Recommended scanner mobile-monitoring P25 when traveling across state.....

[dizwiz21]

Hello.

I have a GRE PSR-500 that I used to listen to constantly when traveling across the state of Ohio. This scanner would roam site-to-site pretty decent and thats what I liked about it. What I didnt like about it, was that its memory stunk. It only could hold so many talkgroups (or objects - semantics aside). Its memory was terrible.

I had to waste a lot of time cherry-picking which TG's I wanted to define in its memory and have a TG alpha tag display with them. I really dont have the time to do this.
I wanted to be able to data-dump the whole Ohio MARCS TG ID entire list (prob 20000 TG's by now) so that they would all be in there.

I wanted to ask if there is a better scanner out there now that is good at 'roaming' and has better memory.

Lastly, if there is one that can allow me to 'listen' to data bursts (and skip P25 voice transmissions) on P25 output (or input) frequencies. That would be interesting to me also. While I cant decode data, I do like to know what systems are communicated data & voice on the same frequencies bc I am a radio nerd.

I am aware of how to set up a P25 system, so thats not my question.
(I have used my scanner to monitor all kinds of data being transmitted by radio for all kinds of household and hobby items. Or at least tell me if a radio signal is being created when I press this 'button', etc. )

Thanks !

 

[RaleighGuy]

That scanner is over 18 years old. A lot of the newer GRE, Whistler (ws108x, 109x, TRX) and Uniden scanners can handle the system and large number of TGs used. I've not heard of any designed to stop on data bursts, you might be better with a SDR and software for them, I know DSD+ decodes some LRRP.

 

[dizwiz21]

That scanner is over 18 years old. A lot of the newer GRE, Whistler (ws108x, 109x, TRX) and Uniden scanners can handle the system and large number of TGs used. I've not heard of any designed to stop on data bursts, you might be better with a SDR and software for them, I know DSD+ decodes some LRRP.

Who's scanner is better for multi-site roaming monitoring of a P25 system?
At the time, it was GRE

Is that still the same?

 

[Enforcer52]

Who's scanner is better for multi-site roaming monitoring of a P25 system?

Uniden SDS100 Mobile, SDS200 Base are the only fully capable scanners that will handle Simulcast on P25 I/II

Other than that as @RaleighGuy suggested, you will several SDR's and a computer to monitor the whole Ohio MARCS system, but you will be able to see the data and encrypted transmissions with no audio.

Edit: Ohio Marcs-IP

There are 476 control channels on the system.
There are a total of 6554 channels including encrypted
There are a total of 6078 channels that are un-ecrypted

 

[wa8pyr]

Uniden SDS100 Mobile, SDS200 Base are the only fully capable scanners that will handle Simulcast on P25 I/II

Other than that as @RaleighGuy suggested, you will several SDR's and a computer to monitor the whole Ohio MARCS system, but you will be able to see the data and encrypted transmissions with no audio.

Edit: Ohio Marcs-IP

There are 476 control channels on the system.
There are a total of 6554 channels including encrypted
There are a total of 6078 channels that are un-ecrypted

There are 476 total control channels on MARCS, but there are actually only 269 unique control channels.

Like scanners, many real radios are limited in the number of control channels they can accept in programming (some are limited to 256), so the state has the system set up to re-use control channels. I forget what the minimum separation distance for an active CC is supposed to be, but it's somewhere around 75 or 100 miles. Most of the duplicates are in the 700 MHz band, where some control channels are re-used up to five or six times. Of course, not all of those duplicate control channels are going to be primary control channels; some are alternates.

Been a couple years since I retired, but if I recall correctly the state has that list trimmed even more; the less-used sites are not in the CC list so they can keep under that 256 limit. A radio is going to latch onto a site pretty much anywhere in the state, and if it's rather weak the CC data will tell the radio what the adjacent sites and signal strengths are so the radio could hop over to one of those for a better signal.

If your scanner could handle it, you could get away with creating one big site with 269 control channels, and it would work just fine. The only drawback for a scanner would be knowing which site you're on without looking up the site number.