Busch Gardens Tampa Trunk Help

[apsey]

Licensed Radio Amateur here with my first scanner, a BC-246T, living near BG within range of their repeaters. As a passholder who visits frequently I find the radio activity entertaining but I'd appreciate some help with the 900MHz trunk.

I programmed the individual frequencies as conventional and determined it's an analog trunk. I then created a Motorola 900MHz service and copied those frequencies (using ARC246). My scans are now displaying as a bunch of IDs rather than (un-named) frequencies as with conventional scanning.

I assume I'm seeing radio IDs and I also glean from listening that I'm hearing a mish-mash of talkgroups. Some talk maintenance, some zoo issues, some traffic, some just park logistics. This is not a trunked monitoring set-up but that's what I'd like to do.

I've found the control frequency, obviously, and in the current scan mode (ID search) it doesn't interfere but I've done nothing to identify/program any talk groups.

Having read the Wiki, read the 246T manual, and searched the Trunk forum for help, I've come-up empty and confused. I don't even know what question to ask but think what I'd like is to find the talkgroups. As it stands, I'm hearing everything, but it's sort of in disarray and some replies are lost as a result.

I bought ARC246 software but await the registration so am programming manually until that comes.

Can anyone suggest my next step(s)? Much thanks in advance

 

[dustin486]

It would probably be best to wait for ARC246. My registration took about 24 hours, so you should have yours soon.

It's pretty easy to program it through ARC246 (once you get used to the dynamic memory). After that, you will sort of understand programming it manually through the scanner better.

 

[apsey]

Thanks, Dustin. My ARC246 registration arrived this afternoon while I was at Busch Gardens so I can now experiment without fear of burning up all the "free" writes with the demo.

Your reply is appreciated.

 

[dustin486]

Glad your registration arrived. I love the software and the scanner. I hope you enjoy

 

[apsey]

I'm sure this sounds pretty sophomoric to the experienced scanner folks here but I spent much of today in a "Search ID" scan, making notes as to the subjects being discussed in various talkgroups. I manually added the IDs but know there's a method to automatically add the IDs.

Some are harder than others to identify by department, but being familiar with both the park and some of its inner workings, my list is building. When identified, I enter a name for the talkgroup, which then displays during a scan hit.

Again, any pointers or ideas much appreciated. When I have enough identified, I'll start to organize the groups but for now, I'm just building the list.

I've a growing handle on the 900 MHz system but can't get the 800 MHz series to come alive yet.