231 - What Happens When Trunk Systems Fail?

Published: May 24, 2022, noon

What happens when a trunk system fails?

Where do the radio users go?

How do they communicate?

In this session, we\u2019ll go over how trunk systems are supposed to work, what happens when they fail, and what can happen if an administrator plans for failure.

What You Need To Know

  • I was able to watch our new P25 system fail several months after it was populated with radios and users
  • These users were part of the county police system and they needed to fall back to cell phone communications while the system was offline
  • Trunk systems are a pool of frequencies with group of users called Talk Groups
  • All radios on the system listen to the control channel, which acts as a director, and tells all users what frequencies to go to and when to go.
  • What happens when that controller fails?
  • If the radio fails, we would have the alternative control channels kick in and resume control of the system.
  • The entire site could go offline or become an island site
  • Or we can have full loss of all trunking, and this is called Failsoft in a Motorola systems
  • When we are in fail soft mode, a system acts as a conventional repeater system
  • Radios are assigned a home frequency based on the talk group they are currently using.
  • The trunk system will send out a beacon to alert the radios they are supposed to fall into Failsoft mode, and all radios will beep to notify the end user they are in Failsoft.
  • As a scanner radio user, we would need to program the trunk system\u2019s voice channels in our radios as conventioal frequencies in order to continue to hear the system once it is in Failsoft.
  • A good System Administrator would have thought of a backup plan and would have programmed a backup zone into all the radios on the system.
  • You might be able to find your local county\u2019s radio guides by doing some google searching for the trunk system.

\xa0

====================================

\U0001f399 Join our new Scanner Radio Community

====================================

Join our FREE Discord server and connect with other Scanner Radio Users!

By using Discord, a free, multi-platform community portal, you can now be part of the Scanner Radio Discussion!

Chat real time, share photos, ask questions, and give feedback to other's in chat.

\U0001f517 https://www.scannerschool.com/discord

\xa0

====================================

\U0001f393 Check out our online courses

====================================

Our free Software Defined Radio course will have you up and running with a SDR in a weekend.

Upgrade to our Advanced Course, and learn how to setup SDR Software like a pro.

\U0001f517 https://www.courses.scannerschool.com

\xa0

====================================

\u26a0\ufe0f I want to answer your questions

====================================

I am always looking to answer your scanner radio question.

If you have a question you'd like answered, please leave me a voicemail with your question:

\U0001f4de 516-308-2885

\U0001f517 https://www.scannerschool.com/ask

\xa0

====================================

\U0001f3c6 Thank you Patreon Supporters

====================================

Thank you to all monthly Patreon Supporters.

Supporting the podcast can be done for as little as $1 per month.

Supporters at the $3 and $5 level will receive the podcast without the middle commercial break.

Supporters at the $5 level not only receive the podcast early, but they also get access to discount codes, monthly zoom meetings, and Squelchy sticker packs.

\U0001f517 Join our Patreon program at https://www.scannerschool.com/patreon

\xa0

====================================

\U0001f3a5 Subscribe to our growing YouTube Channel

====================================

We are live once a month on YouTube to answer your questions. 2022 will be the year of Video for Scanner School Be ready for the upcoming videos by subscribing now to our YouTube channel

\U0001f517 https://www.scannerschool.com/youtube

\xa0

====================================

\u27a1\ufe0f Follow Scanner School on Social Media

====================================

\u25b6\ufe0e Twitter - https://www.scannerschool.com/twitter

\u25b6\ufe0e Facebook Page - https://www.scannerschool.com/facebook\xa0

\u25b6\ufe0e Facebook Community - https://www.scannerschool.com/faceboo...

\u25b6\ufe0e Instagram - https://www.scannerschool.com/instagram

\u25b6\ufe0e TikTok - https://www.scannerschool.com/tiktok\xa0

====================================

All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at\xa0

https://www.scannerschool.com/session231

#podcast