Boulder County DTRS Sites

[jfab]

Can anyone advise on the best sites to use for Longmont PD/Fire and Boulder County's tac channels?

Thanks!

 

[scanlist]

Longmont choices:

1st Sunset
2nd Mead
3rd Gunbarrel FD
4th Thorodin
5th Bald South (Loveland)

County:

1st Gunbarrel
2nd Thorodin

 

[n0nhp]

P25 scanners are not limited to a single site, Put all the control channels in that you can hear. Put in the TGs that you want to listen to and push the scan button.

Bruce

 

[jfab]

Interesting, I've always been told that "less is more" so to speak when it comes to P25 sites. Is this not true? I try to limit myself to 2-3 sites per system.

 

[n0nhp]

It may be different on the front range where there are many more towers available at a single location, but with the speed of the processors in the new scanners, having 5 or 6 control channels and limiting the TGs I want to listen to, I very seldom miss transmissions.
Less is more when you are searching for talk groups, I will usually lock to a single control channel and monitor it in the open receive mode to be able to see who is using the system.
The other reason not to put in a control channel would be if the signal strength is marginal.
I have found that with non-dispatch channels such as the fire tacs you are talking about, talk groups may not appear on a particular site all the time, depends on where it is being used and who is associated with what site.
In that case More is Better ;-)

And the advice is worth every penny you paid for it

Bruce

 

[ecanderson]

Depending upon where you are in Broomfield, you may find that VHF works just fine, and possibly better than DTRS, for both City of Longmont PD and Boulder County SO.

I say this because while Longmont PD's DTRS TAC talkgroup is very often encrypted, the VHF frequency being used for simulcast may often be in the clear. In particular, keep your ears open on the secondary channel at 151.31 and TAC1 on 151.22.

As for Boulder, they run a 3 freq VHF simulcast system for dispatch, but also run various VHF channels for tac use.

Heck, in the right spot, I can pick out Longmont VHF clearly in Commerce City. Much will depend upon where you are since Broomfield takes in a fair bit of territory with some differing terrain.

 

[Steve2003]

P25 scanners are not limited to a single site, Put all the control channels in that you can hear. Put in the TGs that you want to listen to and push the scan button.

Bruce

Older scanners like the Pro-96 don't support multi-site trunking. You can program in multiple sites, but the scanner will stay parked on the first control channel it finds until the signal is lost. There is a way around this (see below)

Here is how I program my scanners for a multi-site setup:

Pro-96
Program every-other channel as a control channel.
Example:
Ch. 000 = P25 Site (Mot)
Ch. 001 = FM or CT Frequency
Ch. 002 = P25 Site (Mot)
Ch. 003 = FM or CT Frequency
(The FM/CT frequency cannot be blank for this to work, I usually use a non-used frequency to make this work)

GRE PSR-500, GRE PSR-600, RS PRO-197, & RS PRO-106
Change the multi-site mode to stationary for the system you wish to monitor. Pressing "MAN" on a talkgroup will hold on the talkgroup and check multiple sites. If you pause on a talkgroup only one site will be monitored.

GRE PSR-800
Create a separate system with only one control channel for the sites you want to monitor (If you duplicate a system all of your scanlists will also be duplicated).

Uniden 396XT & 996XT
These scanners will scan multiple sites if you are not holding on a talkgroup. Once you hold on a group the scanner will stay parked on a site. If signal is lost the scanner will then find a new site to stay parked on.

Longmont choices:

1st Sunset
2nd Mead
3rd Gunbarrel FD
4th Thorodin
5th Bald South (Loveland)

County:

1st Gunbarrel
2nd Thorodin

The only one of these I have been able to log is Thorodin but I agree with scanlist on these. Here is a site profile I have generated for Longmont PD/FD on some of the other metro area sites:

 

[Halfpint]

Longmont choices:

1st Sunset
2nd Mead
3rd Gunbarrel FD
4th Thorodin
5th Bald South (Loveland)

County:

1st Gunbarrel
2nd Thorodin

Depending upon where you are in Broomfield, you may find that VHF works just fine, and possibly better than DTRS, for both City of Longmont PD and Boulder County SO.

I say this because while Longmont PD's DTRS TAC talkgroup is very often encrypted, the VHF frequency being used for simulcast may often be in the clear. In particular, keep your ears open on the secondary channel at 151.31 and TAC1 on 151.22.

As for Boulder, they run a 3 freq VHF simulcast system for dispatch, but also run various VHF channels for tac use.

Heck, in the right spot, I can pick out Longmont VHF clearly in Commerce City. Much will depend upon where you are since Broomfield takes in a fair bit of territory with some differing terrain.

I agree with *both* Scanlist's and ECAnderson's suggestions. While I spend the majority of my scanning time in the SW Weld and Greeley areas I also regularly visit the Longmont / Eastern Boulder city area enough that I have dedicated ScanSets and Scanlists for those excursions. (These days find me usually carrying at least one PSR-800 & PSR-700 though I have also had a PSR-310 or PSR-500 along if I'm likely to get in some `foaming' or other scanning in.)

As I basically only have GRE scanners I can't comment on how to setup the Uniden line of scanners. But, with the GRE scanners, if one feels that they aren't quite hearing everything it is quite easy to put together several different Scanlists and/or Scansets and then set those up as different VScanners for those different situations and switch between them as needed. Sometimes after a while one finds whatever `mix' does the job and eventually settles on that one, or two, and can keep those combinations that work and start working on new Scanlists / Scansets / VScanners for something new. At least for me, this is one of the `neat' things about scanning.