?Digital control channels?

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VA3JWO

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i have a uniden bc245 2nd gen trunking scanner. I have 3 opp towers around my area that I can get crystal clear. I can program the Bannockburn tower into my scanner and it begins trunking. next I program the campbellford tower, but this time i get nothing. it doesnt go into trunking mode when it detects the campbellford tower. same with the demorestville tower. it just skips by and doesnt show the trunk search on the screen like it does with the bannockburn tower. i'm puzzled at the fact. could the demorestville and campbellford towers have a DIGITAL control channel instead of the bannockburn analog control channel? please help
also I can trunk with the bannockburn tower, but I get nothing. are ALL of the ids in the opp trunk system digital?
please help
 

mciupa

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Hi hondaus90,make sure your three different towers are in three different banks.
If you take the scanner off trunking mode, do you hear the control signal on all three sites?

All of the OPP talkgroups listed in the database are digital, so all you can do is look at the numbers on the display and hear the digital "noise" on the 245 when you trunktrack.

You could program the VR and BEAT repeater freq's to listen to local OPP if they are close by.

Are you hearing the MOH (ambulance) and MTO when you trunktrack?
 

VA3JWO

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thanks for the reply
when i trunktrack, i get the lines on the screen that tells me its searching, but no numbers show up, and no noise even though i can hear the nose from the control channel and the voice frequ's. i have all towers programmed into banks 8,9, 10. 8,9 is the campbellford and demorestville towers, where its not going into trunktracking mode when it hits those control channels, it just skips over them. bank 10 is the bannockburn tower where it detects the control channel and goes into trunktracking mode, but i cant hear anything or see any ids appearing on the screen. ALL towers that i programmed(3 towers total) are the only close ones I can get. I do not hear the MTO maintanance talkgroups or the MOH
 

torontokris

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You should be able to get all the towers fine... there is no "digital" fleetnet tower control channel (in the sense that a digital scanner will get that you won't. Yes the OPP are digital but that's the talkgroups not the towers. Ambulance/MOH and others still use the same towers in analog..

As said ensure you can hear the control channel noise on all 3.

Fleetnet system is finiky some days you'll get 3 towers others only 1, esp with a handheld
I'm assuming your only getting 1 the day you tested it.
 
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VA3JWO

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i test all 3 towers almost every day because it buggs me that i cant listen to anything on the 2 that i cant go into trunking mode, and the other 1 that i don't recieve any transmissions on.
 

mciupa

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i test all 3 towers almost every day because it buggs me that i cant listen to anything on the 2 that i cant go into trunking mode, and the other 1 that i don't recieve any transmissions on.

Have you set up the scanner for VHF trunking in VHF-Hi mode?
You have to enter base freq. and offsets, otherwise it will not trunk properly.
 

mciupa

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Good news , hondaus, I also use a BC245XLT.

Looks like your messages are off moderation now as well. :)
You probably responded earlier with your answer but we didn't get to see it. :(
 

VA3JWO

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ya.
make sure you put in the base:141.015 and the offset:15.0. None of the other base and ofset frequs seem to work, at least with my scanner.
thanks guys
 

davidmc36

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1st offset should be 380, step is 15.
Funny thing about the 245. In the instructions it tells you where to put the Base and Offset but the scanner will not accept an entry like 380 when you are at the "Offset" programming step. It will accept the step of 15.0 An obvious boo-boo in the manual. Those are the only two bits of info you put into the scanner. There is not even any place to enter the offset. Had me going for a bit the first time I tried to set it up when MOH was transitioning in this area.
 

davidmc36

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Fleetnet system is finiky some days you'll get 3 towers others only 1, esp with a handheld
I always found with the 245 I was lucky to get the site closest to me. 296 would lock onto two or sometimes three on a cloudy day (going handheld with upgraded antenna). The 369XT three or four. I just found the 245 to be not that great at locking onto weaker CC's. I have had it side-by-side with the 296 and not able to get a site 30km away but the 296 was scanning just fine (good external antenna). Seems it needs to have crystal clear signal. It always blew chunks with 800 also. Works fantastic parked on my closest site and road maintenance TG's programmed in. Nice to put them on a different scanner so I don't miss anything yet don't have them tying up air time on a digital unit.
 

VA3JWO

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ya i can get the three towers around my area perfectly clear. i lock on to them full time. I find though that the 245 (since I own one and thats what i listen to) is quite sensitive while in trunking mode. once its locks on and in trunking mode, it doesn't take much to knock it off with a little bit of static and go back to the control channel search. I use mine to monitor the mto maintenance talkgroups, since listening to ambulance is really boring, and this scanner cant listen to opp because of its digitally modulated transmisisons.
 
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