I have 4 favorites lists for monitoring PCSD. Which sites should I add or delete in order to scan more efficiently?
Which sites to scan for Pima County Sheriff?
- Thread starter ScanRafael
- Start date
kd7eir
Member
Pima County Sheriff Tucson area talkgroups are always heard on Simulcast A; and on other sites as needed by system users.
North talk groups are always heard on North Simulcast. East talk groups are heard on Mt. Bigelow Site when a deputy is on duty (or otherwise listening) on Mt. Lemmon.
North talk groups are always heard on North Simulcast. East talk groups are heard on Mt. Bigelow Site when a deputy is on duty (or otherwise listening) on Mt. Lemmon.
It depends on where you are listening from. If you can hear Simulcast A well, stick with that. You'll hear all PCSD talkgroups there. If you can't hear Simulcast A, you may need to use a different Site.
For example, if you're in Catalina, you might need to listen on Golder. You'll definitely hear North. You might not hear West, South, or East, depending on whether any subscribers affiliated with Golder are trying to monitor those TGs.
If you're on the south end of Green Valley, you might need to use Keystone. You'll definitely hear South. You might not hear West, North, or East, depending on whether any subscribers affiliated with Keystone are trying to monitor those TGs.
For example, if you're in Catalina, you might need to listen on Golder. You'll definitely hear North. You might not hear West, South, or East, depending on whether any subscribers affiliated with Golder are trying to monitor those TGs.
If you're on the south end of Green Valley, you might need to use Keystone. You'll definitely hear South. You might not hear West, North, or East, depending on whether any subscribers affiliated with Keystone are trying to monitor those TGs.
Do you think it is a good idea to delete Simulcast B from these lists?
Why not just Avoid it when not listening to law enforcement? Better yet, don't scan multiple Sites when you don't need to - just Hold on Simulcast A when listening to law enforcement.
When you want to listen to fire/EMS reliable, you want to listen to Simulcast B.
Because the lists I posted above only contain law enforcement. I will delete Simulcast B from these lists if Simulcast B doesn't host PCSD. Thanks for making that clear to me.
Just curious, why do you apparently use separate Favorite Lists (which presumably means duplicating the PCWIN System) for different PCSD areas? Why not just separate Channels, or separate Departments, within the same System and Favorites List? I'm not criticizing - I know there are a lot of novel ways to program and use these scanners and a lot of interesting approaches out there.
I have considered making one PCSD favorites list with four departments, but that would require adding more sites. I would like to have as few sites as possible so as to reduce the likelihood of missing a transmission. I would also prefer not to bother with holding/avoiding sites. I would rather monitor one favorites list at a time based upon where in I am Pima County.
The way you have it (repeating the system x4) will cause you to miss traffic versus just having the everything in one system with multiple departments. It takes between 1.5 and 2 seconds to check a site for traffic, and you have 20+ sites for scanner to roll through.
This is the wrong way to set it up unless you never plan to have more than one of these FLs active at the same time.
I only plan to monitor 1 favorites list at a time.
It's an interesting approach. I've never thought to do something like that on a relatively small regional system, but I see how it could make sense on a larger statewide system where finding/holding on a particular site, or Avoiding dozens of Sites, is more troublesome. For example, if home and work are technically on the same large system but are two counties away and monitoring at each location requires a completely different set of Sites, Departments, and TGs, it probably makes good sense to set them up as if they are separate systems and FLs for better focus. Seems you've simply taken that same concept to the extreme with one Site per system and one system per FL even in the same metro area.
Though as jtwalker said, scanning more than one Site is always a bad idea if you can avoid it because it creates lots of opportunity for missed transmissions, so if you can hear Simulcast A well from any of your target locations you should stick with only that Site (whether because you Hold on that Site, or because you omit other sites from your FL/System entirely). If you simply must scan multiple sites simultaneously in order to have a shot at hearing everything you're interested in (such as because two TGs of interest are not active on the same Site), then you must.
Though as jtwalker said, scanning more than one Site is always a bad idea if you can avoid it because it creates lots of opportunity for missed transmissions, so if you can hear Simulcast A well from any of your target locations you should stick with only that Site (whether because you Hold on that Site, or because you omit other sites from your FL/System entirely). If you simply must scan multiple sites simultaneously in order to have a shot at hearing everything you're interested in (such as because two TGs of interest are not active on the same Site), then you must.
