Pro-106: Trunked system assistance

[ConGiants2]

I bought a Pro 106 recently and spent a little time finding the right settings and reading about them.
The one thing I am confused about is that I setup two different talkgroups with the 12-14 frequencies in one, and the 6 in the other. I was "listening" to the one with 6 frequencies and picked up one of the 12-14 in the other talkgroup.
Would someone mind helping me with what I may be doing wrong?

Attached is a screenshot of the AWIN system near me.

thanks in advance

 

[tvengr]

The first thing we have to do is straighten out your concept of a trunked system. Fort Smith, Mountainbug, Fayettevile, etc are sites. A site is a location of the transmitters and receivers in a trunked radio system. As you can see, there are numerous sites in the AWIN trunked system. Each site uses the frequencies assigned for that area. The frequencies shown are the ones used by each site. A talkgroup is the equivalent of a channel in a trunked system. The following are examples of talkgroups.
State Police: Troop A - Little Rock Talkgroups

DEC	HEX	Mode	Alpha Tag	Description	Tag
1	001	D	SP A NORTH	North - Information and District Calling	Law Tac
2	002	D	SP A-CAR N	North Car to Car	Law Talk
3	003	D	SP A SOUTH	South - Districtwide Dispatch	Law Dispatch
4	004	D	SP A-CAR S	South Car to Car	Law Talk

The DEC or Decimal column is the talkgroup ID or TGID. That is like a channel number. The alpha tag tells you what that talkgroup is. To help you, I need to know your city and county and if you are using programming software (ARC500, WIN500, or PSREdit500).

 

[ConGiants2]

The first thing we have to do is straighten out your concept of a trunked system. Fort Smith, Mountainbug, Fayettevile, etc are sites. A site is a location of the transmitters and receivers in a trunked radio system. As you can see, there are numerous sites in the AWIN trunked system. Each site uses the frequencies assigned for that area. The frequencies shown are the ones used by each site. A talkgroup is the equivalent of a channel in a trunked system. The following are examples of talkgroups.
State Police: Troop A - Little Rock Talkgroups

DEC	HEX	Mode	Alpha Tag	Description	Tag
1	001	D	SP A NORTH	North - Information and District Calling	Law Tac
2	002	D	SP A-CAR N	North Car to Car	Law Talk
3	003	D	SP A SOUTH	South - Districtwide Dispatch	Law Dispatch
4	004	D	SP A-CAR S	South Car to Car	Law Talk

The DEC or Decimal column is the talkgroup ID or TGID. That is like a channel number. The alpha tag tells you what that talkgroup is. To help you, I need to know your city and county and if you are using programming software (ARC500, WIN500, or PSREdit500).

I am NOT using any software, and while I know that it is much easier, I run a MAC and therefore find it harder to find good software.
I could install on my Virtual Drive, but have not yet. I would like to do it from the scanner at this point. Being that I dont have too many different ones near me, this shouldnt be an issue for me. (I hope)

Thank you for informing me more on the trunked systems, as you probably can tell, i'm new to trunked systems because the last time i messed with a scanner, i was in like junior high..

the specific SITES i am near are the Fort Smith Simulcast and the Cass sites.. Sebastian County and Franklin County. work in one, live in the other.
The sebastian county one worked great today, except i need to block the sanitation facility! The cass one, is VERY quiet. Could it be that I am too far from the actual tower? I seem to pick up more sebastian county (fort smith) at home than i do for my own county radio.

Thanks in advance!

 

[tvengr]

Set the System Type to P25 Auto. Enter the red control channel and blue alternate frequencies for Fort Smith Simulcast. Simulcast systems work better if you turn off Digital AGC and turn on SuperTrack. If you have just the frequencies for Fort Smith, the Multi-Site setting will not make any difference. If you add the frequencies for Cass, Roam will select the site with the best control channel.. If set to Stationary, the scanner will search for any control channel you have programmed within range and therefore scan between both sites. If you are about the same distance from the 2 closest sites, programming the frequencies for both will give you wider coverage. The next thing you want to do is go to the database and enter the talkgroup ID's (DEC) for the talkgroups you want to monitor. You should also enter an alpha tag for each one to tell you what it is. Keep in mind that each site carries only the traffic within its immediate area. If you look at the Cass site, there are only 6 frequencies. Fort Smith has 13 frequencies which is a good indication that it carries more traffic. I manually programmed a Pro-197, the mobile version of your scanner. That convinced me to use software. I like Butel ARC500. That would require your Windows emulator.

 

[ConGiants2]

Set the System Type to P25 Auto. Enter the red control channel and blue alternate frequencies for Fort Smith Simulcast. Simulcast systems work better if you turn off Digital AGC and turn on SuperTrack. If you have just the frequencies for Fort Smith, the Multi-Site setting will not make any difference. If you add the frequencies for Cass, Roam will select the site with the best control channel.. If set to Stationary, the scanner will search for any control channel you have programmed within range and therefore scan between both sites. If you are about the same distance from the 2 closest sites, programming the frequencies for both will give you wider coverage. The next thing you want to do is go to the database and enter the talkgroup ID's (DEC) for the talkgroups you want to monitor. You should also enter an alpha tag for each one to tell you what it is. Keep in mind that each site carries only the traffic within its immediate area. If you look at the Cass site, there are only 6 frequencies. Fort Smith has 13 frequencies which is a good indication that it carries more traffic. I manually programmed a Pro-197, the mobile version of your scanner. That convinced me to use software. I like Butel ARC500. That would require your Windows emulator.

Thank you, I will try some of those settings tomorrow!
I think I currently have the FS simulcast on one TSYS (on P25 auto) and the Cass on another. This allows me to only listen for teh cass when I have that one selected, correct? and the FS one when it is selected?

so what exactly does the Digital AGC and SuperTrack do that make them more or less effective?
is it bad to input all 13 frequencies? should I have only done the first 2 (colored ones)?

Thanks

 

[tvengr]

You can set up the Fort Smith site on one system and the Cass site on another. Set up the Sebastian County talkgroups with the Fort Smith site system and the Franklin County talkgroups with the Cass site system. On both systems, you can set Multi-Site to Off since there will be only a single site in each system. The digital AGC tries to keep the volume at a constant level. When receiving a simulcast site, older scanners can have garbled audio. The AGC action can increase the distortion and that is why I suggest that it be turned off. SuperTrack uses a different algorithm for decoding digital audio. It seems to work better with simulcast systems. It is only necessary to enter the control channel and alternate frequencies. All of the frequency information is carried on the control channel, so it is not necessary to enter the rest of the frequencies. The 106 can accept only 32 frequencies per system. If you set up the scanner for roaming through several counties using a single system, you will rapidly run out of space for frequencies if you enter every frequency on every site. You can assign the Sebastian County talkgroups to scan list 1 and the Franklin County talkgroups to scan list 2. That will switch both the systems and talkgroups on and off when you enable and disable scan lists.. You can also set it up in the following manner:
Scan lists
1. Sebastian Co Fire
2. Sebastian Co Law
3. Sebastian Co Public Works
4, Franklin Co Fire
5. Franklin Co Law
6. Franklin Co Public Works
How you set it up is up to you. You just have to remember that you have a maximum of 20 scan lists.

 

[ConGiants2]

You can set up the Fort Smith site on one system and the Cass site on another. Set up the Sebastian County talkgroups with the Fort Smith site system and the Franklin County talkgroups with the Cass site system. On both systems, you can set Multi-Site to Off since there will be only a single site in each system. The digital AGC tries to keep the volume at a constant level. When receiving a simulcast site, older scanners can have garbled audio. The AGC action can increase the distortion and that is why I suggest that it be turned off. SuperTrack uses a different algorithm for decoding digital audio. It seems to work better with simulcast systems. It is only necessary to enter the control channel and alternate frequencies. All of the frequency information is carried on the control channel, so it is not necessary to enter the rest of the frequencies. The 106 can accept only 32 frequencies per system. If you set up the scanner for roaming through several counties using a single system, you will rapidly run out of space for frequencies if you enter every frequency on every site. You can assign the Sebastian County talkgroups to scan list 1 and the Franklin County talkgroups to scan list 2. That will switch both the systems and talkgroups on and off when you enable and disable scan lists.. You can also set it up in the following manner:
Scan lists
1. Sebastian Co Fire
2. Sebastian Co Law
3. Sebastian Co Public Works
4, Franklin Co Fire
5. Franklin Co Law
6. Franklin Co Public Works
How you set it up is up to you. You just have to remember that you have a maximum of 20 scan lists.

How would I separate out the fire and law into different scan groups when they use the same talkgroup frequencies?
I'm assuming something to do with the DEC code each is assigned to?
PS. i did buy the programming cable. I just dont know which software will let me do a 30 day trial to set this up!

 

[Spitfire8520]

How would I separate out the fire and law into different scan groups when they use the same talkgroup frequencies?
I'm assuming something to do with the DEC code each is assigned to?
PS. i did buy the programming cable. I just dont know which software will let me do a 30 day trial to set this up!

The trunked system is independent of talkgroups and scan lists, which is why talk groups need to be assigned to a TSYS when you're programming. You can assign individual talkgroups to a scan list by using the left/right arrows and the SEL/ENT button to separate them. A * indicates that it is part of that scan list. As an example, you can assign all the fire talkgroups to scan list *01 and all the law into scan list *02 to separate them.

You can see the Wiki article on Object Oriented Scanner Software for a list of software. All should have a trial, although Win500 has had site issues lately so you may want to try one of the other options.

 

[tvengr]

With ARC500, it is very easy to assign talkgroups to systems and scan lists and equally easy to see it all at a glance.

 

[ka3jjz]

And there's a user guide for that software, also in the wiki....

ARC500 User Guide - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Mike

 

[tvengr]

He.re is a Sebastian County ARC500 file so that you can see how it is done. Save the attached zipped file to your computer and extract. Open the extracted file with ARC500 and Upload to Scanner. Scan lists as follows:
1. Sebastian Co Law
2. Sebastian Co Fire
3. Sebastian Co PW
4. AR State Police
There is only 1 OEM talkgroup on AWIN in the database for Franklin Co. Everything is conventional frequencies.

 

[ConGiants2]

He.re is a Sebastian County ARC500 file so that you can see how it is done. Save the attached zipped file to your computer and extract. Open the extracted file with ARC500 and Upload to Scanner. Scan lists as follows:
1. Sebastian Co Law
2. Sebastian Co Fire
3. Sebastian Co PW
4. AR State Police
There is only 1 OEM talkgroup on AWIN in the database for Franklin Co. Everything is conventional frequencies.

I guess that answers my question about franklin county. I just need to type in the frequency like normal and let it roll!
Thank you so much for this

 

[tvengr]

Here is your updated file. Use this one.
Save the attached zipped file to your computer and extract. Open the extracted file with ARC500 and Upload to Scanner. Scan lists as follows:
1. Sebastian Co Law
2. Sebastian Co Fire
3. Sebastian Co PW
4. AR State Police
5. Franklin Co Law
6. Franklin Co Fire
7. Franklin Co PW
8. Ozark Schools

 

[ConGiants2]

How do you know that the SQ mode is CTCSS and the SQ code is 136.5
where can i find that info on the database?

 

[tvengr]

Congratulations! I see you got ARC500 and loaded the file. If you see a decimal point in the squelch code, it is CTCSS (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System). If you look in the database is says PL. Motorola used PL for Private Line which is what they called CTCSS. RCA used QC for Quiet Channel and GE used CG for Channel Guard. You also have DCS (Digital Coded Squelch) which is another mode used for analog frequencies. Those codes do not have a decimal point. Motorola called that one DPL for Digital Private Line. You can also have P25 digital conventional frequencies. In that case, they may use a NAC (Network Access Code). That is a 3 digit hexadecimal code using the numbers 0 thru 9 and the letters A thru F. Here is the link to the Radio Reference database where I found the conventional frequency information. Franklin County, Arkansas (AR) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

 

[sgbynum]

A quick question on a Pro 106 and Pro 197 Scanner. I am located in Texas in Northern Brazoria County. I had my scanners set up and they have quit working a while back and I didn't have the time to figure out why. I am trying to get them working again and I have ARC500 loaded and can upload and download to the scanner. I have set up the RED control channels on the three towers located pretty much equidistant from my location under one system. Is that correct? The towers are Brazoria County Simulcast, Reed Road and Friendswood. I have the talk groups and some conventional frequencies on different scan lists. I have the T icon no which I didn't before and the S signal level shows all bars. I have set the rebanding tables to custom and uploaded to the scanner. Totally quiet. I have a Motorola APX radio and I have the Brazoria County Sheriff freqs so I know there is activity. ( I am local first responder so I am legal!) Am I missing something in my setup? I am not sure how to format the files as they are a .gre file. in order to attach them. Thanks for any pointers.

 

[tvengr]

If you want to monitor just Brazoria Co, have just the Brazoria Co Simulcast site red control channel and blue alternate frequencies entered and set Multi-Site to Off.. If you are closer to one of the Galveston Co or Harris Co sites and Multi-Site is set to Roam, you may be locked on one of those sites not carrying Brazoria Co traffic. If you want talkgroups in the other counties also, you can leave the frequencies in for the other sites and set Multi-Site to Stationary. That will check the sites in all 3 counties. You can also set up a system for each county and have them on different scan lists. System Type should be P25 Auto. You do not need custom tables for a P25 system. Set tables to Default. Simulcast systems seem to work better with Digital AGC Off and SuperTrack On. You can attach your file by right clicking on it and sending it to a compressed (zipped) folder. Click on attach Files, and open the zipped folder. I would suggest setting up the other counties on separate systems and scan lists so you can easily turn them off and monitor Brazoria Co only and not miss traffic while searching the other sites.