trunkview MAINT question

[rredbeak]

Trunkview wont track some voice channels.

It says to follow MAINT conversations ive got to modify Trunkview.ini . im having issues doing this..

Is there another way please ?


Cheers Rod

[Comint]

Trunkview wont track some voice channels.

It says to follow MAINT conversations ive got to modify Trunkview.ini . im having issues doing this..

Is there another way please ?


Cheers Rod

Don't understand the problem. The ini file is a TEXT file and can be edited with Notepad or Wordpad, or similar.

If the perceived problem is that you are only hearing one side of the conversation, then in most cases the FollowMaint change won't help you.

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[rredbeak]

i appreciate your response but im not explaining it well.

with trunkview controlling the scanner and the .xml sites installed from this forum its pretty comprehensive.

But ive noticed on a voice contact the display changes to GTC while the audio is happenning,but occasionally when the tal;k goes to the next channel i get stuck with motor noise BUT the display says MAINT.

I went to trunkview website and thought i found the answer. It said to OPEN trunkview.ini go to sites and make MAINT=1.It says by changing the value to =1 will cause trunkview to follow MAINT.

thus my confusion as im having trouble even openning the ini file. Its there but unopenable.

Now,silly as it is,can you tell me what MAINT is and is it fruitless me trying to follow it?
yes,i often only hear one side of the conversation.
Cheers Rod

[Stretch]

My 2 cents and I hope it helps, right click on the trunkview.ini and click open with notepad

[rredbeak]

TY,ill go give it a go.
Cheers Rod

[Comint]

But ive noticed on a voice contact the display changes to GTC while the audio is happenning,but occasionally when the tal;k goes to the next channel i get stuck with motor noise BUT the display says MAINT.

I went to trunkview website and thought i found the answer. It said to OPEN trunkview.ini go to sites and make MAINT=1.It says by changing the value to =1 will cause trunkview to follow MAINT.

Actually you may have to create a [Sites] section, within the .ini file, and ADD the following:-

FollowMaint=1

and is it fruitless me trying to follow it?

Generally Yes.

The scenarios are thus:-

If both radios are on the same Site, then you hear both sides of the conversation.

If one radio is on the local Site, and the second radio is on a nearby Site that you can also hear, then (from memory) with FollowMaint=1 the scanner will be switched between the two Sites, and you will thus hear both sides of the conversation.

If one radio is on the local Site, and the second radio is on a distant Site which is NOT within monitoring distance, then with FollowMaint=1 the scanner will be switched to the second Site and will NOT return to the local Site, or to the Control Channel, because such commands are sent over the Voice Channel, which the scanner is unable to hear because the Distant Site in NOT within monitoring distance. And as most conversations are of this latter type of scenario, IMHO it is best not to worry about following MAINT messages.

yes,i often only hear one side of the conversation.

Which is usually the Distant radio, because the Trunking System Controller (TSC) knows that it is a waste of time broadcasting the local radio over the Local Site, because the 'target radio' is on the Distant Site.

Have you got the Voice Call Timeout set? - Options > Settings > Sound Device > Voice Call Timeout.
(about 190 secs is a good value).

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[rredbeak]

WOW,ive just had quite an education,ive never heard of this before yesterday.

Ok ill create a site file in .ini and try.
I opened the other file in notepad as suggested earlier [TY] but theres no maint in either.

Anyway,if i fail with creating a file etc etc then ill forget about MAINT.

YES and NO ,i saw the voice timeout option .its current value is 0 and not knowing what i was doing i assumed its a default of "0". But ill now change it to 190 ish.

Many thanks everyone.It IS appreciated.

Cheers Rod

[Comint]

Ok ill create a site file in .ini and try.
I opened the other file in notepad as suggested earlier [TY] but theres no maint in either.

Huh! Stretch and I are talking about the same file - TrunkView.ini

YES and NO ,i saw the voice timeout option .its current value is 0 and not knowing what i was doing i assumed its a default of "0". But ill now change it to 190 ish.

It is a default of "0", and some people leave it at that.

History:

Under the MPT1327 Protocol, to prevent individual users from tying up the network with lengthy calls, calls can have up to a 4 minutes 15 seconds time-out (255 secs). I don't know whether it is just Network wide, or whether different clients (Prefixes) can have different time-out times. Telstra Fleetcoms has a Network-wide time-out of 3 minutes (180 secs). Biscom appears to be shorter, and I have never paid too much attention to Vertels.

The Clear Down message is broadcast on the Voice Channel, and for various reasons, this isn't always detected by TrunkView, so the scanner stays on the Voice channel long after the Call is finished, and the speakers stay un-muted. Yuck!. This also happens when you have FollowMaint=1, and the scanner goes off to some Site which it can't hear. eg, you're monitoring a Site in Ipswich, and the other radio in on a Site up near Gympie. The scanner can't hear the Maint message from the Gympie Site, to return it to Ipswich, so it is stuck in limbo (with the speakers un-muted).

With TrunkView's Voice Call Timeout set at 180+ secs, TrunkView will return the scanner to the Control Channel in the event the Clear Down message is not heard, and without terminating the Call prematurely. I chose 190 secs, because I couldn't determine exactly when the timer started counting, and I had found that with 180 secs, it was actually chopping off the very end of the call, and I was too lazy to see if 181, or 182, or 183 secs etc., was a suitable value. I went straight from 180 to 190. It worked, so I left it at that. I suspect you could reduce it to 185 secs, without any problems.

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[rredbeak]

ok,will do that.
im on the road at the moment with our caravan,we're heading to cairns to pickup a relly then off to mt isa.
im on the laptop from now on so i need d/l trunkview all over again,but,this time im aware on setting it up.

i dont expect much trunking between cities but might get lucky around gympie,bundy rocky etc etc

Ty gentlemen for the neverending help,its all a learning curve that im slowly grasping.im old and need plenty of thinking time ROFL.

Cheers Rod

[Comint]

ok,will do that.
im on the road at the moment with our caravan,we're heading to cairns to pickup a relly then off to mt isa.
im on the laptop from now on so i need d/l trunkview all over again,but,this time im aware on setting it up.

i dont expect much trunking between cities but might get lucky around gympie,bundy rocky etc etc

Ty gentlemen for the neverending help,its all a learning curve that im slowly grasping.im old and need plenty of thinking time ROFL.

Cheers Rod

Oh, there are a few Sites up that way. Unfortunately, in most cases, I've got them listed by their Site location, rather than the towns they are near.

Listed North to South, there is supposed to be:-
Fleetcoms UHF and Biscom VHF on Mt Yarrabah (Cairns)
Biscom VHF on Mt Bellenden Ker
Fleetcoms UHF on Graham Range (Babinda/Innisfail)
Biscom VHF on Mt Cudmore East (Ingham)
Fleetcoms UHF and Biscom VHF on Mt Stuart (Townsville)
Biscom VHF on Kelly Mountain (Ayr)
Biscom VHF at Charters Towers
Biscom VHF on Mt Lucas (Proserpine)
Biscom VHF on The Black Mountain (Mackay)
Fleetcoms UHF and Biscom VHF on Mt Archer (Rockhampton)
Biscom VHF at Lady Larcom (WNW of Gladstone)
Biscom VHF on Westwood Range (east of Miriamvale)
Biscom VHF on Mt Watalgan (north of Gin Gin)
Fleetcoms UHF at Mt Ghrooman-Bille (west of Gympie)
Fleetcoms UHF on Mothar Mountain (south of Gympie)
Biscom VHF and Vertel UHF on Mt Boulder (south of Gympie)

The above are all MPT1327.

There is also a 800 MHz Motorola Smartnet system at Rockhampton (for the City Council). and Boyne Island (Gladstone area) used to have an EDACS system, but it is now some unknown digital system (unmonitorable).

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[rredbeak]

bloody hell,i had no idea it was so wide spread,i thought capital cities only would need freq sharing of trunking.

Just a bit short or rocky tonight [gin gin] but am hearing nothing.maybe cause its sunday.

Cheers Rod

[Comint]

bloody hell,i had no idea it was so wide spread,i thought capital cities only would need freq sharing of trunking.

Just a bit short or rocky tonight [gin gin] but am hearing nothing.maybe cause its sunday.

Cheers Rod

When you say you aren't hearing anything, do you mean you are hearing a Control Channel, but no conversations, or are you not even hearing a Control Channel.

Control Channels broadcast 24/7.

Gin Gin is about 232K sou'sou'east of Rockhampton, and about 32K south of Mt Watalgan, so probably a bit of a stretch to hear anything without a gain antenna.

And yes, the majority of activity on Sites outside the Brisbane area, is during the week in daylight hours.

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Comint

[rredbeak]

ok,understand better now. Still in Gin Gin but not even a control channel,but youve kindly explained why due to the 32Km distance.

Ill keep an ear out as we travell.

Cheers Rod

[Comint]

ok,understand better now. Still in Gin Gin but not even a control channel,but youve kindly explained why due to the 32Km distance.

Ill keep an ear out as we travell.

Cheers Rod

When I'm travelling, I usually work on a maximum distance of 10 to 15 K from a Site for a reliable signal. Preferably closer.

Check your PM.

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Comint