TRX-2: trouble scanning multiple counties

[redroverm37]

trx 2 with external browning 700-800 omni antenna 35 ft tower
located in richland county. i am trying to monitor surounding county fire department on ohio marcs system. if i group all the sites (29) into one system, it seems like i will only pick up the strongest site (out of 5 towers) close to me in richland co. like the scanner remembers that tower and i do not pick up any other counties outside of richland . however if i group each county into its own system so i have 8 different systems, i will pick up all the surrounding counties just fine. the problem with this is it slows scanning way down and prioritiy channels dont get priority. any ideas? thanks.

 

[Wackyracer]

That is a simulcast system so you may never be able to get everything all the time with a TRX...duplicate the system, lock out all but one site...do this for every site in the system. set up recording, then after a few days you can download the recordings and see what you're getting on each site and adjust appropriately.

 

[redroverm37]

That is a simulcast system so you may never be able to get everything all the time with a TRX...duplicate the system, lock out all but one site...do this for every site in the system. set up recording, then after a few days you can download the recordings and see what you're getting on each site and adjust appropriately.

not a simulcast system .closest one is in medina county. the former vhf channels were a multi tower voted system that was replaced my marcs.. richland co is using the marcs system for fire and ems. it will receive the other counties if i enter them as their own system. however this slows down scanning quite a lot and the priority does not work. my scanner works just fine scanning richland county. it is scanninng the surrounding counties that i have trouble with. it will only scan them if each county is entered as its own system

 

[KevinC]

The only way is multiple systems.

 

[redroverm37]

Bummer! Thank you for thehelp

 

[Wackyracer]

The only way is multiple systems.

Or multiple scanners.

 

[Ubbe]

If you managed to get say 10 sites working in one system, then it has to monitor each sites control channel for maybe 1,5 sec that totals to 15sec. If you have each site in its own system it will take the exact same amount of time, 1,5sec for each system, and the talk groups only needs to be entered once and can then be used by multiple systems. So probably no negative aspects to program only one site to one system, besides perhaps the nuisance that if you skip a TG in one system it will still be active in the other systems.

/Ubbe

 

[redroverm37]

If you managed to get say 10 sites working in one system, then it has to monitor each sites control channel for maybe 1,5 sec that totals to 15sec. If you have each site in its own system it will take the exact same amount of time, 1,5sec for each system, and the talk groups only needs to be entered once and can then be used by multiple systems. So probably no negative aspects to program only one site to one system, besides perhaps the nuisance that if you skip a TG in one system it will still be active in the other systems.

/Ubbe

Thanks for your help. It sure seems to take longer to scan 8 systems than 1. To solve my priority problem do I combine all 8 system talk groups into one talk group?

 

[Ubbe]

There can only be one specific TG for the whole MARCS system. You configure one TG and then you specify it to be used with as many TRX-2 systems as you want, and you don't have to configure the same TG number individually to each system. The different systems you configure, with one site in each, only holds the individual site frequencies and will use a common configuration for all TG's.

If you connect a headset or earphone to the TRX-2 and then set the audio out to be IF you will be listening to the unsquelched audio and will hear how the scanner stops on the frequency and how long it spends on the control channels. The display only scrolls at its own pace showing what are included in the scanlist and are unrelated to scan speed or what system at a given time that are monitored. It works differently to Uniden's scanners that display live what are actually scanned and you can then see how fast it scans and when it stops on a control channel.

To check how quick it scans all systems you can add one conventional channel, like a NOAA frequency for your area, and program a CTCSS tone to it so it will be skipped. Then you listen to the IF out and you will briefly hear the voice from the NOAA channel while it scans it and you can then hear how often it comes back, when the scanner have made one scan cycle. Then you can compare with different types of programming methods and hear how the scanning works.

/Ubbe

 

[redroverm37]

There can only be one specific TG for the whole MARCS system. You configure one TG and then you specify it to be used with as many TRX-2 systems as you want, and you don't have to configure the same TG number individually to each system. The different systems you configure, with one site in each, only holds the individual site frequencies and will use a common configuration for all TG's.

If you connect a headset or earphone to the TRX-2 and then set the audio out to be IF you will be listening to the unsquelched audio and will hear how the scanner stops on the frequency and how long it spends on the control channels. The display only scrolls at its own pace showing what are included in the scanlist and are unrelated to scan speed or what system at a given time that are monitored. It works differently to Uniden's scanners that display live what are actually scanned and you can then see how fast it scans and when it stops on a control channel.

To check how quick it scans all systems you can add one conventional channel, like a NOAA frequency for your area, and program a CTCSS tone to it so it will be skipped. Then you listen to the IF out and you will briefly hear the voice from the NOAA channel while it scans it and you can then hear how often it comes back, when the scanner have made one scan cycle. Then you can compare with different types of programming methods and hear how the scanning works.

/Ubbe

great explanation thank you. this is the info i needed!

 

[djs9164]

There can only be one specific TG for the whole MARCS system. You configure one TG and then you specify it to be used with as many TRX-2 systems as you want, and you don't have to configure the same TG number individually to each system. The different systems you configure, with one site in each, only holds the individual site frequencies and will use a common configuration for all TG's.

If you connect a headset or earphone to the TRX-2 and then set the audio out to be IF you will be listening to the unsquelched audio and will hear how the scanner stops on the frequency and how long it spends on the control channels. The display only scrolls at its own pace showing what are included in the scanlist and are unrelated to scan speed or what system at a given time that are monitored. It works differently to Uniden's scanners that display live what are actually scanned and you can then see how fast it scans and when it stops on a control channel.

To check how quick it scans all systems you can add one conventional channel, like a NOAA frequency for your area, and program a CTCSS tone to it so it will be skipped. Then you listen to the IF out and you will briefly hear the voice from the NOAA channel while it scans it and you can then hear how often it comes back, when the scanner have made one scan cycle. Then you can compare with different types of programming methods and hear how the scanning works.

Explain this to me like I'm 5. I have all my sites programmed as systems but I have talkgroups assigned to each system. A you saying I only need the talkgroups for the main system and I can assign to each system from there? The way it was explained to me as each "system" needed its own talkgroups applied.

 

[Ubbe]

When you add a TG to a system and then look at the very end of that line it will be a column named "Scanlists". Click on that field for the TG and all your systems appear and you can tick their boxes to include that TG in any system you want. I have only one Wildcard TG and include that in all my systems. I have set that to an extra long delay, blinking leds and an attention tone and audio recording are enabled and also the audio boost. I only have to configure that once and then I just use that single TG in all systems.

/Ubbe