I am considering buying a ham portable to monitor DMR UHF business frequencies in my area since the radio's receive range covers all of the UHF business frequencies. My question is can a DMR trunked system be monitored by simply programming the frequencies into the channels and setting them to DMR mode and letting the radio scan them in non-trunked mode like you can with analog systems and P25 systems or does the digital coding of DMR not allow for that?
Doing what you are asking is basically how the "DMR Capable" scanners from Whistler handle those signals. The Whistlers cannot trunk track the systems, but you can enter color code, talkgroups, and slot numbers. Slot numbers might be specific for a true conventional DMR; I've run across several instances where a small public safety agency uses the same frequency, talkgroup, and color code for two different agencies, such as Slot 1 for PD, Slot 2 for FD.
But if you are trying to listen to a true DMR trunked system, I presume that the system will assign a slot for each transmission, but talkgroup and color code would still be used. And that's how the Whistlers program a trunked system. You specify the frequencies, color codes, and talkgroups, then the scanner checks the frequencies to see if any of the selected talkgroups are active. If so, you would hear the transmission. But you don't really have the option of holding on a talkgroup. It still has to simply scan all the frequencies to see if it finds anything.
So, yes, you could monitor the system as you described, but without being able to track a specfiic talkgroup.
