Right Way to Program Your Scanner - Pt.2

Programming Trunking Talkgroups & Banks

In a trunk radio system (TRS), users share a group of frequencies. Users are assigned one or more numerical group id’s called “talkgroups.” Field radios are programmed to only pick-up transmissions for that group. 

In a large TRS, you may find that there are a large number of users including police, fire-EMS, public works, street maintenance, animal control, city engineers, etc., etc. Since each user could have one or more talkgroup ID’s, a TRS could have dozen’s and dozen’s of talkgroups ID depending on the number of users.

 Talkgroup ID Banks

Trunking scanners allow you to program talkgroups ID’s into “talkgroup banks”, usually 5-10 banks, each with room for 5 talkgroup ID’s as shown below. 

This is VERY useful as it eliminate having to listen to every user and talkgroup on a TRS, especially if there are dozen’s of talkgroups.

The key to monitoring a trunk radio system is to strategically program talkgroups within talkgroup banks that can be used to your advantage. Talkgroups for a particular use or agency should be stored together in one talkgroup bank. 

Police in one, fire in another bank and so on. Talkgroups banks can then be turned on & off and/or individual talkgroups can be locked out.

Bank 1 – Trunk Radio System Name

·         Talkgroup ID Bank 1 (Police)

·         Talkgroup ID 1 (Dispatch)

·         Talkgroup ID 2 (Tactical)

·         Talkgroup ID 3 (Detectives)

·         Talkgroup ID 4 (SWAT)

·         Talkgroup ID 5 ()

·         Talkgroup ID Bank 2 (Fire)

·         Talkgroup ID 1 (Dispatch)

·         Talkgroup ID 2 (Response)

·         Talkgroup ID 3 (Fireground)

·         Talkgroup ID 4 (Rescue)

·         Talkgroup ID 5

·         Talkgroup Bank 3

·         Talkgroup Bank 4

·         Talkgroup Bank 5

In the example above, if you just wanted to monitor police you, you would turn of Talkgroup bank 2 and any other banks you have programmed and just have the scanner monitor bank one.

Note: Some trunking scanners may have “sub-bank” within each main bank allowing for more talkgroup storage such as shown below:

·         Talkgroup ID Bank 1

·         Talkgroup ID Sub-bank 1

·         Talkgroup ID 1

·         Talkgroup ID 2

·         Talkgroup ID 3

·         Talkgroup ID 4

·         Talkgroup ID 5

·         Talkgroup ID Sub-bank 2

·         Talkgroup ID 1

·         Talkgroup ID 2

·         Talkgroup ID 3

·         Talkgroup ID 4

·         Talkgroup ID 5

·         Talkgroup ID Sub-bank 3

·         Talkgroup ID Sub-bank 4

·         Talkgroup ID Sub-bank 5

·         Talkgroup ID Bank 2

·         Talkgroup ID Bank 3

·         Talkgroup ID Bank 4

·         Talkgroup ID Bank 5       

And that is pretty much it on programming talkgroups into your scanner for optimal monitoring. Refer to your scanner's manual for specifics on programming frequencies for your trunking system. 

If you are looking for scanner frequencies, check out out Scanner Frequency Resources page or our Custom Frequency Search Service.