Confusion re statewide vs zone/system programming

[cjn1962]

Hello:

I apologize if this question is in the inappropriate forum - but it is also a trunking question.

I recently purchased a 246T and the ARC246 software. I used the "RadioReference" option under the "Internet" menu to upload the Massachusetts State Police statewide system. In older trunking scanners I am accustomed to programming a finite number of frequencies for a particular zone, or what I would expect to be a "system" in the 246T. In this case, 50 frequencies from several zones were downloaded and are now all part of the same "system" in the 246T. Can frequencies from several zones (or the whole state) be mixed into the same "system" in the 246T? If so, it certainly makes programming a statewide system extremely simple.

Thank you for any help on this issue.

Chris

 

[SCPD]

Can frequencies from several zones (or the whole state) be mixed into the same "system" in the 246T? If so, it certainly makes programming a statewide system extremely simple.

Yes you can but you may not get the result you wanted. Most folks will put different sites into different banks and then lock out / enable banks as needed. With both sites' info in the same bank, the radio will scan through and lock onto the first one - which might be a more remote site or carry less interesting traffic than the other. Not all talkgroups are repeated on all sites so you'll need to figure that part out.

One trick you can do is place two very distant sites into the same bank - if they are so far apart that there is no chance of receiving both from the same location.

-rick

 

[Thayne]

One thing I noticed about the Colo system is that some of the site lineups (Freqs) are exactly the same if the sites are hundreds of miles apart or separated by mountains.

I suppose this is because the radios have a finite capacity for sites,--right?