Anyone using a bcd436hp scanner on NC VIPER? If so, how do you have your talkgroups setup for your county?

[richardbritt]

Anyone using a bcd436hp scanner on NC VIPER? If so, how do you have your talkgroups setup for your county? I just bought a bcd436hp. I have a ton of P25 phase 1 only scanners and need to start getting phase 2 capable equipment. So I am trying to set up this new scanner. I am good setting up my various counties with their vhf and UHF systems but when I add VIPER talkgroups into each county, it moves tons of talkgroups and all of the towers in the state. Do you remove the unnecessary towers manually or disable them? Do you do it this way? Several different ideas from several people would be very appreciated and helpful. Thanks very much

Regards

Richard

Northeastern NC

 

[dave3825]

If you ever plan to travel with the 436 you can leave all sites in and set the favorites list location control. Then play with your range to receive what you want. Or leave them all in and set anything (sites & tg's) to avoid.

 

[reconrider8]

I did my 2 home counties as 1 and 2 favorite list then go in alphabetical order from 3 on through the rest of the counties and 0 as all the statewide stuff

 

[tvengr]

Several different ideas from several people would be very appreciated and helpful. Thanks very much

I have a bunch of favorites lists for NC counties. What is your city and county?

 

[Chris0516]

1. D/l Sentinel from Uniden.com, you will need that for any FW updates.
2. Check weekly, for HPDB(Home Patrol Data Base) updates.
3. You can use Sentinel to create your Favorite Lists.
4. I first add all the towers to a System. Then, By process of elimination, I set all but one tower to 'AVOID', until one tower comes in better.
5. My home county, along with Wake County(Cary/Wake25), have both Simulcast, and (non)Simulcast towers. Durham County(Durham-Fayetteville) is (non)Simulcast. So, Since I have the SDS100, I listen to my home county(Chatham), Wake County, and the City of Cary, on my SDS100 on the Simulcast towers. I listen to my home county, Wake County, and Durham County on my 436HP via the (non)Simulcast towers.

 

[LeSueurC]

I setup my SDS100 as follows, every county has their own Quick key, then once I have every county assigned quick keys, I go through all the sites and give them the same quick key as the county they are in. So for example Dare County I have set to QK 6, then all the sites in Dare county are assigned QK 6. Mostly all state LE I have assigned the same QK, Medical helos and the VMN TG’s have are set to their own QK. Usually I do this for when I’m traveling, but for when I’m stationary, AkA in OBX, I’ll do the closest 3-4 counties.

 

[richardbritt]

I have a bunch of favorites lists for NC counties. What is your city and county?

Chowan, Bertie, Perquimans are very close. But I go to the Outer Banks quite a lot (mainly to play putt putt, go to the beach for a few hours, etc). I also like to get out to Rocky Mount, Nashville or Tarboro for a day now and then. And about twice a year I go to Smithfield, or the zoo in Ashboro. Being retired for a living, I like to get out and see different places by car. I am also a Hazmat responder with North Carolina Emergency Management as a volunteer, so I cover Hazmat Response for 25 counties in NC.

I am grateful for any files of areas of the state you would like to share.

Thanks

Richard

 

[richardbritt]

I setup my SDS100 as follows, every county has their own Quick key, then once I have every county assigned quick keys, I go through all the sites and give them the same quick key as the county they are in. So for example Dare County I have set to QK 6, then all the sites in Dare county are assigned QK 6. Mostly all state LE I have assigned the same QK, Medical helos and the VMN TG’s have are set to their own QK. Usually I do this for when I’m traveling, but for when I’m stationary, AkA in OBX, I’ll do the closest 3-4 counties.

Sounds interesting with the quick keys. I haven't used those yet. I see you are in Tidewater, would you also have the same scanner setup for like Norfolk for example? My kids and sister live in Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach.

I would love to see your Sentinel file and use it if possible to get started. If you wouldn't mind of course.

Thanks

Richard

 

[richardbritt]

1. D/l Sentinel from Uniden.com, you will need that for any FW updates.
2. Check weekly, for HPDB(Home Patrol Data Base) updates.
3. You can use Sentinel to create your Favorite Lists.
4. I first add all the towers to a System. Then, By process of elimination, I set all but one tower to 'AVOID', until one tower comes in better.
5. My home county, along with Wake County(Cary/Wake25), have both Simulcast, and (non)Simulcast towers. Durham County(Durham-Fayetteville) is (non)Simulcast. So, Since I have the SDS100, I listen to my home county(Chatham), Wake County, and the City of Cary, on my SDS100 on the Simulcast towers. I listen to my home county, Wake County, and Durham County on my 436HP via the (non)Simulcast towers.

That's good. I am learning how to set up Sentinel software. That's cool you are in Durham. I lived there during the week for around 4 years, working for the Durham VA Medical Center. Lots of VIPER stuff to listen to in the area. Plus the airport traffic is fun to follow.

 

[richardbritt]

I did my 2 home counties as 1 and 2 favorite list then go in alphabetical order from 3 on through the rest of the counties and 0 as all the statewide stuff

If I remember correctly, you are around Roanoke Rapids. What counties are you monitoring on VIPER? Halifax I bet, maybe Northampton also? When you load the counties, what do you do about all the tower sites that automatically get put in the Sentinel software? Select avoid, delete, or just leave them and some how limit how far the scanner will use the towers? I assume the scanner knows where the towers are located and does this automatically?

 

[richardbritt]

If you ever plan to travel with the 436 you can leave all sites in and set the favorites list location control. Then play with your range to receive what you want. Or leave them all in and set anything (sites & tg's) to avoid.

I am trying to figure that part out. Looks as if there are several ways to limit the range.

Thanks

Richard

 

[Chris0516]

That's good. I am learning how to set up Sentinel software. That's cool you are in Durham. I lived there during the week for around 4 years, working for the Durham VA Medical Center. Lots of VIPER stuff to listen to in the area. Plus the airport traffic is fun to follow.

I am actually, in Chatham County. Durham is one of the neighboring counties, that. I can listen to. I have airport, and several VHF RCAG(ZDC, ZJX) frequencies.

 

[KE4ZNR]

Durham County(Durham-Fayetteville) is (non)Simulcast.

Unless something has changed in the last 5 mins or so we (Durham) are indeed still very much a simulcast system.

 

[dave3825]

when I add VIPER talkgroups into each county, it moves tons of talkgroups and all of the towers in the state.

So are you trying to take certain counties (talkgroups) from a trunked system and have them in county specific favorites lists? It can be done and involves binding a quick key to more than one item. It also involves having the system in multiple locations with everything of non interest set to avoid.

My local fd's have uhf conventional channels and the the county has fire tg's on the trunked system. I added the whole system in again, set all to avoid except for fire, and used the same quick key that opens my uhf conventional list. So hitting 1.1 E opens a trs and a conventional list.

I am trying to figure that part out. Looks as if there are several ways to limit the range.

Set the fav list to Location Control. Then Menu-Set Location-Set Range.

 

[LeSueurC]

Sounds interesting with the quick keys. I haven't used those yet. I see you are in Tidewater, would you also have the same scanner setup for like Norfolk for example? My kids and sister live in Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach.

I would love to see your Sentinel file and use it if possible to get started. If you wouldn't mind of course.

Thanks

Richard

For Tidewater I have it setup a little differently. I have Metro Fire, Metro Police, Peninsula Fire and Peninsula Police. So Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Norfolk and VB are in Metro. Suffolk and IOW have their own. Peninsula is NN, Hampton, JCC/York/Wmbg

 

[Chris0516]

Unless something has changed in the last 5 mins or so we (Durham) are indeed still very much a simulcast system.

The Durham side of the Durham-Fayetteville trunked system, is not Simulcast: Durham-Fayetteville Trunking System, Durham, North Carolina

 

[KE4ZNR]

The Durham side of the Durham-Fayetteville trunked system, is not Simulcast: Durham-Fayetteville Trunking System, Durham, North Carolina

I am telling you that yes, we are a 4 site simulcast system.
You are wrong.

 

[LeSueurC]

The Durham side of the Durham-Fayetteville trunked system, is not Simulcast: Durham-Fayetteville Trunking System, Durham, North Carolina

Buddy I don’t think you realize who you’re arguing with😂😂

 

[LeSueurC]

The Durham side of the Durham-Fayetteville trunked system, is not Simulcast: Durham-Fayetteville Trunking System, Durham, North Carolina

You do realize he’s the Radio Tech for Durham don’t you?

 

[richardbritt]

So are you trying to take certain counties (talkgroups) from a trunked system and have them in county specific favorites lists?

Dave, that's exactly it. But not knowing how to make it work. I keep copying the same sites and talkgroups them VIPER into each favorite list. And having to adjust each list. It's very time consuming and I am looking for a way to do this using quick keys, range controls or whatever makes sense. I just don't know what options others have used that works for them ideally.

Thanks for the help

Richard

It can be done and involves binding a quick key to more than one item. It also involves having the system in multiple locations with everything of non interest set to avoid.

This sounds good, but not sure how to accomplish it

Set the fav list to Location Control. Then Menu-Set Location-Set Range.

I assume you use location control, and have your location as your zip code? Or does the scanner use locations imbedded in the scanner already? Assuming it has locations of system towers already?

Regards, Richard