Trunk frequencies: Primary, Alternate control vs voice channels.

[NS9710]

I was just wondering, if a system needs to, can any voice frequency [non PCC/ACC], be used as a CC even if just on a brief basis, I'm not sure if there would ever be a reason, but I'm not sure if such is the case or not.

 

[tvengr]

Motorola has a primary and up to 3 alternate control channel frequencies. Harris systems can use any frequency as the control channel and often rotate. That is why all frequencies must be programmed in a Harris system.

 

[NS9710]

Is there a way to determine if it's a Harris system by the way the DB is written?

Motorola has a primary and up to 3 alternate control channel frequencies. Harris systems can use any frequency as the control channel and often rotate. That is why all frequencies must be programmed in a Harris system.

 

[tvengr]

Is there a way to determine if it's a Harris system by the way the DB is written?

If it is a Harris system, all of the frequencies will show as control channel capable in the database.

 

[nd5y]

If it is a Harris system, all of the frequencies will show as control channel capable in the database.

Or none of them will be marked as control channels. The frequencies will all be black and not have a "c" at the end. Or some of the sites will have all control channels and some will not. It depends on the system and the db admin that set it up.

It never hurts to program all the frequencies. Even if it's a Motorola sysyem with only 2 to 4 control channels there is no guarantee that they will never change in the future.

 

[NS9710]

I do that, but I program all the frequencies, and I had locals go "Well you don't need to scan the whole set of frequencies" I always reply "When or if they switch the voice/control channels, and you programmed only the current frequencies listed as control channels, you'll miss out"

Or none of them will be marked as control channels. The frequencies will all be black and not have a "c" at the end. Or some of the sites will have all control channels and some will not. It depends on the system and the db admin that set it up.

It never hurts to program all the frequencies. Even if it's a Motorola sysyem with only 2 to 4 control channels there is no guarantee that they will never change in the future.

 

[KevinC]

It never hurts to program all the frequencies. Even if it's a Motorola sysyem with only 2 to 4 control channels there is no guarantee that they will never change in the future.

It can hurt if it's a Motorola system with IV&D channels and a Uniden scanner as they can confuse an IV&D frequency as being a control channel and will lock onto it. If the system has a lot of data traffic that frequency can stay active for hours so your scanner will not hear anything until the data takes a break or you power cycle and hope it finds a CC before it finds a data channel.

 

[wtp]

I do that, but I program all the frequencies, and I had locals go "Well you don't need to scan the whole set of frequencies" I always reply "When or if they switch the voice/control channels, and you programmed only the current frequencies listed as control channels, you'll miss out"

and the county next to me added two new frequencies to their list and no one heard them, well except me as i too put in all the freqs and had gone through and caught the new ones. it is a little too far from home for 100% reception. a check of the fcc database helped.

 

[exkalibur]

Is there a way to determine if it's a Harris system by the way the DB is written?

If it shows a WACN of BEE00, its a Motorola.

 

[NS9710]

How would a Harris (I guess it actually should be an L3Harris?) show up?

If it shows a WACN of BEE00, its a Motorola.