Thanks for your help.
Anyways is there any way to know whick talkgroups are ... site dependent ? ( other than the OBVIOUS trying it )
(basically)
Site 001 is Sac PD, Elk Grove PD, Sac City Fire, Sac City Govt, West Sac PD Fire & Govt.
All the rest on Site 002 with a few on both.
That is the very basic set up. There are a lot of factors that go into why and when a Talk Group is broadcasted on Site 001 / 002. Primarily it is dependent on where the mobile/portable radios are roaming and broadcasting.
Also I want to reprogram my scanners so I can turn off the noisey traffic channels .... but still be alerted when something is happening. The Helicopter ( STAR ) seems to be the most common denominator for action. or the ALERT "BEEPER"
The only way to turn off "busy" radio channels is by using the Lock Out function. It's all up to you when this is applied. No scanner on the market is able to determine what is worth listening to or not. It wouldn't surprise me if in the future a trunking scanner could alert to when a specific single radio keys up - each trunked radio (portable/mobile/station) has it's own unique "hidden" identifier.
Every so often ... When something big is going down ....they( the police ) use an alert tone.
What is this tone/ beeper ( anybody know what this freq is ? ). Is there a way to mute the radio until this tone is present ? Or to start recording as soon as the alert tone is heard ? This would be nice feature for any scanner ...
Beeper, Air Clear marker, Emergency Tone, Alert Tone, 10-33, etc
The purpose of this tone is to announce that the radio channel is dedicated to priority traffic only. Generally to one specific event. It designates that all routine, non-priority radio traffic must yield to the emergent situation in progress. It's a method to control the flow and tempo of radio traffic.
How does it work? Kinda depends on the type of radio system and complexity but basically it is simply a function that keys up the radio and emits a user defined tone. Nothing too fancy or special about it aside from some simple computer software/hardware. There really isn't a standard at all. Some agencies don't even use it, but simply announce it verbally.
I've never heard of any scanner or software that can identify the "tone" and control the behaviour of the scanner. However, some scanners do have the ability to control their behaviour based on Fire Tone Outs/Pages and Severe Weather warnings. The 780 has a feature for S.A.M.E. Weather Alerts
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BC780XLT
As for the "beeper" - Since there is no standard protocol for it's use, it would be nearly impossible to have a scanner that is controlled by this particular tone.
I've got information overload. All the dispatching ... records checks ... etc gets old after awhile and I want to quiet things down without missing the exciting events ....especially in my local nieghborhood. Any IDEAS ?
I guess that's why they call it "scanning" and "monitoring" not "alerting" ha!
Well for the larger agencies it's about 85% routine and 10% interesting and 5% exciting. For smaller agencies that do all their record checks on primary channels, it's about 90% routine and 5% interesting and 5% exciting.
Listening to a scanner on a Friday/Saturday night - the exciting and interesting % increases.
