Assigning Multiple Scanners

[Metrofire31]

I've seen quite a few posts on RR that show shacks with multiple scanners. I'm very interested in how some of you in this situation have them assigned. One of the great things about scanning is that there are so many different bands, agencies, and hidden freqs you can monitor that it's sometimes intimidating on where to start. I have 5 scanners currently active in my shack and have them assigned as follows:
1 - VHF/UHF Fire/Rescue
1 - VHF/UHF Law Enforcement (Fed, State, Counties, Local)
1 - Analog Trunking Systems
1 - Digital Trunking Systems
1 - Searching

I'd like to know how you folks with multiple scanners have yours assigned?

 

[DaveNF2G]

With two scanners, I separate fire/EMS from police.

With more, I can listen to aircraft, railroads, and other things.

 

[xpawel15x]

This is what my current scanners are set to:

Pro-83 = always on my town's PD and Vol. FD
Pro-97 = all surrounding towns as well as County PD (VHF and UHF only)
Pro-96 = State Police and Sheriff's Dept (only 800mhz)

 

[fuzzymoto]

I use one very broadly, covering pretty much everything I pick up. I devote one to just the "core" important stuff I don't want to miss (which now barely fits into one scanner)...and I plan to devote one to just searching (when funds and antenna allow). I've also considered adding a cheap scanner to devote to just the couty dispatch, local police, my work and a few other freqs.....again if funds allow.

 

[bonus1331]

BC780XLT-Local VHF Sheriff's office
BC15-I have a seperate 800 Mhz TRS system for major OPS-FD City Dispatch, FD County Dispatch, Air Ops
BC396T-City PD TRS
BC330T-Fire Tone Outs for UHF County Fire

 

[NYRHKY94]

My Shack:

BC796D = Streaming my local PD (P25 Digital) & FD (Analog)
Pro-2052 = Streaming my local airport (tower, ground, approach/departures & police)
Pro-2096 = Streaming several other PD's (P25 Digital) in my area
BC898T = Streaming two EDACS PD's in my area
BC210XLT = Monitoring my local airport (tower, ground, approach/departures & police)
Pro-2053 = Monitoring two EDACS PD's in my area
GRE PSR-600 = Monitoring my local PD (P25 Digital) & FD (Analog)

 

[mikea7531]

This is how I run mine:

BC796D: NJSP North and area trunking
BC796D: NJSP Central and area trunking
Dual Optocoms using ScanStar Spectrum Commander: Conventional Fire/EMS/OEM
Pro-2045 w/ OS-545 using ScanStar Spectrum Commander: Conventional Law Enforcement
BC796D using UniTrunker: Somerset County TRS
PSR-500 using UniTrunker: Franklin Twp TRS

 

[Stick0413]

Full force listening would be something like this (this is just an example)

Digital Scanners: (I may add Richmond and Henrico Talkgroups in one of the scanners below)
PSR-500: Hopewell Talkgroups of the Eastern Virginia Regional Communications TRS (Mot II All Digital system)... This is one of the two main localities that I monitor
Pro-96: Colonial Heights & Chesterfield Talkgroups of the Richmond/Henrico/Chesterfield/Colonial Heights system
Pro-2096: VA STARS TRS
BCD996T: Fort Lee Talkgroups of the Eastern Virginia Regional Communications TRS/Petersburg TRS & Dinwiddie County P25 Conventional

Non-Digital (I may add Hanover Counties EDACS TRS on either the Pro-97 or Pro-2055 from time to time)

Pro-97: Prince George County... The other main locality I monitor
Pro-2055: State Police Conventional & other statewide channels
Pro-94: Outlying counties

The Pro-26 and SC230 are in reserve status

As I said this is just an example... I may change what I am monitoring in each individual scanner at any time and especially if there is a major incident somewhere. At the very minimum I will have one scanner dedicated to Hopewell and Prince George. If I am on the go and bring one scanner it is the PSR-500 although many times I will bring both the 500 and 96 with me. The only time I will bring something other than the 500 with me when I am on the go is when I am dedicating the 500 to Unitrunker and then I will bring the trusty old 96 with me (hasn't ever let me down).

edit: a little more

When I first got back into scanning (a couple of years ago, I was into it when I was younger) I thought it was crazy seeing the people on here that monitored two or three scanners at once let alone mutiple scanners at once. Once you start doing it it isn't all that hard. You may not get every piece of information but you learn to pick out what is important. You can usually tell this by the persons voice.

 

[R1VINCE]

BCT15 = scanning everything.When it stops on something of interest, i hold it there
BC780XLT = main MilAir/CHP/Backup for when the BCT15 is on hold
BC2500XLT = MilAir/CHP/NonTrunk backup
PRO2020 = CHP only
BR330T = Away from the desktops
AOR AR8000 = MilAir/Airshows/local repeater(Ham)
AOR AR8200 = Military HF(USB)/MilAir/Airshows/Misc. direct entry
PRO92x2 = around the house/Misc. backup
PRO95 = Trunk monitoring/wifes mobile
PRO94 = bedroom scanner
PRO2006 = Bedroom scanner

 

[andrewccm]

So does everyone have them all turned up at the same time??

I only have 3 and find that there is way too much to keep up with simultaneously...(ie, listening).

BCD396 - Monitoring Dallas MOT 800, Irving EDACS, Mansfield and Grand Prairie P25 (PD/Fire)
BCT15 - Monitoring Fort Worth, Arlington and surrounding cities (PD/Fire)
RSPro2046 - Monitoring Dallas 460Mhz Conventional PD

During the day, all 3 have conversations going on at the same time a significant amount of the time.

I have paired down significantly what I listen to, but feel like I am not doing something right after seeing how most out there have much more equipment active than me.

 

[af5rn]

I pretty much stopped listening to cops years ago to eliminate that problem. That way I know that when the squelch breaks somewhere, it is something with at least minimal potential for being interesting. When almost all you are scanning is fire and emergency, and mostly at night, there really isn't much of a problem with too many radios sounding off at once. And if they do, experience teaches you to handle it easily, so yeah, I leave them all up, although some louder than others, lol.

In order to compensate for slow scan times for so many systems, I have to break it all into multiple radios, like so (when in Texas. Still trying to figure out Kalifornia):

BCD996T #1 - All Arlington, Mansfield, and Grand Prairie, and Irving trunk systems (4 systems, 5 cities) fire channels
BCD996T #2 - All Northeast Tarrant County trunk system (8 cities) fire channels
BCD996T #3 - All Tarrant County/Forth Worth trunk system (6 cities) fire channels
BCD996T #4 - Searching police special ops/emergency/surveillance channels on all trunk systems.
BCD396T - Scanning police patrol channels of whatever area or incident I am currently focused on
BC760XLT #1 - All (conventional) suburban fire and Interagency mutual aid channels
BC760XLT #2 - All aeromedical services (4 services, bout ten helos), helicopter multicom, and Civil Air Patrol channels
Kenwood Dual Bander - News media channels and Skywarn (if indicated)
Motorola HT - Dallas Fire

Really, to even try and do that with less than four radios would be an exercise in frustrating futility. Used to be able to back before everybody went trunked, but not anymore.

 

[steveh552]

I do not own a scanner, Id like one, but right now, budget wont allow. Currently, i just have the local Police and Fire/County Sheriff/County Fire dispatch and county EMA in my 2meter HT and mobile, plus one or 2 other police departments, not counting the local ham radio repeaters. Id like to monitor one or 2 other agencies, one is on 400 and the other 800 trunked (not to mention the p25 State patrol) but it really is not in my budget at this point.

 

[Highpockets]

I do not own a scanner, Id like one, but right now, budget wont allow. Currently, i just have the local Police and Fire/County Sheriff/County Fire dispatch and county EMA in my 2meter HT and mobile, plus one or 2 other police departments, not counting the local ham radio repeaters. Id like to monitor one or 2 other agencies, one is on 400 and the other 800 trunked (not to mention the p25 State patrol) but it really is not in my budget at this point.

Keep your eye on the for sale forum, something may fit your budget and meet your needs.

 

[swstow]

i feel a little underequiped

in my truck
2096 on hamilton county digital ( police/fire)
psr400 ( just got ) on uvf/vhf other local countys

in work shop
pro 2032 uhf/vhf local countys
2 bearcats V on waiting on crystals for

still looking at a ham for truck had lisence 3 years but yet to get radio

 

[andrewccm]

I pretty much stopped listening to cops years ago to eliminate that problem. That way I know that when the squelch breaks somewhere, it is something with at least minimal potential for being interesting. When almost all you are scanning is fire and emergency, and mostly at night, there really isn't much of a problem with too many radios sounding off at once. And if they do, experience teaches you to handle it easily, so yeah, I leave them all up, although some louder than others, lol.

In order to compensate for slow scan times for so many systems, I have to break it all into multiple radios, like so (when in Texas. Still trying to figure out Kalifornia):

BCD996T #1 - All Arlington, Mansfield, and Grand Prairie, and Irving trunk systems (4 systems, 5 cities) fire channels
BCD996T #2 - All Northeast Tarrant County trunk system (8 cities) fire channels
BCD996T #3 - All Tarrant County/Forth Worth trunk system (6 cities) fire channels
BCD996T #4 - Searching police special ops/emergency/surveillance channels on all trunk systems.
BCD396T - Scanning police patrol channels of whatever area or incident I am currently focused on
BC760XLT #1 - All (conventional) suburban fire and Interagency mutual aid channels
BC760XLT #2 - All aeromedical services (4 services, bout ten helos), helicopter multicom, and Civil Air Patrol channels
Kenwood Dual Bander - News media channels and Skywarn (if indicated)
Motorola HT - Dallas Fire

Really, to even try and do that with less than four radios would be an exercise in frustrating futility. Used to be able to back before everybody went trunked, but not anymore.

I need to get a copy of your configs! Since we live in the same area and all... hehe :lol:

 

[af5rn]

I need to get a copy of your configs! Since we live in the same area and all... hehe :lol:

Well, to keep it simple, they are all (396 and 996s) programmed the same. I only change what is locked in and out at any given time. That way they are all interchangeable. There are like 2000 talkgroups in each scanner, and many of them simply never get used. Especially most of the Dallas County suburban stuff. They're just there in case there is an incident in that city.

I'd like to know how well you get Irving, because I am deaf to them southwest of you.

 

[Gbcue]

BC246T - Mostly city net + medical
BC60XLT - Mostly county net
FT-60R - Ham bands and city net

 

[andrewccm]

Well, to keep it simple, they are all (396 and 996s) programmed the same. I only change what is locked in and out at any given time. That way they are all interchangeable. There are like 2000 talkgroups in each scanner, and many of them simply never get used. Especially most of the Dallas County suburban stuff. They're just there in case there is an incident in that city.

I'd like to know how well you get Irving, because I am deaf to them southwest of you.

With the Yagi, I can get Irving...but it's in and out depending on how I have it rotated. On my scantenna and BCT15, late night, I get it about the same. Neither are strong and clean though. That is a funky system to pick up for sure.

I have mine programmed the same... Just lock out what I don't want...That way, in the car, I can just change up the lockouts for whatever I want...

 

[xm15e2s]

I use the following...

BCT15 with Radio Shack 20-176: Police and Aircraft

PRO-97 with Diamond RH77CA: EMS and Fire

PRO-2050 with 24" "Snoop Daddy" (ebay antenna): This scanner is dedicated to monitoring a local business


That's about all my brain can process at one time. lol

 

[N1SQB]

Different twist!

Hello All!
I set up my 2 BCT15 scanners exactly the same way. That is to say that they are both cloned exactly! This way, I can make one one thing and the other something else for regular monitoring and if need be, they can both monitor the same things ( all fire, all police,all rescue ect..) in the event of an incident. It makes them both flexible that way.Should I ever need to take one out and make it mobile, its programmed exactly like the one inside. The only ones that are dedicated scanners are my Uniden 996 which is strictly for digital monitoring and my good ol Uniden 785D which I use for monitoring NYC and Long Island N.Y. I dont like mixing analog with digital or standard with trunking. It can be done, I just dont like doing it.

Manny