| Uniden TrunkTracker™ Tips & Hints |
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The new Uniden BearCat TrunkTracker™ scanner makes following Motorola format trunking radio systems possible. However, it does take a little work, especially for Type I & Type IIi systems with Type I groups.
This page hopes to aid the scanner user in some of the "finer" points of trunked radio systems, and how they operate.
System Names & Type
Privacy Plus™ - Type ISmartZone™ - Type II
SmartNet™ - Type II
All the above are trademarks of Motorola Inc., and are used only for reference of products. No infringement of rights of the owners is implied.
Type II Systems
These are by far the easiset of the 3 types to monitor. Basically you put all your trunked radio systems frequencies into one bank, set it for Uniden Type E2/Motorola Type II, and start looking for talkgroups.A few notes:
- Should be an EVEN number at the end.
- Each Talkgroup should be 32d from the previous talkgroup. Example: If Police Disaptch 1 is 6704d, then Police Dispatch 2 would be 6736d.
- Talkgroups should end in a 0 h. Example 6704d is 1A30h
- Talkgroups ending in numbers other than 0h, have special meaning. See chart.
- Type II talkgroup ID's come in 2 flavors:
Motorola 3 digit Hex variety such as A07.
ID Range: (000 - FFE)
Motorola 6 digit decimal variety such as 802567.
ID Range: (800000 - 804094)
These are the codes you may run into if you have access to Motorola RSS Programming Information and/or software for a trunking system. Courtsey of: Greg Knox
- Systems can have a maximum of 30 channels per data channel. SmartZone™ systems may have more than 30 channels, but each "zone" only has 30 channels for each data channel. You need to determine which channels go with which data channel.
| Last Digit | Purpose |
| 0 | Normal Talkgroup |
| 1 | multi |
| 2 | emerg |
| 3 | patch |
| 4 | emerg patch |
| 5 | emerg multi |
| 6 | N/A? |
| 7 | Multi Select (initiated by dispatcher) |
| 8 | DVP Scrabmbled |
| 9 | DES ATG |
| A | Emergency DES TG |
| B | Crosspatched DES TG |
| C | DES Emergency crosspatch |
| D | DES Emergency multi-select |
| E | N/A? |
| F | Multi-select DES TG |
Tips for getting the Trunktracker™ to follow groups patched etc..
To avoid the problem, try setting up as Type 1 with Size Code S1 in all blocks. 48 will show up as 000-3, 80 as 001-1, 112 as 001-3, 144 as 002-1, and so on. In this mode, TT ignores that extra "function" bit.The above information is courtsey of Victor Healey, KI4JE and Tom Swisher . Used with permission of the posters from the TRUNKCOM list
Type I & IIi Systems
To monitor these types of systems requires a little more work on the users end. You must determine the Fleet Map Size for the system to properly follow talkgroups in a Type I & Type IIi system for the the Type I talkgroups.Some notes:
In Motorola terms the first subfleet in a type-I system is "1" or "A". The subfleet "0" (zero) is the "fleetwide" mode. Not what you might think at first.
The following chart (in Motorola-ese) might help clarify things. Take a look at the data word construction and how the number of bits allocated to prefix, fleet, subfleet, and individual ID vary with sizecode.
Valid SIZE CODES are: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,M,O,Q
The SIZE CODE determines the maximum number of fleets, subfleets, and individual IDs allowed. The SIZE CODE and fleet ID chosen must match the programming of the Central Controller.
| Uniden Size Code | Motorola SizeCode | Prefix | Fleet | Subfleet | Individual ID | Data Word Bitmap |
| S0 | X | Type II Systems | ||||
| S1 | A | 0 - 7 | 00 - 7F | A - C | 000 - 00F | PPPFFFFFFFSSIIII |
| S2 | B | 0 - 7 | 00 - 0F | A - G | 000 - 03F | PPPFFFFSSSIIIIII |
| S3 | C | 0 - 7 | 00 - 07 | A - G | 000 - 07F | PPPFFFSSSIIIIIII |
| S4 | D | 0 - 7 | 00 - 00 | A - O | 000 - 1FF | PPPSSSSIIIIIIIII |
| S5 | E | 0 - 7 | 00 - 3F | A - C | 000 - 01F | PPPFFFFFFSSIIIII |
| S6 | F | 0 - 7 | 00 - 1F | A - G | 000 - 01F | PPPFFFFFSSSIIIII |
| S7 | G | 0 - 7 | 00 - 1F | A - C | 000 - 03F | PPPFFFFFSSIIIIII |
| S8 | H | 0 - 7 | 00 - 0F | A - C | 000 - 07F | PPPFFFFSSIIIIIII |
| S9 | I | 0 - 7 | 00 - 07 | A - C | 000 - 0FF | PPPFFFSSIIIIIIII |
| S10 | J | 0 - 7 | 00 - 03 | A - G | 000 - 0FF | PPPFFSSSIIIIIIII |
| S11 | K | 0 - 7 | 00 - 01 | A - O | 000 - 0FF | PPPFSSSSIIIIIIII |
| S12 | M | 0-2-4-6 | 00 - 00 | A - O | 000 - 3FF | PPSSSSIIIIIIIIII |
| S13 | O | 0 - 4 | 00 - 00 | A - O | 000 - 7FF | PSSSSIIIIIIIIIII |
| S14 | Q | 0 - 0 | 00 - 00 | A - O | 000 - FFF | SSSSIIIIIIIIIIII |
The above information is courtsey of a post on SCAN-L. Used with permission of the poster.
Notes on Hybrid Sytems:
It's possible that there are a few Type I radios lurking in your system. If so, one or more of the 8 blocks will be designated as Type I blocks. In this case you have a Hybrid system, and it may be either a mix of Type I and Type II or Type IIi. Type IIi is where the radios transmit a Type II ID to the site controller but the controller looks up the Type II ID in a database and then format and transmits a Type I OSW reflecting the Fleet-Subfleet affiliation (not Talk Group affiliation, which is associated with Type II radios), of the requesting radio. These radios and their IDs appear as, and are treated as, Type I IDs by the mobile units. It really is only of academic interest to the user which of these radio Types, (I or IIi) actually generated the channel grant, it's all the same to the BC235. If there are Type I radios on your system it appears that they are not often used, as the IDs you posted were all Type II IDs. In general, you can identify a Type II system by the predominance of IDs which are integral multiples of 16. A pure Type I system will have an equal mix of both even and odd IDs. (This assumes you have "defined" the system as a Type II system). Even a pure Type II system will occasionally display some none Type II appearing IDs. These can be a number of things: A "patch" where two or more Talk Groups are "connected" together, an emergency button activation by a radio user, a digital (DVP etc.) encoded talk group, and other stuff I don't know about. If you are seeing a number of Type I IDs interspersed within what you know to be Type II IDs you will want to determine what block(s) the Type I IDs are in. Try this: divide the Type I ID by 8192, discard the fractional part. This will tell you what block the ID is coming from. Do this for several of the IDs across the range of IDs you are seeing so that you are sure you've got all the Type I blocks. There might be more than one. After you figure out which blocks seem to be Type I, reprogram the fleet map to make these blocks one of the Type I size codes. S3 or S4 are good ones to start with. Make all the other blocks Type II, (S0). Now pay attention to the Type I conversations, and see if you are hearing all the replies, (make sure you have Delay On). If so you're all set. If not, try a different size code and repeat. You think this is a pain? You should have seen the first cut at this fleet map assignment thing. It required you to determine not only the size code, but the starting ID of the Fleet-Subfleet, major aggravation! Even with what I consider to be the simple current method of setting up the fleet maps, I expect to hear lots of complaints. But there's no way around it. The radio (even Motorola's) must know this information to parse the OSW information. Courtsey of: Greg Knox
Online Resources for Trunked Radio Systems
Software
The TRUNKER program is also available, which may be an aid to finding talkgroups/fleets & sub-fleets. Check out the Hardware/Software page.Web Sites
Warren Witby's Trunked Radio Systems User's Page - Lots of info on trunked systems!ScanMaster's TrunkTracker Site
Columbus Area Trunktracker™ Codes
Toledo TrunkTracker Codes
Web Based Online Forum(s)
Trunked Radio ForumWeekly TrunkTracker Chat Monday's @ 10:00PM EST
Mailing Lists
Grove Enterprises operates an excellent resource for users of the TrunkTracker™, the Radio Trunking Mailing list, or TRUNKCOM. To subscribe email: majordomo@grove.net with the message "subscribe trunkcom" (minus the quotes, of courese.)Keyboard Tips
Reviewing Locked Out ID's
Hold down LO, till it beeps, then use Up/Down ( Limit / Hold ) to step through the LO Trunking ID's.. Courtesy of:Keith Knipschild N2NJSClearing All ID's Locked Out
Hold down LO, till it beeps then press E. Courtesy of:Keith Knipschild N2NJSReset Radio with Test Frequencies
Holding down the 2, scan, and 9 keys while turning the radio on sets some factory set frequencies into channels 1-30. Courtesy of: Kirk BaxterTotal Reset of Radio
Holding down 2, man, and 9 while turning on the radio resets the radio.The display says "uniden" and then everthing is reset. Courtesy of: Kirk Baxter
