Talkgroup ID's and system programming....

[baker954]

I'm having issues!

I am using FreeScan to program a 396T for Illinois StarCom P25.

I am programming a system per tower way, as far as I can tell that's the best?? Dunno.
I have talkgroup lists under each tower/system.

However, say I am monitoring the Farmington tower. I can't get the talkgroup ID's to show up my alias's. It's just showing #, and I'm in ID search mode.

Is there any way to re-program so they all show up no matter what tower I'm monitoring?

And is it better just to program all the control channels in to have seamless coverage? I just don't want it to be checking 90million control channels and me miss out on a traffic stop or something after the pause and dispatch hasn't answered them yet.

 

[baker954]

And even on ID scan on every "system"/"tower" I'm not getting any sort of traffic.

 

[UPMan]

System per tower is going to give you the best opportunity to catch local coms (if you put more than one tower per system, there is a chance the scanner could hit on a distant, barely receivable tower and not get good copy...and then not ever see a local tower programmed into that system).

To switch between display modes, while holding on a channel in that system, press F+5.

I'd start by limiting scanning to only the closest tower at first. You might also try programming that tower in a system by itself with no TGID's programmed (so it will only be able to do ID Search mode and you'll be able to verify that there is traffic on the tower). If you then switch to a version of that system that has TGID's stored and don't hear anything, that would narrow things down to some kind of programming error.

 

[baker954]

Yeah, it's not the F+5 thing you're telling me about.

I don't get it.

Hmmmm.... Anyone got any advice?

 

[UPMan]

Ok, if you scan in ID Scan mode and get nothing, but scan in ID Search mode, but do get traffic (but no channel alpha tag), then you have your channels programmed incorrectly (or the channel groups are disabled or locked out).

 

[baker954]

I have also tried putting the exact same talkgroup ID list on each "tower/system" and when I go through the scanner it's only showing on the very first one.

 

[UPMan]

That sounds like a programming (software) issue. I'm not familiar with using Freescan, so can't offer any suggestions, there.

 

[ka3jjz]

kc8svs - please go to the FreeScan forums - which is on the same site as where you downloaded the program. Assaf is there quite frequently, and he answers mail fairly promptly. 73 Mike

 

[baker954]

I think I found the problem.

I opened it in BCTool and that program shows my talkgroups (all 6 groups) listed under the first tower.

Hmmm....

Complicated!

 

[cpuerror]

I would just check to make sure that you aren't splitting the system into sites. Because the 396 doesn't support multisite, FreeSCAN will create one system with all your talkgroups and the first site, and then seperate systems from all the remaining sites you have sans TGID groups. In this case you have to create seperate systems and duplicate the groups across them. Hope that helps...