Morris County TRS Question...

[APX8000]

Misc System Information
Zone 1 - Randolph, Dover, Netcong, & Morristown
Zone 2 - Boonton, Kinnelon, & Jefferson
Zone 3 - Washington Twp.
Zone 4 - Chatham

System Frequencies
SID 8911h-001 Zone 1 (Simulcast): 476.4000,476.4250,476.5250,476.5500*,476.6250*,477.0000,477.8750*

SID 8911h-002 Zone 2 (Simulcast): 477.9250,478.1500,478.4500*,478.4750*,478.6250,478.6750*

Zone 3: 472.5250,472.6000,476.7500*,477.8250*

SID 8911h-004 Zone 4: 477.0500,477.0750,477.7000,478.6500*

Bold's are the Control Channels and *'s are the alternate Control Channels. I confirmed the control channels and majority of frequencies linked to each set. I cannot pick up Washington Twp, but I'm assuming their site ID from one of the Zone 3 listed control channels would be SID 8911h-003. If anyone can confirm, please post accordingly.

My question is:

Do you have to change control channels based up you location in the county ? The reason I'm asking is where I live I can get Zones 1, 2 and 4 at a decent strength. In some areas, Zone 1 gives me five bars, in other areas Zone 2 gives me five bars while Zone 1 drops to two bars.

Same thing while driving to work. I get a great signal on Zone 1, but as i go farther east, i find that Zone 4 has a better signal strength on their control channel.

Here's my problem. Once the scanner locks to one control channel because it picks up a signal, it will stay on that control channel until the signal is completely lost. I have all control channels set so it will pick up the next one I have a signal on, but not necessarily the one with the best signal strength. By locking onto one control until lost, I also miss parts of conversations, because i may be receiving it at one bar, instead of five that may be available via another control channel(s).

Is there anyway around this other than setting it up as 4 different systems ? Or locking out and unlocking control channels as i move about ?

Do the units have some sort of control channel sampling for the best signal...something my scanner does not ?

I believe Smartzone systems can have up to 28 frequencies and 10 sites in analog..what's the limit for digital ? Why not have one control set up on all sites and then simulcast on all sites ?

 

[SCPD]

Is there anyway around this other than setting it up as 4 different systems ? Or locking out and unlocking control channels as i move about ?

Depends on the radio ie. Uniden vs. GRE way of doing things (and I forget who does which).

Do the units have some sort of control channel sampling for the best signal...something my scanner does not ?

Short answer - yes.

I believe Smartzone systems can have up to 28 frequencies and 10 sites in analog..what's the limit for digital ?

The old limit was 48 - analog or digital. You can get 64 sites without re-using site numbers or upgrading to OmniLink. There are analog systems that exceed this.

Why not have one control set up on all sites and then simulcast on all sites ?

Academic answer: separate control channels allows a higher degree of concurrency (more simultaneous conversations). Simulcast seven channels across the whole area and you can handle at most 6 conversations. With the setup you've posted - I see the potential for 16 conversations (assuming none carry across multiple zones). That cuts down on busy-tones for the users.

 

[APX8000]

separate control channels allows a higher degree of concurrency (more simultaneous conversations). Simulcast seven channels across the whole area and you can handle at most 6 conversations. With the setup you've posted - I see the potential for 16 conversations (assuming none carry across multiple zones). That cuts down on busy-tones for the users.

Understandable...but here is what puzzles me. All talkgroups are carried across all the zones. So, instead of having 1 frequency tied up, they have 4 tied up, 1 across each zone. Now if each zone has 5 frequencies, 1 is now tied up, it only leaves 4 available unit the busy signal, rather that having 19 available. Am I making sense ?

 

[RocketNJ]

There is the potential to have conversations on only one zone at a time but most will span multiple zones.

The real reason for 4 zones was not to increase capacity by restricting local conversations to one zone but rather a limitation on the maximum distance between simulcast sites using C4FM modulation (the digital side). I think Moto specs 10 miles max between non-linear simulcast sites.