New guy intro

[Borgie]

Hi all. I'm Dave. I live in Roseville.

Just got my SDS100 yesterday. After some trials I got some favorite lists setup and am listening fine.

I see Ramsey county has dispatch for east, west, central. Is there a specific one they use for Roseville? Also with the state patrol they have east and west metro. Specific for Roseville area?

Any tips and tricks to optimize listening welcomed. Mainly interested in police/fire/ems in my area, but will occasionally want to listen to Minneapolis and St.Paul.

Attached are favorites lists i have done so far. Feel free to critique or other newbies to use them to get an idea of programming in sentinel. Hopefully i did it right LOL

 

[Borgie]

I will add I am totally new to scanners. It is a bit overwhelming and I'm sure i will never fully utilize the capabilities of the scanner, but it will be fun to learn.

 

[wogggieee]

Roseville tends to be west, though they often have west and central tied together so they may show up on either.

 

[ofd8001]

Your St. Paul Favorites List looks good as does your Ramsey County and Roseville. To Improve efficiency assuming you may be listening to all three at the same session, you might try this:

Continue with the Ramsey Simulcast site. Have a Ramsey County Department, have a St. Paul Department and have a Roseville Department. If you don't want to listen to St. Paul and Ramsey, just set these Departments to Avoid. Unavoid them when you want to resume listening.

Here is the technical reason why. When you have the St. Paul Favorites List (FL) on, all the scanner is looking for is the ST. Paul talkgroups. It would ignore anything not in the St. Paul Department, such as Roseville Police Car to Car, even though there is a transmission on the that Roseville talkgroup. Then when the scanner gets to the Roseville FL, all it is looking for are those Roseville talkgroups, ignoring St. Paul even though there is an active St. Paul transmission.

The bottom line is that you are setting yourself up to miss a lot of transmissions.

The State Patrol FL needs tweaking. I know you are just learning this challenging system and hopefully this explanation will be informative.

You have 30 sites that are active, most of which are way too far away to receive, such as Duluth, Fargo, Virginia, Itasca Co. A rule of thumb is any site more than 30 miles away is too far to receive.

The technical reason: Your scanner will go through all the control channel frequencies, attempting to find an active control channel. It won't be successful on any that are outside of the Metro area. However, precious scanner time is being used during this process, probably 5 seconds each pass. So while the scanner is futilely looking for something, local area transmissions are being missed.

So for your specific situation, the only necessary sites for monitoring the state patrol for a scanner in Roseville is Ramsey Simulcast and Minneapolis City Center. (Minneapolis City Center is the 'backbone" for state users and EMS users. It covers both Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

An interesting nuance to the ARMER system is that the State Patrol Mains (as in their dispatch channels "East Metro 2400 Dispatch") are forced or carried, on all sites within the MSP district.

Are these the talkgroups/agencies that you are potentially interested in monitoring? If so, I'll be happy to build a FL for you. Sometimes it is easier to do than explain.

 

[Borgie]

So instead of 3 seperate FL's you say make 1 FL for ramsey, then add ramsey county -cities, ramsey county, and ramsey county st-paul? Then i would just have ramsey county simulcast once?

The other question would be is st anthony police which services lauderdale which is right next to roseville, can i put that in the ramsey FL also, do i then need to add hennepin county simulcast or is having ramsey county simulcast enough?

And for the state patrol just get rid of all the simulcast sites except for the metro county simulcasts?

 

[Borgie]

Your St. Paul Favorites List looks good as does your Ramsey County and Roseville. To Improve efficiency assuming you may be listening to all three at the same session, you might try this:

Continue with the Ramsey Simulcast site. Have a Ramsey County Department, have a St. Paul Department and have a Roseville Department. If you don't want to listen to St. Paul and Ramsey, just set these Departments to Avoid. Unavoid them when you want to resume listening.

Here is the technical reason why. When you have the St. Paul Favorites List (FL) on, all the scanner is looking for is the ST. Paul talkgroups. It would ignore anything not in the St. Paul Department, such as Roseville Police Car to Car, even though there is a transmission on the that Roseville talkgroup. Then when the scanner gets to the Roseville FL, all it is looking for are those Roseville talkgroups, ignoring St. Paul even though there is an active St. Paul transmission.

The bottom line is that you are setting yourself up to miss a lot of transmissions.

The State Patrol FL needs tweaking. I know you are just learning this challenging system and hopefully this explanation will be informative.

You have 30 sites that are active, most of which are way too far away to receive, such as Duluth, Fargo, Virginia, Itasca Co. A rule of thumb is any site more than 30 miles away is too far to receive.

The technical reason: Your scanner will go through all the control channel frequencies, attempting to find an active control channel. It won't be successful on any that are outside of the Metro area. However, precious scanner time is being used during this process, probably 5 seconds each pass. So while the scanner is futilely looking for something, local area transmissions are being missed.

So for your specific situation, the only necessary sites for monitoring the state patrol for a scanner in Roseville is Ramsey Simulcast and Minneapolis City Center. (Minneapolis City Center is the 'backbone" for state users and EMS users. It covers both Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

An interesting nuance to the ARMER system is that the State Patrol Mains (as in their dispatch channels "East Metro 2400 Dispatch") are forced or carried, on all sites within the MSP district.

Are these the talkgroups/agencies that you are potentially interested in monitoring? If so, I'll be happy to build a FL for you. Sometimes it is easier to do than explain.

Ok I made a new favorites for ramsey, is this what you are talking about? I also got rid of some of the simulcasts for the state patrol, but kept the metro counties as if I want to listen to the state patrol, i wouldn't mind listening to the whole metro.

So the other question is St Anthony PD which is Hennepin County. If I put that in the ramsey2 favorites, do I also need to add hennepin county simulcast into ramsey2 favorites?

 

[Borgie]

And then if I want to I can temp avoid whichever "department" (ramsey cities, ramsey, ramsey-stpaul) to cut down on traffic?

 

[ofd8001]

Just for giggles, you might try the attached. (Be sure to edit your Profile, setting Download to On as well as Monitor On for the new Favorites List.

What I've done is combine all four Departments (State Patrol, Ramsey Cities, Ramsey County and Ramsey St. Paul) into the same Favorites List. If there are Departments you don't want to scan, just Avoid the given Department.

On the Sites, I have Avoided all but Hennepin East (so you can hear St. Anthony), Minneapolis City Center and Ramsey Simulcast.

Since you will be "listening" for the State Patrol on Minneapolis City Center, there is no need to have Anoka, Carver. Dakota, Hennepin West, Minneapolis NS and Washington. Doing so would be like watching NCIS on the living room TV and also have it on in the bedroom, den, kitchen and basement televisions.

The way the system works, Minneapolis City Center is the primary site for State Patrol talkgroups. The East Metro Tactical talkgroup will always be heard on Minneapolis City Center. It will NOT be heard on Dakota Simulcast unless there is a trooper in Dakota County, has his/her radio on East Metro Tactical and is getting a stronger signal from Dakota County than he/she is from Minneapolis City Center. A lot of conditions have to be satisfied, in other words. As I mentioned before, this is a complicated system that works really well, but is horrendous to understand and worse to explain.

Also, if you find this Favorites List to be working well, I've set it up for Quick Keys, which I can explain later. These would help you toggle Departments On/Off rather than having to do all the keypresses to Avoid. (I'm always afraid of overfilling someone's "memory bucket" by explaining too many things.)

 

[Borgie]

Just for giggles, you might try the attached. (Be sure to edit your Profile, setting Download to On as well as Monitor On for the new Favorites List.

What I've done is combine all four Departments (State Patrol, Ramsey Cities, Ramsey County and Ramsey St. Paul) into the same Favorites List. If there are Departments you don't want to scan, just Avoid the given Department.

On the Sites, I have Avoided all but Hennepin East (so you can hear St. Anthony), Minneapolis City Center and Ramsey Simulcast.

Since you will be "listening" for the State Patrol on Minneapolis City Center, there is no need to have Anoka, Carver. Dakota, Hennepin West, Minneapolis NS and Washington. Doing so would be like watching NCIS on the living room TV and also have it on in the bedroom, den, kitchen and basement televisions.

The way the system works, Minneapolis City Center is the primary site for State Patrol talkgroups. The East Metro Tactical talkgroup will always be heard on Minneapolis City Center. It will NOT be heard on Dakota Simulcast unless there is a trooper in Dakota County, has his/her radio on East Metro Tactical and is getting a stronger signal from Dakota County than he/she is from Minneapolis City Center. A lot of conditions have to be satisfied, in other words. As I mentioned before, this is a complicated system that works really well, but is horrendous to understand and worse to explain.

Also, if you find this Favorites List to be working well, I've set it up for Quick Keys, which I can explain later. These would help you toggle Departments On/Off rather than having to do all the keypresses to Avoid. (I'm always afraid of overfilling someone's "memory bucket" by explaining too many things.)

Thats working too. Was listening this morning and the State Patrol was on, there was a jumper. The dispatcher said to switch to ME tac1. I don't see that listed, is that a different department than the state patrol?

I found this on the ME TAC talkgroups. But where to find them is the question

https://mn-mesb.org/wp-content/uploads/Metro-3.14.0-Metro-ME-TACs-8-17-20.pdf

 

[wogggieee]

You have 30 sites that are active, most of which are way too far away to receive, such as Duluth, Fargo, Virginia, Itasca Co. A rule of thumb is any site more than 30 miles away is too far to receive.

The technical reason: Your scanner will go through all the control channel frequencies, attempting to find an active control channel. It won't be successful on any that are outside of the Metro area. However, precious scanner time is being used during this process, probably 5 seconds each pass. So while the scanner is futilely looking for something, local area transmissions are being missed.

So for your specific situation, the only necessary sites for monitoring the state patrol for a scanner in Roseville is Ramsey Simulcast and Minneapolis City Center. (Minneapolis City Center is the 'backbone" for state users and EMS users. It covers both Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

I'd take this further and only have the Ramsey County Simulcast system active since everything they're looking for will be on there. State Patrol will be on both city center and ramsey so nothing would really be gained by adding city center and you're going to increase your chances of missing something with St Paul and Roseville. This is how I've done if for Ramsey County for years and its worked great.

 

[wogggieee]

I found this on the ME TAC talkgroups. But where to find them is the question

https://mn-mesb.org/wp-content/uploads/Metro-3.14.0-Metro-ME-TACs-8-17-20.pdf

The tactical channels like this are used for bigger incidents where multiple agencies work together. Dispatch will often patch a local talkgroup with a tactical talkgroup so that outside agencies can provide assistance As for where they will show up, they'll show up on whatever tower a user has tuned their radio to. So lets say theres a fire in Hugo and multiple departments will responding and one of those agencies is Lino Lakes. Lino Lakes is in Anoka county so they do not have access to the same channels a Washington county agency will have. So dispatch will create a patch between Washington County Events 7 and ME-Tac 1. This allows users who are on Events 7 to come through ME-Tac 1 and vise-versa. This will be seamless to the end user. While the fire is happened someone who has a radio in Minnetonka turns it on and turns to ME-Tac 1. That will cause ME-Tac1 to become active on the Hennepin system. This is a long way to say that those types of channels can show up just about anywhere. I'd highly recommend that you have the ME-Tac, L-Tac, and S-tac talk groups programmed in. A lot of interesting stuff happens on those. In Ramsey County I'd also add the R-Pool talk groups.

 

[Borgie]

The tactical channels like this are used for bigger incidents where multiple agencies work together. Dispatch will often patch a local talkgroup with a tactical talkgroup so that outside agencies can provide assistance As for where they will show up, they'll show up on whatever tower a user has tuned their radio to. So lets say theres a fire in Hugo and multiple departments will responding and one of those agencies is Lino Lakes. Lino Lakes is in Anoka county so they do not have access to the same channels a Washington county agency will have. So dispatch will create a patch between Washington County Events 7 and ME-Tac 1. This allows users who are on Events 7 to come through ME-Tac 1 and vise-versa. This will be seamless to the end user. While the fire is happened someone who has a radio in Minnetonka turns it on and turns to ME-Tac 1. That will cause ME-Tac1 to become active on the Hennepin system. This is a long way to say that those types of channels can show up just about anywhere. I'd highly recommend that you have the ME-Tac, L-Tac, and S-tac talk groups programmed in. A lot of interesting stuff happens on those. In Ramsey County I'd also add the R-Pool talk groups.

So is ME 1 on zone1 interoperability metro? and that would also use ramsey county simulcast? L-tac is LE1, le2, etc... in Ramsey county? R-Pool is Ramsey Pool1, Ramsey pool 2 in Ramsey County? S-Tac.... is that swat?

 

[ofd8001]

Yes ME TAC 1 is one of many talkgroups that are used for interoperability purposes. That's when numerous agencies are involved in significant incidents, giving them a common talkgroup to use.

The LTAC1 is NOT LE1. LTAC1 is in the statewide interoperability. This is where you hear pursuits and such. they patch the originating talkgroup with LTACwhatever so that any outside agencies can assist with the event.

Please refer to my first response to your posts:

Note: Some of the recommendations below are not completely applicable since the landscape of what you want to monitor is different that just Roseville.

All the advice above is good. Unfortunately you are contending with a very complex radio system, arguably one of the most complex around. On top of that, the scanner has its own learning curve. (I visit relatives in Minneapolis and bring scanners along so I'm conversant with this system).

Most importantly, remember 2 things. 1-You will make mistakes with programming, which most all of us have. Have patience and you will get there. 2-You will not ruin a scanner with bad programming, you can wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

If you can be more specific on what you want to monitor, as in which channels, I can offer a little better advice. Owing to what you want, some sites and departments may have Avoid status differences.

My suggestions for programming are these:

1. Import the whole ARMER system to its own Favorites List.
2. Edit the Favorites List to
3. Turn LOCATION CONTROL to ON
4. Except for Ramsey County Simulcast, set every SITE Avoid status to Avoid. (Your right mouse button can allow copying and pasting)*
5. Except for Ramsey County, Ramsey County - Cities and Ramsey County - St. Paul, set every DEPARTMENT Avoid status to Avoid. (If it was me I would also leave Statewide Interoperability and Zone 1 Interoperability Metro on too, as these can be interesting.)*
6. Go through all those Departments NOT Avoided and go through the list of channels, avoiding those you are not interested in monitoring.
7. Edit the Profile, in the Location Settings Tab, set your zip code and set your Range to 0*
* These things may have to change if talkgroups outside of Ramsey County are desired, such as Minneapolis PD/FD.

Write the programming to the scanner when it arrives.

Essentially only the Ramsey site is turned on and only the Ramsey Departments are on. If you want to listen to Minneapolis for example, then you have to turn on the Minneapolis NS site and appropriate Minneapolis Departments.

You might be tempted to create separate Favorites Lists for separate "things" like one for Roseville Fire and another for St. Paul Police. While easier to remember and turn on/off, it is horribly inefficient and will lead to missed calls. (When you get farther along in the learning curve, Quick Keys are the better solution.)

You can see if the attached file is helpful. Unzip it and then import the resulting HPE file into Sentinel. It's only a Favorites List, you still have to edit the Profile (being sure Monitor and Download is set to ON).

 

[wogggieee]

So is ME 1 on zone1 interoperability metro? and that would also use ramsey county simulcast? L-tac is LE1, le2, etc... in Ramsey county? R-Pool is Ramsey Pool1, Ramsey pool 2 in Ramsey County? S-Tac.... is that swat?

Yes, those are for interoperability. They will show up where ever someone has a radio tuned to that channel. It is kind of a crap shoot whether they will show up on a particular system. However because that interesting feature you can sometimes hear some stuff from far away. Last week I heard a chase north of East Grand Forks on L-tac which showed up on Ramsey County.

S-Tac are Statewide Tacs. S-tac 1 is most often used for air to ground between medical helicopters and crews at the landing zones. S-tacs are used for a variety of things, but overall do not see a ton of use.

 

[Borgie]

Yes, those are for interoperability. They will show up where ever someone has a radio tuned to that channel. It is kind of a crap shoot whether they will show up on a particular system. However because that interesting feature you can sometimes hear some stuff from far away. Last week I heard a chase north of East Grand Forks on L-tac which showed up on Ramsey County.

S-Tac are Statewide Tacs. S-tac 1 is most often used for air to ground between medical helicopters and crews at the landing zones. S-tacs are used for a variety of things, but overall do not see a ton of use.

Just got done making a favorites list for LTac, Stac, and Mtac. Picked up they were moving to Ltac1 so I turned on My Tac favorites, picked up Ltac1 and held it. Chase on 35 north of stacy, speeds of 110. I think it was a motorcycle. They had custody and he had a broken hand so he must have crashed or something. Pretty cool.

 

[ofd8001]

You might think about editing your "main" Favorites List, going to a Department you are unlikely to avoid and inserting the LTACs and METACs to that Department. (Copy and paste from that newly made Favorites List.)

 

[slayer816]

I frequently watch the "Live on Patrol" YouTube stream. There are many times where the guys will talk specifically about the radio system and the channels in use.

A few times they are patched (as stated above). I will be honest, most of the time I watch the stream just to hear the radio traffic.