Starcom 21 Question

[djrideout]

So I'm admittedly new to the digital trunking side of scanning, although I've owned a scanner for the last 15 years or so. I'm coming from a BCT15X and am trying to program a BCD996P2 using ARC-XT.

My question is this: if I import the programming through ACT-XT's radioreference option and I select a certain county's talkgroup (in my particular case, Knox County, which has 3 talkgroup ID's - 2 for the sheriff's office and one for a city police department), how do I know which site to select? Is it as simple as selecting all of the sites in the county? (In this case there's just one site which is in Gilson)

I have what I believe to be the same question for ISP. For example, if I want to program ISP district 7, do I just need to select the sites that are located within the counties that district 7 covers?

Thanks in advance for the help. Also, if this is deemed to be in an inappropriate sub-forum, feel free to move it.

 

[eddie8965]

the way I found the best site,was to program the zip first and see which one came in the best,for me,it was not the closest tower,but the third closest,i inda let the scanner pick for me...

 

[eddie8965]

just a side note,im in southern Illinois,and most of my districts have consolidated,i monitor 13,19 and 22

 

[Delta33]

Districts 1, 7 , 16 and 17 All dispatch from Sterling Fyi.

 

[VASCAR2]

I currently listen to two sites as those are the only two sites my scanner receives from home. Depending on your location you might be able to hear Thompsonville, Blueford, Carmi, Fairfield, Mt Vernon. You might also pickup sites in Washington, Saline or Williamson counties. Location is everything but the only Talk Groups your likely to hear are District 13-A, 19-A and 12-A. Your probably to far away to get a site that carries 22-A unless your close enough to pickup a Saline County site or Williams Hill. The only other TG normally patched in on all sites are the ISPERN talk groups for each District by site location.

I commonly hear Ameran CIPS, and Illinois DOT. The only way you'll hear car to car or ISP detail channels if there is a unit voting a tower your scanner can receive. Those TG's are only active on sites by affiliation when a unit has that TG selected on their mobile or portable. There are very few state wide talk groups I commonly hear, the most common is probably MABAS.

I think experimentation is the key, try listening to as many towers as your scanner can receive then lock out the ones that you don't like.

 

[VASCAR2]

I got distracted and my response was geared more for someone in Hamilton County not someone up around District 7 and Knox County Il. I suggest you program in all the sites in your area. If there is enough signal strength to pickup the control channel you might experiment a while. One disadvantage of listening to mutiple sites is some times you can miss traffic while the scanner resumes scanning and goes to the next site.

You can adjust the hang time the scanner will stay on a trunked system before it resumes scanning. If your receiving several sites and it causes problems it is not difficult to manually lock out a site.