MOSWIN programming strategy

[RudeMule]

I need some programming advice. I have a 996P2 in addition to a 325P2 and I am located in Randolph County. I travel through 4 different regions daily for work and would like a programming strategy to be able to have all the regions/troops for the state programmed into my 325? My county is on the border of troop B and F. However, I can routinely pick up troops A and H at my house on the 996.
I have been successfully experimenting with these 4 regions but Im not completely satisfied with my results. What I would like to have is an easy to remember and “efficient” strategy to enable me to turn the regions I am working in on/off? My current plan:
System 0= Home area
System 1= Region/Troop A
System 2 = Region/Troop B
….. you get the idea.
Is there a better way to do this, or am I attempting the impossible?

 

[VASCAR2]

I travel in Illinois frequently with my BCD325P2 and listen to STARCOM state wide trunked system. I put the individual sites/towers on a Quick key. I have 3 sites I can hear close to home which I have number 0 covers one site south. Two sites to north are on quick key 9. As I go further north and west I have Quick Keys for the towers as I get farther from home. I usually travel to Springfield area or St Louis. I have the Quick Keys memorized for the area I’m located. As I leave the range of one set of towers I turn it off and turn the next towers on. I leave all the Talk groups in my travel areas unlocked.

You could also buy a GPS interface which would do the same thing as turning on and off of quick keys. I only use ten quick keys.

You could tape a piece of paper or index card on your scanner with the Quick Key number for the specific site for quick reference. You could put a Quick Key for several sites that covered one or two counties.

 

[RudeMule]

I travel in Illinois frequently with my BCD325P2 and listen to STARCOM state wide trunked system. I put the individual sites/towers on a Quick key. I have 3 sites I can hear close to home which I have number 0 covers one site south. Two sites to north are on quick key 9. As I go further north and west I have Quick Keys for the towers as I get farther from home. I usually travel to Springfield area or St Louis. I have the Quick Keys memorized for the area I’m located. As I leave the range of one set of towers I turn it off and turn the next towers on. I leave all the Talk groups in my travel areas unlocked.

You could also buy a GPS interface which would do the same thing as turning on and off of quick keys. I only use ten quick keys.

You could tape a piece of paper or index card on your scanner with the Quick Key number for the specific site for quick reference. You could put a Quick Key for several sites that covered one or two counties.

That is very similar to what I am doing. I currently have my county and all the adjacent county sites set to quick key 0 (Home). That is a total of ten sites under my home "system". I am also putting individual counties into groups that can be turned on/off as needed. My home area also has a lot of conventional frequencies available (Boone County) and I am afraid it will be too much in one system since I already have 10 sites in there?

This will take a lot of experimenting moving forward. Thanks for the tips.

 

[VASCAR2]

I listen to a lot of analog/digital conventional frequencies and have one group of frequencies with Southern Illinois/Indiana and one group for central Illinois. When I’m in central Illinois I turn off the Southern group and turn on the central group. This is easily accomplished using the menu and I never bothered with setting up a quick key.

Since I live on the border with Indiana if I leave the area I just lock out the Indiana trunked sites on Safe-T system. I have separate groups for aviation plus systems and groups from other states where I travel.

 

[Stephen]

If you don’t mind me asking what counties do you drive through on your commute and I might be able to help you out?

 

[RudeMule]

I don't really have regular "commute". I am a land surveyor and I routinely work the central area of the state.
Occasionally, I get projects that are considerably out of my home area and may spend several days working there.
My situation is sort of unique in that my traveling is completely random and potentially covers the entire state.
To make things a little more complicated, I am new to the hobby and still learning the terminology as well as the operation of the scanners.

 

[Mex]

I would put all of the control channels for all the sites in each troop in it's own site so it automatically chooses the best signal site to monitor. Thats how I have MOSWIN on my SDS100.

 

[RudeMule]

I would put all of the control channels for all the sites in each troop in it's own site so it automatically chooses the best signal site to monitor. Thats how I have MOSWIN on my SDS100.

Currently, I am using FreeScan to import each troop/Region, and I am locking out the backup channels so that only the control channels are being scanned. My hope is that speeds up the scanner and makes it more efficient.

 

[tvengr]

I am locking out the backup channels so that only the control channels are being scanned. My hope is that speeds up the scanner and makes it more efficient.

You should include all of the control channel capable frequencies. If a site changes to one of the alternates, you will not be able to receive that site. Having both the primary and alternate control channels programmed will not slow down your scanning speed. No need to lock them out!

 

[RudeMule]

You should include all of the control channel capable frequencies. If a site changes to one of the alternates, you will not be able to receive that site. Having both the primary and alternate control channels programmed will not slow down your scanning speed. No need to lock them out!

I do not lock them out in my home area. I was only locking them out in the outer areas that I might travel through. My logic is those frequencies were for backup purposes and would only be used in the rare event the control channel fails ?
I may have misinterpreted some info, but I was also under the impression that more channels take longer to scan? Considering the area I am trying to program, I assumed that could be an issue?

 

[nd5y]

Some systems rotate control channels. That's why you need to program all of them.

More channels doesn't slow down scanning a trunked system.
When the scanner finds the control channel for a particular trunked system site it remembers it until it can't receive it any longer then it searches the channels you programmed to find it again. If it still can'f find it then it searches the other sites.

 

[scannerowner]

I had my scanner programmed that way once, but missed a lot of transmissions. If I had a GPS hooked up, I would have done it that way, but it would take a lot of time to figure out.

 

[Stephen]

The MOSWIN sites in Boone County, will always have Troop F, just like Randolph County will have Troop B. With either of those counties you can occasionally get another Troop traffic if a user is on one of those other troop talk groups and becomes affiliated with the tower in either one of those counties. MOSWIN does have geographic limitations on some talk groups to prevent one tower from becoming inundated with to many talk groups. Example would be that if a user had their radio on Troop E and drove to Troop H area they would no longer hear the Troop E traffic that far north. While the system is capable of doing that, system managers have put those rules in place. Interop talk groups and "travel" talk groups are the exception. Generally 1-2 counties outside of a specific troop, the sites will not allow a user to continue on the main Troop talk groups.

With that said my recommendation would be to program certain routes you would take such as Randolph County to Cole, or Boone to Montgomery in zones and have what ever talk groups you desire with sites as you travel. Once you get to the next leg of your trip you could switch to Warren - St. Louis for example. This is purely my recommendation. Many other recommendations people have made are also good to go as well.

 

[RudeMule]

Thanks everyone for the clarification and great ideas. I will keep have to keep experimenting and see which works best for me.

 

[stlouisx50]

Great question. I'd do the enable /disable based on location as others suggested, but what I do is enable 1 to 2 counties ahead of where I'm going, then as soon as I leave a country, disable it.

As far as which sites you should use, while driving scan all control frequencies for a signal along your routes. Don't just program sites that are in the counties you drive in as radios don't care about road/site correlation.

If you are bothered by agencies that arnt along your route, just click lockout on those and keep the rest to be scanned.

 

[RudeMule]

Great question. I'd do the enable /disable based on location as others suggested, but what I do is enable 1 to 2 counties ahead of where I'm going, then as soon as I leave a country, disable it.

As far as which sites you should use, while driving scan all control frequencies for a signal along your routes. Don't just program sites that are in the counties you drive in as radios don't care about road/site correlation.

If you are bothered by agencies that arnt along your route, just click lockout on those and keep the rest to be scanned.

I have had some time to test it and it seems to work really well setting up the systems to match the region/troop assignments. Same logic that you are using. I simply turn on the areas I am driving in/through. It seems easier for me to work that way.