Trying to understand DTRS a bit better

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billspin

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Last year I got introduced to DTRS monitoring using the RS Pro-106 and Win 500. From this forum I learned about the basics and accomplished to program what I wanted to listen to. Here is how I applied what I learned.

I wanted to monitor Pueblo. I looked at the Colorado DTRS sites located around the Pueblo area. I took only the red (c) Primary Control channel and put those into the Frequency section of the TSYS. After I had all of the (c) frequencies entered I began inputting in the TGRP numbers listed on the Pueblo County Talkgroups section. Once I had all of the ones in that I wanted I saved and uploaded into the scanner.

I began receiving transmissions and everything is working as I believe it should.

These questions stem back to the Pueblo AMR exercise I have recently gone through. Without the help from this Colorado Forum pointing me to the Summit Ski and Mt. Pittsburg sites for monitoring I would have never tried and probably not have gotten it to work.

Now I notice that the 4897 is on the Pueblo County talkgroups chart.

4897 1321 D PUEBLO AMR-1 Pueblo AMR Ambulance Channel-1 EMS Dispatch

Here are my questions finally.
1. Without knowing to program in the correct frequencies from Springs will anybody get the Pueblo AMR traffic?

2. How do I know I have not put too many DTRS sites into the frequencies?

3. As I monitor can I determine what DTRS sites are being used and which are not?
 

dracer777

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1. They would need to do what you did, find the correct Control Channels, input the correct TGs.

2. You only need one. Just the red one(primary). If it carries all the TGs you want to listen to, all power to you. But if you are roaming and you drop out of the covert of one site, you will need to fond another CC that carries the traffic you want to hear.

3. Simply put; no. The way the DTRS site works is if a certified radio is listening to a TG, anywhere in the state I believe, the site the the radio is on will carry the TG's traffic. Make sense? As they say, it's as clear as mud.
 

dirtfinder

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1. Without knowing to program in the correct frequencies from Springs will anybody get the Pueblo AMR traffic?

2. How do I know I have not put too many DTRS sites into the frequencies?

3. As I monitor can I determine what DTRS sites are being used and which are not?

1.) W/O knowing prob not.

2.) For the sites, You want to program the ones that are affiliated with the TGs that you are wanting to listen to. When programing all you need to program is The Primary CC and the Alt. CC just in case the primary CC goes down which has happened.

3.) Yes you can. you can also use Pro96com to be able to see what the common TG are on that tower. You can also use the wild-card func. in the scanner and also see what TG you are picking up but I think Pro96com is your best bet monitoring a CC to see what TGs are most common.
 

abqscan

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Here are my questions finally.
1. Without knowing to program in the correct frequencies from Springs will anybody get the Pueblo AMR traffic?

This question answers itself, No. If you don't program the correct frequencies into your radio, you won't hear what your trying to.


2. How do I know I have not put too many DTRS sites into the frequencies?

this is part of the hobby where I wish more people took the time to figure out. It is trial and error. Less is more, however, not enough will hurt your performance. Look @ the DTRS map. figure out what site are close to the agency that your trying to monitor, and program them in. If you have too many sites in the radio, depending on your configuration, it might take your radio longer to search each site for the TG's you wish the radio to seek out. One must figure out what works best for them in their location.


3. As I monitor can I determine what DTRS sites are being used and which are not?

This question is not clear because all DTRS sites are used. Others have guessed what you meant but I will wait for you to clarify this question to get a proper answer.
 

billspin

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1. This question answers itself, No. If you don't program the correct frequencies into your radio, you won't hear what your trying to.

2. this is part of the hobby where I wish more people took the time to figure out. It is trial and error. Less is more, however, not enough will hurt your performance. Look @ the DTRS map. figure out what site are close to the agency that your trying to monitor, and program them in. If you have too many sites in the radio, depending on your configuration, it might take your radio longer to search each site for the TG's you wish the radio to seek out. One must figure out what works best for them in their location.

3. This question is not clear because all DTRS sites are used. Others have guessed what you meant but I will wait for you to clarify this question to get a proper answer.

1. abqscan this is exactly what I was thinking. I would have never associated these two DTRS sites in Colorado Springs to monitor AMR in Pueblo. I guess I would like to be able to let people know about this working combination as a special note when they look at the Pueblo AMR 4897 TGRP.

2. What you say here is exactly where the next question is asking.

3. I program in the red CC for the towers in the area I want to monitor. I am using the Win500 software to program and monitor. When I capture the information about a site a frequency is reported but it is not one of the red CC ones I programmed. They usually are not any of the alternatives in Blue either. So what I am trying to learn is how to relate this back to the Red CC frequencies I entered to help weed out the frequencies that are not receiving any traffic for what I am monitoring.

Thanks to all who have answered here so far.
 
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abqscan

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I program in the red CC for the towers in the area I want to monitor. I am using the Win500 software to program and monitor. When I capture the information about a site a frequency is reported but it is not one of the red CC ones I programmed. They usually are not any of the alternatives in Blue either. So what I am trying to learn is how to relate this back to the Red CC frequencies I entered to help weed out the frequencies that are not receiving any traffic for what I am monitoring.QUOTE]

Yes, Program in the frequncies that are in RED. These are the Primary Control Channels. The Blue frequencies are info we have logged to be the alternate CC's for each site. Some people stick in only the Primary CC for each site, while others program in both the Primary and the alternate frequencies.

The frequency you are seeing on your radio when someone talks is a Voice Channel. You should be able to match that frequency to what we have in the Data Base. To figure out what Site's you CAN hear, you can manually select each CC you have entered into you radio. A rule of them I use if I can't get a decode rate above 80%, I don't use that site.

Also, if "trunking" isn't a 2nd language to you yet, read, read, and read again. It is important to understand how they work, along with how your scanner has the ability to track a Motorola TRS with only entering a single control channel frequency, and not the entire sites frequencies.

Motorola Type II SmartZone - The RadioReference Wiki
 

firescannerbob

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3. Simply put; no. The way the DTRS site works is if a certified radio is listening to a TG, anywhere in the state I believe, the site the the radio is on will carry the TG's traffic. Make sense? As they say, it's as clear as mud.

In theory you are correct. In practice, however, it doesn't work quite like that.

While the PPRCN (El Paso County) system is integrated into the state DTRS, there are filters in use that lock out most PPRCN tg's/radios from sites outside of the county. The exceptions are that any PPRCN radio can work anywhere while on a MAC tg or a "travel" tg. Also, most tg's/radios from outside El Paso County won't work on PPRCN sites (some TGs, such as State Patrol are the exception). Simply put, a Colorado Springs firefighter who takes his HT to Grand Junction to listen to calls at home won;t hear anything on the dispatch TG.

There is also a site or two in the Denver area (IIRC) that filters what TG's work on the site.

I wrote all that so I could get to this point:

That said, while I understand why the Pueblo AMR TG is listed in the Pueblo County part of the database, it will confuse people who try to listen to it on DTRS sites. Since it is a PPRCN TG, it's only monitorable on the PPRCN sites (as of now...things can change).

...and that is probably as clear as mud!
 

dracer777

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I was trying to give him a ballpark idea of how it works. While I did not KNOW it worked as you described, I kinda figured something like that was in place. Although, I did learn things from your post. And thanks for thickening my mud. :D
 

firescannerbob

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I was trying to give him a ballpark idea of how it works. While I did not KNOW it worked as you described, I kinda figured something like that was in place. Although, I did learn things from your post. And thanks for thickening my mud. :D

Understood...I wasn't trying to say that your reply was wrong (it's not)...but things are a little, shall we say, unusual down here!
 
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