Motorola MTX 8250 Scanning...programming

[iobidder]

I have searched, and searched...so please be easy on me.

I am extremely curious on the actual scanning capabilities on this radio, specifically I obviously do not want to transmit, just listen. I am getting mixed messages from different things I read about programming and listening to trunked systems such as a local PD. Any insight whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!

[HLA]

being on somebodys trunking system without their permission is a no-no, even if you're just listening. if it's legal in your area just use a scanner.

[iobidder]

Thanks for your response, but I do not see the difference if you cannot transmit eitherway.

[JPOPatents]

I have searched, and searched...so please be easy on me.

I am extremely curious on the actual scanning capabilities on this radio, specifically I obviously do not want to transmit, just listen. I am getting mixed messages from different things I read about programming and listening to trunked systems such as a local PD. Any insight whatsoever would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!

Welcome to one of the most controversial topics on the forum.

You can program this radio for any Type II or Type IIi trunked system, or for any conventional channel. If you program the radio for a trunked system, you will violate the law if the radio affiliates. Also, in order to program the radio for a trunked system, you will need a system key which is a file that you load into CPS. The system key is typically provided by the system administrator to the radio shop for programming the radios, but there are other ways to obtain a system key. There are various views on the legality of using a system key without permission of the system administrator, which is the crux of the controversy.

The safest and clearly legitimate way of programming the radio for monitoring a trunked system is to program all of the frequencies as conventional "receive only" channels. However, you will not be able to follow the talkgroups, so you would be better off with a scanner.

I doubt that anyone on this forum will give you step by step instructions on how to program a trunked system into the radio because they do not want to be responsible if something goes wrong. There are many threads on this forum and others about the topic, with all the information that one could possibly want/need to program a trunked system into the radio, but you will still need a system key if you want to follow talkgroups.