Troube PGM Charlotte TG's

[k4gps]

OK I am embarassed but I am going to ask. I have owned a BC-780 for several years now but I have not had the need to program trunking systems very often. I reformatted my scanner after moving from Florida and figured out that the CharMec system does come in quite well in Rock Hill even on an indoor antenna.

I did CC scanning of the system for a couple of days and then decided to program it all up properly instead of doing just the Control Channel. I loaded up quite a few TG's using the AFS software but nothing! I went into search mode and everything seems to be working properly and I can hear all the traffic, MORE than I want to.

I am at a loss, I used the DEC codes off of the database and thought it would be a no brainer, apparently I have no brains! I re-read the manual after not having looked at it for several years but can't figure out what I am doing wrong. The frequency portion of the programing is correct but for some reason just the TG's seem to be hosed.

For instance TG 7248 was entered for County Fire Dispatch and 8720 was entered for South PD Dispatch.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[jeffmulter]

Looking at the AFS webpage, it the screenshot for talkgroups shows the entries in a 6-digit format ... so county fire would be entered as 007248. That may or may not make a difference.

If you tried to cut and paste I-Ds from RR or elsewhere, they may have pasted with hidden characters, also.

Make sure you have the system set to Motorola type II, and the talkgroup format set as decimal (it may have been set to fleet style).

You'll also want to set the status bit to "ignore" variations. Otherwise, you won't receive the patched talkgroups.

In all honesty, it would have been just fine to monitor CMPD in control-channel-only mode. The system fits fine within the Uniden selection of trunking frequency plans.

Either way, though, your description of the problem tells me the fault lies within the settings or programming of the talkgroups.

 

[k4gps]

Thanks Jeff, I'll try adding a couple of leading 0's and see if that does the trick.

The programing of the system is standard so I am 99% sure that is correct but as you stated it is probably in the TG's.

Now that I have been here for several months scanning is much more meaningful. When we first spoke RH was interesting to listen to but I did not do much of it for quite some time. Now that I actually know roads, and names of these smaller communities in the county when I hear something I can relate to it much better. Scanning here was boring at first but now I can enjoy it like back home. I guess now I can start calling this home :lol:

I am actually going to pull out my 2 Pro-2006's one with the OptoCard and use them while I can. Once we go P25 with encryption in the county I guess I'll just set them up for MilAir and use the 780XLT for Chlt.

Rich

 

[jeffmulter]

>> Once we go P25 with encryption in the county I guess I'll just set them up for MilAir and use the 780XLT for Chlt.


There will still be alot that is not encrypted when the York Co system begins loading up.

 

[k4gps]

Seems to have been some screw up in the software. Even though the files looked good and displayed well on the scanner it was not working. I uploaded a blank project since I could not remember the command for formatting the scanner and could not find the command in the manual. I opened my frequency file, deleted all the TG information and started re-entering it, one TG every 10 slots for testing, seems to work. Now I got a lot of typing to do.

With all the TG info on the system it is going to be a job to figure out how to lay it out and keep it to 100 ID's while still keeping blocks that are usable. I may try for 2-3 groups for fire, 2-3 for PD etc even though most have more than 20 TG ID's.

 

[jeffmulter]

>> I could not remember the command for formatting the scanner

I believe it's a matter of holding down the "2," "9" and "manual" keys while turning the scanner on.

>> With all the TG info on the system it is going to be a job to figure out how to lay it out and keep it to 100 ID's

One method would be to use more than one bank. For instance, dedicate one bank for fire, one for ems, and one for law enforcement.

With a system the size of CMPD, there's no easy way to monitor everything, short of using multiple scanners.