PSR800 and MPSCS

[firephotographer50]

Hi Everyone,

I just got my PSR800 a couple weeks ago and have been working on programming the scanner via the EZ scan software to try and match how I have my PSR500/600s set up. I've tried some side-by-side comparisons to see if I have things set up correctly and I noticed something that maybe someone here has experienced and could help me correct.

For background I have the scanlists set up as follows, trying to set up the entire state (MPSCS, conv, and county specific TRS in a single county's scanlist):
1. All St. Clair County PD/FD/EMS
2. All SCC FD
3. All Macomb Co PD/FD/EMS
4. All Macomb FD
5. MSP D2
6. MSP D3
etc.

When I have my 600 scanning with scanlists 1, 3, 5, 6, and all the SW Event (G/H/I Event) TGs scanning (with the system set to scan every available CC that it can pick up) the scanner will not shut up. It is picking up communications from all areas selected including MSP units covering Detroit on the D2 TGs (I'm scanning from Port Huron).

When I use the 800 with only St. Clair County selected it does much better on that one county than my 600. When I only have Macomb selected, it again beats out my 600 hands down. When I open up both St. Clair Co and Macomb Co, the scanner slows down to the point it misses 90% of communications from both counties (basically goes silent while my 600 is picking up multiple TG in both counties). When trying to scan only MSP D2 it is completely silent while my 600 picks it up without any problems.

Is there a setting that I can play with (maybe similar to the "Scan all CC that can be received on a single pass" on my 600) that would improve the scanning of multiple counties at the same time with the 800?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jack3726]

This isn't one of those situations where it depends on which tower at the time of the dispatch or mobile unit happens to be on is it. For your scan lists, are you using the same exact freq's, I am sure that you are. I don't own these radios but I was trying to think of what it might be.

 

[firephotographer50]

The Michigan Public Safety Communications system is a statewide P25 system with a lot of the individual counties moving towards separate simulcast "sites" on the same system. (i.e. St. Clair county has it's own simulcast system or site on the statewide system with a set of freqs. Macomb also has it's own Simulcast site on the system. see Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS) Trunking System, Statewide, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies) It could possibly be that I'm picking up the St. Clair county Simulcast as the strongest "site/tower" and that is why I'm not hearing much from down river.

Is there some way to change the settings on my 800 where it would check more control channels (like I can with the 600) which would increase my chances of being able to scan multiple counties at the same time?

 

[firephotographer50]

I just happened to stumble across another thread from early 2011 that seems to be the topic that I'm trying to figure out right now. http://forums.radioreference.com/gre-scanners/207105-psr-800-cc-sites-behavior.html

According to this thread, the PSR800 only acts as if it is in ROAM mode for multi site systems. Does anyone know if GRE has added a STAT Multi Site Mode to the 800 or something like it under a different name since this thread was started in 2011?

This could very well explain what I have been experiencing as described in my first post.

 

[KD8FSJ]

I just happened to stumble across another thread from early 2011 that seems to be the topic that I'm trying to figure out right now. http://forums.radioreference.com/gre-scanners/207105-psr-800-cc-sites-behavior.html

According to this thread, the PSR800 only acts as if it is in ROAM mode for multi site systems. Does anyone know if GRE has added a STAT Multi Site Mode to the 800 or something like it under a different name since this thread was started in 2011?

This could very well explain what I have been experiencing as described in my first post.

I did what others in this thread have suggested I made multiple MPSCS tsys each with only one site and then set the talkgroups to the appropriate scan lists. It was a lot of extra work to get it all set up right, but was well worth the time. I really don't notice a lot of extra time in scanning when comparing with other radios. I found the best way for me is to add all these systems to 1 large scan list and use the skip button to get rid of the unwanteds. I do still have them all broken down into smaller scan lists if I wanted to listen to just a certain group.

I only have 3 of my strongest MPSCS sites set up to do this, I would imagine the more you add the longer it's going to take. Other V-Folders are set up different depending on the situation or where I am.

Experiment with it. Try just setting up 2 small MPSCS systems. Program just St Clairs towers in one system and take a group of talkgroups and assign them to scan list 1. Then program Macomb into another system, take the same group of talkgroups and send them to the same scan list 1. Don't forget to name and have your site show on the display so you can tell what site you are hearing.

Paul

 

[firephotographer50]

Thanks Paul. When I get a chance I'll experiment and see what happens.