How do you listen to ORIN/OPPD/WashCo?

[realgeo]

Good evening, everyone!

I thought I would throw this out here and maybe see how everyone else is doing it.

As you know, the Omaha Regional Interop Network (ORIN) is currently composed of 3 "subsystems" - 1) Douglas County Simulcast, 2) OPPD, and 3) Washington County Simulcast. Pottawattamie will be the fourth.

If you have an APCO-25 capable scanner, how do you listen to this system?

With my BCD396T, I listen to the system as 3 discreet subsystems. For each subsystem, I have created a System and configured it as Control Channel only. I listen to each of the systems in "ID SEARCH" mode in order to find new Talkgroups and to listen to ones I already know about.

For Douglas and Washington county subsystems, the number of possible control channels is relatively short as each subsystem is represented by a single "site number" - 101 for DC and 113 for WC.

In the case of OPPD, each of their 11 sites (102 - 112) has its own set of possible control channels. So, what I've done is program the control channel list according to the sites that I am closest to, starting with Murray.

The OPPD configuration works pretty well since the 396T will scan the control channel list and automatically lock onto the channel with the best signal.

I was just curious as to how other people are scanning systems like this one!

Thanks and 73's

 

[NeFire242]

Almost the same minus the whole open mode. Only listen to fire TGIDs, and no OPPD or Washington County.

 

[SCPD]

996. I listen to OPD, OFD, Hospitals (sometimes), DCSO, DCFD, and once in a while WCSO.
With the 996 you can give each site a quick key. Douglas county is 1, Washington county is 2, and Pot. county is 21. I programmed all the frequencies in it because for some reason, even with my 796, while in control channel only mode the scanner will jump to the control channel in the middle of a transmission. Ever since I programmed all of the frequencies in it doesn't jump to the control channel in the middle of a transmission.
I have OPPD in as a separate system.
I also programmed in the frequencies for rebanding as well.

 

[realgeo]

Hey, guys! Thanks for the replies.

Yep, the 396T also has System and Group quick keys. Each of my 32 systems has a number and they are all "disabled" by default with the exception of OPPD and Cass County.

Using the "ID SEARCH" mode is an easy way to listen to TGIDs that you don't already know about, but it can get "busy" when the system does.

If by "jumping to the CC during a transmission" you mean that it will hunt back to the CC during a voice transmission, I can't say as though I've run into that with my 396T. The 396T will hunt back to the CC after a user stops transmitting, because the reply may come from a different channel, but I haven't run into the issue where it will seek to the CC during a user's transmission, thereby causing an interruption in the voice.

Maybe it's a signal strength issue OR something related to the Digital Decode Threshold, which has been discussed on this board. I've never had to adjust the Threshold for OPPD, but have adjusted it down from the default level of 8 to a level of 7, which seems to make the audio sound better.

73's

 

[SCPD]

With the 396 can you give each site, not just the system, a quick key?
Thats one thing I like about the 996. I can give each site for a system a quick key.

I don't know why both the 796 and 996 would drop to the control channel in mid transmission in CC only mode. I believe it had something to do with the signal it was usually on frequencies that ended in 86x.xxx0. It works great now with all the freqs. in.