ProScan: Prioritizing Priority Channels (P-Ch) in Trunking Talkgroups

[K4EET]

Let's say in various Departments, say a total of three, that there are the following breakdown of Priority Channels:

Department 1 has 10 talkgroups total of which only 1 talkgroup is flagged as a P-Ch.
Department 2 has 10 talkgroups total of which 2 talkgroups are flagged as a P-Ch.
Department 3 has 10 talkgroups total of which 3 talkgroups are flagged as a P-Ch.
Therefore, there are 6 talkgroups in the 30 talkgroup/3 department system that are flagged as Priority Channels (P-Ch)

Due to the nature of the monitoring station, it would be desirable to prioritize the Priority Channels (P-Ch) as follows, i.e. talkgroup activity would supersede each other in the following order when a higher priority talkgroup became active:

• Priority 1 ---> Department 3 / Talkgroup 5 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 2 ---> Department 1 / Talkgroup 7 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 3 ---> Department 3 / Talkgroup 2 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 4 ---> Department 2 / Talkgroup 9 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 5 ---> Department 3 / Talkgroup 1 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 6 ---> Department 2 / Talkgroup 3 of 10 talkgroups

Is it possible in the existing hierarchy of things to somehow organize the departments and talkgroups in ProScan (my primary programming software) such that talkgroup activity on the Priority Channels (P-Ch) supersedes each other according to the assigned (desired) priority level as shown? I primarily use ProScan and have been "experimenting" with different ordering of things but I have not been able to consistently come up with the desired result. I am starting to believe a change would have to be made to the scanner's firmware to make what would be desired happen consistently. Any comments or ideas?

<edit> I should probably mention I could find no other threads resembling this topic...

 

[doctordialtone]

"Priority" behaves differently on a Trunked system.

There are threads about it here.

BCD536HP: - Programming Help!

Good luck!

 

[hiegtx]

Let's say in various Departments, say a total of three, that there are the following breakdown of Priority Channels:

Department 1 has 10 talkgroups total of which only 1 talkgroup is flagged as a P-Ch.
Department 2 has 10 talkgroups total of which 2 talkgroups are flagged as a P-Ch.
Department 3 has 10 talkgroups total of which 3 talkgroups are flagged as a P-Ch.
Therefore, there are 6 talkgroups in the 30 talkgroup/3 department system that are flagged as Priority Channels (P-Ch)

Due to the nature of the monitoring station, it would be desirable to prioritize the Priority Channels (P-Ch) as follows, i.e. talkgroup activity would supersede each other in the following order when a higher priority talkgroup became active:

• Priority 1 ---> Department 3 / Talkgroup 5 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 2 ---> Department 1 / Talkgroup 7 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 3 ---> Department 3 / Talkgroup 2 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 4 ---> Department 2 / Talkgroup 9 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 5 ---> Department 3 / Talkgroup 1 of 10 talkgroups
• Priority 6 ---> Department 2 / Talkgroup 3 of 10 talkgroups

Is it possible in the existing hierarchy of things to somehow organize the departments and talkgroups in ProScan (my primary programming software) such that talkgroup activity on the Priority Channels (P-Ch) supersedes each other according to the assigned (desired) priority level as shown? I primarily use ProScan and have been "experimenting" with different ordering of things but I have not been able to consistently come up with the desired result. I am starting to believe a change would have to be made to the scanner's firmware to make what would be desired happen consistently. Any comments or ideas?

<edit> I should probably mention I could find no other threads resembling this topic...

I believe, based on previous comments I've seen, that if the scanner is receiving a 'priority' TGID on a trunked system, it does not check to see if any others, say in a "higher" department, are active. So, I don't believe it will do what you want in this case.

 

[K4EET]

"Priority" behaves differently on a Trunked system.

There are threads about it here.

BCD536HP: - Programming Help!

Good luck!

For understanding of this thread, let me quote our dear friend UPMan (RIP) from that referenced thread of 4 July 2014.

by UPMan
In Memoriam

That's correct. Motorola, too, puts the system priority channel activity in the subaudible data stream on the voice channels. Caveat for that is that the system admin's idea of what channels are priority must match your own idea for priority to work.

Uniden "Big Daddy" Product Ninja

I fully understand what UPMan was talking about on the Motorola trunking system. What I was hoping for was that the Uniden BCD536HP scanner would not have been designed to be so intertwined with Motorola's Priority Channel assignments on the trunked system by the System Administrator. Then again, perhaps there was no other way to make Priority Scan work other than to implement it the way it is today on the scanner. Had Priority Scan on trunking been (somehow) less coupled together between Motorola and the BCD536HP firmware, perhaps what I would like to do could become possible. However, based on what UPMan said, I kind of doubt that I can achieve the consistency I am looking for since my priorities are definitely different than the System Administrator's talkgroup priorities on the current system. Oh well, it was a nice thought anyway...

 

[K4EET]

I believe, based on previous comments I've seen, that if the scanner is receiving a 'priority' TGID on a trunked system, it does not check to see if any others, say in a "higher" department, are active. So, I don't believe it will do what you want in this case.

I believe that you are correct...

 

[ofd8001]

I'm certain you are correct in that there is no pre-emption of a trunked system transmission to check for traffic on a priority talkgroup. Only when the scanner is monitoring the control channel does Priority ID Scanning kick-in.

Now if you are talking about conventional frequencies, the following comes from the manual:

"The highest priority is for channels in System Quick Key 0. The lowest priority is for channels in
System Quick Key 99. Priority for priority channels in the same Department follows the
order in which the channels were created."

On those Motorola Type II trunking systems and they are few and far between, Upman was correct (obviously) both you and the system administrator have to "agree" on priority talkgroups for things to work as desired. In other words, if you want Fire Dispatch to be a priority talkgroup but the system administrator hasn't "flagged" Fire Dispatch as a priority talkgroup, it won't behave as a priority talkgroup in your scanner.

 

[K4EET]

I'm certain you are correct in that there is no pre-emption of a trunked system transmission to check for traffic on a priority talkgroup. Only when the scanner is monitoring the control channel does Priority ID Scanning kick-in.

Now if you are talking about conventional frequencies, the following comes from the manual:

"The highest priority is for channels in System Quick Key 0. The lowest priority is for channels in
System Quick Key 99. Priority for priority channels in the same Department follows the
order in which the channels were created."

On those Motorola Type II trunking systems and they are few and far between, Upman was correct (obviously) both you and the system administrator have to "agree" on priority talkgroups for things to work as desired. In other words, if you want Fire Dispatch to be a priority talkgroup but the system administrator hasn't "flagged" Fire Dispatch as a priority talkgroup, it won't behave as a priority talkgroup in your scanner.

I agree with you on what you said. I don't know how the BCD536HP scanner's firmware currently handles the user's input / choices for which talkgroups are "flagged" as Priority Channels (P-Ch). It may be possible to somehow implement something similar to what I described in the scanner's firmware with a little creative thinking. Probably not for the Uniden BCDx36HP scanners but perhaps in some future product. It would be a nice feature for some users I would think...

 

[ofd8001]

How Uniden does this probably falls under the "corporate secrets" umbrella. I could hazard a guess in that it is all due to the order in which Systems (in order of System Quick Key), then Department/Channels are loaded in the scanner memory, with a "place" set aside for priority stuff.

The way they handle priority scanning (one way for trunked another for conventional) goes back to the x96 platform. So they might not be doing anything creative for a while.