Ken Stark was asking about multiple scanner interfaces (controlling more than 1 scanner from 1 computer) so I got "nosy" and asked why? Here's his reply. VERY interesting.
Why you need two or more scanners to
catch all The action!
Original message from Tom Vanderpool
Saturday, February 02, 2008 10:13:11 PM
Can I ask what on earth you do with all those scanners?
Saturday, February 02, 2008 10:13:11 PM
I'm guessing news room, but that's a guess. Shoot, give me a good reason, *I* may NEED
more. <wide grin>
Original message from Steve Matzura <
number6@speakeasy.net>: --------------
On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:09:37 -0000
I was overwhelmed to fully realize the amount of radio-traffic that I was missing on one 396, while the other 396 was hung-up on "whatever" it was locked-on at that particular moment....I fully realize that this was how things work, and are supposed to work, but I didn't fully realize the potentially-significant implications....
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Exactly why I have two trunkers running on almost exactly the same monitoring load. When I hear the two of them lock onto the same thing, I'll reach over and hit the SCAN button on one of them to force it to go listening elsewhere. More than once did it happen that the scanner I forced on to listen to something else found something else of interest in the same trunking system as was being monitored by the other radio.
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Answer: From Ken Stark
Member: Cary N.C, poh-leece Department CAP Team
Member: Cary N.C> Fire Department CERT
Situation Awareness
Put that old scanner to good use:
Owning more than one scanner can prove to have dividends; you’ll hear more, discover more frequencies in use in you area. Over time as I progressed up the ladder of purchasing new Uniden trunking scanners for their added capabilities! By keeping my older usable scanners; allows me to now utilize 5 Uniden Trunking Scanners, all operating at the same time, all connected at the same time to the same computer, all controlled/programmed/monitored from said computer, with 3 iterations of ARC250 (BC250T, BC296D, BC796D), 1 ARC246 (BC246T), 1 ARC346 (BCD396T) all operating on said computer at the same time.
Allowing faster control of the individual scanners then I can do it at each individual scanner. At times I am able to bring into this mix, additional trunking scanners not computer controlled to cover what is going on with other incidents.
At incidents; local LE are on multiple ID's such as a SWAT ID & Incident Command ID, Same time FD is staged/working at same incident on own Incident Command ID, EMS is on scene with their own ID's. There is still dispatching going on for other incidents within the three departments. Just within my Town of 122,000 citizens.
Listening to foot/vehicle chases where two and three different LE agencies from surrounding towns, or Highway Patrol, or Sherriff are also involved. I can assign one radio to each LE involved with the pursuit. I may put a 4th scanner on the PD Mutual-Aid to listen to the LE agencies conversing between each other. I may leave the #5 scanner on my local LE dispatch channel to be aware of other events happening within my town.
When things are quite, one computer controlled scanner is scanning local LE dispatch; second is scanning local
FD dispatch, third is scanning local EMS dispatch, while the 4th is scanning only PD Tactical ID's used for undercover/swat work that may be going on without dispatch involvement that I would have missed with one scanner. The 5th would be monitoring just Mutual Aid id's getting an idea of what may be going on outside my town.
There are other agencies within the town utilizing the same trunk system and during weather related incidents I may change what the radios are scanning to bring public works into my monitoring realm. During the commute hours the local news agencies have traffic helicopters up on conventional frequencies that I monitor. Then there are also LifeFlight helicopters during emergency working on their own non-trunking and trunking systems I listen in on.
For me computer control makes it all work!
My non-computer control:
BC245T always on my belt – with swat style coiled air tube in my air for private listening.
PRO-90 mounted in my vehicle.
BC200XLT dedicated to listen to the local air traffic especially during weather events or air emergencies.
Each of the 5 radios is located on a desk to the left of the computer display and keyboard. My Scanner USB network uses one physical USB 2.0 port on my computer connected to an IOGEAR 7 Port USB 2.0 Full-Speed/High- Speed (480Mbps) powered HUB. The HUB has an indicator LED per port, indicating port is active when light. Connected to 5 USB ports are one each Aten Serial to USB converter. Each converter has a data LED built into the Serial plug housing to indicate when data is being moved through the converter. Computer COMM Ports 2 through 6 are assigned to the 5 converters. Each converter is connected to a Uniden radio via the radios Serial connector.
Monitoring the Radio to Computer activity has never been easier with LEDs that indicate power status as well as activity on each individual port. This is also perfect for any PCs with inconveniently located USB ports or for laptops where the additional USB ports are needed.
The four handheld radios are on a plastic stand and have their audio output connected to 4, one each 25 watt Powered Speaker containing volume and tone controls. The speakers are on the opposite end of the desk in the same positional order of its corresponding radio and each speaker contains a an LED with tri level of brightness. No light when speaker is off, shining bright when there is an actual audio signal to the speaker, and going dim when there is no audio, providing visual clues.
ARC software provides a “Virtual Control” window that is placed on my computer screen in the same positional order of the radio it is connected to and displaying further aiding in providing the visual clues as to what radio is doing what at any moment in time.
I set each scanner at a slightly different volume level; the PD dispatch scanner may be set at the highest volume level compared to the scanner that scans everything.
Having multiple scanners eases the channel load on each radio, while allowing more things to be heard at the same tome without missing much of any radio user.
Thanks.......and Keep Safe!
Ken Stark WQCB806
"Assisting Those Who Protect & Serve"
CARY (PD) CAP Team Member
"Trains Together, Responds Together"
CARY (FD) CERT Member
Interesting approach to scanning!