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• The frequencies for many of the 800 MHz public safety systems are listed in the
National Public Safety Trunked System Frequency Guide included with your BC898T
scanner.
Conventional scanning is a simple concept. You enter a frequency used by someone you
want to monitor into your scanner’s memory. For example, the police in your area might
transmit on 460.500 MHz, the fire department on 154.445 MHz, the highway department
on 37.900 MHz, etc. So when your scanner stops on a frequency, you usually know who it
is, and more importantly, you can stop on a channel and listen to an entire conversation.
This type of scanning is easy and fun.
However, as the demand for public communications has increased, many public radio
users do not have enough frequencies to meet their needs, creating a serious problem.
Trunking radio systems help solve this problem.
Trunked Scanning
While conventional scanning worked great while there were only a few groups wanting to
use the frequencies, with the advent of smaller, lower-cost radios more and more agencies
and businesses wanted to take advantage of the utility of 2-way radio. As a result, the
bands that were used most became full, so new users were not able to take advantage of
the technology as quickly as they wanted.
Trunking solved this frequency shortage by allowing multiple groups to use the same set of
frequencies in a very efficient way. While each type of trunking system operates a little
differently (see the next few sections), they all work on the same basic premise: even in a
system with a lot of users, only a few users are ever transmitting at any one time.
Instead of being assigned a frequency, as with conventional systems, each group is
assigned a talk group ID. A central computer controls the frequency each group operates
on...and this frequency selection is made each time a user transmits. So, while on a
conventional system queries, replies, and follow-ups are all on a single frequency, they
could each be on completely different frequencies on a trunked system. This semi-random
frequency assignment made monitoring such a system impossible prior to Uniden’s
invention of the Trunktracking scanner.
Not only does your BC898T scan channels like a conventional scanner, it actually follows
the users of a trunked radio system. Once you know a talk group’s ID, you won’t miss any
of the action.
If you are a new scanner enthusiast, you might want to read the first part of this manual
and use your scanner in conventional mode before you begin trunk tracking.
Understanding scanning fundamentals and terminology will make trunk tracking much
easier. If you are already an experienced scanner operator, you might want to go to
“Programming Trunked Systems” on Page 42 now.