![]() ![]() ![]() He is happily married with a grown son.There was a time when it was easy to eavesdrop on police and other service radio networks. Professionally, he was a Sergeant with an Illinois police department, in was charge of 9-1-1, Communications and Records. He also owns the Illinois Highways Page at He has a collection of over 25 scanners and dozens of transceivers and specialized receivers. He has written several articles for Monitoring Times and other publications. He was a Director of the Chicago Area Radio Monitoring Association, the largest scanner club in the USA and edits the renown CARMA Profiles. He has written several scanner guides, including the Scanner Master Illinois Communications Guides. Rich Carlson, N9JIG, has been a railfan since the late 1970's and a radio listener since the 1960's. We couldn't be more excited to have Rich on board. He has a great knowledge of the radio systems that we all monitor as he himself helped to institute and manage many in his time. Rich is a highly respected member of the monitoring community who has decades of experience with all types of scanners and communications receivers, antennas, software and accessories. Rich recently retired as a Sergeant for the Winnetka, Illinois, Police Department and is now assisting Scanner Master customers in choosing the right scanner for their area, answering technical questions and helping us to develop new products and services. JScanner Master is extremely proud to announce that Rich Carlson, past-president of the Chicago Area Radio Monitors Association (CARMA) and one of the nation's leading scanner experts, is now part of our team. Keep an eye on the ScannerMaster Blog for our explanation of Digital operations! HomePatrol and other scanners with the Database feature will have these Trunked System parameters already programmed so you can just select the Service and location to listen to them. On LTR and EDACS systems you have to identify the proper “LCN” channel numbers, these are usually well documented at Motorola and APCO25 systems do not need the frequencies in any particular order. Whistler, GRE and Radio Shack scanners with Object Oriented programming work differently. For newer Unidens you program in a “System” to identify the type of trunking, then “Sites” to put in the frequencies used and lastly “Groups” for the talkgroup listing. ![]() Depending on the type of scanner and the type of trunked system the method used to program differs. The main types of trunked systems in use by Public Safety agencies in the USA include Motorola, EDACS, LTR, APCO25 Phase 1 and APCO25 Phase 2.įor scanner listeners these trunked systems add a layer of complexity to the programming. There are differences in the way they get programmed into scanners as well. There are several types of trunking systems but they all work in much the same way. Pilot is sharing the system they might be assigned Talkgroup 287 for Police Dispatch and so on. Mayberry FD might be assigned Talkgroup 123 for Dispatch, 124 for Fireground and 125 for Tactical. ![]() For example, Mayberry PD might be assigned Talkgroup 101 for Dispatch, 102 for Car-Car and 103 for Detectives. Talkgroups are assigned to various uses like channels would have been before. Radios have all the frequencies used by the system programmed into them and the system is broken down into various virtual channels, called “Talkgroups”. All this happens in a fraction of a second. The Controller watches the system and when a radio requests to talk it assigns that radio and any other radio in its group to a channel. Instead of having a separate frequency for the FD, one for the PD and another for the ambulance, they just go to the next channel that isn’t being used.Īll this is controlled by a computer system called, appropriately enough, a “Controller”. This is exactly how a trunked radio system works: All users are in one queue and get assigned the next available channel. These days however, banks have a single queue and you go to the next available teller when you reach the head of the line. Then you get stuck behind the lady that wants to have her penny jar counted by hand… The bank has 5 tellers, you can line up at any of the 5 lines and hope your line goes faster than the others. The best way to explain how a trunking system works is the analogy of a set of bank teller lines. What are trunking systems and how do they work? Most cities, many counties and even entire states use Trunking Systems. In many parts of the country however, this no longer works. In the old days of scanning things were pretty simple, you put in the local police frequency to listen to the police. ![]()
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