296 listening question

[Wick]

Quick question regarding the 296.

I monitor Philadelphia, PA police (PHPD) which is a digital trunked system. I have everything for PHPD loaded in one band on the 296 and it works just fine.

However, I prefer only to monitor two talkgroups at a time when I'm in the city, those being the talkgroup for the district I am currently in as well as the citywide priority channel. For example, if I'm working in the 26th district I want to listen to only their radio traffic and the citywide channel. Then if I have to go to the 39th district I want to listen to that and the citywide channel. I don't want to listen to the rest of the city. How can I go about setting this up on the fly assuming that all the necessary tralkgroups are programmed in?

Thanks.

 

[N0GTG]

Do you have scanlists programmed, or are you in search mode? You can program those 2 TG's into a scanlist, lock out the other scanlists, and use ID scan mode. Then, when you want to hear everything, go back into search, or turn the other scanlists back on. Does that help?

 

[ButchGone]

Re:

Easy proceedure! Assign the citywide tac channel as a priority talkgroup (in a seperate talk group list) and manually stay on the district channel you want that's in another list. Turn on priority, and it will check the citywide group every couple seconds, while locked on your district group. That's a great way to use the 296 priority feature!
BG...

 

[Wick]

I didn't know you could scan priority talkgroups while holding on another talkgroup. This sounds like exactly what I need, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

 

[ButchGone]

Re:

Absolutely! Since there are ten "ID lists" per bank or system, you can go farther. I used to keep the talk group I always wanted to stay locked on in list 1, then put up to nine other talkgroups in the remaining lists flagged as priority groups...in essence allowing me to keep an ear on ten groups, while sitting most on the "main" one I wanted. The scanner stays home on the first channel your manually locked on, then samples the other in order of the list they're in (looks at list 2, next list 3, next list 4, etc).It's a feature I miss on the 396(but it's too cool and makes up for the lack of this 296 feature)
Keep the 2-second delay off, so that it goes back to the channel you're sitting on faster.
BG..

 

[tomandnic]

I didn't know you could scan priority talkgroups while holding on another talkgroup. This sounds like exactly what I need, I'll give it a try. Thanks.

I didnt know that either, I thought priority talkgroups were impossible unless it was a dual receiver unit (2 receivers like the Icom R-20 but it would need trunking).

 

[N0GTG]

The 296/796, and the 780 would do a kind of priority on trunking by checking the control channel periodically for the priority TG (don't remember the interval). For some reason the 396/996 don't have that function. How'd they lose in the upgrade to 396/996?