BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Advice for Programming Sites on Trunked Networks

[JethrowJohnson]

Hi everybody,
I've asked this question before, but I never really did get a sure answer. Right now, the way I have Ohio MARCS-IP and WV SIRN programmed is by putting in my county's site for MARCS and all of the sites in Wood County, West Virginia for SIRN. But, if I ever have to travel outside my county (which is rarely, and I don't mean for a vacation or anything, only for a trip to wherever and then back home) I won't hear anything on MARCS because I'd be out of range of the Washington County site. So what I want to do is program the sites in all of the surrounding counties in both states and use the quick keys to turn off everything except for the county I'm in and the county in the other state closest to me if I'm monitoring West Virginia at the time. Is this a good idea or a bad one, and is there anything in my planning that would need changed for it to work?

 

[dave3825]

You can quick key those sites but you only have 100 available for Dept and or sites so if you have 60 departments already quick keyed, that only leave 40 for sites.

Department/Site Quick Keys (DQK)
You now also have 100 Department or Site QKs to assign to your Sites and/or Departments within your Systems. You can assign any QK to one or more Departments or Sites, or program one or more Department or Site with no QK assigned that will always be scanned unless you Avoid it. If you are going to be using some keys for Departments and some for Sites, you may want to do something like start numbering your sites at 50 so you don't mix them up with your departments.

Advice: Assigning a QK to a FL is a good idea but don't go overboard and assign QKs to all your 40 Systems, 125 Departments, and 300 Sites if you don't need to. Only assign QKs to what you may want to turn on or off. If you are always going to scan a Department or Site, leave it at the default (no QK) which will always enable it for scan. Using locations along with Location Control can also turn Departments or Sites on and off. If you are still bent on shutting stuff on and off, try creating a FL for some stuff on, and another for some stuff off. There's plenty of room on the SD card. To sum it up, don't make QKs any more complicated than they have to be.
See also Scanning Order for QK scanning order.

You can assign any QK to one or more Departments or Sites, or program one or more Department or Site with no QK assigned that will always be scanned unless you Avoid it.

So if you don't have enough quick keys to do all your sites, and have depts quick keyed that you will alway scan, you could remove those and use them towards sites.

 

[werinshades]

Hi everybody,
I've asked this question before, but I never really did get a sure answer. Right now, the way I have Ohio MARCS-IP and WV SIRN programmed is by putting in my county's site for MARCS and all of the sites in Wood County, West Virginia for SIRN. But, if I ever have to travel outside my county (which is rarely, and I don't mean for a vacation or anything, only for a trip to wherever and then back home) I won't hear anything on MARCS because I'd be out of range of the Washington County site. So what I want to do is program the sites in all of the surrounding counties in both states and use the quick keys to turn off everything except for the county I'm in and the county in the other state closest to me if I'm monitoring West Virginia at the time. Is this a good idea or a bad one, and is there anything in my planning that would need changed for it to work?

I have a similar program structure set up on my SDS100. A couple of ways to do this, and it's personal preference more than right or wrong.

You can program a System under the same Favorite List with all the sites you would like to monitor. As an example, Favorite List 1, System 1 only has the local sites you need when home. Set up a second System, under the same Favorite List, System 2 for example could be your "on the road" System with all the sites you'd like. Walking out the door, 1.1 Enter turns off the home, 1.2 turns on the "road" system.

Under the second system, you can create different Departments than System 1 too. You can add another states Department(s), put in the talkgroups, label them and off you go.

Another option would be to label the sites together. You could set up the other States Department(s), assign all the sites under Quick Key 92 as an example, and when you walk out the door, 1.1.92 Enter could be your "on the road". You can then set up your home site(s) under Quick Key 91 as an example.

 

[nessnet]

Build favorites based on location.
Put all the sites in and get a GPS puck.
Turn on location control.

The radio will do everything for you.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Thank you everyone for all your answers. @nessnet I plan on doing that, but it's probably gonna take a while because there's a few things I want to set up but I can't just yet, but thank you, that's a good idea.

I like @werinshades system too. And thanks for the heads-up Dave, I don't think I have that many sites but I'll check all of that before I start pushing buttons. I think for right now, I'll go ahead with the surrounding counties plan and then I'll work on getting a GPS puck and get that set up. Thanks again everybody. 🙂👍👋

 

[wtp]

i would just use full GPS.

 

[ofd8001]

Yes to the GPS being the "best" option, but until that happens:

While you are limited to 100 Department(Site) Quick Keys, you can assign more than one Department(Site) to a given Department Quick Key. So the Northeast area sites and Department Quick Keys could be DQK 1, Southwest to DQK 2, etc. It'll take planning, would would work.

You could also change the zip code every 50 miles (or whatever) and set the Range for 50 miles. You would attempt to receive extra sites, but just those within a smaller area. Please do not change zip code while driving. You don't want to hear a call being dispatched where you are the "guest of honor".