G5 Only picking up talk groups when a portable radio is nearby

[Dferrante12]

Hello,
I own a Unication G5 and I am looking to program using the MARCS system in Ohio. I am trying to listen to a few talk groups that are in Cuyahoga County but I live in Geauga. My pager was set up with the towers in Geauga County which should be able to listen to Cuyahoga TGs. I put in the TGs that I wanted to listen to and also added all of the Control Groups for Cuyahoga but I am only able to hear the radio transmissions when my portable radio is nearby. When I turn off the portable radio I lose the transmission.
Any advise?
thanks

 

[kearthfan101]

Hello,
I own a Unication G5 and I am looking to program using the MARCS system in Ohio. I am trying to listen to a few talk groups that are in Cuyahoga County but I live in Geauga. My pager was set up with the towers in Geauga County which should be able to listen to Cuyahoga TGs. I put in the TGs that I wanted to listen to and also added all of the Control Groups for Cuyahoga but I am only able to hear the radio transmissions when my portable radio is nearby. When I turn off the portable radio I lose the transmission.
Any advise?
thanks

Sounds like you're only hearing the transmissions because your radio is affiliating to the tower thus bringing that talkgroup over. Remember most trunked system talkgroups are only by carried on a site by affiliation. If no one (other than you) is on that talkgroup affiliated to that site, you won't hear that talkgroup on that site. In this case, you're helping yourself.

Without using your radio as a bridge, your only options for listening to Cuyahoga County tg's in Geauga Cnty is to hope that you receive the control channel for Cuyahoga from where you are, or to hope that someone is affiliated to a talkgroup from a Geauga County site.

Hope this helps.

 

[doctordialtone]

y carried on a site by affiliation

I agree.

This explains Affiliation.

 

[hill]

Also by having your radio affiliate with sites in Geauga to listen to another County you are kind of wasting radio resources.

Each site only has so many frequencies and if your talk group is on of then it can prevent others within area from possibly using their radios.

Many large trunked radio systems like statewide systems limit which sites radios can affiliate, so they can't really roam statewide and drag the talk group across the system.

 

[Dferrante12]

Sounds like you're only hearing the transmissions because your radio is affiliating to the tower thus bringing that talkgroup over. Remember most trunked system talkgroups are only by carried on a site by affiliation. If no one (other than you) is on that talkgroup affiliated to that site, you won't hear that talkgroup on that site. In this case, you're helping yourself.

Without using your radio as a bridge, your only options for listening to Cuyahoga County tg's in Geauga Cnty is to hope that you receive the control channel for Cuyahoga from where you are, or to hope that someone is affiliated to a talkgroup from a Geauga County site.

Hope this helps.

Thanks so much, that helps a lot!

Sounds like you're only hearing the transmissions because your radio is affiliating to the tower thus bringing that talkgroup over. Remember most trunked system talkgroups are only by carried on a site by affiliation. If no one (other than you) is on that talkgroup affiliated to that site, you won't hear that talkgroup on that site. In this case, you're helping yourself.

Without using your radio as a bridge, your only options for listening to Cuyahoga County tg's in Geauga Cnty is to hope that you receive the control channel for Cuyahoga from where you are, or to hope that someone is affiliated to a talkgroup from a Geauga County site.

Hope this helps.

For the fact of trying to learn and understand more about how these systems work. How come a portable radio can listen/transmit on TG throughout the entire state but, in order for the G5 to hear it I have to be within range of the control channels for Cuyahoga? Hope that makes sense? Just very new and trying to learn more about how these systems function.

Thanks

 

[N6ML]

That's already answered above. When your "two-way" radio affiliates, it's telling the system "hey, I'm here, on this site, and I want to participate in this particular talkgroup". When the system sees that, it starts transmitting messages for that particular talk group on that site (so you can receive them). When there are no affiliated radios for a given talkgroup on a given site, the system may choose to not transmit messages for that talkgroup on that site, so that the channel capacity can be used for other talkgroups. Pagers are not "two-way" and do not (can't) affiliate, so they can't influence what talkgroups the system makes available on any given site.

 

[Hit_Factor]

Browse the Wikis, lots of info here

The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[Dferrante12]

That's already answered above. When your "two-way" radio affiliates, it's telling the system "hey, I'm here, on this site, and I want to participate in this particular talkgroup". When the system sees that, it starts transmitting messages for that particular talk group on that site (so you can receive them). When there are no affiliated radios for a given talkgroup on a given site, the system may choose to not transmit messages for that talkgroup on that site, so that the channel capacity can be used for other talkgroups. Pagers are not "two-way" and do not (can't) affiliate, so they can't influence what talkgroups the system makes available on any given site.

Appreciate you taking the time to explain that, just trying to understand more. That was very helpful.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

This is where learning about your local system comes in handy for figuring out proper NAS scanning. A rule of thumb is to think about what geographic area the agency you want to listen to operates in and program those talkgroups locked to the towers in that area. Of course you have to be able to recieve those towers from your location as well. Putting in towers near you for an agency that is across the state will lead to frustration as you may only hear them once in a blue moon when they happen to roam. Also system managers can restrict talkgroups to specific towers and have them be rejected on the rest so even an agency radio has no guarentee of working all over the entire system.

During the affiliation request the system can respond to the radio "that talkgroup isnt allowed here, go away" and force it to go find another tower. If there are no towers in range that have the TG allowed on it, the radio will go out of range and begin the hunt again in the background until it is successful.