Rangecast FAQ
[FAQ-1177] Programming scanners for reception from a trunked system with multiple towers


Page Type: REFERENCE


OVERVIEW

When programming a scanner in Rangecast to receive talkgroups from a trunked system with multiple towers, run a signal survey to evaluate which tower(s) should be used for reception, and then update the programming based on the results.


METHOD

To program a scanner for reception of talkgroups from a trunked system with multiple towers:

1) On the programmer, add all of the talkgroups that you want to receive (but pay no attention to what tower is selected for receiving the trunked system.)

2) Once the radios are deployed in the field, run a signal survey that includes a talkgroup report. This may be done from the status page - Advanced, "Combo" option recommended. (If time is very tight and you have at least 2 scanners in place, you may elect to run a Control Channel survey and a Talkgroup Exclusive survey instead.)

3) Let the survey run for awhile. At a minimum, wait for 30 minutes and then until the next hour is passed (minute mark :00). But results will be significantly improved if you let the process run for many hours.

4) Review the survey to see which tower will provide the best reception results, based on both signal reception quality (control channel survey) and where the talkgroups are available (talkgroup distribution survey.)

If you cannot acquire all the desired talkgroups from one tower, identify the specific towers that will be necessary.

Select this tower(s) in the programmer. If there is more than one receive (feed) site, ensure that the receive site with the best reception of each tower is selected in the programmer as where that specific tower will be received. Then press save.

5) Note: this step only applies if multiple towers were selected in the prior step

Refresh the survey page (you do not need to re-do the survey.) The programmer attempts to automatically partition the talkgroups between the selected towers, based on physical proximity, with the selections highlighted in blue. If the software's automatic selection did not choose the correct tower for certain talkgroups, in the programmer enter the "Hub Overrides" mode and manually force those specific talkgroups to the correct tower, and save again.




EXCEPTIONS

Note: Reference here to "multiple towers" means multiple subsystems with different frequency lists -- NOT "multisite" where there are multiple *physical* towers using the same set of broadcast frequencies. For programming purposes, a "multisite" subsystem is effectively like a single tower.


EXPECTED PROBLEMS

Note: Selecting multiple towers does NOT result in all talkgroups being received from all of the selected towers. Each *talkgroup* will be received from only ONE tower, regardless of how many towers are selected in the programmer for the *system*.


CITATIONS

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