Staying with a conversation on a 97

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rwileyx4

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Jul 18, 2006
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Ok, so I got my new 97 finally all setup thanks to you guys a couple weeks ago. And already Ive heard so much stuff as it was happening Im so hooked its not funny. I did have a question tho.

It seems if I scan thru and find a signal I want to hear, but of coarse if they stop for too long it goes on and grabs another signal(usually some type of service guys not PD or FD). Now how do I stay with a certain conversation. If I hit PSE it will hold, but sometimes it seems like part of the conversation might be changing around since Im stopped I feel like Im missing some of it sometimes. Am I?

I guess Im sorta lost on if Im listening to a trunked PD signal does it "move around" channels or whatever? and If I hit PSE to hold does it keep moving around and the scanner not go with it at that point cause I have it in hold mode?
 

loumaag

Silent Key - Aug 2014
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rwileyx4 said:
...If I hit PSE it will hold, but sometimes it seems like part of the conversation might be changing around since Im stopped I feel like Im missing some of it sometimes. Am I?

I guess Im sorta lost on if Im listening to a trunked PD signal does it "move around" channels or whatever? and If I hit PSE to hold does it keep moving around and the scanner not go with it at that point cause I have it in hold mode?
Providing that you do have it programmed correctly, when you pause on a TG the scanner will indeed stay on that TG as long as the TG stays on the site it was "paused" on.

Let me explain, say you are monitoring a multi-site TRS and there is a central site that most TG's appear on and some outlying sites that sometimes have TG's you are interested in and sometimes not. Say you pause your radio on a TG while the transmission you were hearing is being assigned a VC from an outlying site. If the officer or unit (may not have anything to do with the conversation you interested in) or whoever is affiliated with the outlying site either turns the radio off, or changes channels or moves into another site's area, you are listening to nothing. The reason is the site CCh you are listening for your target TG is no longer carrying the TG. Remember this, when you pause on a TG, you tell the radio to constantly monitor the CCh it is currently on for traffic in relation to that TG and respond accordingly.

I have a similar situation where I live and whenever I "pause" on a TG, I tend to make sure it is coming off of the central site (because the dispatch office uses it) so that I will always hear the TG off of that site. As a matter of fact, for my situation, when I am at home, I tend to use only the Central site and lock out the others so that I don't miss anything I am interested in while the radio is sampling the outlying sites I can hear from home.
 

rwileyx4

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Jul 18, 2006
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Ok, so if Im paused on "PD Dispatch 1" for instance and want to hear all the stuff going back and forth from cop to station Im good in Hold mode for this? I understand said cop my say his part and move on but if its a constant back and forth with him and all others going to Dispatch Im good if I pause it there?

I just felt like when I stopped maybe this conversation was swapping around and I was missing parts cause at times it would be quiet for what I thought was too long.

Im also really considering purchasing an 800mhz antenna to help with reception since thats mainly what I listen to, but dont know if that will degrade the other signals or not.
 

loumaag

Silent Key - Aug 2014
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Location
Katy, TX
rwileyx4 said:
Ok, so if Im paused on "PD Dispatch 1" for instance and want to hear all the stuff going back and forth from cop to station Im good in Hold mode for this? I understand said cop my say his part and move on but if its a constant back and forth with him and all others going to Dispatch Im good if I pause it there?
Yes, see next comment.

rwileyx4 said:
I just felt like when I stopped maybe this conversation was swapping around and I was missing parts cause at times it would be quiet for what I thought was too long.
As along as the TG you are monitoring is affiliated with the site you are monitoring, you will hear the traffic. Read through the Wiki on trunking to get a better understanding of affiliation.

rwileyx4 said:
Im also really considering purchasing an 800mhz antenna to help with reception since thats mainly what I listen to, but dont know if that will degrade the other signals or not.
This is really another topic, but since you are OP I will give it a shot. I use the RS 800 MHz enhanced antenna for most of my monitoring. Most of my monitoring is actually in the 460 MHz UHF band along with some 150 MHz. However I don't use just one scanner but they all (well most of the time) have that RS (# 20-283) 800 MHz antenna on them. They all work quite well and I really don't notice any loss of the UHF and only minimal loss of the some VHF fringe reception. What will kill your 800 MHz reception is using an outdoor antenna with any standard coax run of more than a few feet. At 800 MHz, coax is like a signal killer in any substantial length. This has been discussed many times here on the boards. Yes there are coax types which do not kill the signal a lot (read expensive) but IMHO nothing beats no coax at all.
 
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