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Smartzone vs Smartnet
- Thread starter radiopete
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A SmartNet is the most basic form of a Moto trunk system. It's a small system run by a single site-controller computer (only one control channel is ever heard on the system).
A SmartZone is an advanced system that has multiple transmitting sites linked together over a wide area. They come in 2 major different flavors:
1. A system like the NJSP uses multiple sites over each troop area to broadcast the control channel over the same frequency at every site. Most major talkgroups (patrol, medevac, DOT) are simulcast on all sites and can be heard from one end of the troop to the other (quite simple).
2. The new system in Burlington County (South Jersey) is made up of 10 different geographic zones, and each zone has it's own frequencies and it's own control channel. If, (let's say), an ambulance is on a call in the north zone, you'll pick up the transmission there if you're tuned to that zone. Now, the EMS unit is heading down to a hospital in another zone with the patient (here's where it gets complicated), the system will follow him on his original talkgroup out of the zone and in to the new one (let's say the hospital is in the north-central zone, you'll start to see the same TGID for the north zone now show up in north-central as well, simultaneously. Someone can correct me on this, but I think this kind of system is a SmartZone OmniLink.
This second kind of system is quite hard to trunk properly with the scanners that do CC-only, because the scanner is going to lock on to the first control channel it finds, not the strongest.
Sorry for the ramble! But to sum this up quick - A SmartZone was designed to cover a large area, and a SmartNet for a small area...
A SmartZone is an advanced system that has multiple transmitting sites linked together over a wide area. They come in 2 major different flavors:
1. A system like the NJSP uses multiple sites over each troop area to broadcast the control channel over the same frequency at every site. Most major talkgroups (patrol, medevac, DOT) are simulcast on all sites and can be heard from one end of the troop to the other (quite simple).
2. The new system in Burlington County (South Jersey) is made up of 10 different geographic zones, and each zone has it's own frequencies and it's own control channel. If, (let's say), an ambulance is on a call in the north zone, you'll pick up the transmission there if you're tuned to that zone. Now, the EMS unit is heading down to a hospital in another zone with the patient (here's where it gets complicated), the system will follow him on his original talkgroup out of the zone and in to the new one (let's say the hospital is in the north-central zone, you'll start to see the same TGID for the north zone now show up in north-central as well, simultaneously. Someone can correct me on this, but I think this kind of system is a SmartZone OmniLink.
This second kind of system is quite hard to trunk properly with the scanners that do CC-only, because the scanner is going to lock on to the first control channel it finds, not the strongest.
Sorry for the ramble! But to sum this up quick - A SmartZone was designed to cover a large area, and a SmartNet for a small area...
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There is a difference between Smartzone and Smartzone Omnilink.
1. A normal motorola smartzone has only one system ID and site controller for the whole system. (ex. 870d is the system ID for all sites on the Burlington County System.) These are used mostly for counties and large cities such as Orlando or Seattle.
2. A motorola smartzone Omnilink sytem has up to four smartzone sites with differend system ids and site controllers. Each of these zones are then merged together into one network. The Ohio MARCS and Indian SAFE-T systems are both Omnilink systems. If you look under the database at both MARCS and SAFE-T under misc system information, the system id is listed for all four zones of the Omnilink system.
More information can be found under the RRWiki
http://www.radioreference.com/wiki/index.php/Motorola
It does a good job telling the difference between each type of Motorola TRS.
Thanks for the clarification! I honestly didn't understand the difference with OmniLinks until now.
Now I know everything!!!
BTW - Here in NJ, we're still trying to figure out why Franklin Twp is sharing Somerset County's SmartNet controller (both systems broadcast the same SYSID). I guess after buying all the digitally-encrypted radios, they discovered they didn't have enough money to buy a whole stand-alone system for themselves... :0
Now I know everything!!!
BTW - Here in NJ, we're still trying to figure out why Franklin Twp is sharing Somerset County's SmartNet controller (both systems broadcast the same SYSID). I guess after buying all the digitally-encrypted radios, they discovered they didn't have enough money to buy a whole stand-alone system for themselves... :0
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You can also search as it's been asked before.
Referring to Smartzone & Omni-Link systems:
Well that would depend on the scanner. GRE scanners (at least the newer ones) of Pro-93 vintage and newer, don't operate that way. You are describing the Uniden method of handling CC scanning. (I also think Uniden will change this, but that is just based on a few hints from Paul.)W2SJW said:
W2SJW said:
In the way you describe, it's hard to do with any scanner. Most will lock onto the first control channel they find.
However, you can always add attenuation to the control channels, That way the scanner will ignore weaker channels (which now can't be heard) while you still retain full signal on the voice channels. This also means that the scanner will drop sites quicker as you travel.
The real way to follow a Smartzone system is to program each site in as a separate system. On the older Uniden scanners, you need to dedicate a bank to each site (or make sure you have geographically distinct sites in the same bank). With the dynamic memory found in newer Uniden scanners, you can dedicate a system to each site.
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