Help understanding sites, please...

Status
Not open for further replies.

EMSJohn

Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
24
Location
Bloomington, MN
I recently acquired a BC-996 and am oh-so-slowly in the process of resetting it for my area. My question is- what can I hear listening to a specific site? Where I am, Hennepin County West has the best reception, but I'm wondering the logistics of whether I can listen to Minneapolis, Carver county, Anoka county, etc on Hennepin County West, or do I have to program those other specific sites in to listen? (Or can I not listen because I'm out of range from those sites?)
 

mmtstc

Ø
Joined
Aug 3, 2005
Messages
861
Location
Minneapolis Area
Each Control Channel has some home agencies that are always live on that talk group, but the great thing about ARMER is that it allows units to roam from site to site if they have permissions to. EMS agencies are always allowed on any control channel they want, Some Police departments only use one Site because that is all that they need. It all depends on where the units are. Will you hear Anoka County on H West? Sometimes, Depends on if a Anoka county unit is in Hennepin, or if their radio thinks it gets better reception on H West. Will you hear St. Paul Police on Carver county? My money is on not.

In my opinion, it doesn't hurt to program a system for all sites, because you never know what kind of skip there will be in the atmosphere...

Go to MN Metroscan as he runs a great site that has a map of what CC most agencies have as their home CC...
 
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
229
I have been following that philosophy as well. I listen to Hennepin and Ramsey counties a lot, and I have multiple sites set up in my V-Scanner profiles for both. I have sites 101 and 203 set up for my Ramsey county profile; 101, 109, 201 and 202 for my Hennepin county profile.

It seems to be working well for me, however I don't know how efficient this setup is for some talkgroups, I mean how likely is it that I'm going to hear Mound on the Minneapolis N/S or City Center sites? Not very. Same goes for Minneapolis police and fire, whom I highly doubt are going to appear on Hennepin West.

I'm using a PSR-500, and I'd be interested in hearing some opinions on this. Am I wasting precious time letting my scanner monitor all of those sites for all of those Hennepin talkgroups, or is the scanner whipping through those control channels fast enough where it doesn't even really matter?
 

wogggieee

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 30, 2005
Messages
1,385
Location
Hugo , MN
I'd say its going through there quick enough that it doesn't matter. Not sure about the psr500, but on the bcd396 you can set how long it holds to scan each system. I have mine set so that it scans metro main and Ramsey county longer than other systems that i am less likely to hear something close that i would would interested in. but i still have it scanning those other systems though because you never know what you're going to here. Not everything happens close.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top