Sentinel: Simucast system

[Ret_Batt_Chief]

Still fairly new to scanning simulcast systems. Is there any advantage to scanning all frequencies in a system or just the control channels. Can't seem to "set avoid" individual non control channels only an entire site in Sentinel. Does the amount of Talk groups selected affect scanning speeds or just the amount of frequencies.

 

[doctordialtone]

. Does the amount of Talk groups selected affect scanning speeds or just the amount of frequencies.

Since the scanner only scans the control channel frequency, the number of talk groups is not a factor.

You only need the non-control frequencies in the event the primary control channel changes.

Read here:

Control Channel Only - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[hiegtx]

Just take note that if the system is one manufactured by L3-Harris, any of the site's frequencies can be used as a control channel.

By default, if you append a system from the master database in Sentinel, it will include all of the frequencies listed for each site. All you must have are the ones tagged as primary or alternate control channels. But there is no need to trim the extras out. On some older scanners, such as the original GRE object oriented scanners such as the PSR500/-600, or the relabeled version of these sold by Radio Shack (Pro-106 & Pro-197) there was a limited amount of data space in the programming file, so removing the extra channels gave more flexibility in programming. But in the Uniden database scanners, that are programmed via Sentinel, there's more than enough space in a programming file that there is no need to pare things down to the bare minimum.

 

[Ret_Batt_Chief]

Thank you everyone for the prompt answers!

 

[maus92]

Hmm. I would only program frequencies that are designated as control channels. On a large Motorola system that has many system channels, the scanner could step through many channels that could not possibly be control channels before it lands on the active control channel. Limiting the programming to only control channels hastens finding the active control channel. Harris / L3 systems unfortunately can use any system frequency as a control channel, thus can sometimes slow the process of scanning between systems.