396XT Turning tg groups off and on in a multi-site Motorola system

novascotian · #1 (**permalink**) 01-11-2013, 10:16 AM

On my 396XT I have my local Motorola system programmed in with 16 different sites. I have a mulitude of talk groups entered for this overall system, and these are divided into 9 groups. If and when I want to turn individual groups on and off with GQK's I am not sure if I am doing this for a specific site or for the whole system.

For example if I have Fire talk groups as Group 6 (GQK 6) and I decide to shut that group off, and I go to function and scroll to find the system, I do not get the system as a whole, just the 16 sites individually. So if let's say stop on one of the sites and turn off Group 6 is that only for that site or for the whole system of 16 sites?? If it is for just that one site that I scrolled to, that means I can differentiate which of the programmed tg's I can scan on the various sites, which does sound like a good thing, but on the other hand is there a way to turn them on and off more globally. I don't have all 16 sites turned on at any one time but I do often have several and would like to turn Fire or other groups off and on for the whole bunch of sites at once.

UPMan · #2 (**permalink**) 01-11-2013, 10:22 AM

It is for the entire system.

novascotian · #3 (**permalink**) 01-11-2013, 10:52 AM

Thanks for that... I am not sure if I am happy or unhappy about that. I can hear some urban sites and some rural ones from home and really for the more distant rural ones would like to scan just a few particular talk groups but I guess it is all the same for all the sites... Thanks again...

JoeyC · #4 (**permalink**) 01-11-2013, 12:33 PM

You could always duplicate the system and put urban in one and rural in the other if you need more specific control of the GQK's.

kirk23 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-11-2013, 2:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeyC

You could always duplicate the system and put urban in one and rural in the other if you need more specific control of the GQK's.

The only drawback to this way is the amount of time it will take to scan through the same large system several times.. example.. Ontario canada Fleetnet system zone 2, that has 40 different tower sites..if you were to duplicate 4-5 times. 1 for OPP..2nd for MOH (Ambulance)..3rd for MOT (Highways)..4th for MNR ..imagine the time it would take in addition to the other systems and convention channels you are also scanning at the same time? I do 1 system split up into 1-10 individual GROUPS that i can turn on/off at will..
FUNC + group #

JoeyC · #6 (**permalink**) 01-11-2013, 4:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirk23

The only drawback to this way is the amount of time it will take to scan through the same large system several times.. example.. Ontario canada Fleetnet system zone 2, that has 40 different tower sites..if you were to duplicate 4-5 times. 1 for OPP..2nd for MOH (Ambulance)..3rd for MOT (Highways)..4th for MNR ..imagine the time it would take in addition to the other systems and convention channels you are also scanning at the same time? I do 1 system split up into 1-10 individual GROUPS that i can turn on/off at will..
FUNC + group #

The price one pays for wanting ultimate control. As with anything, there are sacrifices one must make for conveniences.

Since the OP stated he wanted to limit scanning to various services at various times, I don't think he would be running all systems and sites at the same time and thus wouldn't have that issue often.

Chauffeur6 · #7 (**permalink**) 01-11-2013, 4:56 PM

You mention using 9 groups. Have you considered putting all of the distant talkgroups into their own group, which you can turn on/off exclusive of the local stuff? There are 10 group quick keys available (0-9), so if I'm reading your post correctly, you still have one left.

novascotian · #8 (**permalink**) 01-12-2013, 5:08 AM

Yes I do have one left. I tend to forget that there is a 0 to use! But I do need to rethink what it is I want,and keeping in mind about that "ultimate control" issue where doing something has negative results as well as good ones.

The situation is that the rural fringe site that I can hear carries a lot of the urban traffic as well as traffic for that rural area. It doesn't carry all the urban traffic so it is not like I can just listen to it and hear everything. I still have to have at least one of the actual urban ones turned on in normal times when I want to hear it all. There are occasions when I would like to just turn off the urban one and listen to the rural area one and not have the urban traffic coming through. This is why I would have preferred to be able to turn off the urban talk groups just on that rural site. Complicated! But now I think the easiest is to just lock them out temporarily as they come up during my dedicated rural listening, then when I go back to listening to my urban area, turn the scanner off and on and they will all be back. Make sense?

What I really would like is a way to turn off all the groups of tg's except the one you want, with just one or two keystrokes. Then that idea of putting the rural tg's of interest into Group 0 would sound good. Turn on the rural site, Hit Function, Secret Key X, and 0 to turn OFF all but 0. Same thing in town if there is a big police incident going down and you want to get rid of everything else for a while, just be able to turn em all off and leave the police group on without going thru them all one by one and turning them off.