PSR-600 Talkgroups for multiple areas - Harrison and Upshur

[noblewv70]

Recently updated my PSR-600 with talkgroups for Clarksburg (Harrison County) and would like to add talkgroups for other areas, specifically Buckhannon (Upshur County). I used the ARC500 software to add talkgroups for both counties. I hear the Harrison County groups loud and clear with no issues. I'm not hearing anything from the Upshur County groups. What did I do wrong? Will my scanner do this? Are there certain control channels or towers that I need to add to the programming that will allow me to monitor Upshur County?

Apologies if this has been covered. If it has, please point me in the right direction. I have been trying to find information for this on my own. I ran several searches but was unable to come up with an answer.

Thanks!

 

[Bubba1661]

You should put in the towers for Upshur County. Upshur County may not be set up in the towers that you have in your radio.

 

[noblewv70]

You should put in the towers for Upshur County. Upshur County may not be set up in the towers that you have in your radio.

Not sure how to do that. Still trying to figure it out.

 

[Bubba1661]

Did you program your radio?

 

[noblewv70]

I did. I added all of the Harrison and Upshur County groups that I want to monitor. I hear nothing from Upshur.

 

[Bubba1661]

Give me your e-mail.

 

[noblewv70]

Sent. Check conversations.

 

[Bubba1661]

Got it

 

[richardbritt]

Hi, so what was the outcome? I have relatives in Randolph, and spend time in all the neighboring counties. Just making sure I don't need to change anything before my next trip.

Thanks

Richard

 

[noblewv70]

Hoping to get this resolved sometime tomorrow. Will update with the outcome. 👍

 

[richardbritt]

Thanks

 

[moochie]

Upshur and Lewis Counties both come in very well on the McWhorter tower in Lost Creek. Lewis County TG id's are 33xx and Upshur are 37xx.

 

[fredva]

While it is a statewide system, each county's talkgroups are limited to certain towers in - and sometimes near - that county. The system doesn't have the capacity for every county's conversation to be transmitted on every tower in the state. One exception for county talkgroups is the 911 talkgroup, which is intended for limited use and allows the 911 center in one county to talk to another 911 center or a mobile unit anywhere in the state.

 

[noblewv70]

Upshur and Lewis Counties both come in very well on the McWhorter tower in Lost Creek. Lewis County TG id's are 33xx and Upshur are 37xx.

Good info moochie. Thank you! So I can monitor Harrison, Lewis and Upshur counties if I connect to that tower.

While it is a statewide system, each county's talkgroups are limited to certain towers in - and sometimes near - that county. The system doesn't have the capacity for every county's conversation to be transmitted on every tower in the state. One exception for county talkgroups is the 911 talkgroup, which is intended for limited use and allows the 911 center in one county to talk to another 911 center or a mobile unit anywhere in the state.

Thanks for the clarification fredva. I assumed since it is a statewide system it didn't matter which tower my scanner connected to.

I still can't figure out how to get my scanner to connect to certain towers. I'm going to give Bubba1661 a call when I have some time later today. Hopefully we can get it figured out.

 

[richardbritt]

If they set up the system similar to NCVIPER (North Carolina statewide radio network) the average talkgroup will affiliate 1 or 2 counties away from each county routinely. That's to keep loading down on the network. Plus I am sure that there are statewide talkgroups that will work all over the whole system. For example, Corrections, State Police, DOT, and special TGs such as the 911 group already mentioned for special use or groups such as State Hazmat teams etc.

 

[richardbritt]

By any chance is there a list of Radio IDs for WV SIRN? If not, does anyone know ones for Hardy, Grant, Randolph, Tucker, and Barbour. Those I usually drive through from Wardensville to Elkins, and sometimes go to Weston, Buckhannon, Thomas, etc. Thanks

 

[moochie]

Good info moochie. Thank you! So I can monitor Harrison, Lewis and Upshur counties if I connect to that tower.



Thanks for the clarification fredva. I assumed since it is a statewide system it didn't matter which tower my scanner connected to.

I still can't figure out how to get my scanner to connect to certain towers. I'm going to give Bubba1661 a call when I have some time later today. Hopefully we can get it figured out.

On my 436, I can hear traffic from most of the surrounding counties. Barbour, Upshur, Lewis, Monongalia, Marion, Taylor, Doddridge. Also, the way I understand it if a unit from a far away county is in the area, you will be able to hear their departmental traffic from their home county.

 

[noblewv70]

Shout out to Bubba1661 for the telephone call and walking me through the steps of programming this scanner yesterday. Very much appreciated the assistance. It turns out I was doing it correctly all along. I just needed someone to tell me I was on the right track. With that said, I'm still having problems. After adding programming for sites in my area that should be servicing Upshur County, I still have not heard a peep from any Upshur County talkgroup. I'm going to do some experimenting today to see if I can figure it out.

Could this be a "roaming" issue? If so, how does roaming work for my specific scanner? I noticed within the ARC500 software under Trunk System Objects, Multi-site is set to "Roam". There are two other optional settings. One is OFF and the other is Stationary. On the "Roam" setting does it roam until it finds the best site(s) in the area, then lock onto them and ignore the weaker ones? What do the OFF and Stationary settings do? I found this RR thread from 2023 that talks about PSR-600 roaming (PSR-600 to TRX-2). Not sure if what is being discussed in the thread is related to the issue I'm trying to resolve.

If you have any thoughts or ideas, please post them here.

Thanks!

 

[RMason]

Could this be a "roaming" issue? If so, how does roaming work for my specific scanner? I noticed within the ARC500 software under Trunk System Objects, Multi-site is set to "Roam". There are two other optional settings. One is OFF and the other is Stationary. On the "Roam" setting does it roam until it finds the best site(s) in the area, then lock onto them and ignore the weaker ones? What do the OFF and Stationary settings do? I found this RR thread from 2023 that talks about PSR-600 roaming (PSR-600 to TRX-2). Not sure if what is being discussed in the thread is related to the issue I'm trying to resolve.

Roam will attempt to lock onto the best site it can find. It sounds like you want to use Stationary mode to listen to all sites with decent signal.

From: Easier to Read Pro-651/652/106/197 - WS1040/1065 - PSR 500/600 Digital Scanner Manual

Multi-Site (Motorola/P25 only): Used with Motorola Networked and P25 trunked radio systems. The multi-site feature mainly concerns how the scanner "looks" at the control channels you have programmed into a particular system object. Default is Off. [8] See also [15].

Press ◄ or ► to select: Off - the scanner will find the first usable control channel in the control channel list and use it to track the system. Roam - while (you are) moving, the scanner will attempt to lock on the best site it can find. The scanner will always attempt to lock on to control channels where the decoding quality is greater than 'Threshold Hi', and will search for new control channels when the decoding quality of a control channel drops below 'Threshold Lo' (see next entries below). If no control channels are available that meet the Threshold Hi criteria, the scanner will seek the best control channel to use, and continue checking periodically for a new control channel that meets the Threshold Hi criteria. Stat - intended to allow you to scan through all decent quality control channels while stationary (say, at home or work) so that you can hear all of the available traffic on all of the available receivable decent quality control channels depending on the Check All CC setting below. [8]