Moving to Loveland, RX info needed

[Audiodave1]

Hello Group,
My brother is moving to Loveland soon from the East coast. I'm trying to send along what I can to give him the best possible reception for the regional systems. The regional federal VHF and DTRS seem pretty easy but are there any locals that can provide me with some info on which systems from the south (800 or otherwise) are receivable with 400 or 800Mhz Yagi's and quality coax. Looks like local HOA will not permit a tower but I'm sure something in the attic or low level outside could be worked out.

Thanks for any insight.

Dave

[dracer777]

If he is moving into the city of loveland and only wants to track loveland, a standard rubber duck would likely do the job, the state DTRS in CO is fairly easy to track regardless of antenna(of course, if you need or want longer range, you need a better antenna). I have a 396xt and used to have a pro-106, and have no problem tracking the DTRS. I can hear towers around 15 miles from my location with the standard rubber duck that came with my 396xt. He will need a digital scanner(not undermining your knowledge, just making sure you know ....)

I would say if he wants to track his local jurisdiction, standard equipment is fine, and anything external or separate from the scanner is overkill for local districts. So send him with what you are willing to give him (or he is willing to buy) and he should be well equiped to track local and somewhat distant comms. Also, the nice thing about the DTRS is that you can hear fairly far away comms(depanding on many factors) because it is a statewide sys and many talkgroups get repeated alot further away than actually needed. For instance, I can hear a talkgroup that actually has jurisdiction 45 miles from me.

I hope that helps. (:

EDIT: There are not very many( and I mean VERY FEW) public safety comms that are VHF in CO, for the most part everyone is on the DTRS. And I just realized you were a database admin, you already knew he needed a digital model to track the DTRS. :P

[Audiodave1]

Hello and thank you for the info.

For VHF I was referring to possibly the Boulder county channels.

If one wanted to monitor systems outside DTRS, are there any 800 systems outside the area that can be received such as the Arvada, Lakewood or Denver systems?

Based on the covereage plots a I see on there it appears unlikely but I wanted to ask anyway.

Regards,
Dave

[scanlist]

Depends on which end of the city your brother moves to. Loveland is a good sized city that extends to the I-25 corridor to the East, Berthoud to the South, Fort Collins to the North and the mountains to the West. The Eastern areas of the city give you the ability to hear some wide coverage DTRS sites covering the Denver Metro area.

Boulder county should not be a problem for hearing the North and South simulcast channels for Green and RED-1. I have heard Westy/Arvada EDACS on a portable in the Eastern parts of town.

Denver forget it. It's a simulcast system and the multiple signals clashing along with wide varying signal conditions make it difficult for the scanner to lock on the CC if there is any signal at all. Also Denver PS and Lakewood use ESK on their control channels requiring an ESK capable scanner such as the Uniden 396/996 GRE 500/600 or Radioshack PRO-106/197.

UHF for PS is non-existant with the exception of Evergreen Fire.

[dracer777]

Wirelessly posted (MOT-QA30/00.72 UP.Browser/7.2.7.5.610 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

Right, I think most things outside the DTRS are a stretch in Loveland. Boulder is probably the only thing you will be able to pick up. However, everything else that was mentioned seems to be a stretch to me, which scanlist has addressed. I can't receive denver with my rubber duck and I am 15-20 miles north of it, so you be the judge regarding a larger, better antenna, consider Denver is approximately 60 miles from Loveland.

[Audiodave1]

Thanks for the info. This will make it easier and not allow one's hopes to go up too much on the Denver type comms.

He'll be on the SE side of town.

Thanks again everyone.
Dave

[dracer777]

Wirelessly posted (MOT-QA30/00.72 UP.Browser/7.2.7.5.610 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

Also, if he's looking to just hear crime and something exciting on the radio, he should be able to hear either Greeley PD on the loveland towers or he may be able to hear one of the Greeley DTRS towers, but there is a decent amount of exciting listening there, nothing like city of Denver, but it should suffice. The TGs are 1900, 1901-1904, 1905 is encrypted 95% of the time.

[Audiodave1]

Good info thanks,
He mostly monitors LE and aviation.

He'll hook up the stacked 800 Yagi's just to be sure the south counties are un-reachable. Based on distance and tower heights I suspect this is the case also. Not a change on a mobile.

One of the first orders of business will be tracking down the regional FED's. The usual 3 letter agencies provide us with quite a bit of monitoring here in the Philadelphia region where encryption is seen about 50% of the time. It's amazing the coverage of their systems but I guess when you can crank out 1Kw on VHF or UHF repeaters it makes a bit easier to listen from afar.

It'll be quite a change from the current monitoring radius of Baltimore, Wash DC when propagation is good and the Philly burbs.

Dave

[dracer777]

Wirelessly posted (MOT-QA30/00.72 UP.Browser/7.2.7.5.610 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

Haha, right. And youre welcome. Just out of curiosity, what radio/scanner[s] will he be using? Sorry, just got my curiousity going after talking about this.

[Audiodave1]

Uniden 9000, 895, 780, 796, 996, 296, 396XL. RS 2006.