I live in Minnesota, so I typically monitor ARMER, when I am in Minnesota. I am in Wisconsin often enough that I want to program my Unication G5 for monitoring there.
My Unication has 128 Zones and 8 Knob Positions in each zone. Each knob position can either have up to 64 talkgroups for trunked systems, like ARMER or WISCOM. Or, each can hold a conventional channel. For scanning conventional channels another knob position can be used to scan conventional channels.
My first 25 zones will be programmed with ARMER talkgroups. That leaves over 100 remaining zones for Wisconsin programming or other things.
With Wisconsin having 72 counties, one thought is to dedicate at least one zone per county. If I do it that way, one or two Knob Positions can be for WISCOM for that county. The remaining 6 knob positions could be for conventional VHF channels. One Knob position would be to scan and the remaining 5 would be the actual conventional channel information.
Another thought is to just program the counties that I typically would travel through. We make trips occasional from the Twin Cities to the greater Milwaukee area. That takes us through the following counties: Saint Croix, Dunn, Eau Claire, Trempealeau, Jackson, Monroe, Juneau, Sauk, Columbia, Dane, Jefferson, Waukesha and Mikwaukee.
If I program it that way, I might be inclined to have about 4 counties per zone. For example, Saint Croix, Dunn, Eau Claire and Trempealeau, when we are eastbound on I-94. One thought is to put WISCOM, for that county, on the odd numbered Knob positions, so 1, 3, 5, and 7. The even numbered Knob Positions would be conventional for those same counties. That would/should make things a bit simpler when driving. Traveling into the next county would only involve a turn of the rotary knob.
Another thought I am having is to simply program WISCOM with all possible control channels, primary and alternates, into one Knob Position and monitor it in the Wildcard/Talkgroup Monitor mode. With the Wisconsin State Patrol using WISCOM, it is nice to monitor them when traveling on I-94.
Yet another plan is to focus on conventional channels and program WISCOM frequencies in conventionally and simply lock out the control channels, as needed. WISCOM seems quiet enough in the areas that ahve monitored that it might work.
I have considered running two radios. I would dedicate one for conventional and one for WISCOM. There is also the WAF, Wife Acceptance Factor to consider, too. She generally has zero interest into hearing every barking dog and vehicle lockout call, as we travel on I-94. On the other hand, if I park the radio on just the Wisconsin State Patrol, she would be more inclined to listen because things discussed on their talkgroups are more likely to directly affect us on our drive. I might even program one Knob Position with all WISCOM control channels AND enable Full Spectrum, but only program in Wisconsin State Patrol talkgroups.
Anyway, this is long winded post and I apologize in advance for that. I am interested in hearing from others on your programming strategy, particularly regarding traveling, since you have both WISCOM and conventional channels of interest.
Also, are many/most conventional sheriff main channels patched to WISCOM talkgroups? If so, that might make things much simpler.
My Unication has 128 Zones and 8 Knob Positions in each zone. Each knob position can either have up to 64 talkgroups for trunked systems, like ARMER or WISCOM. Or, each can hold a conventional channel. For scanning conventional channels another knob position can be used to scan conventional channels.
My first 25 zones will be programmed with ARMER talkgroups. That leaves over 100 remaining zones for Wisconsin programming or other things.
With Wisconsin having 72 counties, one thought is to dedicate at least one zone per county. If I do it that way, one or two Knob Positions can be for WISCOM for that county. The remaining 6 knob positions could be for conventional VHF channels. One Knob position would be to scan and the remaining 5 would be the actual conventional channel information.
Another thought is to just program the counties that I typically would travel through. We make trips occasional from the Twin Cities to the greater Milwaukee area. That takes us through the following counties: Saint Croix, Dunn, Eau Claire, Trempealeau, Jackson, Monroe, Juneau, Sauk, Columbia, Dane, Jefferson, Waukesha and Mikwaukee.
If I program it that way, I might be inclined to have about 4 counties per zone. For example, Saint Croix, Dunn, Eau Claire and Trempealeau, when we are eastbound on I-94. One thought is to put WISCOM, for that county, on the odd numbered Knob positions, so 1, 3, 5, and 7. The even numbered Knob Positions would be conventional for those same counties. That would/should make things a bit simpler when driving. Traveling into the next county would only involve a turn of the rotary knob.
Another thought I am having is to simply program WISCOM with all possible control channels, primary and alternates, into one Knob Position and monitor it in the Wildcard/Talkgroup Monitor mode. With the Wisconsin State Patrol using WISCOM, it is nice to monitor them when traveling on I-94.
Yet another plan is to focus on conventional channels and program WISCOM frequencies in conventionally and simply lock out the control channels, as needed. WISCOM seems quiet enough in the areas that ahve monitored that it might work.
I have considered running two radios. I would dedicate one for conventional and one for WISCOM. There is also the WAF, Wife Acceptance Factor to consider, too. She generally has zero interest into hearing every barking dog and vehicle lockout call, as we travel on I-94. On the other hand, if I park the radio on just the Wisconsin State Patrol, she would be more inclined to listen because things discussed on their talkgroups are more likely to directly affect us on our drive. I might even program one Knob Position with all WISCOM control channels AND enable Full Spectrum, but only program in Wisconsin State Patrol talkgroups.
Anyway, this is long winded post and I apologize in advance for that. I am interested in hearing from others on your programming strategy, particularly regarding traveling, since you have both WISCOM and conventional channels of interest.
Also, are many/most conventional sheriff main channels patched to WISCOM talkgroups? If so, that might make things much simpler.
