R]

The problem I have with location-based scanning is that sometimes the ranges in the database are optimistic. As a result, there will often be overlap. For any given location, multiple sites may have overlapping range circles. And that's even with the range in your scanner set to 0.

I'm not sure that the radio is smart enough to look at the RSSI from various sites and lock in on the highest one. If the scanner receives a site with a strong enough signal to decode, it'll sit on that site until it loses the signal. Your only recourse is manually lock onto the site you want or set up various quick keys to try to help you narrow down what you are listening to.

 

[woodtrol]

10-4. That’s what I’ve done so far.

 

[IndyScan]

I run with a range of 0 and I still get surrounding sites (base or mobile). Like others have said, if you want to sit on one site, pressing Function, Site will do that (or you can lock out all the other sites & enable them as needed).

 

[werinshades]

If the scanner receives a site with a strong enough signal to decode, it'll sit on that site until it loses the signal.

Not on the SDS scanners, since they "scan" sites whether or not one has a stronger signal. The Unication pagers will lock on and remain there until whatever value is programmed to move on to another site.

 

[AK9R]

Not on the SDS scanners, since they "scan" sites whether or not one has a stronger signal. The Unication pagers will lock on and remain there until whatever value is programmed to move on to another site.

True. But, while the SDS scanners are scanning sites, you may miss calls unless you really narrow down the number of sites to be scanned.

And stop reminding me how much I miss my Unication G4. I dropped it and it hasn't worked since. I need to send it in for repair as soon as a find that darn Round TUIT that I used to have.

 

[west-pac]

True. But, while the SDS scanners are scanning sites, you may miss calls unless you really narrow down the number of sites to be scanned.

And stop reminding me how much I miss my Unication G4. I dropped it and it hasn't worked since. I need to send it in for repair as soon as a find that darn Round TUIT that I used to have.

For your suggestion, how would that work if you were scanning multiple systems such as, SAFE-T, MESA, AEP, Duke Energy etc... if they were all P25 sites and the scanner stopped and held on the strongest one then it would never scan the other systems.

Also, I generally listen to 3 county's sites on SAFE-T at the same time. Doing so gives me a ~50 mile listening radius. I wouldn't like it, if I could only choose one site.

 

[AK9R]

Everybody's situation is different. I mostly use my SDS to scan only SAFE-T in a limited area, so limiting the sites and then holding on the nearest site works for me. Not saying my method works for everyone.

 

[bdub5]

I extensively use Favorites Lists (FL) on my SDS platform type scanners to granularly control what I am scanning. You can really narrow what you are scanning by using a FL.

Also be sure you are only scanning the control channel (CC) and alternate CC for the respective system. This will reduce the chance of you missing radio traffic.

 

[JStemann]

I did a custom fav list & edited the ranges of all SafeT sites and the talkgroups to better suit my listening preferences. For just scanning in small area, though, I'd just reduce ranges for the sites you don't normally want to monitor. So, if they're currently set at 30 miles, just reduce them to 20 miles or so. That way you can easily scan them if you increase the range on your scanner from 0.0 to 10 miles.