NC Viper Programming Basic Question

[Nogard]

Sorry for such a basic question but I was hoping someone could help guide me in how to best program a favorites list for my SDS100 in regards to the Viper system.

It seems that I can get signals from two towers. Is it possible to only list those two towers as favorites or is there a better way to create the favorites list?

I am trying both Sentinel software and ProScan to create the lists. If I try adding only those two towers in Sentinel I get a "nothing to scan" message. When I try creating the list from ProScan it appears that the scan doesn't scan the second tower.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[ProScan]

This link explains the "Nothing to Scan". The section "Uniden 3-Tier DMA" also applies to the SDS100 & SDS200 scanners
https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Nothing_to_Scan

 

[Nogard]

Thanks for the link. I think one of my problems is not understanding how to database is listing the Viper system (I'm new to all of this)

For instance, under Randolph County there is a listing of Talkgroups. Also under Randolph County there are sites listed that contain frequencies. Should I be putting the Randolph County talkgroups in the favorites or the sites with the frequencies (or both)?

In the talkgroups there are some locations I can't get a signal - should I remove those from a favorites list?

Thanks

 

[IcomIcR20]

You should add both the site frequencies (only the sites that you are in range of) and talkgroups (all of them if you want.. that's what I do so I won't miss anything, but of course its totally personal preference).

You should read this description of how trunking works and it should all make more sense : http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Trunking_Basics

 

[rellyrell]

Since NC VIPER is a statewide system, you should only add your local county users along with your local sites and maybe their "neighbors." If you attempt to add the entire NC VIPER system as a FL, Sentinel will include every county in NC and every single site in the VIPER system. While you could technically do it that way, you would probably miss your local transmissions as the scanner would be attempting to scan and decode all the control channels in the system, whether or not they were in range of your actual location. You can add NC VIPER as a FL and just delete all the other counties and sites and just leave yours OR you can do it the other way around and build the FL from scratch and just add your local county and site manually.

I have one of my FL setup to include NC VIPER users in my county (Guilford) and each adjacent county (Alamance, Randolph, Rockingham, Forsyth) and just the sites associated with those counties and when I'm scanning I use the "Site Hold" function to lock in the local tower that I know the user is utilizing. For my county that would be the "Greensboro A&T" site.

Remember the "Site Hold" feature is your friend.

Their's more than one way top skin a cat...