Locations on ALMR

[fbx22]

So when Im scanning and it locks on Juneau or Ester Dome and Im in Fairbanks what is actually going on here. I know Im not actually getting the towers that far away

[fbx22]

So when Im scanning and it locks on Juneau or Ester Dome for instance and Im in ANCHORAGE what is actually going on here. I know Im not actually getting the towers that far away. Can these all be set somehow to come on and off by location without a GPS or does that require a GPS? The scanner spends lots of time checking the 100 or so locations when it really only needs to be checking 8 or 10. I miss almr transmissions and apd transmissions due to it taking so long to scan them all.

[hankv]

Originally Posted by fbx22

So when Im scanning and it locks on Juneau or Ester Dome for instance and Im in ANCHORAGE what is actually going on here. I know Im not actually getting the towers that far away. Can these all be set somehow to come on and off by location without a GPS or does that require a GPS? The scanner spends lots of time checking the 100 or so locations when it really only needs to be checking 8 or 10. I miss almr transmissions and apd transmissions due to it taking so long to scan them all.

As a guess, some TG's may be carried on all towers.

If you program the TG's you want to hear, then switch the scanner to ID SCAN/CLOSED mode, you should only hear the ones you want to listen to. If you are in ID SEARCH/OPEN mode you hear everything.

[gregmoss]

Originally Posted by fbx22

So when Im scanning and it locks on Juneau or Ester Dome for instance and Im in ANCHORAGE what is actually going on here. I know Im not actually getting the towers that far away. Can these all be set somehow to come on and off by location without a GPS or does that require a GPS? The scanner spends lots of time checking the 100 or so locations when it really only needs to be checking 8 or 10. I miss almr transmissions and apd transmissions due to it taking so long to scan them all.

The ALMR system is statewide. So you may pick up different towers. APD's not on the ALMR system, so you maybe picking the state troopers or AST from different towers and location's. I'm also in the anchorage area. What kind of scanner do use for scanning the ALMR system? If you own a pro-96 plug in these control channels, if your trying too catch AST transmissions. 154.8000, 154.6650, 155.9100 Also check your delay settings if you miss almr transmissions due to it taking so long to scan them all.

[fbx22]

Originally Posted by gregmoss

The ALMR system is statewide. So you may pick up different towers. APD's not on the ALMR system, so you maybe picking the state troopers or AST from different towers and location's. I'm also in the anchorage area. What kind of scanner do use for scanning the ALMR system? If you own a pro-96 plug in these control channels, if your trying too catch AST transmissions. 154.8000, 154.6650, 155.9100 Also check your delay settings if you miss almr transmissions due to it taking so long to scan them all.

Im using the BCD996T. I also dont mean Im hearing apd on almr but on their conventional system. I just cant figure out why its telling me Im hearing troopers on towers located in sitka, juneau, etc. Maybe the frequencies there are the same as towers in palmer, anchorage, or seward for instance and it happens to use juneau?

[hankv]

Originally Posted by fbx22

I just cant figure out why its telling me Im hearing troopers on towers located in sitka, juneau, etc. Maybe the frequencies there are the same as towers in palmer, anchorage, or seward for instance and it happens to use juneau?

Two possibilities:

Most Statewide systems (like ALMR) are linked over a computerized backbone.

If a unit from Juneau gets within range of a tower in Fairbanks, all traffic from his Talk Group(TG) in Juneau starts broadcasting in Fairbanks. It will still be identified as a Juneau TG, and anyone monitoring in Fairbanks will hear all units using that TG, even though most of them are in Juneau.

Second possibility - You might be hearing a Statewide TG which is broadcast from all towers.

[kikito]

Originally Posted by fbx22

Im using the BCD996T.I just cant figure out why its telling me Im hearing troopers on towers located in sitka, juneau, etc. Maybe the frequencies there are the same as towers in palmer, anchorage, or seward for instance and it happens to use juneau?

What's probably happening is that you programmed ALL the control channel frequencies and their corresponding labels as listed in the database. And if you happen to be in Anchorage and the radio tunes to 154.8000, that's the N. Anchorage site 135 and NOT the Sitka site "518", regardless of what the label says in this case.

The radio only looks at the frequencies and NOT their labels. During the scanning cycle if it comes across one of the channels with 154.8000 in it and it's active locally, it'll tune to it even if it's the one labeled Sitka.

The frequencies for this system get re-used when they're far apart enough from each other i.e. frequencies assigned to Anchorage might also be used in Juneau or Sitka since there's enough separation to not interfere with each other. So the best way to find out which tower you're really tuned to, is to Hold on the control channel and see what tower number is displayed and correlate that with the site numbers on the database i.e. 154.8000 in the Anchorage area will most likely show you a site # of 135 so you'll know is the N. Anchorage one.

Bottom line is: You should only program the frequencies and their corresponding labels that are within the Borough you live in. Because otherwise you'll have unnecesary repeats in your banks and the probability to see the wrong labels displayed for the local frequencies.