How to Know????

[diggler599]

So....I've been into scanners forever and I'm running two digitals from Radio Shack...the Pro-106 and the Pro-197. I've got them both programmed the same using software...everythings great. But, when I look at the RR database...there's lots of frequencies that I'd like to have. EMS, DOT, MN frequencies on different things.....BUT.....how do I know which trunking systems to attach to all those channels that I want to listen too? For example...the Metro EMS Patient Information Talkgroups.....how do I figure out WHICH system frequencies to trunk these channels to????? I want certain ones but do I just have to figure it out as far as what county these particular EMS stations are in and set them into the corresponding county??? Is there an easier way to tell?

As the RR list goes on....the counties are broken up which makes it easy....but at the top of the list...there's just a mixture of different things but nothing telling you which county to set it to. Like Fairview Lake Medical Center....they're all over the Twin Cities...you can't really set them to a particular county as Fairview Lakes has Medical Centers scattered all over the entire metro. In several counties. So, what trunking channel would you use?

Any help would be great.

Jeff

 

[JASII]

How To Know????

Where do you do most of your monitoring? Are you located right on the border of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, or are you out a bit further in say Rush City?

Another thought is, since you have the software anyway and TWO scanners, take some time and focus on one site at a time. Start with what ever site is closest to you and run a TRUNK SEARCH on one scanner and then add what you hear to the second scanner, but run that in the TRUNK SCAN mode. The key here is patience. Not every talkgroups is used all of the time. Things like MN DOT will have some that are carried across many sites, but others that are carried on fewer sites.

Also, since you have software, does yours just program or does it also perform History Logging? If it does the History Log, just let that run on a specific site and let it do its unattended logging. It can be kind of fun to go back later and see what was active.

Anyway, once you have spent enough time on one site, work towards the next site that you can hear from home. Depending on your location, you might be able to monitor several sites or may be only one or two.

You may even find some "surprises" when you monitor in the TRUNK SEARCH mode. I have heard counties that were close to switching over having their traffic carried on metro sites. So, for example, you might be in South Saint Paul and hear Mankato Police going on theft reports or car crashes.

 

[diggler599]

I live in Forest Lake...so I'm right on the northern border of the cities. I use the BuTel software to help program the two scanners. I guess I'm not really sure if the software has the logging feature. I don't think that it does.

I'll have to look into the trunk search mode on the radios...I've not done anything like that on them before. Took me awhile to grasp the whole "concept" of digital seeing that I always listened to everything on the old analog scanners and the trunking concept was tough for me to get but I feel now I can set everything up in the software and make the scanners work great.

I understand the MN database page when it comes to entering the counties primary and alternate trunking frequencies in and then linking them with the corresponding talkgroups that go into those counties as they are clearly on the list. I primarily want to hear Washington and Ramsey counties and those work great. It's all those other channels that sometimes look interesting. Like the prisons, EMS and I really want to get the Ambulance channels in...so when the Medic is talking to the ER and giving them the patients name, vitals...things like that. I can't get those yet. It looks like the option is there....but I don't know what primary and alternate trunking frequencies to link them to?? That's what I'm trying to figure out.

How does the trunk search really work??? Are you basically just listening to all the frequencies and just seeing what you get? Then, when you hear something try to determine what you're hearing?

 

[unclebubba]

Fairview has hospitals all over the metro but Fairview Lakes Medical Center is in Wyoming,MN. So you would have to listen to the North Branch/Cambridge system (1-006).

 

[wogggieee]

Fairview lakes would also possibly be active on the Wash co system since its so close to the border. Basically you'd want to look at the names of the talk groups and determine where they're likely to be most active based on what we know about where different organizations operate. The MN/DOT truck stations are all listed by their locations so those are easy enough to figure out. State patrol is broken east/west, forest lake would probably be most interested in east but you'll hear west on washington county as well. Metro EMS call in you'd want the east one. North ambulance takes care of forest lake, lino lakes, and centerville, so go with the North ambulance north dispatch. All the fire and sheriffs in Washington county will be on that system with stuff by forest lake being on both the fire and police north mains. Ramsey county stuff can often be heard on washington county and anoka county as well. You may be a tad far out for the actual system since its spotty at times in hugo. WBL is on ramsey and washington as well. Hopefully that made some sense and wasnt too much rambling.

 

[diggler599]

I'm going to play around with the programming software tomorrow. Thinking I'll just try to research as much as I can and try to set up some trunking frequencies that might go along with some of the ambulance frequencies I'm trying to dial into. I'm mostly interested in hearing what the paramedic is saying to the emergency room while enroute. Both for the Forest Lake area (so going to Fairview or south to St Johns or one of the St Paul hospitals) and White Bear Lake....so going to St Johns or again, one of the St Paul hospitals. I don't know why really that I want to be able to hear these stations but I remember at one time, on the analog frequencies, I could hear the medic giving the name and vitals to the emergency room and always thought that was pretty cool. So, I'm going to try to dial that in again.