More questions now that I'm getting into it more.
Franklin County apparently has 6 towers. Columbus City, Columbus MARCS, Bixby (Groveport), Discovery (Grove City), Mobile Site (649) and Franklin County. Which ones of these towers do I want? Or do I want all of them?
There are 6 sites in the county, Franklin County, Columbus City, and MARCS Columbus, Discovery Dr., Bixby Rd, and Darby. Each site uses six or more towers. They also share towers. The sites are what you program not the towers. Some units can roam and use any or all of the sites.
I program all the sites. I don't normally scan the Bixby and Darby sites unless I am in those areas.
For example Columbus City is a "Site" which uses six "towers" which operate on the same frequencies (Simulcast), located at 30 E. Broad, 4250 Morse Rd, 3080 Dublin Rd, 5600 Parsons Ave, 4250 Groves Rd, and 444 Lazelle Rd. The County and/or State also use these towers in addition to towers at 1900 Cannon Dr. and 2470 North Star Rd.
To hear Columbus units, MECC, and Westerville Fire you will need the Columbus City site.
For any county and suburban units you will need the Franklin County site which shares the above towers plus sites (single towers) on Discovery Dr. in Grove City, Bixby Rd near Groveport, and the Darby site north of West Jefferson. If you were near Grove City or Groveport you may want to add the Discovery and/or Bixby Rd. sites. I mainly monitor Grove City and usually hear them on the Discovery Site, but may also hear them on the Columbus, Franklin County, and MARCS Columbus sites.
For state agencies, OSHP, ODOT, Corrections, OSU, etc. you would need the "Columbus MARCS" site, which is the state site, which uses a tower at 1900 Cannon Drive in addition to the other towers.
Depending on your location you may have issues on the city site with Simulcast Digital Distortion. If you have issues with garbled speech and signals breaking up try less antenna, a directional Yagi antenna, or a dual band amateur antenna may help.
I don't mess with the mobile sites.
I program my scanners with systems for departments/geographical areas with the appropriate talk groups, then include all the sites in each system.