PRO-164 questions.

[xJackHackx]

Ok, so I just bought a pro-164 and I'm new to scanning and I had a few questions.

1. I figured out how to add the trunked frequencies, and how to add the talkgroups, but some of the frequencies when I tune into them, give this strange tone and it says something like MOT: Control xx%, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or...
2. When I try and scan through a bank that has only a few frequencies on it, all of them are trunked and all of them are on the Motorola II trunking system, It doesn't pick anything up at all, all of the talkgroups are open, and the only bank selected is the one I want to hear( in this case bank 2). If I go into manual mode, it will still have plenty of chatter on multiple frequencies, but when scanning it doesn't stop on any of them..
3. When I want to add a trunked system, do I add the Control frequency, or all of the frequencies? and If there are multiple control frequencies how do I handle this.
Thanks in advance.


Note: by xx% I mean a percentage I.E. 80%, but it is constantly changing.

 

[xJackHackx]

Well, I figured everything out.
1. I wasn't doing anything wrong at that point. Percentage showed signal.
2. I needed to add all of the frequencies.
3. Add all the frequencies, and name the control frequencies and voila it all works.

 

[gmclam]

Welcome to RadioReference.com

Ok, so I just bought a pro-164 and I'm new to scanning and I had a few questions.

... when I tune into them, give this strange tone and it says something like MOT: Control xx%, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or...

If you MANually stop on an active control channel, that's what you'll get. The scanner scans ONLY that frequency when scanning a trunked system. From that single frequency it learns which talkgroups are talking, and on what channel. So when you SCAN that frequency, you are "trunk tracking". When you manually monitor that frequency, you see some control channel statistics the scanner displays. The xx% is an indication of how many data messages are being decoded. I've found it needs to be above 25% (ideally above 60%) to get good voice reception.

2. When I try and scan through a bank that has only a few frequencies on it, all of them are trunked and all of them are on the Motorola II trunking system, It doesn't pick anything up at all, all of the talkgroups are open, and the only bank selected is the one I want to hear( in this case bank 2). If I go into manual mode, it will still have plenty of chatter on multiple frequencies, but when scanning it doesn't stop on any of them..

Let's see .. bank closed means it will only stop on a talkgroup you have programmed. The sub-group(s) of the talkgroup(s) must be on. The talkgroup(s) must not be individually locked out. The control channel frequency can't be locked out and must be set to the correct mode (MO). The bank must be set to the correct mode (MO), which sounds like it is because you didn't have trouble programming the talkgroups.

3. When I want to add a trunked system, do I add the Control frequency, or all of the frequencies?

That scanner only requires the control channel frequencies, maximum 4. I usually program all frequencies of a trunk, set them to the correct mode, then lock out those which are not used as control channels. That way I can just step through them to see what's going on manually.

and If there are multiple control frequencies how do I handle this.
Thanks in advance.

Control channel frequencies for the same system all go in the same bank. You won't find more than 4 for a MO type system. If you are programming a 2nd system, you'll have less issues if you put it in a different bank.

 

[xJackHackx]

Thanks for the reply, for some reason though when I had just the control stations entered then it wouldn't find any transmissions. It could have been because I had our sheriff's control stations, and my work's control stations in the same bank. Either way, I still added all of the other frequencies...

 

[jamesa53]

Welcome to RadioReference

Your radio is analog and will not receive digital talkgroups. That means any talkgroup in the RR database with a "D" in the "Mode" column, your scanner will not pick up. It also says your radio uses Control Channels only, so I would think that you would not have to enter all of them. But to be safe its probably a good idea since they do change. Also if you could identify the system that you are trying to monitor, thats sometimes helpful to debug stuff. Better yet is a file if you are using scanner programming software. For your radio you might use ARC300 or Win97. There's more on this in the Wiki section of this forum as to the software if you are interested.

 

[xJackHackx]

Alright. thanks, I'd have to stop by radioshack and pick up a PC cable, because as of yet I don't have one.. so I've been manually entering everything in.. so it is definitely a pain. Most of the transmissions where I live are all analog, there are a few that are digital, but they are also encrypted (our local PD, and our statewide LE are both encrypted and digital). So I am still able to get my county's sheriff radios which is good enough for me.