G5 and Simulcast System Sites

[ScanFanEd]

When it comes to Simulcast systems on the G5, can anyone advise if the pager basically locks onto the closest or strongest site that is programmed, and remains there until signal is lost? Below is why I am asking...

I have programmed in the San Diego County NextGen Phase II System, with the CC's of several sites. When I enter the county, the pager locks onto the Northern Site (which I would expect it to), however some of the TG's that I am interested in do not appear to be affiliated with this site, therefore they are not heard. As I get closer and even into the area of the site that the TG's are affiliated with, the G5 seems to still remain locked onto the CC of the original site, as it is still in range. Is there a way to actually select which site/CC should be used, or is it going to always lock onto the first that it "hears" and remain there until it loses it?

I assume that I can setup separate zones for sites, however I am hoping that there is an easier or more logical to handle handing off between Simulcast sites.

Thanks!

 

[N6ML]

This has nothing to do with SimulCast, really, but yes; it locks onto the best site it can find, and stays on that site until it decides that it's out of range, based on a high decode error rate. Only then will it try again to find the best site within the system. If you travel between areas, it's advised to program each site as a separate system, with knob positions using each, so you can control which site you're listening to.

 

[KevinC]

The Unications roaming is pretty much it stays on the first CC it finds that it can decode and stays there until it reaches a predetermined BER. Then it will lock on the next CC it can decode.

 

[amys17]

The other option, not s much of a pain in the butt you're traveling but still requires you to turn knobs is to turn your knob position to a different knob. Preferable that it be a blank or a knob that diesnt use the same tower. Then switch it back to the knob you want. That will force it to look for the strongest tower, which may be the one you want to hear, the only other option is wgat others have said which is to program the knob next to it with those talkgroups and the tower in that county you want to hear.

 

[Mr_Boh]

Unfortunately the world of monitoring now requires a bit of homework and knowledge of the system to best plan how to program devices, particularly the G5 with it's excellent range and sensitivity.

Example is monitoring a system where they have a second, smaller site to fill a coverage gap. Coverage isn't just for the towers transmitting, but their ability to "hear" the subscribers as well. So in this example, I typically won't program sites like these since they fill a gap where a larger site is able to be picked up by the G5 fine. The problem I would run into is the G5 would lock onto the smaller site that didn't have as many talkgroups on it, but all the talkgroups on the smaller site where available on the larger simulcast, which more or less covers the same geographic area for the G5 fine.

Also, as mentioned already, breaking down a larger system into smaller system with the site(s) and the appropriate talkgroups for those sites can be beneficial. That has been the best for me. I curate the CSVs that get imported rather than the codeplugs themselves since with importing I can quickly build a codeplug from scratch just importing the stuff then assigning the zones.

 

[ScanFanEd]

Thanks to all for the excellent feedback and information!