Can Someone Help Me Understand 'Sites'

[mindhunter77]

In my favorites list I want to break up each department even though they all reside in the same county. Yet when I copy those over to my favorites list, they all come with duplicate "site" information. Do I need to keep that duplicate site information for each department? Or better yet, what exactly is the information under sites, can it be removed?

 

[toad99]

Sites are the actual radio frequencies for the trunked system for a specific location. The only sites you need for a given system are the ones that are close enough to you for you to hear. When your radio is scanning the system, it looks for a control channel at each site in the list, if it finds one it will stop long enough to see if there is any activity, and then go to the next site. For a big multi-site system, this takes time, so just include the sites you can pick up the control channels on. This is why GPS control of the scanner is useful for mobile operation - the scanner only scans the sites that are in range. Instead of editing out a bunch of sites in a big system, you can use location control, set your range and your lat/long coordinates, and then the scanner will only check sites that are in range.

 

[n1chu]

I avoid all sites that are not local to me on my base scanner and customize those sites I may be closer to when mobile. No sense in monitoring sites that I can’t receive due to distance.

 

[mindhunter77]

So in other words, if I am breaking them out by each department, I need to keep that site info in each one even though it is duplicated because it contains the frequencies that are actually going to scanned?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Site - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[Captain]

I can't seem to pick Sarasota, FL anymore, what changed?

Help,
Capt JP Savoie

 

[doctordialtone]

I can't seem to pick Sarasota, FL anymore, what changed?

You should start your own thread rather than HIJACKING this one

 

[toad99]

You only need one set of sites per system, duplicates only slow things down. You can set up departments any way you want, the sites are under the system in Sentinel, the last things in the listing, and are not associated with departments at all. In Sentinel, under the system, is listed "Department/Site Name". The sites contain radio frequencies, the departments contain TGIDs for specific channels. You can't actually add sites to departments, only to systems.

 

[mindhunter77]

You only need one set of sites per system, duplicates only slow things down. You can set up departments any way you want, the sites are under the system in Sentinel, the last things in the listing, and are not associated with departments at all. In Sentinel, under the system, is listed "Department/Site Name". The sites contain radio frequencies, the departments contain TGIDs for specific channels. You can't actually add sites to departments, only to systems.

Okay, that is starting to make more sense. I think the way I'm laying it out in my favorites list may be wrong.

 

[toad99]

Just remember that the sites contain the radio frequencies that the scanner must have to to scan the system. Other than that, departments, channel names, and other stuff are just for your information. If you set a system for ID search, you will pick up all activity on a given site, even if you have no departments at all set up; you would just get the TGID listed on the display instead of the department and channel names.

 

[mindhunter77]

Just remember that the sites contain the radio frequencies that the scanner must have to to scan the system. Other than that, departments, channel names, and other stuff are just for your information. If you set a system for ID search, you will pick up all activity on a given site, even if you have no departments at all set up; you would just get the TGID listed on the display instead of the department and channel names.

Gotcha, thanks for helping me understand that.

 

[toad99]

In a simulcast system, usually in a large city, several physical transmitter sites will have the same frequencies and will all transmit on a given frequency at exactly the same time. Depending on where you are located, this can cause severe interference and distortion for analog systems and complete loss of audio on digital systems (failure to decode the digital signal). The SDS scanners use advanced tech to combat this interference on digital systems, but can't help the problem on analog systems.

 

[ofd8001]

You've probably copied the entire system, rather than department(s) in your process. You can copy just the Department "stuff", being sure that location information is also included.

In a nutshell, here is how things work in a TRS with multiple sites: The scanner goes to Site 1, looking for the active control channel. It listens for channel grants, which is the talkgroup and which voice frequency to use. When it gets that channel grant information, it notes the TGID. From there, the scanner goes to your Department lists to see if that TGID is there. If so, the audio opens up and the scanner does its thing.

If there is no channel grants, or there are channel grants but none are in your Department Lists (or scan list), the scanner proceeds on the Site 2 and does the same thing.

This keeps going on in circles until all the sites are checked. Then if you have more systems or other stuff to scan, the scanner moves on to what is next.

The key thing is to not scan the same site or duplicate the site in the same system, unless you deliberately want to give preference to a certain site. The preference thing would come in to play if you know your most Favorite talkgroups are on just one of several sites.

 

[mindhunter77]

You've probably copied the entire system, rather than department(s) in your process. You can copy just the Department "stuff", being sure that location information is also included.

In a nutshell, here is how things work in a TRS with multiple sites: The scanner goes to Site 1, looking for the active control channel. It listens for channel grants, which is the talkgroup and which voice frequency to use. When it gets that channel grant information, it notes the TGID. From there, the scanner goes to your Department lists to see if that TGID is there. If so, the audio opens up and the scanner does its thing.

If there is no channel grants, or there are channel grants but none are in your Department Lists (or scan list), the scanner proceeds on the Site 2 and does the same thing.

This keeps going on in circles until all the sites are checked. Then if you have more systems or other stuff to scan, the scanner moves on to what is next.

The key thing is to not scan the same site or duplicate the site in the same system, unless you deliberately want to give preference to a certain site. The preference thing would come in to play if you know your most Favorite talkgroups are on just one of several sites.

Thanks man. Starting to understand this more and more.