Scan strategy for my favs that have same sites across multiple lists

[a242789]

I just received my BCD436HP and started using Sentinal to create my fav lists - going through the learning curve on how to manage - I have 3 lists setup for now. Each list is a county in Texas where I live / can receive. My intent for doing this is to disable when I travel out of the listening area(s). But each of the 3 lists/counties share the same TSYS but with different TGRPs for each county/list. The challenge is the SITEs as they are the same for each list/county. There are 3 of them.

So here is the problem that I am seeing. Watching the scanner scan rotates through the lists as I would expect and then I see the first system come up and what appears to rotate through the 3 sites for the particular system. I am assuming that for each site it is going through the same TGRPs for each site which seems like a waste of time of nothing is being transmitted or if out of range by chance of the particular site. Then when it goes to the next list / county and search the same system, it goes through the same sites for the other TGRPs that system.

Question - should I tweak the sites that I am closer to? or will the TGRPs for the county correspond to the site that the TGRPs are in? I am confused on how to manage - especially since it appears to perform a lot of useless work.

Hope that makes sense.

I have a new county I want to add but the System the county is in is huge and lots of SITES for which seem useless as I am so far away from them and only want the eastern edge of that system.

Still learning so bear with me. Thanks in advance.

--Mickey

 

[ofd8001]

Without knowing which system(s) are involved only general thoughts can be offered.

Do you use any type of location control, such as a GPS device to tell your scanner where you are? Do you change the zip code when you enter a different area?

Is this one big ole statewide system or several independent local systems? If they are separate, I suggest putting each county as its own Favorites List with a Favorites List Quick Key you can toggle as you get in the area. (Assuming no location control).

For the one system having multiple sites, I'd program that as a one Favorites List (different from above). Then I would program all the applicable sites, giving each site a quick key (in the "scheme" of things, site quick keys are at the department level). Turn on the site quick keys for those site you are within 30 miles off (general rule), and those more than 30 miles, off. (Assuming no location control).

There may be another twist or turn you can try depending on what system it is.

A couple of bottom line issues:

It is inefficient to have any one site active in multiple Favorites Lists.
For scanning purposes, talkgroups are not tied to specific sites. Program whatever sites you might be in range of. Program whatever departments/talkgroups you might be interested in listening to. Let the scanner do its thing.

 

[a242789]

Lots of things I haven't explored yet; that being locations...I won't have a GPS but do have a Zip Code set. I have read a little bit on this but still have to clear a few things up. I like the idea of have a favorite or site get invoked if I am within some range(I think I read the default is 20 miles) now I know I can listen much further than that - I am thinking now that any number of miles entered is not enough get across counties.

Anyways let me see if I can state some facts of what I am doing - I have tweaked some of my favorites. I have zip code of 77659 keyed in. I am in Texas and this is Hardin County - I have Jefferson and Orange counties loaded too. As of now, I have created 3 favorites. Each their respective county name. There are a few Conventional frequencies in each Fav list. I have a quick key, 1-3 for each of the counties...I have figured out how to choose and unchoose to listen to. I have all 3 selected as of now.

For Jefferson County - I have 4 systems(what Sentinal is calling them) added. They are Jefferson(conventional), SETRRS(P25), SETTRS(Motorola) and DPS. I have quick keys for each system - why at this point I don't know or know how to use. Jefferson has 13 departments with 13 quick keys. SETRRS(P25) has 2 departments(with quick keys) and 3 sites - I have AVOIDed 2 of the 3 sites as they are farther away. The departments(2) has 1 or more talk groups. I have the done the same sort of thing with SETRRS(P25) and DPS. The jest of this is that I only have talk groups or frequencies that belong to Jefferson County.

The next fav list is Hardin County. I too, has the 2 Trunk Systems - SETRRS(P25) and SETRRS(Moto) - I have quick keys assigned as well. And the departments have QKs. I have just realized that I don't have any conventional frequencies but that isn't an issue and will add as needed. I have also AVOIDed sites that are not needed or with in range from my location. No use scanning them.

Skipping Orange County for now as it follows the patter of the above.

So my strategy is to scan each FL; knowing that I have the same systems in each of the 3 FLs - the SITES are currently all the closest SITE. I basically do under stand the duplication as I am hitting the same systems/frequencies just looking for different talk groups but what it gives me is the ability to turn a county off as I move/travel away from. I plan to have 4th county(Galveston) - When I am there I won't receive or care to receive Jefferson, Hardin and Orange so I will just unselect them.

I have a bigger problem with SITES when I create Galveston County as there 40 sites(ok abunch) that aren't relevant unless I change locations in the county for which I will do when we go in to Galveston.

So my question about site management is to propose the following with using my Hardin County fav list as an example - the SETRRS(P25) system currently has 3 sites with 2 Avoided - that works fine until I travel to the north part of that county - when I move away from the Beaumont Site, I won't be able to receive anything for this System unless I turn of the Avoids for the Silsbee site. I could do that, although painful as I would have to traverse the menu of the 436 which is a pain without the software. SO more specifically, what is a better way to manage sites - avoiding? quick keys? something else?

Thanks for guiding me in the right direction - ok at least the understanding of what right should be.

--Mickey

 

[ofd8001]

You may want to ask this question in the Texas forum. The local knowledge on which of the systems are in actual use will be better than mine.

The Hardin County System (P25) looks to be the same used in Jefferson. So I imagine you could combine them into the same Favorites List, because right now I suspect there is some redundant scanning going on. You are monitoring a System under one Favorites List and then a second time under another Favorites List. So while that's looking twice, it could miss something else in another system.

 

[teknishun]

I just received my BCD436HP and started using Sentinal to create my fav lists - going through the learning curve on how to manage - I have 3 lists setup for now. Each list is a county in Texas where I live / can receive. My intent for doing this is to disable when I travel out of the listening area(s). But each of the 3 lists/counties share the same TSYS but with different TGRPs for each county/list. The challenge is the SITEs as they are the same for each list/county. There are 3 of them.

So here is the problem that I am seeing. Watching the scanner scan rotates through the lists as I would expect and then I see the first system come up and what appears to rotate through the 3 sites for the particular system. I am assuming that for each site it is going through the same TGRPs for each site which seems like a waste of time of nothing is being transmitted or if out of range by chance of the particular site. Then when it goes to the next list / county and search the same system, it goes through the same sites for the other TGRPs that system.

Question - should I tweak the sites that I am closer to? or will the TGRPs for the county correspond to the site that the TGRPs are in? I am confused on how to manage - especially since it appears to perform a lot of useless work.

Hope that makes sense.

I have a new county I want to add but the System the county is in is huge and lots of SITES for which seem useless as I am so far away from them and only want the eastern edge of that system.

Still learning so bear with me. Thanks in advance.

--Mickey

Whenever you use Sentinel to build a favorites list, on a big system you will probably find several sites get pulled
into the mix, even though you may not be able to receive a lot of those sites. Just edit your list and delete the sites
that you cannot use and then the scanner cannot try to scan them. Keep only the sites you need. Sometimes that
means just a single site is all that is needed.

Concerning your question above, why not put all 3 counties into one favorites list. Also put all 3 sites in that same list.
Assign favorites keys to each site so that you can turn each site on or off from the scanner keypad.

For any given location in those 3 counties determine what is the closest site to where you are and just scan
that one site. This might take trial and error but it is no trouble since the sites have quick keys. You can see what TGRPs
come up. It does not slow the scanner down to have a LOT of TGRP in a favorites list. What slows the scanner down
is making it scan multiple sites in the same favorites list.

There is no "right way" to accomplish your goal. There are several ways it can be done. That is the beauty of these
modern scanners - they are very versatile and will do a lot of amazing things once we figure out how!

 

[W8RMH]

Scanners do not scan talk groups. They scan the site's control channel.