Zone List Options

[blantonl]

In the zone list on the G5, what are the following zones, how are they used, and how are they programmed?

 

[sparklehorse]

When used as a scanner, each 'Zone' is a set of up to eight 'channels'. A channel can be a single conventional frequency, a single talk group, a list of up to 64 talkgroups that are scanned, or a list of up to 16 conventional channels that are scanned. You switch from channel to channel with the eight position knob on the top of the radio. Switching between channels is pretty fast. Switching to a different Zone takes a couple or three seconds, but once in a new Zone you have access to the eight channels contained in the new Zone. I don't know what the limit is on the number of Zones. I have 12 Zones in my G5 right now, and that's working fine. You program all your channels and Zones in the PPS software. As far as I can tell you can not add or remove channels, etc, using the radio's keypad, you have to do it all in software. Zones and channels may be utilized in some other fashion when used as intended as pager, but I'm not familiar with all the possible options when used that way. I've just been focused on using it as a scanner for my local P25 system, and for that it works quite well.

.

 

[sparklehorse]

I think I misunderstood your question - I thought you were asking the purpose of Zones in general. I see now you had drawn a box around the 'User Define' and 'Ch Setting' Zones. As far as I can tell those have no purpose. They are defaults that show up at the end of your Zone list, but you can't actually edit anything in those zones on the radio. I haven't been able to anyway. There might be a way to edit them in the PPS, but if so I haven't noticed it. They may serve a purpose when the unit is set up as a pager, or they may be place holders for functions that haven't been added to the radio yet. Just speculating. Perhaps Unication_David or someone with more more knowledge than I will chime in.

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[JASII]

.....or a list of up to 16 conventional channels that are scanned.....I don't know what the limit is on the number of Zones.....

I thought it was up to 64 conventional, BUT I haven't tried that yet.

You can have up to 128 zones with 8 channels in each zone, so it is a lot of memory capacity.

 

[phirephoto]

I think I misunderstood your question - I thought you were asking the purpose of Zones in general. I see now you had drawn a box around the 'User Define' and 'Ch Setting' Zones. As far as I can tell those have no purpose. They are defaults that show up at the end of your Zone list, but you can't actually edit anything in those zones on the radio. I haven't been able to anyway. There might be a way to edit them in the PPS, but if so I haven't noticed it. They may serve a purpose when the unit is set up as a pager, or they may be place holders for functions that haven't been added to the radio yet. Just speculating. Perhaps Unication_David or someone with more more knowledge than I will chime in.

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Or you can modify or rename zones in the PPS. I don't recall if there was a default naming of the zones 'out of the box' but I've since modified mine.

 

[KB8KOJ]

I don't recall if there was a default naming of the zones 'out of the box' but I've since modified mine.

His screen is showing the default naming, I was also confused thinking these had some kind of special use or different function. They don't have that name in the PPS. They never seem to go away, and as you add more Zones, those get added to the bottom of the Zone list. Like mentioned, I just assumed they are place holders.

 

[blantonl]

His screen is showing the default naming, I was also confused thinking these had some kind of special use or different function. They don't have that name in the PPS. They never seem to go away, and as you add more Zones, those get added to the bottom of the Zone list. Like mentioned, I just assumed they are place holders.

So, back to my original question - what are these entries and how do we "use" them?

 

[sparklehorse]

So, back to my original question - what are these entries and how do we "use" them?

They appear to be place holders for functions that don't yet exist.

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[sparklehorse]

<snip> You can have up to 128 zones with 8 channels in each zone, so it is a lot of memory capacity.

It may have that much capacity, but in reality it would be very tedious to change Zones from #1 to #128. Lots of scrolling with that little rocker button, and unfortunately it just stops at the end. It doesn't re-cycle to Zone 1, you have to scroll all the way back from the end. I only have 12 Zones at the moment, and that isn't too bad, but I can see where maybe 30 Zones or more would get to be a real pain.

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[ffexpCP]

Think of the zones as a 'V-folder' on radio shack / gre scanners.

I work with several agencies. Each agency gets it's own zone. I had multiple minitors before. Now I have this and it does it all.

 

[phirephoto]

Oh - I guess I never scrolled all the way down the Zones. I have them too. Odd.

 

[BenScan]

Lindsay, I asked about that a while back, and here's the answer Unication David posted.

"Quote:
Originally Posted by BenScan View Post
Unication David, or anyone else that can answer,
What is the "User Defined" zone in the G5? How does a user define it? I get the impression from the name, that you could define a zone from the the buttons and controls on the G5, without using the PPS software.
....
The user defined Zone is used primarily with the free scan feature of the unit it allows you to scan through the entire band and when the unit lands on a particular Channel it allows you to save that frequency in the user Defined Zone"

In post http://forums.radioreference.com/2618539-post684.html

 

[blantonl]

Thanks Ben. I'll give that another look. Right now that entire band scan function is pretty sloooow.

 

[David_Oney]

All band scan is used for analog conventional it was mainly designed to be used for interoperability during mutual aid calls when a dept is using a frequency that you do not have programmed into your pager. You can use all band scan to scan to the frequency and then save it in the user defined zone for monitoring the traffic. The Channel setting zone is set aside for use with the channel setting tab in the menu.

 

[MaximusTheGreat]

All band scan is used for analog conventional it was mainly designed to be used for interoperability during mutual aid calls when a dept is using a frequency that you do not have programmed into your pager. You can use all band scan to scan to the frequency and then save it in the user defined zone for monitoring the traffic. The Channel setting zone is set aside for use with the channel setting tab in the menu.

What are the speed rates of the band scan?

 

[prc117f]

From what I see in the menu 200ms is the fastest dwell time. The G pagers are really not purpose built scanners. I would rather use a Uniden if I am scanning the conventional bands.

 

[GTO_04]

When used as a scanner, each 'Zone' is a set of up to eight 'channels'. A channel can be a single conventional frequency, a single talk group, a list of up to 64 talkgroups that are scanned, or a list of up to 16 conventional channels that are scanned. You switch from channel to channel with the eight position knob on the top of the radio. Switching between channels is pretty fast. Switching to a different Zone takes a couple or three seconds, but once in a new Zone you have access to the eight channels contained in the new Zone. I don't know what the limit is on the number of Zones. I have 12 Zones in my G5 right now, and that's working fine. You program all your channels and Zones in the PPS software. As far as I can tell you can not add or remove channels, etc, using the radio's keypad, you have to do it all in software. Zones and channels may be utilized in some other fashion when used as intended as pager, but I'm not familiar with all the possible options when used that way. I've just been focused on using it as a scanner for my local P25 system, and for that it works quite well.

.

How do you switch from zone to zone if the 8 position knob is used to switch channels? Does each radio system have to have it's own zone? From what I've seen so far it does not. Reception is fantastic to say the least. It makes me not want to use a consumer grade scanner anymore.

GTO_04

 

[BenScan]

You switch zones using the softmenu and the keys on the front.

 

[GTO_04]

You switch zones using the softmenu and the keys on the front.

Thanks. That is something I have not explored yet. I have done everything through the PPS software so far.

So it looks like no more than one system per knob position is the limit then?

GTO_04

 

[BenScan]

Yes, only one trunked system site(unless you want it to pick the strongest) per knob position, or a single frequency conventional, or a list of conventional frequencies, stored in other knob positions.