Hopefully a few simple questions.

[brcampbell]

First the background.
I live in Washington Co. Tennessee, which RR states is a type IIi hybrid system. My scanner is a RS Pro-2050 with a RS 800 mhz trunking rubber duckie antenna. I want to listen to Washington County Sheriffs Office, Johnson City Police Department and Jonesborough Police Department. The area is mountainous.

Now the questions.
1) I can follow the conversations for all the departments I want to listen to but there is a small amount of hiss in the background on some of the transmissions. Is this expected when listening to a scanner? Would all the hiss go away if I were to install an outside antenna specifically for 800mhz?

2) Wanting to buy a handheld trunking scanner. I've read on here about the rebanding and also read somewhere (can't remember where) that Washington County Communications District is looking into purchasing another radio system. Would it be a good idea to wait until after the rebanding or is it a pretty safe bet that scanners supporting rebanding will actually support it.

 

[mikeydcg2003]

The type IIi system that i listen to in this area is a wide spread one. I usually get a lot of hiss on it when the reception is poorer but it seems like there is always a slight bit of hiss.

 

[n2mdk]

The hiss is generally due to a reception problem as Mike said, if the hiss is heard on both the dispatch and field units then it's generally your reception an outside antenna generally will clear this up, if the hiss is on the units out in the field then it's generally their location and that wont be helped by an external antenna. Unless you live in an area of very high RF an outside antenna is generally best.

 

[brcampbell]

Thanks for your responses. One question though. What would be an area with very high RF?

"Unless you live in an area of very high RF an outside antenna is generally best."

 

[DickH]

... also read somewhere (can't remember where) that Washington County Communications District is looking into purchasing another radio system.

If they are going to buy a new system, it will very likely be digital so you will need a digital capable scanner. If it's also going to be encrypted, no scanner can decode it. You'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Perhaps someone on the Tennessee forum knows more details.

 

[slicerwizard]

Thanks for your responses. One question though. What would be an area with very high RF?

One with an AM, FM or TV transmitter site a few miles away.

One with a commercial or public safety repeater site in view.

One with a cellular site down the block.

One with a next door neighbour running a kilowatt CB station.

 

[n2mdk]

Thanks for your responses. One question though. What would be an area with very high RF?

"Unless you live in an area of very high RF an outside antenna is generally best."

I was soeaking of large metro areas like NYC where there is so much RF floating around that an external antenna can swamp most scanners front ends.