Sentinel & p25 Control channels

[natedawg1604]

Just out of curiosity, with Sentinel is there any way to download a P25 system from radio reference with ONLY the control channels (like you could with Freescan)?

It looks like Sentinel has no option to configure what gets imported from RR, but I just thought I'd check...

-Nate

 

[Enjoi19]

Don't believe so. You'd have to go through and manually remove frequencies on a favourite list.

ProScan has it though! I asked for this feature and Bob implemented it for RR imports.

 

[K3HY]

Also Sentinel downloads every encrypted channel/talkgroup. Proscan gives you the option of skipping them.

 

[natedawg1604]

Thanks for the feedback, I think I'll download Proscan and try it out.

 

[trkntrlrman]

I loved Freescan, it's a shame they didn't make Proscan as easy to use... also the SDS200 programming just seems to complicate it all.. Oh well maybe by next year I'll get it figured out.. My 996xt was a breeze now that I look back...hehheehhe

 

[iMONITOR]

Just out of curiosity, with Sentinel is there any way to download a P25 system from radio reference with ONLY the control channels (like you could with Freescan)?

It looks like Sentinel has no option to configure what gets imported from RR, but I just thought I'd check...

-Nate

Good point. Under some circumstance that could slow down scanning. They're not needed if you have a P25 trunking scanner.

 

[jonwienke]

Good point. Under some circumstance that could slow down scanning. They're not needed if you have a P25 trunking scanner.

No, not really. Once the scanner locates a control channel for a site, it caches the control channel frequency for future reference, and checks that frequency first until it can't find a control channel there anymore. There is no benefit to deleting the voice frequencies, and several drawbacks.

 

[iMONITOR]

No, not really. Once the scanner locates a control channel for a site, it caches the control channel frequency for future reference, and checks that frequency first until it can't find a control channel there anymore. There is no benefit to deleting the voice frequencies, and several drawbacks.

I've never run into that problem. I program the primary & alternate CC channels and keep it updated weekly.

 

[natedawg1604]

Good point. Under some circumstance that could slow down scanning. They're not needed if you have a P25 trunking scanner.

No, not really. Once the scanner locates a control channel for a site, it caches the control channel frequency for future reference, and checks that frequency first until it can't find a control channel there anymore. There is no benefit to deleting the voice frequencies, and several drawbacks.

My main issue is with a few large systems that share site frequencies. While traveling it can sometimes be confusing as to which site you are actually monitoring, as scanners can't be programmed to recognize the actual system or site information. Removing voice frequencies doesn't totally eliminate the issue but it can help.

 

[crippledchicken]

Thanks for the feedback, I think I'll download Proscan and try it out.

I've been using Pro Scan for years, I still don't understand all it's features but, I do know it's well worth the money!

 

[kruser]

I've never run into that problem. I program the primary & alternate CC channels and keep it updated weekly.

Unless it's a Harris P25 system in which case any frequency used by the site can become the control channel. Some Harris systems rotate the control channel through all the sites available frequencies each night at midnight. That can be frustrating for those that may have only programmed what they thought was the primary control channel!
Our local power utility rotates the CC every few days between maybe two or three of the available frequencies out of the seven or eight frequencies used by the site. They used to rotate the CC each night but changed that to a random amount of time.
The DB Admin for this area marked all the sites frequencies as Control Channels so the software that can ignore voice channels still downloads all the frequencies.
Harris systems also don't advertise any Alternate CC's either. At least I've never seen a Harris P25 system advertise alternates in the CC data.

 

[JoeBearcat]

Unless it's a Harris P25 system in which case any frequency used by the site can become the control channel. <snip>
Harris systems also don't advertise any Alternate CC's either.

If any frequency can be a CC, then they are all alternates. (and correctly tagged as CCs.

 

[jonwienke]

My main issue is with a few large systems that share site frequencies. While traveling it can sometimes be confusing as to which site you are actually monitoring, as scanners can't be programmed to recognize the actual system or site information.

That's not correct. You can set the NAC for sites on the SDS models. And when using location control, distant sites with duplicate frequencies will get locked out automatically, unless you have Range set unnecessarily high. So again, there's no benefit to deleting the voice frequencies on sites, other than shaving off a fraction of a second of scan time the first time the scanner scans the system. And if the control channel changes, you can lose the site completely. It's a lot of work for more problems than benefits.

 

[ofd8001]

My main issue is with a few large systems that share site frequencies. While traveling it can sometimes be confusing as to which site you are actually monitoring, as scanners can't be programmed to recognize the actual system or site information. Removing voice frequencies doesn't totally eliminate the issue but it can help.

Hopefully if you monitoring a large system, you have done "something" to preclude the scanner from checking each and every site on the system. GPS device, zip code entry, Quick Key selection, Location Control, Site Avoids and so on. Even eliminating voice channels from each site will still gobble up scanning time. If someone is going to the expense of getting a Sentinel programmable scanner, the cost of a GPS unit is reasonable.

Also, ProScan, which is excellent software, has a cost of $50. A GPS device from Scannermaster is $89.95.