I am hearing lots on WISCOM but there is still something I don't understand.

[mrtroyman]

I went to the Wisconsin WISCOM section on RadioReference.

Sorted by county and programmed in systems that had transmitters in several surrounding counties.

I'm on a hill in Western Winnebago county, have a 40' antenna so I hear things from a long way away in all directons. So I programmed in WISCOM transmitter frequencies from Adams, Calumet, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, and even Marathon counties. Quite a few more actually....

I should say I have most WISCOM talkgroups programmed in but I'm on ID Search so if there is one I don't have programmed in it just shows up with the talkgroup number.

I'm hearing NE, SW, NC State Patrol Talk Groups on, for example, transmitters in Adams, Calumet, Green Lake, Fond du Lac counties.

But so far I have not heard anything from, for example the SE state patrol Talk Groups.

Again I'm on ID Search.

I hear my local Winnebago County WISCOM talk group on several different transmitters in several different counties, again I'm on a hill and I hear my Winnebago county WISCOM talk group very well being transmitted from the Marathon county transmitters on Rib Mountain I presume, but that is still a long way away.

So my question is, does the WISCOM system share everything, all counties state wide?

But that confuses me because I don't hear, for example my WISCOM Winnebago county talk group on all transmitters I have programmed in.

And so far I have not heard state patrol talkgroups from the SE at all.. so far have not heard anything from state patrol SE talk groups and I'd think there would be a lot going on around Milwaukee.

So again my question is... do all WISCOM transmitters transmit anything and everything from all talkgroups state wide? I don't think so otherwise I think I'd hear, for example State Patrol talkgroups from the very NW or the very SE, and I don't.

So how do they pick and choose what talkgroups go through what transmitters?

I might still be very confused so thanks in advance for any ideas

 

[djeplett]

On a trunking radio system, radios have to affiliate ("check in") with a tower before they can transmit or receive. When that happens the radio will request talkgroup(s) that it wishes to listen to.

Individual towers will broadcast particular talk groups if a radio affiliated with them is on that talk group and listening. So as a trooper or deputy drives around, and they drive into the coverage area of another tower, that tower will suddenly start to broadcast the talk groups that they are listening to. There are exceptions, where the radio techs might program a tower to always carry a particular talk group. But for the most part it works that way.

 

[littona]

With a trunked system, it's based off where subscribers are located and what talkgroups they are monitoring. So if the Winnebago talkgroup is allowed to roam statewide, I have it pulled up on my radio, and I'm near your tower, then you'd hear that traffic.

Sometimes talkgroups are geographically limited. If there's no normal use case for a Winnebago PD user to leave the county, they would limit that talkgroup to towers in the county. If the Winnebago PD guy leaves the county, he gets an error when he selects that talkgroup.

 

[mrtroyman]

Thanks for the excellent replies. I'm teaching myself all this on my own and that is exactly what I suspected but I wasn't sure.

 

[sonm10]

I would only monitor 1 or 2 sites at a time. The more you scan, the more you potentially miss. Typically, all sites within a county transmit <mostly> the same traffic. Program additional sites only to hear things in adjacent counties.

 

[OpSec]

Systems can be configured so that a TG will not be carried on the RF sites unless a subscriber affiliates and "requests" it, or they can be configured so that a TG is always broadcast regardless of affiliation so that subscribers can passively scan it.

OP, you are not going to hear WSP SE talkgroups unless you can hear the sites in that area which carry those TGs.