SDS100/SDS200: Setting up an SDS200 to "roam" on a trunking system?

[Motoflightmedic]

I would like to setup my SDS200 to roam kinda like a radio does on a system. Is it possible to set it up in a way that it only listens to the site you are closest to? Like a radio does when it affiliates with a site and if you move have it lock on to a new site as you travel? I have read up on the GPS feature and i have the GPS antenna for my scanner. the one thing I'm not wanting it to do is scan all of the VHF UHF stuff that may be licensed close to where i may be. I am only wanting to monitor the trunked system and only monitor the site i am receiving the best signal from. I am somewhat familiar with the sentinel software but i am not an expert yet. I have figured out how to make it scan only one site at home and it works great. I would just like to figure out how to make it change automatically as i travel.

 

[nessnet]

Have you build any favorite lists?
(You just put what you want to monitor in them.)

Then, use location control.

 

[drdispatch]

@nessnet gave as good an answer as you can get.
i would also make a suggestion:
Don't try to limit your scanning to just one site. (Using location control will scan several within your range settings.) If there are no user radios affiliated with the one site you are monitoring, you will not hear traffic. And if that site happens to go down, or switches into site trunking mode, you're deaf.

 

[phask]

Uniden will never default to "the best signal". As others said, create a list, use GPS, set range for what works best.
And may need to tweak range for each site.

 

[Randyk4661]

As others have said you will need to modify each site with GPS location and area coverage with the area they cover (they can overlap). These settings are different from the TG GPS settings. You need to do the GPS settings for both. Also set the scanner range setting low, ( I use zero) if you don't the GPS settings for the site and TG's you set up won't matter.

 

[blackbelter]

While advantages of listening to multiple sites is enticing, it definitely slows the scanner with potential missing calls. More to listen less to hear ..in my case I listen to one system, 2 sites and 12 talk groups . I do however understand that every listener has different interest.

 

[willdanl]

I have tricked my 436 and SDS100 to "roam" on a large, multi-county system. I built a system with a single site with all the CCs from the various sites that I wanted to roam around in. It's not perfect, but works pretty well when the actual sites don't have a ton of overlap. You can play with the squelch setting some to make it let go of one CC sooner and scan on to the next. You won't know which site you're actually on, unless you recognize which CC is associated with the various sites you're roaming around in - or it may be obvious from the traffic it's carrying.

I haven't tried this technique to roam between different systems - not sure what your scenario is. I have the gps too, and will use it on longer trips, but when I'm driving around in my corner of the world I prefer this method - not having to modify location parameters or fiddle with quick keys while driving.

 

[nessnet]

I have the gps too, .......or fiddle with quick keys while driving.

If you have GPS, just program the radio properly.
If done correctly, you don't have to even touch the radio and it switches systems/depts/TGs when you cross a state/county/city border.
This is for 2 cities that have a common dispatch (NORCOM) and I have in a devoted favorite group for it..
Note: the system is simulcast, so the big circles are the geo center of that 'site', which consists of multiple actual towers.

 

[ofd8001]

You are wanting to have a $700 scanner behave like a $4000 radio.

On top of that, you would have to have your scanner "registered" so that the system will assign it to the most appropriate site based on the talkgroup you have chosen. Because of security considerations, that is unlikely to happen.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

I have tricked my 436 and SDS100 to "roam" on a large, multi-county system. I built a system with a single site with all the CCs from the various sites that I wanted to roam around in. It's not perfect, but works pretty well when the actual sites don't have a ton of overlap. You can play with the squelch setting some to make it let go of one CC sooner and scan on to the next. You won't know which site you're actually on, unless you recognize which CC is associated with the various sites you're roaming around in - or it may be obvious from the traffic it's carrying.

I haven't tried this technique to roam between different systems - not sure what your scenario is. I have the gps too, and will use it on longer trips, but when I'm driving around in my corner of the world I prefer this method - not having to modify location parameters or fiddle with quick keys while driving.

I've never thought of that before, but I think I just might try this myself.

 

[ofd8001]

Here is a possible downside to that: In metro areas of states with statewide systems, there could be several sites that serve the metro area. Minnesota is an example. There is a "state" site covering the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, largely used for state government users. Then there is a Minneapolis site serving mostly Minneapolis users. Next is a Ramsey County site for St. Paul and Ramsey users, with yet another site for Hennepin County users (the outer ring of Minneapolis).

So you have some four sites you could hear while in Minneapolis. However if the whole lot of control frequencies were programmed, the scanner is going to grab the first it hears and linger on that site. Meaning the other three sites and all of their primary talkgroups, will not be heard.

Programming a scanner for a statewide system is challenging. You gotta figure out the complicated scanner. Then you gotta figure out how the complicated system is programmed.

 

[Motoflightmedic]

You are wanting to have a $700 scanner behave like a $4000 radio.

Basically yes, I fully understand how trunking systems and affiliation work and i would like my scanner to mimic the functionality of an affiliated radio.

While advantages of listening to multiple sites is enticing, it definitely slows the scanner with potential missing calls. More to listen less to hear ..in my case I listen to one system, 2 sites and 12 talk groups . I do however understand that every listener has different interest.

This is exactly why i am want to set my scanner up this way. I don't want to miss any traffic on the site that may be closest to me. I feel like it takes to long to scan between sites when it is trying to scan multiple sites.

I'm thinking that what i would like to accomplish would require a firmware update. Since it is a scanner and not a radio it would never be affiliated on any system but, there may be a way in firmware where the scanner could scan the control channels in the area based off of the GPS location, then figure out which one has the strongest signal and lock onto it until the GPS signal tells the scanner to scan the neighboring control channels again as you move though the area of the sites.

I'm definitely going to get the GPS set up and tested and see if i can have some luck with maybe reducing the coverage for each site that looks like the only option at this time.

 

[ofd8001]

There are ways of getting a surplus radio to do "non affiliated" scanning. One has to be very knowledgeable on how to program this to avoid numerous pitfalls.

You can accomplish what you want, but there will need to be some "human intervention" required. Scanners are designed to come on based on location (if that option is employed) and not signal strength.

Then you still have that condition of being in a location where signal from Site A (carrying talkgroups 1, 2, 3) is just as strong as the signal from Site B (carrying talkgroups 4, 5, 6). So the scanner locks on to Site A, but you really want to listen to the Site B talkgroups.

So that "non affiliated" scanning with a surplus radio might be worth investigating. (Before the SDS line came out, I was having a problem with simulcast distortion and going this route was my solution.)

 

[N1GTL]

You can do it with GPS but be prepared for a ton of work. You cannot rely on the RR location download. It's only as accurate as the database coordinates. I toyed with location control and had to build my own GPS text files. I used Google maps and found the right coordinates and created boxes to cover towns. Depending on the shape of the town, you may need 4 or 5 boxes to get the GPS to switch over right at a town line (or as close as possible). I did some drive testing and found that it generally took about a mile before it realized the location change. The distance may be affected by the speed limit, I'm not sure.

If your going for "distance from tower", you can get away with creating circles rather than rectangles. I think I was able to do all the programming in Sentinel. As someone mention, you can't base it on RSSI like Capacity Plus systems work where the radio is its own "voter".

 

[hiegtx]

This is exactly why i am want to set my scanner up this way. I don't want to miss any traffic on the site that may be closest to me. I feel like it takes to long to scan between sites when it is trying to scan multiple sites.

I'm thinking that what i would like to accomplish would require a firmware update. Since it is a scanner and not a radio it would never be affiliated on any system but, there may be a way in firmware where the scanner could scan the control channels in the area based off of the GPS location, then figure out which one has the strongest signal and lock onto it until the GPS signal tells the scanner to scan the neighboring control channels again as you move though the area of the sites.

What you are asking about is very similar to a feature of the original GRE designed & manufactured scanners, PSR500 & PSR600. For P25 trunked systems, you could enter the control channel frequencies for multiple sites. With 32 slots available, at 4 control channels per site, you could cover up to 8 sites.. Setting the site to Roam, the scanner would evaluate the programmed channel frequencies & and use the one with the best signal quality. You also could set threshold values to rule out frequencies with poor reception. With the site set in Stationary mode, and Off, it will look at the next frequency each time the system comes up in the scanning rotation. With Stationary set as "On", the scanner will check each programmed frequency each time that system was scanned.

I doubt you would ever see that on a Uniden scanner. I would suspect that GRE had that patented. (Whistler bought GRE's intellectual property (patents) when GRE shut down.) They would likely want to license that for Uniden to use. Similarly, on the Uniden scanners, you can program an alert light color for a channel, but the color only stays on for about ten seconds. This has been kicked around a number of times in the past, and GRE (now Whistler) probably has a patent on that as well.

Of course, Uniden has location based scanning, where you can let the scanner turn systems on or off based on the range & location settings. Using a GPS, that can be accomplished when on the road, automatically turning systems and channels on and off as they came into, or passed out of, range. The Whistler database scanners, such as the TRX-1/-2 can use a zip code location when programing via a Library Import, but that is not a feature that you can engage and use driving down the road. Uniden is not likely to license Whistler, or anyone else, to use their location control feature.