I have a couple questions on the MARCS system.
These might seem very basic, but they will help my understanding...
Question 1.
If I am in SW ohio, monitoring a MARCS control channel down there, can I listen to (for example) an ohio state highway patrol unit talk group based in ravenna (NE ohio?). Or do I have to be monitoring a control channel in NE ohio to receive their traffic? Do I have to be monitoring a specific control channel (ie. the MARCS tower in the county their unit is based in?) to hear them? Or do adjacent towers carry their traffic too? How far away from their home base is their radio traffic carried to?
If one of them were 'on the move' out of their home area, would new MARCS towers broadcast their traffic too?
Basically, Im trying to figure out if the towers are 'linked'
Question 2.
I have programmed it for mobile monitoring as suggested in a thread here earlier. I used control channel only mode plan 2.Whats been happening is I get cross-traffic with other, non-MARCS 800 Mhz trunked systems that might use a frequency under the layout of control channel only mode plan 2.
I am thinking a better way to program this for mobile monitoring is to not use control channel only mode, but to set up 3 or even 4 (due to the size of the MARCS) banks dedicated to a specific region for MARCS (ex. NE, NW, SE, SW) and all the talkgroups associated for that area.
Ideally, I wish I could put everything in one bank, but the MARCS system is so huge (number of frequencies, talkgroups, etc. )
By locking/unlocking banks -based on what part of the state you are in, I could see that improving scanner efficiency as well.
What do you all think?
These might seem very basic, but they will help my understanding...
Question 1.
If I am in SW ohio, monitoring a MARCS control channel down there, can I listen to (for example) an ohio state highway patrol unit talk group based in ravenna (NE ohio?). Or do I have to be monitoring a control channel in NE ohio to receive their traffic? Do I have to be monitoring a specific control channel (ie. the MARCS tower in the county their unit is based in?) to hear them? Or do adjacent towers carry their traffic too? How far away from their home base is their radio traffic carried to?
If one of them were 'on the move' out of their home area, would new MARCS towers broadcast their traffic too?
Basically, Im trying to figure out if the towers are 'linked'
Question 2.
I have programmed it for mobile monitoring as suggested in a thread here earlier. I used control channel only mode plan 2.Whats been happening is I get cross-traffic with other, non-MARCS 800 Mhz trunked systems that might use a frequency under the layout of control channel only mode plan 2.
I am thinking a better way to program this for mobile monitoring is to not use control channel only mode, but to set up 3 or even 4 (due to the size of the MARCS) banks dedicated to a specific region for MARCS (ex. NE, NW, SE, SW) and all the talkgroups associated for that area.
Ideally, I wish I could put everything in one bank, but the MARCS system is so huge (number of frequencies, talkgroups, etc. )
By locking/unlocking banks -based on what part of the state you are in, I could see that improving scanner efficiency as well.
What do you all think?
