You will need to program each talk group as a separate channel. Each channel must belong to a zone on the radio. You can then use the channel selector knob on the radio to select those different talk groups.
Here are some steps to follow:
First, create a zone for this repeater under "Zone Information", you can use the repeater callsign as the name.
Now, add each talk group under "Digital Contact" that you wish to operate on. For example, talk group 3 for North America.
Next, program each talk group into separate channels. Remember to include both Rx/Tx frequencies, color code, time slot and talk group.
Now, go back to "Zone Information" and add the channels you just programmed in.
At this point, you can upload this to your radio and you'll be able to operate on those talk groups on that one repeater. If you want to operate on different repeaters, just create a new zone for each repeater and follow the steps above. If you operate on multiple repeaters like I do, then you could have well over 100 channels in your radio, all organized by repeater or zone. Each zone can only have 16 channels and the radio allows for a maximum of 250 zones.
There is a scan feature, which the others have mentioned in previous posts. It doesn't work particularly well and many talk groups are PTT, so they are not always active.
This brings us to another topic, the difference between an "always on" talk group and "PTT". "Always on" means this talk group is always on, whether there is activity or not. If someone keys up, you'll hear it right away. "PTT" talk groups are activated on your repeater only if someone has keyed up. They usually have a timer and will last 5-10 minutes. If no one on your repeater has keyed up that talk group during that time, it will go back to being silent. Even if another user on another repeater keys up that talk group, you won't be able to hear it on the one you're using unless you key up again. Just think of the "PTT" talk groups as a party line or on demand talk group. It says silent until someone on your repeater activates it. This is all controlled by your local repeater owner. Hopefully yours will have information online like one of my local repeaters here:
W6SRR | Digital Mobile Radio.
Now going back to scanning these talk groups. You won't hear any activity on these "PTT" talk groups unless they are active on your repeater. That means, if you scan a "PTT" talk group that hasn't been activated, you won't hear anything.
If you wish to scan certain talk groups, you will need to create a scan list under "Scan List". I have mine organized by repeater, so my scan lists will mirror those in the zone list. I left out all the "PTT" talk groups as they usually aren't active and you'll hear nothing.
Hope this helps, I see a lot of misinformation out there. I know this is new to everyone so we're all learning together. I currently have 10 zones and 124 channels programmed into my CS-700.
