Some direction

[hawkeye32]

Hey yall i just got a pro-2096 and i was browsing the database for michigan but am a lil confused with it, when i go to program the detroit police,fire,ems and homeland security for detroit (mainly downtown area) which freq's do i enter in for this, i noticed one for the detroit metro area that has i think 16 freq are those the ones that i plug in? Also just out of curiosty i am bout 50 miles from metro airport (i am in windsor, ontario) I have a scantenna up about roughly 35-40 feet in the air how possible is it to pick up the trunked system for metro airport, and as well for the downtown area?? Just some feedback, direction as to what freq's to plug in that would be cool...If i have any issues with the pro-2096 inputting the p-25 i may be back lol...Any tips to programing digital?? that i should be aware of...Once again thanks

[hawkeye32]

just wondering if it is the Detroit City Simulcast that i input in??

[k8tmk]

On the MPSCS system, you need to enter only the control channel for each tower you want to monitor. If you think you will be able to hear more than one tower from you location, I would recommend that you put them into separate banks. Otherwise, the scanner will lock onto the first control channel it sees in a bank. The main control channel for each tower is shown in red in the radioreference database. The blue channels are alternates; you can put the blue ones into the same bank as its associated red channel.

You do not need to enter all of the frequencies that are associated with a particular tower. The control channel will tell the scanner where to go (no pun intended!). Entering all of the frequencies is a waste of time.

For Berrien County, I only have the control channel frequencies entered for the Sumnerville, Coloma, and Sawyer towers (in separate banks). Works great!

Randy

[hawkeye32]

ok just make sure i understand this correctly i enter this number 868.72500 which is the only one for detroit city simucast then hit scan/trunk then just put in the blue ones and thats it?? just hit scan/trunk on the scanner and you can hear both sides of conversation? Or would it be easier to just program in the ID's for what i want to listen too?

[hawkeye32]

any other suggestions or directions?

[hawkeye32]

anybody else with any help or direction?

[jimsokol]

I agree with k8tmk, in that programming the blue and red freqs for Detroit simulcast should work for you.

As to your question about receving Metro Airport from 50 miles away, that may be a stretch. The scantenna is an omni-directional antenna from what I can tell, and the band coverage is there, but what may get you is your coax feed. Signal loss at 800 mhz is really high unless you use premium coax, like LMR-400. Before I replaced my coax, I actually got worse reception on 800 from the outside antenna than from the stock antenna that came with the scanner. Hopefully it'll work ok for you, but just wanted to let you know.

I don't have any more info on the airport's system, as I am not in that area.

On other thing: if you haven't already, you may want to check out some software to program it, as it'll make your life quite a bit easier. Win96 has worked good for me for a pro-96. That also works for a 2096. There are other programs too, so you may want to check around the software sections of this site.

Have fun with the new radio!

...jim

[SEMTTP]

Originally Posted by hawkeye32

ok just make sure i understand this correctly i enter this number 868.72500 which is the only one for detroit city simucast then hit scan/trunk then just put in the blue ones and thats it?? just hit scan/trunk on the scanner and you can hear both sides of conversation? Or would it be easier to just program in the ID's for what i want to listen too?

Hawkeye...

The 2096 is designed to operate in Control Channel Mode. Simply look at the system that you want to listen to here at RR. Program in the Control Channel(indicated in RED) and the alternate control channels(indicated in BLUE) Tell the scanner that they are Motorola systems and you should be off to the races.

Yes for the City of Detroit, they have a Simulcast system of the MPSCS. There are 10 towers throughout the city. Beyond each tower is only about a mile or mile and a half of signal. The system was designed to keep the signal in the city. This probably has to do with Canada. Many people on these board that live close to Detroit even have a problem monitoring the system.

As far as the Airport Police, right now there are two systems. You want to monitor CA28. This is the Airport Police, Fire and all the crews on the airport. Airport Police are transmitting in the Digital mode while everyone else is analog.

My suggestion if you want to monitor Detroit and Metro Airport is to get a Yagi. Get decent coax(LMR400 as was indicated in an above post) and put your antenna up as high as you can. Make sure if you get a yagi that it is for the portion of the 800mhz band that you want to listen to, otherwise it will do you no good.

Hope that helps you out....any more question feel free to ask away!

[hawkeye32]

ok cool this definately helps alot,as for the win96 software is that free or do you have to pay?? I do have the cable that connects to the scanner to the comp, but its a usb connection (into the computer), i have tried it with my BC898t but couldn't get the software to work for some reason...I have the software that u dl from the uniden site,then pay if u want the full version... I will be purchasing some LMR-400 as i just have the standard coax plugged into it...(yes i know its crap for scanning) just slowly getting things here and their as i can afford it...also is the border (bridge,tunnel) on the MPSCS as well??

[hawkeye32]

As for the software yes i know it will not work for the 2096,just a side note to the above the software only accepts Comm Port connection,the one i have is USB,but i will try it with the 2096 to see if it works