Multiple Tower Sites

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W8DEC

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I have been listening to the Northeastern Ohio MARCS towers for almost a year. I have each tower programmed as a quick key. As I get closer to a certain tower, I manually disable the previous tower.

Is there a better way?

73 de Matt KB1LCS
 

xusmarine1979

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If I'm reading it correctly, you could probably leave all of the towers, or Control Channels unlocked. As you move to a different area, the radio will automatically lock onto the closest one. But not all of the time, every once in a while you'll notice it will pick up one further away.
 

W8DEC

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If I'm reading it correctly, you could probably leave all of the towers, or Control Channels unlocked. As you move to a different area, the radio will automatically lock onto the closest one. But not all of the time, every once in a while you'll notice it will pick up one further away.

But if I do that, now the scanner takes time to scan frequencies that it does not need to.
 

xusmarine1979

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I have two banks set up for MARCS, and they have the same frequencies. I've tried locking out the surrounding towers on one and having the other one with everything scanning. I do no notice any difference in the scanning speed when I do this. Just fyi...
 

W8DEC

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I have two banks set up for MARCS, and they have the same frequencies. I've tried locking out the surrounding towers on one and having the other one with everything scanning. I do no notice any difference in the scanning speed when I do this. Just fyi...

That makes sense. But, when it is scanning frequencies that I know it will never hear, won't it increase my chances of missing out on what is going in another system like Lake County, for instance?
 

wa8pyr

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That makes sense. But, when it is scanning frequencies that I know it will never hear, won't it increase my chances of missing out on what is going in another system like Lake County, for instance?

You didn't say specifically but by saying Quick Key I'm assuming you're using a Uniden model.

Pretty simple solution... program all the primary control channels for the sites in your area into a single system along with the talkgroups you want to monitor. The scanner will find and stay with the best one and remember it. Then when you move away from it the scanner will search again and find the next site.

I've done this with my '396 and it works fine. I've rarely had an issue with transmissions being missed, although my 396 is gathering a lot of dust these days since I got a PSR500. The STAT and ROAM features, fantastic configurability and greatly superior audio quality are hard to beat.
 

W8DEC

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You didn't say specifically but by saying Quick Key I'm assuming you're using a Uniden model.

Pretty simple solution... program all the primary control channels for the sites in your area into a single system along with the talkgroups you want to monitor. The scanner will find and stay with the best one and remember it. Then when you move away from it the scanner will search again and find the next site.

I've done this with my '396 and it works fine. I've rarely had an issue with transmissions being missed, although my 396 is gathering a lot of dust these days since I got a PSR500. The STAT and ROAM features, fantastic configurability and greatly superior audio quality are hard to beat.

Sounds great. Thanks for all the help. I am going to try that method. I do a lot of traveling in Northeastern Ohio and I think it will be the most efficient way to monitor MARCS.
 

guitarbrian30

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multi-site

these days since I got a PSR500. The STAT and ROAM features, fantastic configurability and greatly superior audio quality are hard to beat.
__________________
Tom Swisher, WA8PYR
www.wa8pyr.net


You answered my question!! Thanks SO MUCH!! I am from South Dakota and just got the PSR-600. My PRO-96 does sometimes have issues decoding the strongest site. But, you answered my question on the multi-site.

Brian
 

jerk

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Sounds great. Thanks for all the help. I am going to try that method. I do a lot of traveling in Northeastern Ohio and I think it will be the most efficient way to monitor MARCS.

I have a BCD396 and I-71 file set up that way. Since I'm moving up or down the road as the case may be, it works fine. And then when I'm at my destination, I can still use it (and have) or I have a North file I can use then. Plus it doesn't use the memory that programming each site takes.
 

W8DEC

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I have a BCD396 and I-71 file set up that way. Since I'm moving up or down the road as the case may be, it works fine. And then when I'm at my destination, I can still use it (and have) or I have a North file I can use then. Plus it doesn't use the memory that programming each site takes.

That was my initial concern. I did not want to take up all the memory just for MARCS. As I travel to help out with public service events in Northeastern Ohio, I wanted to listen to MARCS without having to manually disable each tower. But now that I have programmed the CCO for many towers, I hear more than I ever did while driving. It really does work. Thanks again.
 
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