SDS100/SDS200: Fireground Ops Channel Scan

[Hpr19]

Hi,
My county uses county-wide fire ground operations channels for fires/large incidents. This is an 800 trunked system, the same system all the local FD are on. I have placed the fireground operations channels (ops-1, ops-2, etc) into several favorites lists I regularly scan.

My question is, these channels/TGID do not "scan". When they are being used my SDS100 does not pick up any of the traffic on these channels if it is scanning. If I manually directly go to the channel and hold it I hear all radio traffic fine. Can these channels be built to be "non-scannable" per se. To add to this I am a full-time FF in the County and our department-issued duty radios will not scan if they are one of these channels. I had always assumed that was the way the radion was programmed but am wondering if this is a feature built into the channel (if that even exists).

 

[KevinC]

Check your service types.

 

[nessnet]

Talkaround channel?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Fire Talk and/or Fire Tac service types need to be turned on to monitor fireground talkgroups (see "tag" column in RRDB for applicable service types), they are not enabled by default. Also ensure you're only scanning one site at a time to further ensure you don't miss traffic: Site hold

 

[dave3825]

When they are being used my SDS100 does not pick up any of the traffic on these channels if it is scanning. If I manually directly go to the channel and hold it I hear all radio traffic fine.

Check your service types.

Fire Talk and/or Fire Tac service types need to be turned on to monitor fireground talkgroups

If the service type is not enabled, it wont scan, but would he receive audio on them when manually scrolling to the said channel even if that service type is off?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

but would he receive audio on them when manually scrolling to the said channel even if that service type is off?

Yes, talkgroups can still be received via channel hold when a service type is disabled. Service types only affect traffic passed through during a scan

 

[dave3825]

Yes, talkgroups can still be received when held onto a channel when a service type is disabled. Service types only affect traffic passed through during a scan

Wow, never knew that.

 

[n1chu]

I believe the ops channels are scanned as a conventional frequency/channel. When the scanner is scanning through a trunked system the conventional channels aren’t being scanned until the scanner is finished with the trunked TG’s. Then the scanner should scan the conventional stuff. But I’ve found that I miss a lot of conventional traffic when I’ve also got a few trunked systems in the mix. I’ve gotten to the point where a second scanner gets dedicated to the conventional stuff and the first scanner is dedicated to one or two trunked systems, depending upon how large (many TG’s) the system is. In some cases, a third scanner might be necessary for trunking if the first dedicated trunked scanner has a lot of busy TG’s.

 

[werinshades]

I believe the ops channels are scanned as a conventional frequency/channel. When the scanner is scanning through a trunked system the conventional channels aren’t being scanned until the scanner is finished with the trunked TG’s. Then the scanner should scan the conventional stuff. But I’ve found that I miss a lot of conventional traffic when I’ve also got a few trunked systems in the mix. I’ve gotten to the point where a second scanner gets dedicated to the conventional stuff and the first scanner is dedicated to one or two trunked systems, depending upon how large (many TG’s) the system is. In some cases, a third scanner might be necessary for trunking if the first dedicated trunked scanner has a lot of busy TG’s.

Same thing here, the only difference is I assign the Trunk and Conventional systems the same system Quick Key and it scans them together prior to going to next Trunk system. System Hold is set to 0 for both.

 

[Hpr19]

Fire Talk and/or Fire Tac service types need to be turned on to monitor fireground talkgroups (see "tag" column in RRDB for applicable service types), they are not enabled by default. Also ensure you're only scanning one site at a time to further ensure you don't miss traffic: Site hold

Check your service types.

Thank you this was the correct solution! I too did not know you could direct hold on service types not enabled. Thank you very much!

 

[n1chu]

Same thing here, the only difference is I assign the Trunk and Conventional systems the same system Quick Key and it scans them together prior to going to next Trunk system. System Hold is set to 0 for both.

👍