BCD996XT and FreeScan

[orgchemus]

If I were programming the BCD996XT using FreeSCAN or any software, how would I
create the following for Pennington County and Meade County, SD? For example, would I create 2 systems:

System: Mot Type II/P25
Site: Rapid City (Skyline)
Group: Pennington, Highway Patrol, Medical/EMS, and Statewide EMG

System: Mot Type II/P25
Site: Sturgis (Sly Hill)
Group: Meade, Highway Patrol, Medical/EMS, and Statewide EMG

or would I create 1 system with all the sites I want included, then include all
groups under 1 system?

How many systems can you have and what is the best way to set-up the scanner to include the following:

Pennington County- EMS,FD,PD, Highway Patrol, State Radio, and State Fire.

I have uploaded from the Radio Reference database, but if I don't the systems concept, I will be lost. Any information will be greatly appreciated, and I thank you in advance.

 

[hiegtx]

If I were programming the BCD996XT using FreeSCAN or any software, how would I
create the following for Pennington County and Meade County, SD? For example, would I create 2 systems:

System: Mot Type II/P25
Site: Rapid City (Skyline)
Group: Pennington, Highway Patrol, Medical/EMS, and Statewide EMG

System: Mot Type II/P25
Site: Sturgis (Sly Hill)
Group: Meade, Highway Patrol, Medical/EMS, and Statewide EMG

or would I create 1 system with all the sites I want included, then include all
groups under 1 system?

How many systems can you have and what is the best way to set-up the scanner to include the following:

Pennington County- EMS,FD,PD, Highway Patrol, State Radio, and State Fire.

I have uploaded from the Radio Reference database, but if I don't the systems concept, I will be lost. Any information will be greatly appreciated, and I thank you in advance.

orgchemus,

For the Pennington County EMS, PD, & FD, there are a number of talkgroups on the statewide system (looks like some were recently updated), as well as the conventional frequencies on the county page. If I saw that pattern in my area, I'd suspect they were transitioning from the conventional frequencies to the trunked system. If you don't know for sure, and if there's nobody in the South Dakota forum that can shed more light on it, then I'd set up the scanner both ways for now.

For the conventional frequencies (the ones not listed under the statewide trunked system) you can simply do an import to create a conventional system. You can split the channels imported into groups by city, or by type (EMS, Fire, PD), or any other way that you prefer. Assign the system a quick key so that you can turn it on or off if desired. Assign each group a quick key as well.

For the other two, the sites on the statewide system, you can either just create one trunked system, via import, for the statewide TRS, then also import those two sites. For the individual talkgroups from the two counties you list, again, split them up however you want into groups. By city, by service: PD, FD, State Police, State Fire; however you want. You can have up to 20 groups within the trunked system, but you only have 10 quick key numbers, so if you divide into more than ten groups, you'll have some duplicates. No big deal, just noting that. You would also import the two sites: Rapid City (Skyline) and Sturgis (Sly Hill). The scanner will check each site for the control channel, then check to see if any of the talkgroups are active.Once the first site has been evaluated, and checked for activity, the second will be done. (And a third, fourth, etc, if you added more than these two.)

If you'd rather keep the two counties/sites separate, then create two systems, each with only that county's site and the talkgroups you want. Since they are both on the statewide system, I'd lean toward putting them together. However, if you did them as separate system, you could more easily narrow down your listening to only one of the two counties (if there was something major going on). Again, that's a personal choice. Neither way is right or wrong.

It might help to read Trunking Basics in the Wiki, to get a better feel for how this comes together. Also this article from Uniden's site.