Mass State Police - Best Programming Methods?

[Volt]

Hi,

Good day to all. I currently have the MSP programmed into my BCT15X, however, I don't believe I have it setup as efficiently as it could be so I'm trying to learn how others have programmed the MSP into their scanners?

Do I need to have all of the Trunked Zones for each Talk Group? Or do I only need the Trunked Zone for the area I live and will be able to pick up all Talk Groups?

I mostly travel from Central MA to Boston every day and would like to be able to listen to key talk groups on my way to and from work.

I use FreeScan to program my BCT15X and have attached my scanner file for others to see and maybe get some recommendations.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[rad1oreference]

I use the win 97 software on my Pro-164. I program all the talkgroups from the freq table I found on here.

I have Troop A and H talkgroups programmed in each bank. Since I'm on the I-495/95 N side (Andover)

I can be in Salisbury and hearing someone stopped in Woburn. But i remember seeing a statey pulling a guy over in Newburyport and I couldnt hear any communication from that stop. Not sure why.

I'm still puzzled by the way the talkgroup work. Just like you, I'm hoping i programmed it right.

 

[garys]

I don't have Free Scan so I can't look at your file. I have my 996XT set up with the MSP as a single system with multiple sites. That way I only had to load the TGs once and I can hear anything affiliated with a particular Zone while not hearing TGs not affiliated.

Since each "Site" in a X series scanner can have it's own Start Up key, I have Zone 8 (central MA) and Zone 5 (eastern MA) set up with different Start Up keys. If I'm in central MA I get only Troop C & E Talk Groups and TGs from Troops A & H that are affiliated with Zone 8. If I'm in eastern MA, I get Troops A, H, E all the time, and Troops C & D TGs if units are affiliated with Zone 5.

I left non MSP agencies out of this discussion since I didn't want to make it too confusing, but the same principles apply.

There's a lot of flexibility with those scanner.

 

[Junior08]

I use the win 97 software on my Pro-164. I program all the talkgroups from the freq table I found on here.

I have Troop A and H talkgroups programmed in each bank. Since I'm on the I-495/95 N side (Andover)

I can be in Salisbury and hearing someone stopped in Woburn. But i remember seeing a statey pulling a guy over in Newburyport and I couldnt hear any communication from that stop. Not sure why.

I'm still puzzled by the way the talkgroup work. Just like you, I'm hoping i programmed it right.

You really can't compare the Pro 164 programming to how a BCT15X is programmed. I will take a look at the Freescan file and offer my $.02.

 

[Junior08]

Looks like you have it programmed correctly. With the Uniden DMA scanners you program the zone(s) you wish to monitor, and you only need to program the talkgroups once. If a specific talkgroup is heard in more than one zone then you should hear it as you travel through those zones. Keep in mind not all talkgroups are heard in all zones. In your file you have assigned just 2 system quick keys to your zones, or sites. That should work fine, or if you want to give each zone or site it's own quick key you could, then while traveling you could simply press the proper button to activate a zone as you drive through it? Then do the same to de-activate? You would have to remember the quick key number for each zone if you did it that way, though, and it could distract your attention while driving too!

One suggestion though. Not necessary but a suggestion. If you go to the tools tab at the top, then select system quick key manager, you only need to check the systems you have assigned a quick key to. If you had systems number 60,61,62,63, etc active, then only check those systems, leave the rest unchecked.

 

[Volt]

Thanks for the replies everyone! It definitely helped me to clean up my MSP programming a bit. I was bouncing between here and Scan-NE to gather all the information I needed,