235xlt Hints & Tricks
Star Trek: First Contact MIDI
These hints & tricks can be used on any of the
TrunkTrackers or
Radio Shack clones. For these hints & tricks, I will be
using the
St Louis City Police TRS as an example. The info provided
below can be applied to any similar TRS. These Hints were
written with the assumption that you already know how to
program your 235xlt or its clone, and have a basic understanding
of how Trunk Systems work.
First-off, the use of Status-bits in type II systems:
- If your system puts out extra talkgroups during
spcial circumstances, this hint is for you!
ID+1
= ATG
ID+2
= Emergency
ID+3
= Crosspatch
ID+4
= Emergency Crosspatch
ID+5
= Emergency Multi-select
ID+6
= (possibly not used)
ID+7
= Multi-select
ID+8
= DES/DVP (digital / encryption)
ID+9
= DES ATG
ID+10 = DES
Emergency
ID+11 = DES
Patch
ID+12 = DES
Emergency patch
ID+13 = DES
Emergency Multi-select
ID+14 =
(possibly not used)
ID+15 = DES
Multi-select
To get around this, and save space in your scan lists, you
need to switch over that Type II Block to Type I. Use
one of the following Size Codes: S-1, S-5 or S-6. The
choice is yours. Some have claimed pros-cons of each.
I believe the choice is personal, and should be left up to
you. :)
Alternative ; If you find that you are missing most of the
APBs broadcast by the Dispatchers, here is an alternative
method to capture them. First, set the block to Type II Mode.
Next, program in the desired talkgroups into your scan lists.
Next, in a blank Talkgroup-Scan List bank, program in the
ID+7 of every talkgroup where there is a Dispatcher present.
St Louis City as an example (This is only an example):
Enter -- Name ------- Original talkgroup
57367 - District 1 & 2 (57360)
57399 - District 3 (57392)
57431 - District 4 & 5 (57424)
57463 - District 6 & 8 (57456)
57495 - District 7 (57488)
57527 - District 9 (57520)
57559 - SODD (57552)
57591 - BOI (57584) -discontinued use-
57719 - INFO A (57712)
57751 - INFO B (57744) -discontinued use-
(St Louis City has 10 main dispatch channels ; only 8 used)
By programming in the extra ID+7 talkgroups into a vacant
scan-list block, and including that block in your 'SCAN' mode,
allows capturing of all those missing APBs.
Second Hint, to acquire the data channel quicker. Four
repeaters are used as Data-Channels in the St Louis City
system:
857.4375, 858.4375, 859.4375, 860.4375
To get your Trunktracker to acquire the data channel
sooner, put the data channel frequencies into the first
couple of channels of that bank. Then put the remaining
channels in any-order. This simple hint will stop that
long,
annoying delay that occurs when the Trunktracker tries to
find the data channel among all the voice repeaters.
Have fun!
Third Hint, Monitoring SmartLine (or Private comms). Only
three of the St Louis City Police repeaters are used for
SmartLine Comms:
857.7125, 858.7125, 859.7125
To monitor SmartLine, first you need to figure out which
repeaters are used mainly for this operation. 'LOCKOUT' all
normal trunk channels in that bank. 'UNLOCK' only those
repeaters which use SmartLine routinely. Now, when you're
monitoring normal Trunk operations and you hear someone
requesting their SmartLine Number, say '346-897', just hit the
'Trunk' button, then hit your 'Scan' button (make sure that the
trunk bank has been selected as one of the scan banks). And
there, you go. When the SmartLine conversation is over,
just
go back into trunk mode. Its as simple as that.... :)
Fourth Hint, monitoring Phone Patches. To monitor phone
patches,
just go into conventional mode, and select one of the phone patch
frequencies. Because phone patches are hardwired into that
repeater, phone patches can NOT change frequencies. There
are
four phone patch repeaters in use by St Louis City Police:
856.4875, 857.4875, 858.4875 & 860.7125
These phone patch repeaters can be used in the normal trunk-pool.
Fifth Hint, to search for new talkgroups as well as limit
searching
to the exotic talkgroups, just 'Lock-Out' all the normal
talkgroups.
For St Louis City, I lock-out all the District & EMS
Talkgroups.
Next I Lock-Out all the Type I Users Talkgroups. Now, when
I
hit 'SEARCH', only the exotic talkgroups and any new ones will
popup. This is good if you want to keep tabs on current
Special
Operations that might be going on in your neighborhood.
There
are lots of exotic Talkgroups on the St Louis Police System, but
activity on these tend to be 'light', as far as actual radio
traffic.
Which leads me to my next important hint:
Sixth Hint, this one will cut-out the reception of falsely
generated IDs popping-up with annoying Phone Patch
conversations during the 'SEARCH' mode. This is quite a
problem on the St Louis City Police Trunk Radio System
while trying to find new talkgroups. This system is very
busy
most hours of the day. I have observed the problem on all
Trunk Trackers I have programmed (Old & New ones alike).
In most cases, its the annoying Phone Patch repeaters that
pop-up. So, to eliminate almost all false IDs from popping-
up during 'SEARCH' mode, it will be necessary to program
in the Phone Patch repeaters as 'CONVENTIONAL',
rather than in the 'TRUNK' mode. Make sure to 'Lock
Out' the phone patch repeaters. This should eliminate 90%
of all false IDs that you might encounter. The Trunk
controller should only grab the Phone Patch repeaters for
normal Trunk-pool use during extreme high-use periods,
then quickly return them to Phone Patch use only. Most
of the time, the newer 856.7375 repeater is used during
high-use periods, too. This means that you won't miss any
normal Trunk Comms that might be diverted to these
repeaters while using this hint. Now, enjoy using the
'SEARCH' Mode to find those new & unpublished
talkgroups.
Seventh Hint, since Motorola systems aren't concerned with
frequency-order, its possible to mix several non-overlapping
TRSs together into one single Trunk Bank, and still have room
for conventional stuff too. However, with the 235xlt and
its
clones, it requires careful consideration as to the order in
which
you program each system in. The TrunkTrackers will 'LOCK'
onto the first Data-Channel it finds. So, you'll want to
put the
TRSs with the smallest coverage-zone, in first. The more
dominant systems should always be programmed into the bank
last. Here is an example of my own 235xlt's Bank #10:
271 - 854.9875 -- America's Center
272 - 855.9875 --
"
"
273 - 858.7375 --
"
"
274 - 859.7375 --
"
"
275 - 860.7375 --
"
"
276 - 856.9875 -- Lambert Airport
277 - 857.9875 --
"
"
278 - 858.9875 --
"
"
279 - 959.9875 --
"
"
280 - 860.9875 --
"
"
281 - 856.2625 -- St Charles Police
282 - 857.2625 -- "
"
"
283 - 858.2625 -- "
"
"
284 - 859.2625 -- "
"
"
285 - 860.2625 -- "
"
"
286 - 856.3125 -- Shell Oil
287 - 856.4125 -- "
"
288 - 857.3125 -- "
"
289 - 857.4125 -- "
"
290 - 858.3125 -- "
"
291 - 858.4125 -- "
"
292 - 859.3125 -- "
"
293 - 859.4125 -- "
"
294 - 860.3125 -- "
"
295 - 860.4125 -- "
"
296 - 860.8625 -- "
"
297 - 859.5125 -- Industries South Inc
298 - 860.5125 --
"
" "
299 - 154.010 -- STL Fire Dept (F-2) Moblie Call-back
300 - 154.130 -- "
"
" (F-1) Dispatch
Remember, 'Lock-Out' all Trunk frequencies, so the 235xlt
will not include those while scanning conventionally.
That's
'FIVE' Trunk Radio Systems in Bank #10, plus alittle room
for two conventional frequencies. The 'Five' TRSs have
very little, if any, coverage-zone overlapping. Its
possible
to squeeze many TRSs into one single Bank, 'It Can Be
Done'. Careful planning is necessary, to make it work.
This combining of Systems is very important to me, because
we have so many Trunk Radio Systems in St Louis, Missouri.
E-mail: [email protected]