396 Custom Search curiousity

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n4yek

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Apr 20, 2004
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Newport, Tennessee
I was playing with the scanner today and came across something I found odd. Here is the setup:
1) Custom search band
2) Set to scan for Motorola Trunk system 840 MHz to 867 MHz locally
3) Using the Control Channel Only search

While I have searched like this numerous times, I saw something today that was new to me.
It stopped on a Motorola system I am familiar with but don't listen too since it has services I don't want to monitor. Instead of showing me the system ID, it actually showed a name, Fina Petrochem.
Here is the system I was monitoring:
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=3555
When I searched for the name, it show a system in Texas by that name and not one here in Tennessee.
I know they probably own the system, but has anyone ever seen a system actually show you a name and not a system ID? I searched the manual and found nothing about this, also is there a way for it to show the system ID instead of the name and vice versa?
Thanks in advance
 

Liverdog

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Dec 19, 2002
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Hi Danny,

I don't have an answer to your question, however, I want to thank you for this post. I didn't know that the 396 could perform this function so I tried it, and sure enough control channel searching.

Now, what puzzles me is how the scanner 'knows' the names of the systems. I had thought that I wiped all the pre-loaded data when I was programming my scanner. So where does this index table that matches SIDs with names exist in the scanner? Sorry to hijack the post...
 

slicerwizard

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Sep 19, 2002
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Toronto, Ontario
There is a "permanent" SysID / System Name table in the scanner's firmware. There is no magic here. Since SysID's are sometimes reused, you can get the wrong system name displayed from time to time.
 

jerk

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Sep 5, 2003
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There is a "permanent" SysID / System Name table in the scanner's firmware. There is no magic here. Since SysID's are sometimes reused, you can get the wrong system name displayed from time to time.

Yes, that informaiton is derived from RR.
If you want the System ID, take the Control Channels you're receiving and program it in a (new) system and then hold on it. It will flash the Sys Id, you can see if it's the same or a fluke. And on my BCD396, I sometimes get odd sys id's.

It could have been skip, a reused id, or maybe a consolidated system where radios can be used at two or more different locations.
 
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