Question about Motorola Smartzones and the 396T

[avalys]

I have a BCD396T. I'm trying to monitor the Massachusetts State Police system, which is a Motorola Type II Smartzone system.

As I understand it, it is impossible to monitor multiple smartzones within one "system" on the 396T, because it will lock on to the first control channel it finds and stay there, then move on to the next system. So, in order to monitor multiple smartzones, I'll need to create multiple systems, and copy the duplicated talkgroup IDs between them - is that accurate?

Is there any way around this? It would be nice if you could tell the 396T to rotate between groups of control channels within the same logical system.

[hiegtx]

That's supposed to be a feature that's addressed in the upcoming BCD996T (base/mobile unit), handling multi-site smartzone systems.

The only work around for now, as you say, is multiple systems. You could condense them some by combining sites geographically far enough apart that the scanner would not be able to hear the control channels of more than one of them at a time. You'd still have to dupe your talk groups though.

[avalys]

Damn, that's annoying. It seems like something they should easily be able to fit into a software update. Anyone know if there's a chance of that?

[hiegtx]

I've seen several other members make the same comments and request. I would imagine the real key as to whether it could be done in a firmware update would be if the processor and memory structure of the BC396 is robust enough to support it.

[n4voxgill]

you can do that with the Pro96 and save over a hundred dollars