Baltimore City and County Fire Feeds

[SShuster221]

Hello All,

I have been asked by a few listeners of my feeds to post about the issues with the feeds to see if we can get them fixed. It would appear from my experience that the scanner is having a hard time deciding what tower to choose, Both systems use one common control channel for each of the towers. My issue is that the scanner can see both. I have tried to turn AGC on that does not help at all. Even antennas still with no luck. Maybe the scanners need to move. One Computer and two scanners run the feed. So Take a listen and let me know what everyone feels is going on.

I have been running these feeds for over 5 years. Both have worked great till BcMCO put there P25 system online.

 

[jmarkey]

Baltimore City and County Fire Feeds/Simulcast

Hello All,

I have been asked by a few listeners of my feeds to post about the issues with the feeds to see if we can get them fixed. It would appear from my experience that the scanner is having a hard time deciding what tower to choose, Both systems use one common control channel for each of the towers. My issue is that the scanner can see both. I have tried to turn AGC on that does not help at all. Even antennas still with no luck. Maybe the scanners need to move. One Computer and two scanners run the feed. So Take a listen and let me know what everyone feels is going on.

I have been running these feeds for over 5 years. Both have worked great till BcMCO put there P25 system online.

In general, P25 simulcast trunked systems can best be scanned when you can isolate the scanner so that it primarily can focus on one tower (one system if you have that luxury), and limit what the scanner front-end is trying to do. I have had better success keeping AGC off; using attenuation and/or positioning of the antenna; and making sure you are using "control-channel" only for scanning. The P25 system signals are so strong that quite often the problem is too much signal, not too little. When you have sufficient signal to receive the same message, on the same frequency, off multiple different towers but slighty different in their arrival time, you are going to have a problem. A higher gain antenna, higher elevation mount, etc. will likely do you more harm than good. Think simple and lower tech vs higher tech.

Just a couple thoughts. I'm sure others will weigh in too.

 

[gregsto]

Hello All,

I have been asked by a few listeners of my feeds to post about the issues with the feeds to see if we can get them fixed. It would appear from my experience that the scanner is having a hard time deciding what tower to choose, Both systems use one common control channel for each of the towers. My issue is that the scanner can see both. I have tried to turn AGC on that does not help at all. Even antennas still with no luck. Maybe the scanners need to move. One Computer and two scanners run the feed. So Take a listen and let me know what everyone feels is going on.

I have been running these feeds for over 5 years. Both have worked great till BcMCO put there P25 system online.

You need to choose either the North or the South site. You CANNOT have both sites programed on the same system. They do NOT use the same control channel. North is 856.68750c and South is 854.03750c. So, if you are closer to south BACO use the south site frequencies, closer to northern BACO use north.