Conventional and Trunked same bank

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mvinsable

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So, I am trying to program one city in bank 2, and another in bank 1. The problem is that one city used a trunked system for the police and conventional for fire district.
I have read that you can program conventional channels in the same bank as trunked channels as long as the bank is set to motorola (the trunk system being used here). I have also read it is not good for scanning for some reason?

Is there really any downfall for mixing conventional and motorola trunked channels in the same bank?

Thanks!
Matt
 

gmclam

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Conventional in a trunked bank

Is there really any downfall for mixing conventional and motorola trunked channels in the same bank?
There are really no issues to mixing conventional and trunking in the same bank on most modern scanners. There is one issue with the old PRO-92.

The "problem" comes when people try to put two separate active control channels in the same bank - which can only be done if both systems are Motorola. Most scanners want to lock on to the first control channel they find in a bank, which means you could miss stuff from the other system. By putting the active control channels in separate banks, it assures the scanner will give equal weight to both.
 

gmclam

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Do I program only control channels or all there frequencies? I tried before but it didn't seem to pick up signal when scanning.
I wonder if you understand how trunking works - for a complete explanation, please read the article in the Wiki.

Systems may have multiple sites. Each site will have a set of frequencies. For a Motorola system, there will be between 5 and 25 frequencies. Up to 4 of those frequencies will be identified as possible control channel frequencies. Typically 2 frequencies are identified as primary control channels and 2 are identifed as secondary.

What I do is always program in ALL frequencies for a site I want to monitor. If I just MANUALLY step through them, I might hear pieces of conversations and I should hear the control channel buzzing away. If you don't hear the control channel, that's the problem. If your scanner can not receive the control channel data well enough to decode it, it will not trunk track a trunked system.

One system I monitor has 24 frequencies for one site. 4 of them can be control channels. I have them ALL programmed to MOT, but I lock out the 20 channels not identified as potential control channels. I do this because it will make the scanner work a little less and scan a little faster. Plus if they ever use one of those channels for a control channel, all I have to do is unlock it.

Now having said all of that, one of my scanners, the PRO-92, REQUIRES that all 24 frequencies (in my case) be programmed and unlocked. It is NOT a "control channel only" scanner. So a 2nd problem you might have is that, depending on your scanner, you don't have all the frequencies programmed.

While at it I'll mention again that all of the above applies to Motorola systems. EDACS and LTR have their own requirements.
 

mvinsable

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I have them ALL programmed to MOT, but I lock out the 20 channels not identified as potential control channels. I do this because it will make the scanner work a little less and scan a little faster. Plus if they ever use one of those channels for a control channel, all I have to do is unlock it.

Thanks! That information helped a lot. By the way, I have a Radioshack Pro-164. I am pretty sure I finally figured it out.
So, I have all the frequencies programmed, and I didn't lock out the non-control ones. Is there a way to tell if one of the channels you have locked out becomes a control? or just check back at the site to check for changes?
 

whiskeytango

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the system i mostly monitor has the 2 main contrrol ch and the 2 alternates, ive heard all 4 used at some point. youll know if you lose the control ch when the scanner doesnt present any audio for that trunked system...in other words - without the control channel programmed correctly the scanner will never stop to look for active talk groups because it cant "hear" the info. it will just fly thru the bank
 

KC5EIB

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Thanks! That information helped a lot. By the way, I have a Radioshack Pro-164. I am pretty sure I finally figured it out.
So, I have all the frequencies programmed, and I didn't lock out the non-control ones. Is there a way to tell if one of the channels you have locked out becomes a control? or just check back at the site to check for changes?

If scanner is programed correctly, there is never a need to lock out any of the control channels.
 

gmclam

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Thanks! That information helped a lot. By the way, I have a Radioshack Pro-164. I am pretty sure I finally figured it out.
So, I have all the frequencies programmed, and I didn't lock out the non-control ones. Is there a way to tell if one of the channels you have locked out becomes a control? or just check back at the site to check for changes?
There can only be one active control channel at a time. If you are receiving, great. When you're not, manually check to see where the control channel signal is. The frequencies I leave unlocked are based on both the data from here on RR and what I have monitored first hand. As stated, they should match.
 
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