As airwaves become increasingly crowded, more and more agencies are switching from analog radio systems to trunk radio systems. A trunk radio system allows the members of a talk group to share a pool of radio frequencies. This means that one frequency can be used by more than one party. This system is highly efficient, but can only be monitored by digital trunking scanners.
Trunking technology has actually been around for quite some time. This technology was first used by telephone companies. The phone companies would trunk lines so that they did not need to establish connections for every possible call.
Although trunking technology has been around for a while, the widespread use of trunk radio is relatively new. More jurisdictions are switching to trunk radios for several reasons. First of all, the wide-spread use of radios has led to crowded airwaves. Trunking systems allow those people that depend on radio communication to get more use out of a limited number of frequencies. Trunk radio is highly efficient.
An added benefit of trunk radio is that transmissions are impossible to monitor with a traditional analog scanner. This is because conversations in a trunk system jump around between several different frequencies, so anyone trying to follow a single trunk system user with an analog scanner will only pick up bits and pieces of the actual dialog. Digital trunking scanners are the only way to accurately follow conversations is a trunk system.
A digital trunking scanner differs from an analog scanner in the way that it tracks transmissions. A trunk tracking scanner has the ability to identify a solitary talk group. The listener can then program the scanner to exclusively monitor that talk group ID. The trunking scanner will then follow the individual ID as it jumps from one frequency to the next. Digital trunking scanners are a fun and efficient way to monitor trunk radio systems.
