scanners useful with Unitrunker

[markhagler]

Hello everybody

I have Unitrunker running on my PC with one scanner, a 895XLT with a discriminator tap. This is working nicely for the control channel for the Seattle 800mhz system.

Next I would like to set up a Listen receiver that Unitrunker can control. With rebanding possibly on the horizon, the Trunk Tracking in the 895XLT scanner is potentially useless in the future. However if Unitrunker is controlling it, does it matter if the 895XLT can handle the trunking by itself?

I am unsure how Unitrunker commands the scanner - does it send a raw frequency and cause the scanner to just tune the right frequency to hear a certain talk group, or does it rely on the Listen scanner to also be trunking and then requests only a certain talkgroup via the serial control?

Thank you

[DaveIN]

The 895 should be fine for analog trunking with UniTrunker. UniTrunker is sending the radio to a frequency with a command over the serial port, so as long as it is in the remote mode it should work fine.

If your local system is rebanded and you want to use the 895 on it's own to Trunktrack, then your out of luck because it can not be firmware upgraded to accommodate the change to the trunked bandplan.

[dste]

Not really in Seattle. Rebanding in Seattle will also add in "shuffling" of the broadcast channel numbers - or so they say. EVERYTHING will die as far as scanning with the possible exception of the Pro-92.

[markhagler]

Originally Posted by DaveIN

The 895 should be fine for analog trunking with UniTrunker. UniTrunker is sending the radio to a frequency with a command over the serial port, so as long as it is in the remote mode it should work fine.

If your local system is rebanded and you want to use the 895 on it's own to Trunktrack, then your out of luck because it can not be firmware upgraded to accommodate the change to the trunked bandplan.

Thanks, I was hoping the Unitrunker control was all frequency-based in which case the scanner's trunk firmware does not matter.. so I can go out and buy a couple more 895's for use with Unitrunker.. they are getting pretty cheap on ebay now. :-)

[dougr1252]

Unitrunker (with 2 scanners) should be ideal for shuffled bandplan systems, because you can enter arbitrary frequencies for each channel like EDACS. Only one scanner needs to be computer controllable. The 895 could be the control receiver just as you have now. Of course if they can dynamically update the channel map every day that won't be much fun, but it would add a lot of overhead to a large system that probably has little airtime to spare. The descriptions I've seen look like it's something they do only when the radios are physically programmed.

[dste]

I wasn't aware anybody has worked out the shuffle problem yet. At least this gives me some hope for scanning Seattle after the reband happens. Thanks!