mike_webb59 said:
Would factors like location/distance, CTCSS decode, differences between radio systems and towers affect scanning rates.
Mike,
Aside from isolating trunked systems in their own banks (not putting two trunked systems together - but you can mix a trunked system and conventional channels in most scanners), none of those issues amounts to any significant difference at all when you are scanning. It all boils down to your personal preference. My choice would be to use as many of the available banks that a scanner has as possible; sticking with your example, I'd go with using all 10 banks...here's why...
I prefer to set up my scanner's channel plans to match the channel plans of the agencies I am attempting to monitor - this way when a unit says, for example, "go to 9" all I need to do is press manual, 9, manual and presto - I could follow the rest of the conversation. Here's a sample of how I'd set up a Radio Shack PRO-96 portable scanner - for demo purposes:
Bank 0 - Local Police (F 001 thru F 016)
Bank 1 - local troop of State Police (F 101 thru F 105)
Bank 2 - Local BLS service (F 201 thru F 214)
Bank 3 - Local ALS service (F 301 thru F 330)
Bank 4 - Local fire / rescue (F 401 thru F 421)
Bank 5 - Countywide fire / rescue (F 501 thru F 515)
Bank 6 - Other agencies (School District, etc.)
Bank 7 - Local utilties (electric, gas, CaTV, etc.)
Bank 8 - Miscellaneous [FRS (F 801 thru F 814), MURS, GMRS, Ham etc.)
Bank 9 - spare
Note that when using this system you might find some frequencies may get repeated from one bank to another - as some agencies have built-in to their channel plans a monitor of another agency (i.e. BLS F14 is a monitor of Local Fire F1) - and that's okay - in fact, I think it's a good thing.
I prefer this arrangement of my scanners since it allows me to select and unselect banks (and therefore agencies) depending on what I want to hear. Say the local police is running a selective enforcement operation (Buckle Up, DWI checkpoint, speed traps, etc.) and I'm getting tired of hearing endless plate after license after warrant check being run...press 0 while scanning, they're gone for the next two hours or so. Seeing as how I'm not interested in who's getting their electricity turned off today because they haven't paid their bills again - or which house had to get skipped because the meter reader couldn't get in, I usually have Bank 7 unselected - until there's a fire where a service cut is requested - or a car vs. utility pole MVA, or other such utility emergency announced elsewhere in the other banks; press 7 while scanning - bam - they're all back in the scan sequence.
Bottom line...stuffing everything into one or two banks, IMO, doesn't afford you any flexability. If you want to isolate a certain agency's activity (say EMS while they are working a code), you're either stuck listening to everything else or forced to lock out individual channels in a bank of 100 of them - then trying to find them again later to unlock them when everything settles down.
SCANdal