SDS100/SDS200: How Do I Program In TGIDs For A Conventional DMR Frequency?
- Thread starter JASII
- Start date
Set it up as a DMR OFT (One frequency trunked) system and you can add that info.
If I see something like this in the DB should these DMR frequencies be programmed into the scanner individually as OFT systems?
Or could they just be included in a conventional department listing along with other analog and/or digital frequencies? In which case you could only enter the color code. Would that suffice?
Are they essentially single conventional frequencies that happen to have a DMR voice? Or is it more complicated than that?
Thanks.
mike
Or could they just be included in a conventional department listing along with other analog and/or digital frequencies? In which case you could only enter the color code. Would that suffice?
Are they essentially single conventional frequencies that happen to have a DMR voice? Or is it more complicated than that?
Thanks.
mike
tvengr
Well Known Member
A DMR frequency has 2 audio channels (Slots) available. If you see talkgroups and slots listed, program it as one frequency trunk. If more than one talkgroup is listed for that frequency, program both talkgroups into the same one frequency trunk system. You can then name each talkgroup. The color code goes into the site.
Last edited:
Thank you. The more I try to comprehend the more clueless I feel. I do understand how timeslots accommodate two simultaneous transmissions. So, in programming why wouldn't you just always designate "any" slot? So you're set up to "hear everything." Or would that create a situation where you might hear a jumble of two transmissions?
tvengr
Well Known Member
It all depends how a radio is programmed. In some cases, two talkgroups could have the same TGID and the channel is selected by the slot. In that case, you would program 2 talkgroups with the same TGID with one programmed for slot 1 and the other programmed for slot 2.
Interesting. Indulge me a "dumb" question, please.
If a One Frequency Trunk system has one frequency how can it be trunked? Is it because the two timeslots effectively create two channels for some kind of trunking? Or is there a provision for putting multiple frequencies in the system, meaning the "One Frequency" title is a misnomer?
Correct. OFT is a name/concept Uniden came up with because they didn't allow (or know how?) for TG/RID to be decoded in conventional.
Ahhh. Thank you. So these conventions and concepts flow not from the actual nature of Motorola's (or other companies) system but from the scanners trying to figure out how to function with them. Tails trying to find ways to wag the dog.
Not to split hairs, but both timeslots don't have to be for audio. A DMR timeslot can be used solely for data transmission. DMR uses two time slots on a single channel, allowing for two separate communications to occur simultaneously. One timeslot can be dedicated to voice, and the other to data.
Ubbe
Member
What Unidens mean with OFT, One Frequency Trunk, are that it can monitor one frequency but it can be from a trunked system as it ignores any control channel data. It cannot trunk track in OFT and only monitors voice channels but you can enter several frequencies and it will check their voice data one by one if it matches any TG you have programmed.
If you have issues with figuring out LCN you can usually use OFT instead of MotoTrbo system as there's normally very little frequency hopping between DMR channels during a conversation.
/Ubbe
If you have issues with figuring out LCN you can usually use OFT instead of MotoTrbo system as there's normally very little frequency hopping between DMR channels during a conversation.
/Ubbe
Thank you, Ubbe...
Why would you need or want to monitor a single frequency of a trunked system?
The frequency is actually not part of a trunked system, however has the capabilities of such system like talkgroups, slots, and data etc...on a single simplex frequency, but not part of a trunking system.
Then there's conventional networked system. Just add more frequencies. Acts like a trunking system but is a conventional networked system. Same talkgroups can be shared across different frequencies.
If a person doesn't care for radio ID info or talkroup info, then program it as a conventional channel. If it is important to you, then program it as a DMR OFT.
That's my take on it really. If that makes sense.
My point was not a single commercial radio uses this format. Whistler lets you do it just like a "real" radio and not have to enter systems/departments/sites just to get TG/TS separation and RID's.
Ubbe
Member
It's right there, in my second statement. When encountering an unknown system I enter all frequencies withing 2-3 MHz, that I have searched thru and found DMR data, into a OFT system and when a TG gets active I continue scan to check if its heard on another frequency. I then move that other frequency into a separate site.
When all TG's seem to only be heard once in one site I then run LCN Finder on it, on another scanner programmed as MotoTrbo, and when LCN's have been found I run the first scanners OFT in parallel to see if there are TG's heard that do not turn up on the MotoTRbo scanner, that means that some LCN's must be wrong.
/Ubbe
Ok, that's fair. But that's not why Uniden came up with OFT, it's a byproduct of it. It would still be 10 times easier if I could just program a DMR conventional channel just like the subscriber is, like Whistler let's you do.
Ubbe
Member
It has to do with how the firmware are designed. It's super easy to make use of the already existing trunk function that have TG handling to do that OFT system, you just skip the control channel decoding. But changing a conventional channel, that are the same for analog as digital, to include an unlimited amount of TG's being programmed to it, are difficult in both firmware and Sentinel.
You can look at how Uniden did digital handling in their BCD160/260 scanners to be able to not complicate things that would make it more expensive to develop, they skipped all sorts of TG management.
/Ubbe
Correct and it's ridiculous in my opinion.
Similar threads
