[Scan-DC] Adding a Discriminator Output to a Scanner

[Dewey]

On the contrary... a discriminator tap supplements monitoring trunked
systems, digital or not.  By "viewing" the control channel, you get to "see"
all of the goodies that scanning misses.  Here are a few examples:

- Car 1 tells car 2 to "go to the other channel".  Just by watching the
radio ids and affiliations, you get to see what the "other channel" really
is, even before either one of the cars transmits (assuming they stay on the
same trunked system, and don't go to a conventional channel). 
- Same scenario, car 1 tells car 2 to go to tac.  In most of the cases
around here, you can see many other units switch to tac also just to
eavesdrop.
- You get to see radios turn on (affiliate) and turn off/go
conventional/switch systems (deaffiliate).
- In Trunk88, you can enter a radio id, then press [Control A] to see where
the radio is now (channel), what other channels it has switched to, and
which of those channels it has actually transmitted on during those times
that Trunk88 was decoding.
- You get to see what channels radios will "pop up" on even if they never
transmit on those channels.
- Other goodies depending on your desires.

While the Uniden XTs will output discriminator data without a tap (they can
be set to send the control channel data through the interface cable), I
still plan on adding discriminator taps after warranty as I like to always
have discriminator output available to me instead of having to turn it on
and off.

Dewey

-----Original Message-----
From: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Blair Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 12:43 PM
To: Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Scan-DC] Adding a Discriminator Output to a Scanner

Is there any point to doing this modification anymore? I used to think it
was necessary for listening to the ATCS information, but I think that is not
so. Is not everything you need for that available on a pair of 800-something
MHz frequencies?

http://www.atcsmon.com/scandata.txt

People who have made the mod talk about using it to view trunking
information, but isn't this somewhat of a moot point, now that the local LE
is digital? Is the modification useful for viewing weather faxes?

I'm just curious to hear who has done one of these, and does he still find
it useful. 

Thanks.

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