74 Operating in conventional modeUnderstanding talkgroupsThis feature is available for DMR digital channels only.A talkgroup is a collection of radio users with whomyou want to have private conversations. For example,a state's public safety agencies could have thefollowing talkgroups:■ Local talkgroups—used by a specific agency tocommunicate within their own local agency. It mayeven be made up of a county of public safety offi-cers.■ Regional talkgroups—used by large state agen-cies that have regional divisions.■ Statewide talkgroups—used by an agency to com-municate with public safety members in otherregions. Statewide talkgroups, as their name sug-gests, enable public safety agencies to communi-cate with each other from one end of the state tothe other.■ Special event talkgroups—may be used to man-age emergencies encompassing a large area, oreven events such as visits by heads of state.Talkgroups can be assigned to each channel, to allowa users to:■ initiate a call to a talkgroup by pressing PTT■ listen and respond to conversations on none, oneor multiple talkgroupsThe channel may be named to reflect its talkgroupassociation. When making a call, the talkgroup namewill appear.Your radio may also be programmed to show theTalkgroups menu which allows you to change thetalkgroup you want to call and listen to on the currentchannel.
