Ready For Adding Trunked Sites; Questions On Doing It ?

[BOBRR]

Hello,

This hobby is really addictive.
Enjoying it a lot. Have a 436..

Using Sentinel, and I think I have most of the “conventional” stuff into it O.K.,
thanks to all of your help. Sure does help in keeping one’s brain exercised at
my age, which I guess is a good thing.

So, now I’m up to the trunked sites.

As an example, I pulled up in RR the Mass State Police, which is trunked.

I see the CC’s listed in Red, and all of the Talkgroups.

Could someone please guide me to what I want to copy into Sentinel, how and
where, exactly, it goes in Sentinel ?

How does one change the screens in Sentinel to tell it that you want
it for trunked sites ?

Is there a more direct method of taking this data from RR and placing it into Sentinel, rather than Copy and Paste individual lines ?

Is there a good, relatively simple, detailed, guide somewhere that walks one thru this ?
YouTube watching is rough for me these days; would much prefer something to print out.

Just as an extra issue:

I have an old HP-1 for which I created, many years ago in its Sentinel,
some extensive FAV lists that I see are trunked. One of the folks here advised me not to use these in the 436 Sentinel as the columns are somewhat different.

I did Import the old files into Sentinel for the 436, and “it seems” to have copied
most of the important items correctly, I think. But the 436 Sentinel has other columns that apparently need to be filled in also.

Any thoughts on if it is possible to use these files ? Lots of work went into them at the time.
Or, not worth the the trouble probably, and just start over ?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[jonwienke]

If you download the database update in Sentinel it will already have everything in the RR database.

Why are you trying to re-copy everything by hand???

 

[frazpo]

Youtube would probably be the best way to see how its done. However since your not into that we could go step by step. When you open up Sentinel on the left column you see your directory tree of systems. Near the top you should see "USA" and "Canada". USA is where you need to start. Once you expand out to your state find the system you want to load and Right click your mouse. This will give you the option of appending it to a Favorite List. It will give you the option to create one. If your loading a trunked system I would just create another one. This was it will take some complexity out of quick keys.

 

[BOBRR]

For Frazpo

Hi,

Great.

This is just what I was after.

Question: For a trunked system, I can find/see the TGID O.K., but I can't seem to
find the CC's anyplace.

Where are they, please, and how do I get to see them ?

Thanks again,
Bob

 

[frazpo]

OK. You will need the sites and departments. The sites include the frequencies and location info. So you will need the site that will want to monitor. The departments have the talkgroup and ID info. So if you are loading a statewide police system you will need the closest site and whatever departments that are for your area. The screen shot will show the column of sites and departments.

 

[frazpo]

Hi,

Great.

This is just what I was after.

Question: For a trunked system, I can find/see the TGID O.K., but I can't seem to
find the CC's anyplace.

Where are they, please, and how do I get to see them ?

Thanks again,
Bob

I think you may be making this more complex than it is. What is it you are trying to monitor?

 

[BOBRR]

From OP:

Hi,

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out.

Among others, I am trying to monitor the Mass State Police, most of which appears to be trunked.
I can find on the screen(s) the TGID's, but cannot seem to locate where the CC for them is located.

Would like to double check to make sure the CC's I am using are correct, and haven't changed.
But, just cannot locate them in Sentinel. They must be on one of the screens, but...?

Also, uncertain re the following:

Once I can find where to put the CC, do I also need to enter the TalkGroup Numbers,
or is the CC enough ?

What is Digital Threshold Mode: If "Auto" works, e.g., why would anyone want to use any other setting ?

What is "Status Bit" ? What do I want to use here ?

Regards, and thanks,
Bob

 

[frazpo]

The control channels are under the "sites" not departments. Ill post a screen clip. Ignore the other settings for now that you asked about. Defaults should work ok.

Once you append the Mass state police to your favorite list you can go in and avoid all the excess you do not need to monitor.

 

[JACIII]

Hi Bob,

I'm in a similar place with my BCD436HP. The last scanner I owned worked on crystals...this is a whole new world. I just setup my first trunk system this week. The built in database is certainly the easy way out, but I was determined I was going to understand the process before I relied on the database.

It looks like the Mass. State Police are on the same type of trunk system as is our State Police. Here's what I did (setup on the scanner itself - not the software). Since you've setup the conventional channels already, I'll assume you're familiar with how to create Systems, Departments, etc.:

- Created a new Favorite and named it "Trunked" (because I'm clever like that). I don't think a separate Favorite is necessary, but I was just trying to keep it separate from the conventional frequencies I had already setup.

- Under the Favorites menu choose "Review/Edit System" and create a "New System" - your State Police appear to be the same as mine, so the "System Type" is "Motorola". This cost me a few days, I initially set it up as a "P25 Trunk", but a Motorola Type II SmartZone system is not a P25 system (even though it says "APCO-25" in the description).

- In the System menu, choose "Edit Site" and select "New Site" (you need at least one site, but you can have as many sites as you want).

- Under the Site menu choose "Set Frequencies". This is where your Control Channel frequencies go. Select "New Frequency" for each of your Control Channel and Alternates (I have 3 separate frequencies in my Set Frequencies section...one control and two alternates).

- If you don't mind listening to everything on this trunk system then you are almost done...go back to the System menu and select "Edit Sys Option".

- In the Edit Sys Option menu select "ID Search" and select "On".

That's it...with ID Search set to On the scanner will search for any and all transmissions on this trunk system. You do not need to enter TGIDs, but when a transmission is received, the scanner will display the associated TGID.

I then spent a few days listening and noting the TGID's I wanted to hear. Eventually you'll want to weed out some of the less interesting "channels" (TGID's), and more importantly label the interesting TGIDs that you want to keep.

When you are ready to restrict and/or label the TGIDs, then you'll create Department(s):

- Go to the System menu for your trunked system and choose "Edit Department" and then "New Department". You can create as many Departments as you want, so I broke mine out as Police, Fire, etc., but it is not required - TGIDs can all go under one Department.

- In the Department menu choose "Edit Channel" and select "New Channel"

- Enter a TGID that you noted from above or from the RR database.

- In the Channel menu edit the name of the TGID (if you want). You can enter (and name) as many Channels (TGID's) as you want.

- These TGID Channels entered will not yet restrict the other trunk Channels at this point. Since "ID Search" is still set to "On" you will still receive all channels - the only difference will be that the TGID channels you've now created will now show the names you've created for them.

- Once you have all the TGID's entered as Department Channels, and you are ready to restrict the other traffic, then go back to the System menu, and select "Edit Sys Option", then select "ID Search" and set it to "Off". Now only the Department Channels (TGID's) you've entered will be scanned. All others will be ignored.

Hope this sets you on the right path.

John

 

[marksmith]

You guys are doing way too much work. If you go to the database and find Mass State Police, then just right click on it, and select "append to favorites list". It will set the whole thing up, talk group ID, sites, frequencies, everything.

2 clicks.

Then once you have the whole system set up in a favorites list, you can make whatever changes you want. Most likely, deleting some of the far away sites.

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others

 

[frazpo]

You guys are doing way too much work. If you go to the database and find Mass State Police, then just right click on it, and select "append to favorites list". It will set the whole thing up, talk group ID, sites, frequencies, everything.

2 clicks.

Then once you have the whole system set up in a favorites list, you can make whatever changes you want. Most likely, deleting some of the far away sites.

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others

Ya know,,if you would have read the whole post you would see that I stated that already. The OP is kinda new with dynamic scanning and there is a bit of a learning curve.

 

[JACIII]

Agreed that this is the hard way, but I want to understand the mechanics of it before I turn it over to Skynet. I will eventually hand it off to the neural-net...it is much easier...I just like knowing what's going on behind the scenes first.

Thanks!
John

 

[marksmith]

Ya know,,if you would have read the whole post you would see that I stated that already. The OP is kinda new with dynamic scanning and there is a bit of a learning curve.

I read your post and agree.
Was responding to JACIII and Bob.

Mark
536/436/WS1095/HP1/HP2/996T/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800/15X/others

 

[rwier]

Yes, it has been said before ... but just to make sure the OP "gets" it, I will add my screams of APPEND, APPEND, and APPEND!!!

 

[frazpo]

Yes, it has been said before ... but just to make sure the OP "gets" it, I will add my screams of APPEND, APPEND, and APPEND!!!

Yes! I agree.