Which cells to add?

[bob550]

So is there a list of the cells for each talkgroup? I have SUNY Albany (UAlbany) programmed and City of Albany. Shall I assume Metro Cell?

Yes. SUNY uses the Metro Cell as well as Albany, Colonie, Menands, County Law 2 and Fire 2, and New York State. You can also hear County Law and Fire 1 using the Metro and County Cell simultaneously.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Nevermind, didn't realize bob550 had already covered it.

 

[Thunderknight]

So is there a list of the cells for each talkgroup? I have SUNY Albany (UAlbany) programmed and City of Albany. Shall I assume Metro Cell?

There is no public list that I know of. But yes, City is Metro cell and I believe SUNY is as well.
Here is what I've seen:
Albany City (PD, Fire, Operations), Colonie (PD, Fire, Schools, EMS, etc), Empire State Plaza, NYSP Capital, Wt/GI/Cohoes, DOT HELP Trucks: Metro Cell

Guilderland, Bethlehem, hilltowns: County Cell

A few talk groups, like County Fire 1 and County Law 1 are carried on both cells.

Edit: Weird, Bob550's post from 2 hours ago didn't show until after I posted. Anyway, we are in agreement

 

[MCKFD34]

Thank you!

 

[MCKFD34]

I don't even bother with entering the Cohoes Cell. I monitored that for awhile but it never had any activity. I believe the only advantage is to enhance coverage in the Cohoes area as it only specifies a 3 mile range. The County Cell will get you Guilderland, Bethlehem, and the Sheriffs. If all you're scanning is Guilderland, you can also eliminate the Metro Cell, or just put that in a separate Favorite List.

Bob, a couple times you've made reference to making cells/sites their own FL? I don't see how to do this?

 

[bob550]

Bob, a couple times you've made reference to making cells/sites their own FL? I don't see how to do this?

The prerequisite is that you need to know which agencies and municipalities use which site: Country Cell or Metro Cell. That's been addressed earlier. Let's say you want to set up a FL for the County Cell only. Using Sentinel: open the database for New York, Albany County, County Systems, and Albany County. Highlight Bethlehem, right click "Append to Favorites List", select "New Favorites List" and name it "County Cell" (or whatever you wish) and click OK. You will notice that the new FL has been created with only Bethlehem, but will have all three sites, Cohoes, Metro, and County Cell. Simply highlight the two cells you don't need, Cohoes and Metro, right-click and "Remove from Favorites List". That will now leave only the County Cell in place. Although this is not a requirement, it's best practice because it reduces the need to scan control channels for which you have no corresponding talkgroups entered within that FL. You can then perform the same operation for the town of Guilderland and the County agencies. Repeat the process from the beginning for any Metro Cell agencies you wish to program. Just make sure to give the FL a different name. I'm including a screen grab of my FL setup for my 536 to help you picture the setup. Hope this helps. Just ask questions for anything that's not clear.

 

[MCKFD34]

This is good. I see the difference, but in your example. Guilderland is also in the same Fl "County Cell". I only want to hear Guilderland most of the time. Do I parse itout and make a second "County Cells? FL? Or, do I use the QKs, etc. to turn off County traffic? I am still unfamiliar with that.

 

[bob550]

This is good. I see the difference, but in your example. Guilderland is also in the same Fl "County Cell". I only want to hear Guilderland most of the time. Do I parse itout and make a second "County Cells? FL? Or, do I use the QKs, etc. to turn off County traffic? I am still unfamiliar with that.

How I set the FL's up is based on my own choices. If you want to isolate Guilderland in its own FL, set it up the way I did for Bethlehem. It would be more work, but you could always isolate individual towns in their own dedicated FL if that's what you wanted to do, just so long as you include the appropriate site with each. I choose not to use the quick keys for anything other than the FL's. Should I want to exclusively monitor a specific agency within the FL, I can always "hold" a single department or channel if I wish.

These scanners have a huge amount of flexibility with both programming and operation. The key is to understand it well enough to make it work for you.

 

[MCKFD34]

Thank you. I previously had some town TGs setup as their on FLs., but then I started ot wonder about the fact that 2 FLs, say, Guilderland and Bethlehem both have the county cell in the FL. So it basically will search both FL's and the county cell twice no?

 

[bob550]

So it basically will search both FL's and the county cell twice no?

It will technically check the control channels on the County Cell in as many FL's as you have that site programmed in. However, you have to make sure that I.D. Search is set to off, or you'll end up actually hearing every talkgroup that uses the County Cell, defeating the purpose to the separate FL's. I should have mentioned that earlier.

 

[MCKFD34]

Thank you.