Trunktracker that will indicate what site you are hearing

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novascotian

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I live in a region with a multi-site Motorola trunk system that has around 70 towers and uses and reuses around 14 different control channels (plus alternates). Rignt in my own backyard as I drive around I can pick up maybe 6 or seven of these, plus more if I drive a bit further. On my PRO-97 and I think on other GRE/RS scanners I have owned in the past, I was able to alphatag the control channel frequency with the name of the site using that control channel that I was most likely to be hearing. So instead of 861.3125 it would come up with Black Mountain, and so on. On my BC-796 I dont seem to be able to do that; same with the PRO-106 and instead you have to have the frequencies memorized so you know what site you are hearing. The result was that there would be an alphatag showing the name of the talk group as well as an alphatag indicating the site being received.

My question is this... are there any of the newer digirtal trunktracking scanners, capable of both 700 and 800, that can do this alphatagging....?? and of course have a line on the display for this to show on...

That was my main question but even better would be some way to differently tag the same CC frequency coming from different sites.. sort of like you can do on conventional scanning where there are diffferent DCS or CTCSS being transmitted. this would be great for traveling a little farther from home or in case of unusual reception conditions. I am not up on Smartzone enough to know if the different sites on the same frequency have tones like conventional might have..
 
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tampabaynews

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I'm not sure about tagging specific control channels/frequencies... but in the newer Unidens with multi-site trunking, you can name the site to whatever you want. Although while scanning or holding it will only show you the SITE NAME and not SYSTEM NAME.

SYSTEM NAME
-SITE NAME A
-SITE NAME B

For instance I have a system with two sites, east and west.

HILLSBOROUGH TRS
-HILLSBOROUGH (E)
-HILLSBOROUGH (W)

You'll never see the system name when scanning, just the site name, so you'd have to incorporate the system name and the site name if you wanted to know what you were listening to.
 
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Jay911

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Novascotian's problem is that if the same frequencies are used in multiple towers, the odds are good that you'll get a false indication that you're listening to a tower other than the one you're actually on.

The GRE PSR-500 shows Site ID for some Motorola systems, in my experience - usually only SmartZone OmniLink systems. Other than that, pretty much all the scanners I have seen don't really care what site they're on as long as the system ID and frequency matches.
 

novascotian

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Thanks for the comments so far... Just want to make sure I am being clear with my question. The main thing I want is to have an alphatag show up for each different control frequency just as it does on the PRO-97 and I think also does on the PRO-96 (I dont have it any longer so cannot check). So that in my local area where there are five or six sites in the system, each with a different control frequency, I would like to see a display of the site name so I know right off what site I am hearing, without having to memorize the frequencies that are used. That is my basic question..... I want an up to date digital scanner that can do 700 and 800 that will show the site name.

The part about differentiating between different sites using the same control frequency is not so important and I figure not even possible, or is it...?
 

hfxChris

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I know on the old RS/GRE scanners (including the Pro-97) if you pause on the control channel frequency itself, it will show the sytem ID and site number on the display.
The current generation Unidens do the same, and I would be surprised if the current gen GRE scanners couldn't as well.

However in my limited experience with the current gen GRE scanners, I don't think it's easy to do "on the fly" like it was with the Pro-97, or current gen Unidens where you can assign a name to the site. However as mentioned by Jay, when the frequencies are re-used through out the province, it creates an issue. Am I listening to Preston or Blomidon? Well chances are if you're in Wolfville you know the answer anyway :wink:
 

vinzep491

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I believe your 106 has the abililty to list your CC NUMBER you are locking onto. Sure, it's not an actual alphatag, but you can program it under global with "CC Info" checked to "On". This will flash the tower number as a transmission is recieved.

It will show up where the radio normally would indicate analog or digital.

For example, with this setting enabled, if you are recieving an analog TG the middle line will flash (on the left side) between "AG" and "CC #_", or for a digital TG, it will flash between "DG" and "CC#_"


Granted, you still do have to memorize which tower you assigned to each number, but it atleast gives the ability to put some of that info on the main screen without having to go in and analize tower strenght.
 
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