In Reply to: What is Trunking??? posted by Robby on November 22, 2000 at 19:43:33:
Trunking is a way for organizations to share radio resources. If you tune around the 800mhz band with your scanner you will hear a lot of Data sounds emitting continous burst of information. In a trunking radio, there is what amounts to a modem that listens to these channels for data, and directs the radio to tune to any of 30+ frequencies stored in a trunked radio. In this way, frequencies become moot, and a network is established comprised of "User IDs" or more commonly called "Talk Group ID's". Each individual public agency has their own log on number to the network, 18344 for example. It is possible to store and monitor these numbers on a TrunkTracker, and when that agency keys up on the system, the data control channel tells your scanner which frequency to monitor. Agencies hop around these frequencies not only to make it difficult to track, but more importantly, to maximize the their resources. Agencies on the system have access to change ID's, and cooperate with 100+ (and potentialy 1000's) of departments on the system. Uniden makes an excellent Trunker for monitoring many different types of these systems; the BC245xlt.