SDS100/SDS200: On a P25 system, do I only need to scan the control channel and alternates?

[jeffdafoe]

Hi,

A semi-novice scanner user here and I thought of this question recently and it seems kinda novice.. If I'm scanning a P25 system, such as Countywide Site Details (Palm Beach County (P25)) , with an SDS100... do I only need to scan the control channel and alternates? I'm thinking the other channels are only for non trunk-tracking scanners but that's just a know-nothing guess.

-Jeff

 

[doctordialtone]

Yes, you only need the primary control channel and the alternates as a backup.

Try it and observe!

 

[jeffdafoe]

Yes, you only need the primary control channel and the alternates as a backup.

Try it and observe!

Awesome, thank you!

-Jeff

 

[ofd8001]

With that said, it is reasonable to include ALL frequencies for a site. There are no guarantees that the database is perfectly accurate. It is possible a frequency could be an alternate control channel, but was not listed as such. Therefore you can't go wrong by including all of them.

Back in the day when memory was a lot more restricted, sometimes adding all frequencies would be problematic. With the latest scanners, there is a lot of memory available for Favorites Lists, so there is little reason to not include all frequencies, just in case.

 

[jeffdafoe]

With that said, it is reasonable to include ALL frequencies for a site. There are no guarantees that the database is perfectly accurate. It is possible a frequency could be an alternate control channel, but was not listed as such. Therefore you can't go wrong by including all of them.

Back in the day when memory was a lot more restricted, sometimes adding all frequencies would be problematic. With the latest scanners, there is a lot of memory available for Favorites Lists, so there is little reason to not include all frequencies, just in case.

My thought was to increase scan speed by eliminating unused frequencies. But this is based around the potentially incorrect idea that the scanner is going to pause for the "digital waiting time" as it scans each P25 frequency on a system.

-Jeff

 

[RoninJoliet]

I have a EFJohnson P25 system here in my County and they rotate (6) out of there (8) freqys as CC's.....

 

[ofd8001]

The scanner stops on the first control channel it "sees" for a site and "discards" the rest. I doubt the time saved is significant, noticeable or worth the risk of missing something. Uniden downloads all the frequencies for the sites, rather than just those noted as control channels, so that's a big hint there.