PSR-500 LTR Mapping feature...

[slicerwizard]

I do, presuming "idle" OSWs are only sent when there is no group active on the repeater:

Generally, idle OSW's are sent periodically on idle home channels only. Some LTR systems are programmed to send idle bursts on all idle channels. An idle can't be sent while a group is active as that would lead to one radio walking on another.

Case 3: HR is carrying traffic for a group NOT homed to this repeater. We'll NEVER see 'idle' messages.

Generally, you'll see end and idle OSW's every time a group dekeys.

Case 3a: If, in addition to case 3, any group that IS homed to this repeater is also active, we'll also see messages like (presuming the current HR is 10 and the group is active on HR 13): 0-13-10-120-12.

Agreed.

Case 4: An active transmission ends: We'll see the 'turn off' message and immediately know the HR.

This is a very common case and applies to every active channel. It always gets the job done.

My "case 3a" would seem to let a scanner determine the current "LCN" far faster than waiting around for an 'idle' OSW. On an extremely busy system, where conversations on a given HR are back-to-back, will we ever see the 'idle' OSW?

You wouldn't need to see an idle; the end OSW will do fine.

Your examples are all for home repeaters; on many systems, the non-home channels outnumber the home channels and are usually the last to be identified. The comm end OSW is typically the only one that identifies the LCN on these channels and it shows up before you'll see any "pairable" OSW's.

 

[DonS]

You wouldn't need to see an idle; the end OSW will do fine.

Yes, when the radio de-keys. My case 3a, though, doesn't have to wait for the de-key. On a busy system, if you have one guy talking away, case 3a could likely hit long before the de-key. I see that quite often on an LTR system here (a bunch of tow truck drivers and their dispatchers chatting away).

Your examples are all for home repeaters;

Except case 4, of course.

on many systems, the non-home channels outnumber the home channels and are usually the last to be identified. The comm end OSW is typically the only one that identifies the LCN on these channels and it shows up before you'll see any "pairable" OSW's.

Yes, because we'll never see any "pairable" OSWs on non-home repeaters, right? We'll only see the OSW corresponding to the currently-active 'group'.