Freescan Help

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rogersjoey6

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If I am trying to run a P-25 system for two countys do I need to make two different systems on my scanner? Trying to here two countys that are next to each other using the exact same towers, so do I import the same system twice and add each group 1 at a time for each system for the different counties or no?
 

rogersjoey6

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Trying to get the most traffic as possible I am new to this, and I am not sure if I am programming right, or if I add the system twice it just slows down and only looks for the certain county at certain times
 

jonwienke

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Add multiple sites to the system, not the entire system multiple times.
 

hiegtx

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Let me know if the extra sites slows down the scanning speed. I always thought so but me correct if not.
It would slow scanning ever so slightly, but not more than creating two different systems, one with each county's talkgroups and the site(s) specific to the county.
 

ofd8001

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If these sites are part of the same system, the Indiana state system, then I'd create one system and program the sites surrounding your county.

You can set up groups for talkgroups that are specific to each county, or with a little copying/pasting you can set a fire group, police group etc.

Even down here in Louisville, I can receive 3-4 towers on the state system if conditions are perfect.

Duplicating the same towers in separate systems (one for county A and one for County B) is very inefficient. You will likely miss transmissions.
 

Timmeh-31

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I suspect I'm going to run into this in a few minutes, so this is timely. I do have some related questions, mostly having to do with assigning quick keys to trunked entries. First, here's a screenshot I have of this morning's experiment:

FreeSCAN_SS122516_zps36pt5ttn.png


Of specific interest is the [MOT2] CNYICC[Onon] System area. Now normally I probably would have numbered this whole thing with a QK of 3 (in keeping with the first two CNV systems.) However, FreeSCAN went out of it's way to dissuade me from doing this, and I didn't want to throw a monkey wrench in the works.

Soo, let's assume I want to treat this whole system as a monolith and take it out of scanning rotation? Would I assign a QK to the "[MP25] Onondaga" site and do it that way, or would it be better to assign QK's to each group under the system?

The next question sort of links the original poster's question and this one. There are three or four other counties that are all under this same interoperative consortium, they all (presumably) use the same control channels, etc. Should I create separate systems for each county and just duplicate the site for each system, or should I clump them all under one system? By default, FreeSCAN pulled up the whole thing, but issued a warning saying I'd run into quickkey assignment problems (there were close to 40 groups if I had kept it the way it pulled it in.)

Finally (for now, anyway), I noticed that FreeSCAN turns on ID Search by default. It is apparently finding additional traffic (as indicated by ID: xxxx in the channel display.) It sounds like legit traffic (law enforcement), so should I be making note of these transmissions and actually adding the ID's or just keep letting it search on its own? The "detail-oriented" part of me would like to have something beyond a rather anonymous ID show up in the display, but if that's the way the game is played, I'll play by the house rules.

OK, that should about do it for now. Thanks for your help, and Merry Christmas! :)
 

ofd8001

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There are two types of Quick Keys. One is for Systems, the other for Groups that are within systems.

With a System containing only conventional frequencies, the System Quick Key causes the scanner to scan everything in that system (assuming no lockouts or disabled Group Quick Keys).

With a System containing trunked radio systems, the System Quick Key turns on sites (multiple sites can use same Quick Key).

Unless I had a very specific reason for doing so, I would not create separate systems scanning the same site. It just wastes time scanning Site A in System 1 then re-scanning Site A in System 2. The exception would be only if you just want to scan 1 county/system and have the others turned off. (But that can be dealt with via Group Quick Keys).

For you last question, yes I'd add that found talkgroup. It probably hasn't been listed in the RR database. (Would be good if you could submit that as an addition to the database which you figure it out).
 

Timmeh-31

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Okay, just so I understand this (I'm pretty sure I get it)...I should give the Site [MP25] Onondaga the quick key of 3 (just in keeping with the sequence of the first two systems.) Then I can toggle individual groups within that Site on and off by assigning them their own QK's. Good so far?

Thank you so much for the quick response!
 

ofd8001

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Yes you'd assign that Onondaga as System Quick Key 3 to keep that in sequence.

Yes you would assign Group Quick Keys for the groups within the system. Group Quick Keys are at a different level in the architecture. They can have numbers 0-9 for a total of ten. I believe you toggle Group Quick Keys by pressing Function then the Group Quick Key number, while the scanner is monitoring the system.

You can tell which System Quick Keys are active by looking at the display. You'll see a line with S (for System) then positions after that. Digits means there are assigned System Quick Keys that are active. * means there is a System Quick Key but it is disabled. - means there is not System Quick Key assigned to that position.

The next line down is for Group Quick Keys and says GRP. From there its the same as the above with respect of numbers, * and -.
 

Timmeh-31

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Hmmm...okay, not working the way I figured it would. I assigned the Sites a QK, and then clustered the groups into collections (so, for instance, county and city Law Enforcement share the same QK although they're in two separate groups.) Screenshot below:

FreeSCAN_SS122516b_zpsw0vbwwxz.png


Here's the peculiar thing: I deactivated all systems (that is, I manually turned them off via the keyboard.) I have four systems, and the system line is reading S0: ****------ and the group line is all dashes. And yet, it's still scanning system 3 as if it were still active.

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, I just can't figure out what that is yet. :roll:
 

fenderblue

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Well, I need to get rid of a system. I have added a site so that when I travel 35 miles or so I can pick up the p25 transmissions. So really I just need to add some sites that I will go through while traveling. I am not concerned about my scanner at my fixed location but I do have GPS in my car. I would assume that as I travel the GPS will turn the sites on?
 

ofd8001

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If I was a betting guy, you probably have a duplicate of "System 3" in your scanner that doesn't have a quick key associated with it. Sometimes I'll forget to check the box that tells the software to erase existing systems in the scanner before sending new/changed systems to it.

Also let me reiterate that Group Quick Keys are different than System Quick Keys. If you turn off Group Quick Key 3 in System 1, Group Quick Key 3 in System 2 is still active. Only when the scanner is on a given system can you toggle Group Quick Keys.

You might want to Google "Uniden 396XT complete reference" and download this manual from the Uniden site. While this is a different scanner than what you have, it uses the same programming commands and architecture. If you save the PDF file, you can do searches. I find it to be a very handy reference.
 

Timmeh-31

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Once again, you nailed it ofd8001. There were two "copies" of an unassigned system 3 in addition to the assigned one, so I was turning off the assigned one and it was still scanning through the other 2. No idea how that happened, although I've been having some issues with the COM channel. It keeps shifting the COM port, sometimes disappears altogether or down-shifts the baud rate. No clue what's going on there. But I did finally manage to pull in a fresh copy of my scanner's contents, found the extraneous systems and deleted them, then re-uploaded everything to a fresh, cleaned-out scanner. Seems to be working fine now!

Thanks again, friend! Merry Christmas and 73's! :)
 
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