texas1313
Member
The G5 has a “P25 Trunking System Full Spectrum Scan” feature, and I was never able to get it to work, or work as I thought it was designed to work, and there wasn’t much recent discussion on how to do this in the RR forums.
Sometimes I travel across states, and although I can quickly import Radio Reference profiles for many of the wide area or statewide systems, the RR database may not be completely up to date or accurate, especially for “new” P25 systems that don’t have all the sites and control channels documented. One time I had programmed one of the Texas statewide systems, but only for the San Antonio area sites, and then set the “Full System Scan” to scan the known ranges for any other sites. However, my G5 only worked on those few San Antonia area sites, and the Full Spectrum Scan did not detect any other sites as I drove across Texas. As I only had my work computer, and not my personal computer with the G5 PPS, I couldn’t do any reprogramming on the fly.
After several recent evenings of experimenting where I was within range of multiple VHF, 700, and 800 MHz system sites (where I could temporarily delete the stronger sites), I think I have figured out a way to program the G5 to best implement the full spectrum scan.
Here’s what I did in the PPS software, under the E2-1 “P25 Trunking System List”:
One “quirk” I’ve noticed is the G5 appears to search for the “wildcard” site first, and sometimes locks on the first control channel it finds, but not one of the listed site control channels, so when I use the joystick to scroll down, the “Site Name” shows up as “N/A” and not the Site Name I have listed in the profile.
II’ve only experimented with this on “known” systems (where I know the WACN ID and SYSTEM ID). I haven’t tried it with those Wildcards (WACN ID of FFFFF and SYSTEM ID of FFF) that had been discussed in this forum several years ago. Not sure if I want to do that (yet), but if it works, it would be fun to have a system setting for each VHF, 700, and 800. Of course, it would lock on to the first control channel, but for a small town or remote area, it could be fun. I suppose I could create multiple systems with different starting/ending frequencies, but then the “NERD” alarm would go off
I know everyone says the G5 is not a scanner, but this brings it one small step closer.
Let me know if this works, or if you find a better or different way to do it. I'm confident now that my G5 will correctly (or adequately) do a full spectrum search for a control channel.
Sometimes I travel across states, and although I can quickly import Radio Reference profiles for many of the wide area or statewide systems, the RR database may not be completely up to date or accurate, especially for “new” P25 systems that don’t have all the sites and control channels documented. One time I had programmed one of the Texas statewide systems, but only for the San Antonio area sites, and then set the “Full System Scan” to scan the known ranges for any other sites. However, my G5 only worked on those few San Antonia area sites, and the Full Spectrum Scan did not detect any other sites as I drove across Texas. As I only had my work computer, and not my personal computer with the G5 PPS, I couldn’t do any reprogramming on the fly.
After several recent evenings of experimenting where I was within range of multiple VHF, 700, and 800 MHz system sites (where I could temporarily delete the stronger sites), I think I have figured out a way to program the G5 to best implement the full spectrum scan.
Here’s what I did in the PPS software, under the E2-1 “P25 Trunking System List”:
- Edit the “Site List” and add a new site (I called mine “WILDCARD”), and for both the RFSS (HEX) and Site ID (HEX) enter “FF”. This is the “wildcard” RFSS and Site ID, and will tell the G5 to decode any RFSS and Site IDs. One of the systems I monitor has 3 different RFSS IDs, and it correctly decodes those IDs..
- Edit the “Control Channel List” and add the lowest possible whole frequency. For example, 151.0000, 851.0000, 769.0000, depending on what the known control channels are. In my “Note” field, I entered “WILDCARD” so I know it’s not an actual control channel frequency.
- Click on “Enable” Full Spectrum Scan.
- For the start of the frequency range, use the lowest whole frequency you selected for #2 above.
- For the end frequency range, select something past the highest known control channel frequency for the system you are trying to monitor. For example, if the highest frequency is 853.4725, enter 854.0000.
- For the “Step Size” of that range, enter 6250. That is half of 12500, and is the channel spacing for the narrowband channels used in P25 Phase 2 systems.
One “quirk” I’ve noticed is the G5 appears to search for the “wildcard” site first, and sometimes locks on the first control channel it finds, but not one of the listed site control channels, so when I use the joystick to scroll down, the “Site Name” shows up as “N/A” and not the Site Name I have listed in the profile.
II’ve only experimented with this on “known” systems (where I know the WACN ID and SYSTEM ID). I haven’t tried it with those Wildcards (WACN ID of FFFFF and SYSTEM ID of FFF) that had been discussed in this forum several years ago. Not sure if I want to do that (yet), but if it works, it would be fun to have a system setting for each VHF, 700, and 800. Of course, it would lock on to the first control channel, but for a small town or remote area, it could be fun. I suppose I could create multiple systems with different starting/ending frequencies, but then the “NERD” alarm would go off
I know everyone says the G5 is not a scanner, but this brings it one small step closer.
Let me know if this works, or if you find a better or different way to do it. I'm confident now that my G5 will correctly (or adequately) do a full spectrum search for a control channel.
