Voting/Scanning

[bassjunkie]

Hey, Just wondering if someone could explain to me the difference between Voting and Scanning? Not having much luck looking for it. My idea might be completely off track, but does voting basically look to see which is the closer/stronger freq before locking on?

Thanks

 

[N4DES]

A voter system is usually part of a radio system that allows for diversity reception of the lower power end users across a defined geographical area. Receivers are placed in outlying areas, decode the received signal, demodulate it, and then it's routed by either phone line or microwave to the voter which selects the best audio based on signal to noise. The selected audio is then routed to the transmitter for re-broadcast.

Here is an example of a voter:

Raytheon Company: SNV-12 Signal and Noise Voter

Hope this helps and I guess you can put together has no real tie-in to your scanning hobby.

 

[bassjunkie]

Thanks only reason I ask is because a transceiver I was programming for RX only had the option when programming scan groups to do different types - there was Scan, Vote, and a plethora of hybrids. So I take it I'd only use the Vote option if I was to be TXing as well?

Thanks again

 

[commscanaus]

Hi Bassjunkie,

Voting can be performed by the different base stations or repeater sites as KS4VT has described.

The voting option you are encountering with your radio is the same sort of thing- only the radio (if programmed to do so) will scan a group of repeater outputs and lock onto the strongest signal.
The analogue Police on UHF used to do this- they would have several repeaters in different locations and on different frequencies all broadcasting the same audio- ie: the same Police channel.
The car radio's and hand held radio's would scan the different repeaters and would automatically lock on the strongest signal from the best repeater in the group. This function would save an officer having to flick the channel selector up and down to find the clearest signal as they moved about in an area- the radio does this for them as it is always scanning the repeater voting group.

The only down side to this is- voting uses the scan function in the radio, therefore it is not possible to use the scan function to scan voted
channels like you would regular channels.

The voting selection would have no bearing on the TX side of things- a group of voted repeaters would share a common input frequency.
Unless you are going to use the radio's scan function to receive a voted system- then you would best not use the voting option.

I hope this makes some sense!!

Regards, Commscanaus.

 

[N_Jay]

Thanks only reason I ask is because a transceiver I was programming for RX only had the option when programming scan groups to do different types - there was Scan, Vote, and a plethora of hybrids. So I take it I'd only use the Vote option if I was to be TXing as well?

Thanks again

If you are talking about a Motorola subscriber (Portable/Mobile) they have a feature called "Vote-Scan" which has almost nothing to do with a voting system.

 

[RKG]

A voter system is usually part of a radio system that allows for diversity reception of the lower power end users across a defined geographical area. Receivers are placed in outlying areas, decode the received signal, demodulate it, and then it's routed by either phone line or microwave to the voter which selects the best audio based on signal to noise. The selected audio is then routed to the transmitter for re-broadcast.

Here is an example of a voter:

Raytheon Company: SNV-12 Signal and Noise Voter

Hope this helps and I guess you can put together has no real tie-in to your scanning hobby.

This explanation is essentially correct, except that in FM systems, voting audio is not truly done on an SNR or SINAD basis, but rather on the absence of any AF energy in an isolated portion of the AF spectrum where voice usually does not exist.

 

[bassjunkie]

Hi Bassjunkie,

Voting can be performed by the different base stations or repeater sites as KS4VT has described.

The voting option you are encountering with your radio is the same sort of thing- only the radio (if programmed to do so) will scan a group of repeater outputs and lock onto the strongest signal.
The analogue Police on UHF used to do this- they would have several repeaters in different locations and on different frequencies all broadcasting the same audio- ie: the same Police channel.
The car radio's and hand held radio's would scan the different repeaters and would automatically lock on the strongest signal from the best repeater in the group. This function would save an officer having to flick the channel selector up and down to find the clearest signal as they moved about in an area- the radio does this for them as it is always scanning the repeater voting group.

The only down side to this is- voting uses the scan function in the radio, therefore it is not possible to use the scan function to scan voted
channels like you would regular channels.

The voting selection would have no bearing on the TX side of things- a group of voted repeaters would share a common input frequency.
Unless you are going to use the radio's scan function to receive a voted system- then you would best not use the voting option.

I hope this makes some sense!!

Regards, Commscanaus.

That's great, thanks I'll be using it on VHF Cops, not listening to anything else on that radio, so that sounds perfect to what I was after.