Trunking problems R/S 94 PRO

[LordOliver]

Greetings, I am a relative newbie of sorts to thw world of scanning. Though I understand the ideas behind the systems involved, I seem to be having problems with setting up my scanner. I have followed every bit of advice I could find, but I can not seem to pick up my local counties 800 MHz trunking system in Volusia County, FL.

With hurricane Francis on our heels, I thought it would be a good thing to listen in on what is going on.

I know that Volusia County has 3 trunking systems. System 1 in West Volusia where I am, System 2 along the coast, and a 3rd used for events in Daytona.

In my scanner, Bank A in the first set of channels, I have entered the frequencies of all the channels in order as shown from this site, which matches every other site, usning PGM->TRUNK->bank 1->Ed but after entering all the frequencies, I press SCAN and SRC but it never picks up on the controller, even though I can hear it while scanning normally. Sometimes if I am scanning regular bands as well, and there is a break in on one of the Amateur bands, I can see the trunking start up, but it never holds...

In anyones opinion, is my scanner faulty perhaps, or do I just have bad reception for the trunking system?

I am picking up the amatuer hurricane network just fine on 146.805MHz

Any help would be appreicated.

-Mark

 

[dynamitedjs]

well first of all you need to put the ids you want to scan, then press trunk, your scanner will read scan ids and scroll across the display.

 

[scifidad007]

Pro 94 Woes

With the Pro 94 , try this. Leave the first channel empty, then enter the edacs in in order, lowest to highest. Once you have that going, while trunking hit manual, pgm, enter in the ID, SRC, Pgm next ID and repeat until done. Then hit Trunk, when in Trunk mode push scan and off you go.

 

[dynamitedjs]

WRONG!! Don't do that. Volusia may be pro voice. You cannot monitor pro voice....PERIOD!

 

[eyes00only]

Assuming it is NOT PROVOICE, doing the 94 is easy once you get it down. I have mine in my hand. While in non trunking regular scanning do this.
hit program then trunk - then push number of the EMPTY BANK that you want to use. you will now use arrows to pick Ed (assuming your doing a EDACS system) then hit E. now IN ORDER enter your freqs making sure you do 856.8725 enter then next ie 351 then 352 etc until all are entered THEN when your done hit ONLY SRC, and it should work. then when you decide what you want to put in your scan list, hit scan 1-1 & enter a talkgroup etc. Feel free to PM me if you have problems.

Jerry

 

[LordOliver]

Thanks for the tips chaps... will take another shot at it. I can hit the frequencies individually with just a regular scan, so I know they are out there.

As far as I know Volusia County uses regular 800MHz EDACS, Florida State Hwy Patrol is ProVoice though.

 

[SAR923]

The key points with an EDACS system are to leave channel 00 empty, so starting in bank 3, you'd enter the first frequency in channel 301, not 300. The other point is to make sure you enter the channels in the exact logical channel order as listed in the database. LCN is not the same as lowest to highest frequencies on many systems. If you still don't get it to trunk, have someone else read you back the freqeuncies while you check them in the radio. I spent about two hours cursing my Pro-96 for not scanning a system until my brother pointed out I had one freqency entered as 866.025 when it should have been 866.075. Happened to be the control channel so nothing worked.

 

[INDY72]

With apologies....
Once again on the PRO-94 you do NOT have to leave any I reapeat ANY blank chans,.. and there is no chan 00 in any bank,.. this scanner as well as the 2052 are not like any of the other RS tts's.... You do have to program in LCN for EDACS,... but do NOT have to skip the first chan.

Turn on the scanner, hold down trunk till all banks flash and trunk appears, press the numeric key corresponding to the bank you want to load with the TRS, use the arrow keys to scroll till you find the Type of TRS you want to load,.. ED for EDACS, E1 for Type I Motorola, E2 800 for Type II Motorola 800 MHz, E2 Hi for the VHF, and E2 UHF for the UHF.

For an EDACS analog TRS then enter the freqs in LCN order starting with the first empty chan in that bank, I reapeat starting with the FIRST empty chan in that bank. Once all the freqs are correctly entered,.. press search.

Once your 94 detects the CC,.. you will see -- --- on the screen.
Press manual,.. than enter the ID's you want,.. such as 10-110,... once all the slots are full,.. or you have all the ID's you want to hear in it.... press scan... Id Scan will then begin scrolling accross your display and when an ID is heard, will be displayed. To make it easier to follow the convos press delay thus turning on the 5 second Trunk Scan Delay,... the scanner will then stay on each id that transmits for 5 seconds before resuming scanning.

 

[LordOliver]

Thanks for the help.

I have tried and tried, but it is just not trunking. I have checked and rechecked the frequencies, the LCN order, I have even reset and cleared the scanner memory a few times just to make sure there was nothing stray...

Maybe I am getting RF interference from another source? I understand cell towers and the like can cause problems.

Also I have used the frequencies listed from this web site, as well as from the 2004 published "Police Call Frequency Guide" which differ slightly, so maybe I just do not have a correct list to begin with?

Well, it is something for me to work on after the hurricane passes. I'm involved with our city's volunteer CERT so I got lucky and was temporarily issued a handheld from our EOC. Love this small town living, heh.

Thanks again for all your input, you are all very helpful.

 

[fmon]

Thanks for the help.

I have tried and tried, but it is just not trunking.

milf's guidelines above are exactly what is needed for the 2052 which is the big sister of your scanner. I don't have the 94 but do have a 2052. Your condition indicates you have the scanner set properly but may be scanning in the non-trunked mode. To check for this condition, Press TRUNK. If the display has at the top: BANK followed by flashing number(s) with E on the line below, then you were in conventional mode. To get into the trunking mode press the numbered key for the bank which your edacs system is in (if you only programmed one system, then only that bank is available for trunking).

Now Press the key for Search. You should now see the -- --- indicated by milf.

Again, this is the procedure for the 2052.

 

[INDY72]

With apologies,... the 2052, and the 94 are identical as to programming,.. The only differences in them are these: The 94 is a HH,.. the 94 can trunk and scan conventional at the same time,... the 94 has the 1000 seperated into two "sides" A and B.... the 2052 does military air.... .. and the 2052 actually has working program/pc control software.

LOL Other than that they are identical. I have owned both, and did a lot of work both on EDACS, and Motorola trunking systems with both. ...
And to clear up a few misconceptions... The Radio Shack PRO-94 series, and the Radio Shack PRO-2052 scanners are not like ANY of the other trunking scanners sold by Radio Shack,... there is NO open/closed modes,.. there is only scan, and search. Yes they both are simpler to use than any of the others made. Its just that folks are so used to having to add Tagging, and CTCSS/CDCSS, and open and closed that simple enter freq and delay if needed is like speaking greek. We have all gotton too used to high tech hard to do, so simple is hard to comprehend.

 

[eyes00only]

Just got home / 2305 hrs / . If you did you not get my PM, please feel free to PM me Sunday, and I will help you program your 94. IT'S EASY!!

Jerry 8) :wink: :lol:

 

[LordOliver]

Hey folks... just got my power back today. just in time for Ivan it looks like.

I did some playing arround and got it trunking for a while, but it just would not stay locked on for to long and go back to searching for the controlling frequency.

I am thinking I just don't have a clear enough signal to the controller to keep it locked in, or just have a defective unit.

No worries, I had an interesting time listening to the amateur 2m bands and hearing, to my discontent, stations getting cut off the air one at a time.

In addition, the WX alert feature in the 94 was an added bonus that helped alot.

God help us if Ivan decides to hit. Three majors would be pretty much unprecedented, wouldn't it?

-LO