WS1065 Scanner, PSREdit500 software Multiple trunking systems or single

[pob_ag]

TLDR version at end of post, but gonna do a long explanation too so hopefully I can get an answer. Got a WS1065 for Christmas and have got it pretty well figured out and programmed in PSREdit500 using this site and the forums as a guide. As of now everything works great and I get all the traffic I want to hear. I tried searching this a bunch and because of people using different terms and just differences in scanner models I could never really get an answer to this question though.

When I first got it I had multiple trunking systems set up for every county I wanted to listen to with some others for specific talkgroups, think I had around 7 or 8. Watching the screen on the scanner it seemed like it spent a lot of time on each system before moving on to the next so I was afraid I was missing traffic and undid all that. Not sure if it was just a really slow day or what but I didn't hear much traffic at all with it setup that way even though I for sure had the correct control channels setup. Ended up moving everything to one trunking system and just putting each county on different scan lists instead. I know its a stupid issue but I really hate having just one list because the name of the trunking system alternates with the alpha tag of the channel I'm listening to and that drives me nuts.

TLDR version, is the way I have it now the best way to do it (single trunking system with every talkgroup I want to hear in it and stuff arranged by scan list) or was my fears of missing traffic with multiple trunking systems (probably around 10 if I set it up like I really want) unfounded. Also is there some way to disable the alternating trunking system name so it only shows the alpha tag? I looked everywhere and couldn't find that option. Already tried Radio ID Display and Show Trunking Channel in General, neither fix this. I get the suspicion I just have to live with it as it but wanted to check. Thanks for any help.

 

[tvengr]

Each trunked system must be programmed separately. You can scan multiple sites on a trunked system by placing all of the control channel frequencies in the frequency list for the system and setting Multi-Site to Stationary. Roam scans only the site with the best signal. If using only a single site, set Multi-Site to Off.

 

[pob_ag]

When I said trunking system, I used that term because that's what PSREdit500 has above the drop down box for each of TSYS objects you make. Everything I'm looking for is on the WV SIRN network and P25 Phase I.

I've pretty much did what you described, one trunking system/TSYS object set to stationary with every surrounding local control frequency and the alt control frequency(s) too.

Think you misunderstood my question, appreciate you taking the time to respond though.

 

[tvengr]

If everything is on the SIRN system, you only need one system. Unfortunately, the frequency list for each system only supports a maximum of 32 frequencies. Hopefully, that is enough for your surrounding counties. You may need to limit yourself to using only the closest site for each of the surrounding counties.

 

[brian]

TL/DR In your first programming approach, you say you created multiple TSYS objects, one for each of the multiple counties you're interested in. In the second approach, you condensed those separate TSYS objects into a single TSYS. What you haven't indicated which sites you included in each TSYS.

In the first approach, you're forcing the scanner to attempt to scan the control channels of each TSYS in each scan cycle. So the scanner is scanning TSYS 1 control channels, then TSYS 2 control channels, then TSYS 3 control channels, etc. Depending on how many channels each TSYS has, that can take a relatively long time to scan through. If you duplicated the same set of control channel frequencies across each TSYS object, then the scanner is scanning control channels looking for activity on talkgroups in TSYS 1, then scanning the same set of control channels looking for activity on talkgroups in TSYS 2, and so on. That's very inefficient in terms of scan cycle time.

In the 2nd approach, the scanner is scanning 1 set of TSYS frequencies. And depending on how you have the Multi-Site setting configured, it likely is only scanning a single active control channel (one site). This is much more efficient from a scan cycle standpoint.

The limiting factor in the 2nd approach, however, is that generally not all talkgroups are carried on every site. This depends on how the system is set up, but it's unlikely that a site located in County #1 is going to carry the talkgroup radio traffic from County #4 which is 3 counties away. You may only be in range to receive traffic from a few (2 to 4, maybe less) sites at any given time. This would depend on your location and your antenna set-up.

Scanning control channel frequencies from sites that you cannot receive is wasting scan cycle time. So, I'd recommend identifying which sites you can receive, and then decide how you want to break things up between TSYS objects. Your first approach (separate TSYS objects) may be a good approach if you understand which sites you can receive in a given location, and only activate the scan lists that correspond to TSYS objects that are within your reception range. If you travel from one area to another, you can deactivate a TSYS object that you move out of range from, and activate a TSYS object you're moving toward.

On the other hand, your second approach is more efficient from a programming standpoint. The Multi-site setting can help control how the scanner handles multiple active sites (within range). However, you lose some control over knowing exactly which site or sites is being scanned at a given time. You'll have to experiment to see if Multi-site successfully accomplishes scanning the sites (and talkgroup groups) that you're interesting in listening to.

 

[pob_ag]

Brian thank you very much for that response that helps a bunch! It really confirms what I thought I have learned over the last couple weeks and explained things really well so I can understand better moving forward.

I'd completely forgotten in my first attempt I did exact what you said with copying every frequency to every TSYS object because at that time I had no idea what towers I could or couldn't receive and what talkgroups were gonna be where. I'd never had a scanner before and at that point had 0 clue what I was doing and just had to idiot my way through until I figured it out. Figuring out how the digital P25 worked took a while but I've got a fairly solid grasp on both now.

I currently have one TSYS object with multi site mode set to STAT and checked "Scan all control channels that can be received on every pass through this TSYS object.", found a post that said for a stationary at home scanner like I'm using mine for that's what I should do? I also just have the control frequencies from the local sites I know for sure I'm in range of added with a WILDCARD! to get any talkgroups I haven't programmed in or aren't listed on this site of which I've found a few. Still need to figure out that they actually are though as the transmissions weren't long enough to decipher that.

I've been using ID Tracker to log and record the traffic I've been picking up to help me figure things out and also watching what frequencies/talkgroups are used on the scanner to figure out what sites they come from. That part I've got figured out really well now so I could easily trim down the sites on another attempt with multiple TSYS objects. I'm really rural and right on the edge of the county so there is a good bit of mutual assist that happens here so certain sites and even talkgroups get shared use occasionally but I could just group those in 1 TSYS.

I think my first attempt between the reuse of so many of the same sites, and trying to put everything into it's own TSYS object I just completely and totally overdid it. Instead of doing 6 TSYS objects for the 3 counties and their respective Fire/EMS and Police, and then also breaking DOT, State Police, and some other things into their own TSYS objects I just need to group stuff way more. I initially thought of them more as "labels" instead of what they actually are and I see now that was a big mistake.

I know it's a stupid thing to get bothered with I'm just stubborn and just feel the need to arrange things a certain way lol. If I could disable the alternating text on the scanner going back and forth between the active TSYS object name and the transmitting Alpha name I wouldn't care but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be possible. Or even if it showed scanlist name instead of active TSYS object name, thats what it does on conventional frequency hits and I wished the digital worked the same. Depending on how this attempt at splitting things goes I might just have to learn to live with it because it kind of sounds like what I want really want to do wont work well and I need to leave it as I have it currently.

Sorry for the ginormous wall of text, really appreciate your help and you taking the time to post! Hopefully if nothing else this will help someone else someday as I really couldn't find a post that explained it like you just did.

 

[tvengr]

I think my first attempt between the reuse of so many of the same sites, and trying to put everything into it's own TSYS object I just completely and totally overdid it. Instead of doing 6 TSYS objects for the 3 counties and their respective Fire/EMS and Police,

You should scan both Fire/EMS and Police for a county using a single TSYS object. You can put each in a separate scan list to select Fire/EMS, Police, or both. If each is on a different system, you will be scanning the same site twice. While scanning Fire/EMS, you will miss the beginning of the audio for any activity on Police. While scanning Police, you will miss the beginning of the audio for any activity on Fire/EMS. If both are using the same TSYS object, the scanner will immediately go to any activity on Fire/EMS or Police. The delays really start adding up when scanning multiple counties.

 

[pob_ag]

Wanted to pop back in to say thanks a bunch to both of you for your help, played with it some more and got it setup pretty close to how I'd like and there's less than 1 second delay between TSYS objects now.

I'll run this for a few days and see how it actually works out but so far it seems like it should work out good.