On a multi site, trunked system, does the BCDX36 look at the range setting for the department or the range setting for all the tower sites in that system?
Both. The department and site range settings define their service areas.
The global range setting is added to the department and site range settings to force the monitoring of more distant things. It's useful if you have a better-than-average antenna setup.
So does it disregard the department range if the site range is larger? For example, my department, Oklahoma City, is assigned a range of 15 miles. But the various towers in the system obviously extend beyond this 15 miles with their own ranges of 10 miles or so. So if I'm within the 10 mile of the tower, but outside the 15 mile range of the department, and I have global set to zero, is the original 15-mile radius ignored?
I understand how the ranges work, how global range is added to the site range (multisite system) or the department range (conventional). So again I ask, is the department range disregarded on a multi-site system in favor of the site ranges, making the department range irrelevant.
A site is monitored if it is within range. If that site broadcasts traffic for a department within range, you will hear it. If it broadcasts traffic for a department not in range, you won't.
For a distant site, much of its traffic will probably be filtered out by location control. But most of a nearby site's traffic will not be filtered.
Kind of saying the same thing a little differently. Site Ranges are independent of Department Ranges.
Let's say the Oklahoma City Site has a Range of 30 miles and the Oklahoma City Department has a Range of 20 miles. You begin scanning 40 miles away from Oklahoma City. When you get 30 miles away from Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma City Site will be turned on, but the Oklahoma City Department will remain off. Only when you get another 10 miles closer to Oklahoma City (meaning you are now 20 miles away from Oklahoma City), will the Oklahoma City Department turn on.
The reverse is true - as you depart the Oklahoma City area, theDepartment turns off at 20 miles and then after another 10 miles, the Site turns off.
There is another set of circumstances that might be found in a large statewide trunked system.
In this example, let's say that you have a large county that has an area of 2,000 square miles. There could be 7 sites spread around the county to provide coverage. The Department Range is 45 miles and each site has a Range of 20 miles.
When you get within 45 miles of the county, the county Department turns on. However only 1 of the Sites may be on with the other 6 being off. As you move around the county, additional sites may come on as you get within 20 miles of them. That first site turns off when you get 20+ miles away.
It's definitely something you have to observe in action to really see what goes on.
Ok, that's a better answer. The reason I'm asking is I pick up OKC when I'm in Guthrie, which is 30 miles away! I have a 536 with gps and location control enabled. The range I have for OKC is 15 miles, but there are system towers about 15 miles north, which leads me to believe range is by tower site and not department, which makes me ask, Why put a range setting on multi-site departments?
I'm just saying that the radio is acting different from what I would expect.
I will play around with my settings to make sure it's not something I'm doing.
Now that I think of it, I think I have my range usually set to 15 or 20 which would explain my issue. And having looked at a map, it makes sense so I must be suffering from old timers! Carry on!
Look at it this way - Department Ranges for trunked systems behave exactly like Department Ranges for conventional systems. The thinking is the Department location and Ranges try to follow the jurisdictional area of the Department.
With trunked systems an additional "layer" comes into play - site location and ranges.
Yeah setting your Scanner Range value to 15-20 might be throwing things off. But for all practical/effect purposes, a 15 mile Scanner Range setting adds 15 miles to a Department Range value. It also adds 15 miles to a Site Range Value.
(FWIW I set a 10 mile Scanner Range value. That's because my preference is to hear things going on in an area about 10 miles before I get there.)