Too many EDACS sites

[gmclam]

I am programming an object oriented GRE scanner (PSR-500/600, PRO-106/PRO-197, etc) and started wondering how people who monitor Nevada with similar scanners handle this situation.

Let's just take Washoe county. There's just under 150 TGs that I would like to monitor. There's 11 sites for Washoe county and another ~11 related to Washoe on the NSRS.

When a system is P25 or MOT I can add frequencies to the listing and ideally the scanner will find the strongest. With EDACS you must program an entire site, and only one site per TSYS. Sure I can narrow down the list of 22+ sites to let's say 10. But with 150 TGs associated with each site/list, that would take 1500 objects just for Washoe county trunked stuff.

What do you do to monitor Nevada? Limit yourself on sites? Limit on TGs? Something more clever I haven't thought about? I'm programming all of northern NV (and parts of CA and UT) into a single scanner load and figuring out how to best handle this is my last issue. I'd hate to use one virtual folder just for Washoe, so thought I'd ask.

Thanks!

 

[737mech]

I am programming an object oriented GRE scanner (PSR-500/600, PRO-106/PRO-197, etc) and started wondering how people who monitor Nevada with similar scanners handle this situation.

Let's just take Washoe county. There's just under 150 TGs that I would like to monitor. There's 11 sites for Washoe county and another ~11 related to Washoe on the NSRS.

When a system is P25 or MOT I can add frequencies to the listing and ideally the scanner will find the strongest. With EDACS you must program an entire site, and only one site per TSYS. Sure I can narrow down the list of 22+ sites to let's say 10. But with 150 TGs associated with each site/list, that would take 1500 objects just for Washoe county trunked stuff.

What do you do to monitor Nevada? Limit yourself on sites? Limit on TGs? Something more clever I haven't thought about? I'm programming all of northern NV (and parts of CA and UT) into a single scanner load and figuring out how to best handle this is my last issue. I'd hate to use one virtual folder just for Washoe, so thought I'd ask.

Thanks!

Limit the sites to your county, limit the tg's to only the ones you really want to monitor, then for the rest wildcard. If your in Washoe you won't need sites in Clark/Nye/Esmerelda etc. For those you can make up a new system in another v-folder then when you travel into those areas simply switch v folders. The expensive way to fix the limited memory problem is to go buy a BCD436/536. Hope this helps.

 

[3mary2]

Programming

Recently I went to Reno which is in the Washoe County of Nevada. I programmed the simo-cast site for EDACS Washoe County and had more than enough to listen to. Add a wild card and now the scanner goes non stop, even at three in the morning. I personally listened to Reno PD, Sparks, NHP, County Sheriff, hospital calls and several others.
I like the way 737 mech organizes his files, but was told the simo-cast in Washoe County will be the best for the area.

 

[gmclam]

Washoe County Nevada

Thank you for the replies.

I presently have profiles for each direction I travel. One profile gets me from Sacramento to Seattle via I5. Another gets me to Los Angeles. Another to Santa Barbara via US 101. I generally organize by using one county per list, but some counties are so small I'll combine them. If I am going to stay somewhere, I have a completely separate detailed profile.

I am working on a profile for Sacramento to SLC via I80. But I am concentrating also on extensive coverage of Reno/Sparks and Washoe county. I have noticed that the sites listed under Washoe county match the NSRS sites (name, frequencies, LCN). That's a relief.

I have the entire route programmed except not full enough coverage of Washoe as I'd like. If the systems were MOT then I could just add more frequencies to the TSYS lists. But since they are EDACS, that can't be done. It made me wonder how others handle the situation.

Certainly I will also program a profile specifically for Reno Sparks Carson City Tahoe as well, but wanted as much coverage of Washoe as I can get in the travel profile. I thought I'd ask how others handle the situation. Conventional frequencies are also not an issue (many are re-used in other lists anyway).

 

[com501]

This is why an EDACS radio set to not affiliate with max sys/grps is a boon to good scanning......they don't put 65535 channels in these things for nothing....

 

[SCPD]

my 700p is set up to not affiliate on the system and its better then any scanner i can ask for

 

[sigint1]

Also just for future info the Washoe System will be transitioning to a
P25 Phase 2 system in future - not certain about time line but probably year or two - it already in the works - COM51 my have more info on time line

 

[gmclam]

Also just for future info the Washoe System will be transitioning to a
P25 Phase 2 system in future - not certain about time line but probably year or two - it already in the works - COM51 my have more info on time line

I wonder if, when, how long, before NSRS goes to P25 (Phase 2)

 

[com501]

There are public meetings about this stuff..... the minutes are available. I have an NDA. That's all I can say.

 

[SCPD]

i listen to the meeting its happening in a 5 year plan

 

[SCPD]

The real problem with EDACS is facing the 20 EDACS site limit in the radio. I set up my scanner for the areas I travel to frequently. In Nevada I try to get by with two different files (GRE talk) and I program the site that might have the greatest EDACS coverage. I can only enter one EDACS site for each county. Given the limitation of having only 20 files in the radio, I don't want to use more than two of them for Nevada. I've worked hard to cover the highlights of all of California in 10-12 different files. I leave files 10 and 20 open for out of area travels, such as my two files for New Mexico.

One system I like to listen to in southern California and all the way up to Huntington Lake as well as most of Mono and Inyo Counties is the Motorola Smartzone Southern California Edison system. I program in the control frequencies for each of their sites and have assigned two lists associated with those frequencies. One, that I use at home, and one with more talkgroups included when traveling. If SCE used an EDACS system I would not be able to do this. With a GRE radio you are limited to 20 different EDACS sites and that doesn't cover Nevada very well.

In the Reno area I have a list for Peavine and another for the simulcast site. That way I'm able to listen to the NHP and NDOT as I travel north from Mono County, California. I have the frequencies for McClennan (sp?) site, Minden site and the Pinegrove site, giving me coverage along 395 from Topaz Lake to Reno. I have a separate file for the Lake Tahoe Basin and have two Nevada EDACS sites in that file.

If the state had chosen Motorola over E.F. Johnson we could program the primary and secondary control frequencies in and perhaps spread all the talkgroups into a few scan lists according to location. We would have all the coverage that the state units do. Having to have the frequencies listed in the order each site requires is a vexing problem. However with EDACS, even the 1800 more or less object limit of the PSR-500/600, is not sufficient to cover all the sites, even when smaller areas of Nevada are included in each file. It sucks, but the "limited" memory in scanners now is something we couldn't conceive of 20 years ago. Now if the limit were 18,000 with a 50 file limit we could overcome the challenges!

 

[com501]

The State of Nevada installed a Motorola trunking system in early 2000's but failed to license it. Oops. The FCC threatened to fine them many millions of dollars. Their choice was take the system off the air forever or pay the fine.

It was cheaper to buy new radios and beef up the Nevada Energy EDACS 800 system and go there. The FCC agreed. This is why for many years, every NHP car in NV had a nifty brand new MCS2000 VHF radio with trunking options along with a new Orion EDACS radio on 800. There were also warehouses full of VHF Quantars and combiners pulled from mountaintops rather hastily when this all went down.

This is why Nevada has a 'Shared Radio System'. No one went to jail. Several peoples kids got put through college courtesy of kickbacks from Motorola (as the rumor goes), and those involved simply retired.

The loser was the citizen taxpayer. Similar to what is now happening in Las Vegas. The Orion/GE/Macom EDACS system is still going, although aged. The system in Las Vegas was replaced with 'OpenSky', the new whazoo Macom system (dubiously coined 'BrokenSky' by those who had to use it), and that failure is now being replaced by a Motorola system that -strangely- works. Yet again, the loser, the taxpayer. No one goes to jail for malfeasance, poor planning, etc. There are no give backs, contract repayments or anything else. Unlike a bad car repair, or your AAMCO transmission warranty, the state continues to pay - through the nose- yet again, for another new system.

Here's to hoping that this new system works.

Sorry about your scanner issues, that is why my EDACS radio has 65535 systems and groups in it. They have to have. You should just buy a real radio and be done with it.

 

[SCPD]

I sent a comment regarding the "no license debacle" to the Reno Gazette. I compared the situation to a major trucking company putting a thousand new trucks on the road and forgetting to register them and not checking that their drivers had licenses. The paper later published my comment in the paper. The state communications people knew darn well that they didn't license the system or get APCO clearance for the frequencies. The VHF system would have interfaced with the rural counties and allow them to stay with the types of systems they already had. Very few sites would have to be added to the system already developed for the VHF Low system. This debacle was a windfall for E.F. Johnson.

I shake my head every time I think about this. The state comm people later claimed that they weren't able to find enough VHF frequencies to complete the system. There aren't enough VHF frequencies in, for example, Lander, Eureka and Nye Counties? Yeah, right!

The Metro PD situation was incredible considering the events in Florida and New York.

I don't have enough money to buy another real radio. The digital King I bought and had modified for 2 meters drained my discretionary radio fund for a decade(s?).

 

[BJ_NORTON]

To the original OP, I use the uniden 996xt and have no problems programming around 100 sites for the NSRS, and I use a GPS to tell the radio where I am and it knows what sites to scan and which to ingnore.

COM501 is right, the commercial radios are great, I have one and it works far better than a plain jane scanner. The antenna is tuned for the band, the filters are tight, and the thing is meant to work - lots of engineers spent time to make sure it never drops a call. The 800 gear is cheap too! I picked up an MCS2000 the other day for less than $25

 

[gmclam]

NEVADA EDACS & GRE scanners

The real problem with EDACS is facing the 20 EDACS site limit in the radio.

Which radio? I have all the GRE model scanners and typically use a PSR-500 for scanning in NV. While it has 20 lists, you can assign multiple TSYS objects to one list. You need one TSYS object for each site. Problem is you must (re)program TGRP objects for each TSYS object and that gets crazy. What is needed is the ability to associate a single TGRP object with multiple TSYS objects in a (GRE-made) scanner.

Given the limitation of having only 20 files in the radio, I don't want to use more than two of them for Nevada. I've worked hard to cover the highlights of all of California in 10-12 different files. I leave files 10 and 20 open for out of area travels, such as my two files for New Mexico.

Reading this again I understand you're talking about V-files.I have California in 6: Bay Area, North State, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, I5. If I spent more time in the Inland Empire or San Diego, I could see those taking up two more. And in the above V-files I do have a lot of duplication.

I have profiles for traveling in each direction (toward LA, Pacific NorthWest, Utah, etc) and then have profiles for any area I will be in for a while. While travelling I don't need all the LE & fire tacs that I want when I am staying someplace. For eastern California, I actually use a NV profile (think of someplace like Death Valley which is on the border).

With a GRE radio you are limited to 20 different EDACS sites and that doesn't cover Nevada very well.

You are limited to 20 lists, but each list can contain multiple TSYS objects.