Scan hangs up on DMR channel

[afkrejci90]

Set up my scanner with Freescan and got the DMR upgrade. Before doing the upgrade the scan was working perfectly. I have only one frequency that is DMR, when I hit scan it works fine until it picks up a signal on that one frequency. Once it hits that channel it just stops scanning, there is no more transmission on the frequency but it just flash back between DMR and CAP. If I hit scan again it just starts the problem all over again. I set the attenuation to 'on' but it stops picking anything up on the frequency. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

 

[buddrousa]

It is stopping on rest channel traffic.
Change this to a 1 frequency trunking setup to fix your problem.

 

[sallen07]

Set up my scanner with Freescan and got the DMR upgrade.

Also keep in mind that Freescan does not support programming DMR channels (or systems) so you'll have to do it manually or get different (better!) programming software. Personally I recommend ProScan, but Butel also makes good scanner programming software.

As buddrousa stated, your scanner is stopping on the rest channel, which is similar to the control channel in other trunking systems, so there is constant digital traffic on that frequency. If you change it to a one frequency trunk (OFT) then the scanner checks the digital signal for a call grant and if there is none it goes to the next frequency you have programmed.

 

[MarkB513]

"Also keep in mind that Freescan does not support programming DMR channels (or systems) so you'll have to do it manually or get different (better!) programming software"

Actually it does and has for a while. This software works quite well.

 

[MarkB513]

Set up my scanner with Freescan and got the DMR upgrade. Before doing the upgrade the scan was working perfectly. I have only one frequency that is DMR, when I hit scan it works fine until it picks up a signal on that one frequency. Once it hits that channel it just stops scanning, there is no more transmission on the frequency but it just flash back between DMR and CAP. If I hit scan again it just starts the problem all over again. I set the attenuation to 'on' but it stops picking anything up on the frequency. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Not sure which model scanner you're using. Rather then adding a new system for every DMR frequency you program, if you have the option you could set a lower delay for that channel. I hate to tie up my scanner with scanning multiple systems at one time. As it is with my BCD996P2 I scan two conventional systems for some areas, one with a long and one with a short delay. I hate that it only allows delay settings per system, not channel or talk group.

 

[afkrejci90]

So I've isolated the frequency into its own system and made two of them. One a conventional systems and the other a One Frequency Trunk DMR. No luck picking up the broadcast on the DMR system. The conventional picks it up and I've been able to get it to scan faster by changing the delay settings, although when there is a transmission it interrupts it for a brief few milliseconds.

I am using proscan now to program it.

 

[MarkB513]

Sallen07, don't go looking for a new version of FreeScan, there obviously isn't one. When you mentioned it I was thinking you were talking about ProScan (which is what I use/showed), so my bad. Serves me right for posting while busy at work. I used FreeScan back in the day and really liked it, but as you mentioned, no DMR support. It forced me to switch and pay for ProScan and I'm really glad that I did.

 

[hiegtx]

So I've isolated the frequency into its own system and made two of them. One a conventional systems and the other a One Frequency Trunk DMR. No luck picking up the broadcast on the DMR system. The conventional picks it up and I've been able to get it to scan faster by changing the delay settings, although when there is a transmission it interrupts it for a brief few milliseconds.

I am using proscan now to program it.

For the One Frequency Trunked system to work (it does work, and I use it on some local frequencies), you need to have a "Department" for talkgroups, and that Department should not be empty. If, for the frequency you are trying for, does not have a listed TGID in it's database listing, then add what I refer to as a "place-keeper" talkgroup in the Department, For those, I just use a 1 (one) as the TGID. Then, again if there is no listed talkgroup, set the system to use ID Search and you'll hear whatever is in use. In the "site" for the OFT frequency, either enter the listed color code (if one is shown in the database), or set the color code fields to 'search'.

 

[hiegtx]

Sallen07, don't go looking for a new version of FreeScan, there obviously isn't one. When you mentioned it I was thinking you were talking about ProScan (which is what I use/showed), so my bad. Serves me right for posting while busy at work. I used FreeScan back in the day and really liked it, but as you mentioned, no DMR support. It forced me to switch and pay for ProScan and I'm really glad that I did.

There is "sort of" a modified version of FreeSCAN. See this thread:

Freescan: - Small Updates to FreeSCAN

Hi everyone! I was getting a little frustrated with programming some conventional DMR channels in FreeSCAN. I made a couple small updates to the program on my Github to allow for that, and updated some of the graphics and information. I'm by no means a true software engineer, but I do some...

forums.radioreference.com

The update does allow you to enter a color code for a conventional DMR frequency, but not for a trunked, or OFT, DMR system. Web import from RadioReference seems to work, even though it's not importing a DMR system correctly. I get an error when trying to use Conventional import in this modified version.

 

[afkrejci90]

Here is the other info that is listed, not sure what any of it means though but there is a TGID.
Frequency: 451.52500

Tone:
CC 1
TG 1001
SL 1

 

[JASII]

I just ran across this thread. Does this mean that I can program ANY DMR frequency, whether it is CAP+, CON+, XPT or DMRT3 as a One Frequency Trunked system and monitor ALL voice traffic on it conventionally?

Also, if there are more than one system on the same frequency, I assume it will monitor all of it, even if one is CAP+ and one is plain DMR?

 

[buddrousa]

It will scan faster if you setup the trunking system correctly instead of doing each channel as 1FT

 

[JASII]

That is the plan, but it may take some time. Will it work in the meantime, though? (I gather that it will.)

 

[buddrousa]

Yes it will just be slower if the system has 6 channels and the wait time is 400 mili seconds you are looking at 2.4 seconds to just get through those 6 channels. That is where my TRX's come in handy until I get the LCN's worked out.

 

[JASII]

Great to know. Thank you!

 

[MarkB513]

Here's another issue of which I know nothing can be done about, but I'll complain about it anyway. As with P25, some DMR are received much better if you have the threshold set to an actual number (a lot of times 5), where as auto doesn't always keep up real well. I found this to be true with Block Island's system, 5 worked excellent. Are there any scanners allowing individual settings per system for this?

 

[afkrejci90]

For the One Frequency Trunked system to work (it does work, and I use it on some local frequencies), you need to have a "Department" for talkgroups, and that Department should not be empty. If, for the frequency you are trying for, does not have a listed TGID in it's database listing, then add what I refer to as a "place-keeper" talkgroup in the Department, For those, I just use a 1 (one) as the TGID. Then, again if there is no listed talkgroup, set the system to use ID Search and you'll hear whatever is in use. In the "site" for the OFT frequency, either enter the listed color code (if one is shown in the database), or set the color code fields to 'search'.

Changing the ID to search worked! I did notice though that proscan wasn't updating the system to DMR, everytime I downloaded from scanner it would show it as a Motorola system. Deleted everything from the scanner and then uploaded and now its OFT DMR. The listing for the frequency TGID was also missing an extra 0.