Best Way to Setup a Zone

[DewAddict]

So I am thinking of trying a G4 again. Some of the municipalities I want to monitor have around 15 talkgroups or more. The G4 only has 8 knob positions to choose per zone that can be used to "park" on a talkgroup. I realize I can assign up to 64 talkgroups per knob but I feel like I will miss a lot of traffic. Since there is no talkgroup "hold" yet.....for regular users, how are you all programming your G4/G5 for a setup like this?

Are you assigning two or three talkgroups per knob position such as two fireground channels or two police dispatch talkgroups? I feel like this would be the best way to make it work while also catching most of the traffic. Maybe keeping the three or four EMER talkgroups on one knob position? It seems like it would make the most sense to keep the same types of talkgroups on the same knob for the most part. Also I am curious if the G4 scans as quickly as a Moto radio would or slower due to the SDR nature of the pager?

Thanks for the input.

 

[N6ML]

Scanning is a bit of a misnomer when dealing with a trunked system. It doesn't spend some milliseconds listening for talkgroup A, then move on to talkgroup B .. rather it monitors control traffic constantly, and whenever there's activity for a talkgroup of interest, it should go there immediately. If you were using a scanner to monitor multiple trunked systems, that'd be different, but the G-series can't do that .... yet!

 

[DewAddict]

Got ya so it's listening for "channel grants" somewhat like a Moto does? That makes sense. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Spitfire8520]

You may want to look into the Priority Talk Group ID Option if you are interested in minimizing missing traffic on the talkgroups you would like to hear. The feature works by using the order of the Talk Group List and interrupting lower talkgroups with ones near the top. The downside of this feature is that the first few syllables can be cut off due to the delay of needing to switch from a lower priority talkgroup to the higher priority talkgroup. It may also interrupt something interesting happening on a lower talkgroup, but at that point it would be better to use a zone/knob dedicated to that talkgroup.

All the knobs in my first few zones are dedicated entirely for scanning so that they can be easily switched to and virtually all of them use priority talkgroups. Some of the ways I have programmed my first few zones are below and they can be reordered to personal preference.

• Tactical > Dispatch > Talkaround/Miscellaneous (single agency scan with tactical priority)
• Dispatch > Tactical > Talkaround/Miscellaneous (single agency scan with dispatch priority)
• Agency A Dispatch > Agency A Tactical > Agency B Dispatch > Agency B Tactical > etc. as needed (multi-agency scan with agency priority)
• Agency A Dispatch > Agency B Dispatch > Agency A Tactical > Agency B Tactical > etc. as needed (multi-agency scan with dispatch priority)
• Any of combination of the above and more

A vast majority of the remaining knobs are programmed with limited numbers of talkgroups and talkgroup priority so that I can do a pseudo hold on a talkgroup, yet still be able to hear other the other talkgroup when there is lull in activity. My last knob in the zone is typically reserved for scanning the agency programmed in that zone.

1. Dispatch Only
2. Tactical 1 > Dispatch
3. Tactical 2 > Dispatch
4. Tactical 3 > Dispatch
5. Tactical 4 > Dispatch
6. Tactical 5 > Dispatch
7. Tactical 6 > Dispatch
8. All Tactical 1-6 > Dispatch or Dispatch > All Tactical 1-6 depending on preference

For agencies I am really interested in, I have dedicated zones for individual talkgroups for when I want to listen to specific traffic without other talkgroups getting in the way and causing confusion.

 

[mdsxfire]

i second spitfire8520 post, using the priority ID you can load the knob with TG and put the ones that are important to you on the top and never miss those TX's. I have two G5s, my personal that i use for our neighboring counties system or on our system when i leave it with my wife when on a call and my dept issue, both have priority TG enabled. Even having this on though it can be a bit frustrating if a dept who is lower on your priority is running an interesting call at the same time a high priority TG is, but you wont miss the depts you really want to hear. and same as above i have knobs with one or 2 TGs for depts who we work with. Once the new firmware comes out with TG hold this wont be a huge issue anymore.

 

[DewAddict]

Excellent info and I thank you all for the replies. This was very helpful.

 

[bob550]

Nothing takes the place of multiple scanners operating simultaneously to ensure you don't miss anything. I've personally never had a taste for using the priority feature on my G5 or any scanner I've ever owned. I don't care for what may be an important emergency call being interrupted by routine radio traffic. That said, my zone 1 knobs are reserved for all agencies of interest for specific cities or towns. Zone 2 knobs are dedicated to just the PD for the municipalities just above in the same Zone 1 knob. Zone 3 knobs are only Fire/EMS, again for specific towns. At least in my particular monitoring situation where the largest town has a population of 100,000, I don't find it necessary to focus only on one TG only.