Am I scanning too many banks at once.

[Chris0381]

I tend to scan all my banks at once with a PRO-97 and do miss activity at times. I am wondering if it is normal for people to scan all their banks with loads of frequencies (say 400) or is it normal to turn off a few banks and just scan a few at a time.

Thanks

Chris

 

[Dubbin]

Thats alot of scanning to do at one time with one radio.

 

[rpowley]

Thats alot of scanning to do at one time with one radio.

That is a lot to try to keep up with - I normally listen to 3 banks per scanner, but I may have 3 scanners on at 1 time for a total of 9 banks. A lot depends on your area and the amount of traffic. Normally I just listen to 1 scanner with 3 banks active.

 

[Chris0381]

Thanks guys. Good answers and I'm glad I asked. I'll put the old 895XLT to use also.

 

[MacombMonitor]

I normally scan two banks, on two scanners. The banks are not totally full either.

 

[fuzzymoto]

I leave one scanner on that just scans my primary frequencies (anything I don't want to miss). Since that scanner scans REAL fast I don't miss much. On my primary scanner I have it doing everything. Scanning LOTS of banks, searching 10 different ranges, service searchers....you name it I'm looking for it. If something good happens I tune my primary scanner down to just that area or put it on priority plus. Prior to having 2 scanners I was missing quite a bit on my important channels but now I don't miss much.

 

[khvfdff]

Usually I use only one scanner and thats my BCD396T. I have it scanning one bank with three different groups at the same time. Which is only about 75 channels out of the 1000+ that are in the radio now. At times I will have two systems going but that is not often that that is happening.

 

[n2ops]

Primary Channel(s)

I place my 3 most important channels thruout my scanner just before those what will be the most active which is usually always at the beginning of each bank with delay each time they are entered.

This system works well for me.

This is with conventional channels. This could probably be sone with the IDs in trunking as well.

 

[wrngnmbr6]

This is a great thread....I always tell this to people who are just starting the hobby(and I don't mean you) and they always tend to jam it with a bunch of frequencies and scan everything. Like another person already posted A lot depends on your area and the amount of traffic...Now with my answer: I just moved to Wilmington NC from Bergen County NJ so at this time I have a Pro-2067 in the kitchen and a BR 330T in the bedroom on my desk both just monitoring Wilmington PD as I'm just trying to get a good feel of the area before scanning more. I also take a Pro-92 with me to work. Now when I was in NJ I was using a BC780XLT with 2 banks scanning Garfield PD & FD, Saddle Brook PD & FD, and Lodi PD & FD (1 Bank) and Bergen Couty Police (2nd Bank) Also had my Pro-92 on scanning NJ State Police (prefered medvac only)

 

[nexus]

I stay with 2 maybe sometimes 3 banks. Usually the 3rd is just conventional hwy patrol stuff, the other two are TRS's. Even with those I tend to miss stuff.

 

[MacombMonitor]

I brought this up when the BCD396T with it's Dynamic Memory (6,000 channels) was introduced. This is a great feature for a hand-held, or mobile unit, if you travel a lot. However, if it's used at home, then it's overkill. Guys with BC796D's were complaining that they only had 10 Banks, with 100 Channels each, claiming it was a severe restriction. If it's used in your home, I'm not sure how it would be a restriction. I don't see how it's possible to utilize 6,000 channels in a scanner, that stays in your home.

 

[Halfpint]

At home I've got 8 scanners going. Usually it's 6 scanning various different systems and 2 `search scanning'. Mobile I usually have at least 2, *sometimes* 3 on those rare *special* occasions, scanners going so that I can keep track of both conventional and trunked systems. In either case I try to keep the maximum number of banks scanned at a time down to 2 only occasionally do I have maybe 3 banks turned on. Within the banks even though I may have them pretty much filled with freqs or TGs I usually only have the particular freqs or TGs of the agencies/services or systems I am interested in at the time unlocked. With the PRO-96/2096s I try to use the V-Scanners to help keep assorted setups available so that if I happen to need a different setup quickly. (Lessay I'm going to be going to Greeley, Fort Collins, Loveland, and then finally Longmont. I'll have the necessary setups loaded up in the V-Scanners and as I `make the loop' I'll just change V-Scanners instead of trying to go through and lock and unlock TGs and freqs in the active setup.)

Just an `Olde Fart's' 2¢ worth. {GRIN!}

 

[maalox]

hello. i use all cw freqs here in nyc on a 296d i picked the 10 most inportant freqs and priority scan all day. at night i listen to thr dott.

 

[bwhite]

I have a few, key primary dispatch channels in bank 1.
The full compliment of channels pertaining to diff jurisdictions/services are in other banks. Bank one stays on, the other banks are activated when an incident of interest occurs. e.g. Bank 2=fire (city), Bank 3=PD (city), Bank 3=fire (county), Bank 4=PD (county)

 

[LordJ]

At home, I have 2 radios going at all times. 1 for Police only, (560xlt) and the other with 2 banks on, one for the provincial fleetnet system and the other bank for Pub service..(780xlt) My mobile has 3 banks going and sometimes I have 5 when I turn on the GMRS/FRS systems.

 

[scannersnstuff]

this is what i usually do at home :

my bc780xlt on an attic mounted discone scan's everything.about 200 ch's give or take a few.

my rs pro-2055 either's scan's/repat's all the local fire channel's in my 780 and has my local pd in there too.pd frequency is extremely busy.scanner on a room height mounted discone.

i usually run both at the same time.or when the action's really heavy on my local pd channel i'll lock it on there.or at other time's i'll have the pro-2055 doing signal stalker.

 

[mciupa]

I tend to scan all my banks at once with a PRO-97 and do miss activity at times. I am wondering if it is normal for people to scan all their banks with loads of frequencies (say 400) or is it normal to turn off a few banks and just scan a few at a time.

It appears that most choose multi scanners and mini banks. I'm the other way around :roll:
One scanner , twenty banks

Being the exception, I start with all banks ( I would hate to miss something in the
aviation or marine bands because I was concentrating solely on Emergency Services)
Case in point , heard an ATC help a student land a plane that was in trouble, I'll most
likely never hear that sort of call again.

If an incident does develop , then I will monitor the one bank with activity , when it ends... then back to " the works".

Sounds like you are missing "end of call" or replies . Take off any delays that you have set and perhaps drop a bank or two , if a high percentage of calls are mundane or routine.

 

[markinillinois]

Just because a scanner has 10 channel or a million channel frequency capability, it doesn't mean that every channel has to be utilized. I've learned that the more frequencies you scan in one radio, the more comms you're going to miss.

90% of my radio hobby is aircraft comms related and I keep six of my scanners parked in manual mode on one frequency each. That might sound extreme, but with 550+ airline flights and business jets passing overhead at high altitude on a daily basis, it gets rather busy.

Scanners one & two monitor the ARTCC high and ultra high sector frequencies that pass above me, 120.825 & 132.875. It's a lot to listen to since I tape both sectors 24/7.

Scanner three monitors the ARTCC low altitude sector above me, 125.3.

Scanners four & five monitor the AR-110 & AR-111 air refueling tracks, 327.6 & 348.9. I tape both AR tracks during the day and evening hours.

In scanner seven, I tape military aircraft comms on 319.0 for a buddy of mine that lives in Mississippi.

Scanner seven has the most frequencies that I scan in one radio and that's the 127 airline ops frequencies in the 128.85-132.0 range.

Scanner eight monitors the 10 VHF ARTCC high and ultra high sector frequencies that surround me. I normally just scan the ultra high frequencies, however.

Scanner nine monitors 28 miscellaneous military aircraft frequencies and it's taped during the day and evening hours.

Scanner ten monitors 2 railroad frequencies that are rather busy, 160.41 & 161.1.

Scanner eleven monitors 22 local public service frequencies.

Scanner twelve is used primarly to experiment with and to test new frequencies.

Mark Holmes
Marion, IL
markinillinois@webtv.net

 

[Chris0381]

Acyually after reconfiguring the scanner I realize Ide rather have more banks with less channels so I can segregate them better.

 

[kb2vxa]

KISS, keep it simple stupid!

The fewer channels you scan the faster the scanner will return to each one. Make sense?