Hello, I have recently purchased a Unication G4 pager and I am attempting to program it to work on the CVCRS system. I live in Campbell county and it works fine on Campbells 2A site. I have noticed that when in Campbell County I cannot hear any of the traffic in Lynchburg, Bedford, or Amherst on the 2A site. I do have all of the sites and control channels programmed into it. When i go into Bedford County or Lynchburg city and my pager connects to those sites i have issued with missing radio traffic or I am unable to hear it at all. Could anybody help me with this?
Unication G4 Programming for CVCRS
- Thread starter PagerGuy04
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- p25 pager unication g4
I believe the Central VA system is what is called a wide area system. Meaning there are multiple sites and as a radio moves from one area to another it may re-affiliate or register with a different site somewhat like a cellphone changes towers as you drive around. On most wide area systems not all talkgroups are transmitted on all sites all the time. A particular site will only transmit a talkgroup conversation if there is a system radio registered on that site and that radio is monitoring that talkgroup.
For example, a Lynchburg Fire talkgroup is almost always transmitted on a Lynchburg site since there are likely several Lynchurg Fire radios turned on and in range of that site. However the same traffic won't be transmitted on a Campbell or Bedford site unless there is a radio in range of those sites registered on that channel. The same would apply to a Campbell channel except in reverse (i.e. it may not be transmitted on the Lynchburg site but likely will always be transmitted on a Campbell site).
This is done so that actual RF channels are only being used when there is someone there needing that traffic. Thus allowing a wide area system to have a smaller numbers of RF channels at each site since they can be based on the anticipated users of that site versus all the users of the system. The statewide STARS is a good example of this.
Since a scanner does not have the ability to transmit and register on the system you have no way to influence what is being transmitted where. So the only relatively sure way to hear specific channels is to monitor the site that those primary users are using. Even though you may travel through several sites you should try to monitor the site that is the primary site of the talkgroups you want to hear. If you want to monitor more than one area then you may need to program them as if each site is a different systems and scan each one.
For example, a Lynchburg Fire talkgroup is almost always transmitted on a Lynchburg site since there are likely several Lynchurg Fire radios turned on and in range of that site. However the same traffic won't be transmitted on a Campbell or Bedford site unless there is a radio in range of those sites registered on that channel. The same would apply to a Campbell channel except in reverse (i.e. it may not be transmitted on the Lynchburg site but likely will always be transmitted on a Campbell site).
This is done so that actual RF channels are only being used when there is someone there needing that traffic. Thus allowing a wide area system to have a smaller numbers of RF channels at each site since they can be based on the anticipated users of that site versus all the users of the system. The statewide STARS is a good example of this.
Since a scanner does not have the ability to transmit and register on the system you have no way to influence what is being transmitted where. So the only relatively sure way to hear specific channels is to monitor the site that those primary users are using. Even though you may travel through several sites you should try to monitor the site that is the primary site of the talkgroups you want to hear. If you want to monitor more than one area then you may need to program them as if each site is a different systems and scan each one.
Unless the signal level of the reception drops below a minimum for the pager it will not change sites. In my county there are three main sites for our statewide system, when I'm at home less than two miles from the main site and a mile from the downtown site, I still pick up the site in the western part of the county because the signal level hasn't dropped enough. Likewise when I travel through neighbor counties.
The work around is put each site on it's own knob or zone depending how you want the TGs to be split up.
Thank you for explaining this to me. I appreciate the help!
