TxWARN System and Whistler Scanners

[w5rah]

I have a Whistler 1080 (ok a 668 with Whistler firmware) and have a question in setting up scan lists on the scanner. On the TxWARN system, it is primarily a Phase I system, but Houston also has all its Phase 2 sites going as well. Whistler scanners,if I recall correctly, will lock in on the strongest site on the system, rather than scan all the sites in the scan list. If I want to have a scan list for the Cypress area talk groups of interest and enter the relevant sites for the talk groups/agencies I would like to scan, with a mix of P1 and P2 sites, it will lock in on the strongest site and if it is a P1 site, I will only hear the P1 talk groups rather than a mix of the P2 and P1 talk groups.

So to hear both, essentially I would need to set up two scan lists and create a duplicate system as well: One with the P1 sites and talk groups of interest and a second with the P2 sites and talk groups of interest. Otherwise if I understand the Whistler method, with the one scan list, I would only hear traffic on the strongest site in the system, which may be a phase I site and I will miss out on the P2 traffic. Is this thought correct? Any thoughts on a good process to set the scan lists up?

I know with my Uniden 436 it will scan all sites not locked out and within the range, and I will hear both P1 and P2, but not quite so with the Whistlers. I can see advantages for both methodology, but on a large system like TxWarn with its many layers, sites and P1 and P2, it does make for some additional challenges.

 

[AggieCon]

That's the right idea. I have posts on how to accomplish this on the forum.

Some of the sites carry both Phase 1 and Phase 2 calls. Make sure you actually have to scan to separate sites to hear what you want. TxWARN is busy, so I can't imagine it working scanning more than one site unless you have just a few channels on your scanlist.

Feel free to email me.

 

[w5rah]

I have tried to monitor just the one site such as the NW Simulcast Site, but talkgroups such as the one for Cy Fair ISD Police is only heard on the City of Houston P2 NW Site. Also I noticed that cities like Pasadena use P2 and I've not heard them on the county sites, just the City of Houston P2 Southeast site. I was hoping I could catch them on the City of Houston Simulcast site, but I have not heard them. Both schools of thought (Uniden and Whistler) have their merit, but in a large system like TxWarn, there is not a good one size fits all solution. I sent a request to Whistler for feature request, to give the option to force selected sites to be scanned regardless if its not the strongest site, like Uniden, and I'm sure others have as well. I know in smaller counties like Washington County or Austin County, on my Whistler, I set up each county as a system with the sites they are likely to use. For those counties, the Whistler method works great as its always monitoring the strongest site. But in northwest Harris County where I live, being able to easily scan multiple sites, such as the Northwest Simulcast, City of Houston NW site, and Hempstead in one list, works great. I know I could do it with a Whistler as well, but it would involve multiple lists.