RISCON programming question

[bobruzzo]

Hello, I am using an SDS200 and a BCD996P2. I noticed the BCD996P2 only allows up to 20 items in a "bank"....The SDS200 allows much more. When programming RISCON I noticed when you download from database from RR, it doesnt take into account which SITES things go into. Fort example RIPTA, DEM, Statewide misc...etc the TALKGROUPS of these agencies are all SCATTERED among the RISCON sites (North, South, East & Metro) There are no RIPTA TG's in the METRO zone except for the encrypted one. I noticed on the SCAN NE site, RISCON talkgroups are all sorted into the actual sites where you will hear them. This makes it difficult to keep things updated. In my BCD996P2 I had to create an additional NORTH and SOUTH zones and renamed them "North overflow" and "South overflow" to be able to fit the remaining TG's in their proper zones. No problem with the SDS200. So I was wondering why there were some TG's I never heard because some were put in the wrong zones when I copied to radio from RR database. Has anybody noticed this? Or is it totally impractical to break TG's all down into which zones they belong in. Another example on NE SCAN, in their database the DEM is only heard on both NORTH and SOUTH. The RI State PD is only listed in North, South and East but not Metro. This gets very confusing programming a radio because there is no guidance as to which zone to put certain TGs. Most all the towns are OK. I noticed East Prov comes in on Metro, as well as Johnston and a couple others. So do people simply make ALL sites on RISCON identical with all the same TGs in each of the 4 sites?

 

[W1KNE]

So this has to do entirely with the fact it's all one giant system. It doesn't take into account because it's both impractical and unnecessary. While some TGs are set to only operate in one site, it's all one giant system.

To do what you're asking on our end would be creating four separate trunked systems, for one. And that would be 100% impractical.

What you need to do Bob is program all four sites and all TGs as one single system and ignore which sites you see which TGs on. (Honestly, I would just forget about the 996P2 and stick to the SDS on RISCON. It's a much better receiver for it.)

But this is all only your choice.

 

[bobruzzo]

So this has to do entirely with the fact it's all one giant system. It doesn't take into account because it's both impractical and unnecessary. While some TGs are set to only operate in one site, it's all one giant system.

To do what you're asking on our end would be creating four separate trunked systems, for one. And that would be 100% impractical.

What you need to do Bob is program all four sites and all TGs as one single system and ignore which sites you see which TGs on. (Honestly, I would just forget about the 996P2 and stick to the SDS on RISCON. It's a much better receiver for it.)

But this is all only your choice.

Right, I only sometimes use the 996p2 mobile and its not too bad. I guess after a few years I still dont really understand how RISCON works. I mean I always treated it a 4 separate systems. Same thing with the sds200. When you download from database its sorta just plops everything into the 4 zones regardless of which TGs are on any particular zone. I use Sentinel to program the sds. But how would you program RISCON as 1 big system? I see where you have the 4 sets of frequencies for each zone. But where do you assign TGs? If there is an example somewhere of how to do this. I have always assigned for example, for the NORTH site, all the towns in the upper part of state.....same as South zone.....I could never find any clear instructions on how to do it.

 

[tvengr]

Right, I only sometimes use the 996p2 mobile and its not too bad. I guess after a few years I still dont really understand how RISCON works. I mean I always treated it a 4 separate systems. Same thing with the sds200. When you download from database its sorta just plops everything into the 4 zones regardless of which TGs are on any particular zone. I use Sentinel to program the sds. But how would you program RISCON as 1 big system? I see where you have the 4 sets of frequencies for each zone. But where do you assign TGs? If there is an example somewhere of how to do this. I have always assigned for example, for the NORTH site, all the towns in the upper part of state.....same as South zone.....I could never find any clear instructions on how to do it.

What programming software are you using for the 996P2? You can setup one system with 4 sites and use system quick keys to select the site or sites you wish to scan. Here is a PDF file which will answer all of your questions about using quick keys:

 

[bobruzzo]

What programming software are you using for the 996P2? You can setup one system with 4 sites and use system quick keys to select the site or sites you wish to scan. Here is a PDF file which will answer all of your questions about using quick keys:

I use Proscan to program my BCD996P2. I programmed the 4 main sites North, South, East & Metro as separate favorites lists and assigned a quick key, 1, 2, 3, 4 to each of them in that order. Thats the only way I could figure out how to do it when I first got radio. It seems to work pretty good this way. But my point is you can only fit 20 channels in a site. So I programmed TG's according to how the NE Scan site has them organized by what TG goes to what site. So I made 2 separate sites called "North overflow" and "South overflow" so I would still be able to listen to those overflows that wont fit in the regular North & South sites. I simply copied the same frequencies from both North and South and just put in those extra TGs. I have been using radio like this and seems to work fine. I just dont understand what W1KNE suggested. He said to program as 1 system. I still cant wrap my head around how to do this without step by step instructions. I program each site as a separate favorites list and give each one a quick key.

 

[ProScan]

Hello, I am using an SDS200 and a BCD996P2. I noticed the BCD996P2 only allows up to 20 items in a "bank"....The SDS200 allows much more. When programming RISCON I noticed when you download from database from RR, it doesnt take into account which SITES things go into. Fort example RIPTA, DEM, Statewide misc...etc the TALKGROUPS of these agencies are all SCATTERED among the RISCON sites (North, South, East & Metro) There are no RIPTA TG's in the METRO zone except for the encrypted one. I noticed on the SCAN NE site, RISCON talkgroups are all sorted into the actual sites where you will hear them. This makes it difficult to keep things updated. In my BCD996P2 I had to create an additional NORTH and SOUTH zones and renamed them "North overflow" and "South overflow" to be able to fit the remaining TG's in their proper zones. No problem with the SDS200. So I was wondering why there were some TG's I never heard because some were put in the wrong zones when I copied to radio from RR database. Has anybody noticed this? Or is it totally impractical to break TG's all down into which zones they belong in. Another example on NE SCAN, in their database the DEM is only heard on both NORTH and SOUTH. The RI State PD is only listed in North, South and East but not Metro. This gets very confusing programming a radio because there is no guidance as to which zone to put certain TGs. Most all the towns are OK. I noticed East Prov comes in on Metro, as well as Johnston and a couple others. So do people simply make ALL sites on RISCON identical with all the same TGs in each of the 4 sites?

'zones' should really be called sites so not to add to the confusion. TGID groups are not linked to specific sites in the database.
You shouldn't have to create additional North and South sites. The reason you may not hear everything is because the BCD996P2 doesn't handle simulcasting well like the SDS200 does.

I see the system contains 54 groups exceeding the 20 group limitation. So go through the groups and channels and delete the groups you're not interested in. If there's some channels within groups that you want to listen to then move those channels to another group before deleting the group.

 

[bobruzzo]

OK So I was basing my programming (after I downloaded RISCON from RR database) on how the Scan NE site had the TGs organized by sites. So this isn't necessary? On that site the state DEM (Dep Env. Mgmt) is only heard on the NORTH and SOUTH sites. I had this TG programmed in the METRO site cause there was more room in there for extra TG's like misc. state agencies. But, even on my sds200, I still wasnt hearing them till I programmed them into both North and South sites! The 20 group limitation on the BCD996P2 is annoying. Hence my need to create 2 more sites for the overflow. BUT it DOES work. Another thought was to program each of the 4 state RISCON sites identical....that way all TG's covered in all sites. Again, I program with Proscan and each of the 4 RISCON sites are 4 separate favorites lists. And each site has a quick key. Thats as deep as I go with quick keys. I still dont understand the logic of how talk groups are related to any certain site. For example why would you program "miscellaneous Providence medical agencies" in the South site? South and Metro are 2 separate areas miles apart. So that would make me think to program that into the Metro site. Sorry to sound like a dummy but I STILL cant wrap my head around this. I still feel I need to program sites as individual favorites lists. And put talk groups that SEEM like they belong in those sites. Why would I program Westerly fire into the North site??? to me it doesnt make sense since Westerly is 40+ miles south of the North site. One would assume you would program Westerly in the SOUTH site! So other than my way of doing this, the only other option I see is to program all 4 sites identically with ALL TGs in ALL sites!

 

[kjrff23]

I worked in Tiverton where the East site radio equipment for RISCON is located. I attended a few initial meetings where the state was trying to get the the 4 municipalities housing the radio sites to "buy in" and switch to the new 800 Mhz intergalactic system. (We didn't). The way it was supposed to work was the state bought 12 frequencies, 6 pairs. The frequencies were the same on all 4 towers repeaters. RIEMA was also still on the original 800Mhz system the state bought at that time as well, trunked but not P25 yet. The premise was if you went mutual aid to a town in a different mutual aid zone, i.e. Metro, East Bay, etc. your interoperable radio would just hit the closest tower on whatever talk group you were on. During testing one of our mobiles was hitting the Narragansett site and ours simultaneously. So armed with that information, all talk groups should be heard on any of the 4 sites. My best guess is some of the simulcast backhauls might not be up for whatever reason as they added users to the system.
The best test of what's going on with the system would be a Narragansett Bay Task Force activation where the marine units should hit all but maybe the North site (Smithfield to my recollection) on Wide Area 5.

 

[wa1lad]

he state was trying to get the the 4 municipalities housing the radio sites to "buy in" and switch to the new 800 Mhz intergalactic system. (We didn't). The way it was supposed to work was the state bought 12 frequencies, 6 pairs. The frequencies were the same on all 4 towers repeaters. RIEMA was also still on the original 800Mhz system the state bought at that time as well, trunked but not P25 yet. The premise was if you went mutual aid to a town in a different mutual aid zone, i.e. Metro, East Bay, etc. your interoperable radio would just hit the closest tower on whatever talk group you were on. During testing one of our mobiles was hitting the Narragansett site and ours simultaneously. So armed with that information, all talk groups should be heard on any of the 4 sites. My best guess is some of the simulcast backhauls might not be up for whatever reason as they added users to the system.
The best test of what's going on with the system would be a Narragansett Bay Task Force activation where the marine units should hit all but maybe the North site (Smithfield to my recollection) on Wide Area 5.

Not how RISCON is set up or works now. Old, incorrect information.......
The SNE Wiki page has very good info about RISCON. Maybe peruse that before your next post.......

Intergalactic.......baa haa haa....beam me up Scotty, there is no intelligent life here......

 

[KB18]

Hi Bobruzzo I have both the Uniden SDS 200 and SDS100 I don't have to tell you they're very expensive I personally use Uniden Sentinel software (it's free to download to your computer) to program both radios It is extremely easy to use once you get used to it I recommend setting up a favorite scan list for RISCON And as suggested by others add all four zones (sites) and you'll be up and running in no time Good luck 😀 I live in East Providence and I receive all four zones crystal clear with no distortion at all