Can anyone help with a question?

[Securityofficer11]

I am looking for some help from someone more experienced than me on DMR/ MotoTRBO Digital....here is the situation...

I work in public safety for Greenville Health system, I work at one of the smaller hospitals. I would like to buy an inexpensive radio to just listen when I am off duty, so I know what to expect for my next shift, or if there is something major going on I would be able to assist if I was available while off duty....again I will be listening only...i was thinking of getting this radio...will it be able to monitor the Greenville hospital Security channels? I am a little confused by all this dmr stuff...i am a newly licenced amateur operator as well.. but I will be ONLY MONITORING this radio...it will sit on my table and just be monitored. can someone please tell me if this radio would work? And if not, any suggestions on one that was reasonably priced that would work would be greatly appreciated! I'm going crazy trying to figure this out...lol

Thanks in advance.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07588DPBN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_brdjCbM4VJ8QV

 

[w2xq]

A cursory look at your county's https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2335#cid-173 listings doesn't show hospital frequencies, only EMS. You may have to ask a rep of the firm that sells or services the radios about the GD-77.

 

[Securityofficer11]

A cursory look at your county's https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2335#cid-173 listings doesn't show hospital frequencies, only EMS. You may have to ask a rep of the firm that sells or services the radios about the GD-77.

Our our department is there...under services..."GHS SECURITY" it says the services are dmr...i know they are Motorola ZOE radios.

 

[Securityofficer11]

Our our department is there...under services..."GHS SECURITY" it says the services are dmr...i know they are Motorola ZOE radios.

XPR radios....not zoe not sure where that came from.

 

[aa4lb]

I have monitored Simpsonville and Fountain Inn Fire with my TYT UHF HT for months. Both are DMR and it works great. I would think you should be able to receive the GHS system although I just tried to decode with DSDPlus and it did not decode. I try the frequency in my MD9600 this afternoon and see if it works.

 

[Securityofficer11]

I have monitored Simpsonville and Fountain Inn Fire with my TYT UHF HT for months. Both are DMR and it works great. I would think you should be able to receive the GHS system although I just tried to decode with DSDPlus and it did not decode. I try the frequency in my MD9600 this afternoon and see if it works.

Thank you very much. I've been pulling my hair out trying to find a radio that would work. I know it's DMR, I just don't have the knowledge to know if that radio I referred to in the link would work...im kind of a newby at dmr

 

[Securityofficer11]

Again...this is the radio I'm referencing:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07588DPBN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_brdjCbM4VJ8QV

thank you so much

 

[brian]

GHS Security uses 154.115MHz frequency for operations. Details are listed in the database. The radio you've linked to should work. I have not used that radio before, so I can't be certain, but based on my quick read of the specifications it should work.

Like the other poster, I use a Tytera DMR radio and it works fine. Any DMR-capable scanner will also work.

Programming these types of radios can be a little tricky.

 

[Securityofficer11]

GHS Security uses 154.115MHz frequency for operations. Details are listed in the database. The radio you've linked to should work. I have not used that radio before, so I can't be certain, but based on my quick read of the specifications it should work.

Like the other poster, I use a Tytera DMR radio and it works fine. Any DMR-capable scanner will also work.

Programming these types of radios can be a little tricky.

Thank you for the info. Not only am I new to DMR, I haven't programmed anything since you could just type in a frequency and hit enter. Not sure how it being DMR will change tge programming. I'm sure there is a YouTube video out there that will help me. I'm also getting the programming cable. I'm hoping that this radio will indeed work, as the only thing one any to monitor is my department. Wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted once the radio arrives and I attempt to program it.

Thanks for the help

 

[aa4lb]

Again...this is the radio I'm referencing:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07588DPBN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_brdjCbM4VJ8QV

thank you so much

Looks like this radio should work fine for GHS. I monitored GHS for a few days using DSD+ and everything decodes fine. All the activity I heard was on talkgroup 1000. DSD+ did log some other talkgroups, but I never heard anything on them, just some key ups. If you are only going to use the radio to monitor GHS you could program the other talkgroups into the other channels and you would have it all covered.

 

[Securityofficer11]

Ok..
I'm going to ask a stupid question...please remember I'm a total newbie. What are "talkgoups"? I can tell you from working there all public safety traffic is on channel 1. We never ever change the channel from 1.

 

[Hans13]

I'm a little late to the dance but here is a link that you may or may not find helpful.
Radiosification: Comparison of DMR radios

 

[Hans13]

Ok..
I'm going to ask a stupid question...please remember I'm a total newbie. What are "talkgoups"? I can tell you from working there all public safety traffic is on channel 1. We never ever change the channel from 1.

Talkgroups | DMR For Dummies

 

[Securityofficer11]

The keyups are probably from officers being on the wrong channel. Sometimes from getting in and out of the patrol car, or just getting up from a sitting position will make our radios change channels

 

[brian]

As I mentioned, programming a DMR radio can be tricky. It's useful to understand how a DMR channel works to understand how to properly program it. Here's a (not so) quick rundown.

With an analog frequency, all you needed was the frequency. Later, as scanners became more advanced, you had the option of adding a squelch "tone". We have those listed in the database now, when they are known and submitted.

With a standard "convetional" DMR channel (this is what GHS uses), you need at least 4 pieces of information: frequency, color code and time slot, and talkgroup.

In your case, the frequency is 154.115 and the color code (CC in the database) is 1. The color code acts like a squelch code, in that the code you program into your radio has to be the same as the color code being used by the repeater. The difference between an analog squelch tone and a DMR color code is that, with the analog tone, if you omit it, you hear "everything" on the frequency", whereas with DMR, if you omit the color code, you hear "nothing". So the color code is required and has to be correct.

A DMR frequency can carry 2 "channels" or conversations simultaneously. Hence, it has 2 "time slots". Since your DMR radio doesn't support true DMR "tracking" like a real commercial radio, you'll have to approximate the same thing. You'll need to program the same frequency twice, once with each color code. So you'll have 2 channels, one with 154.115/CC 1/TS 1 and a second channel with 154.115/CC 1/TS 2. It's best to set up a scan list with these two channels in the list so that it stops on whichever is in use at the time. Eventually, you can determine that a specific talkgroup is always carried on one specific time slot - once you figure that out, you can change your programming to reflect it.

In addition to carrying two simultaneous conversations at once, those conversations are associated with specific talkgroups. This allows many different "channels" (ie talkgroups) to be used on the same frequency, but only two channels can be carried simultaneously. So, in your case, security can be on talkgroup 1, housekeeping on talkgroup 2, maintenance on talkgroup 3, transport on talkgroup 4, etc. And everyone shares the same frequency, but only a maximum of two talkgroups can be active simultaneously. That's an example, not real information.

As mentioned, talkgroup 1000 is apparently the primary security talkgroup. So you'll want to program two channels in your radio, one for each timeslot. On the tytera radio I have, you can create talkgroup "groups" and associate those to channels rather than individual talkgroups, and this greatly expands the number of "channels" you can monitor only using one "channel" in the radio.

As you can see, this stuff is tricky. One of the big challenges is understanding the lingo and meanings of the words. What we use in the radio reference world is not necessary the same as what the programming software for your radio uses. In my Tytera example, talkgroups are called "digital contacts" and they can be groups, private calls (individual radio ids) and all calls (all radios). A "channel" is a frequency/color code/talkgroup/name combination. Channels are then grouped into "Zones", which are sort of like banks in an older scanner. Scan lists are also groups of channels but are separate from Zones and instead associated with specific channels.

Read the links offered above and be patient. Your radio is almost certainly capable of hearing your desired radio traffic, but getting it to perform they way you want it to will take some effort, patience and trial & error.

Hope that helps.