MARCS in Painesville Area Not Receiving anymore

[johnp3205]

My gear is this: Uniden BC796D and Radio Shack Pro197, Diamond D130 and a 800 mhz yagi on the roof.
So here is my problem/issue. I pick up Lake county P25 stuff just fine however I am not picking up any Ohio MARCS stuff like I used to, ie: Chardon post OSP, Ash. post OSP, or anything. I used to punch in the sites for Chardon, Ash, Cherry Valley, Wickliffe, or anything close to my Painesville location and I would receive stuff like the OSP posts, Ash Co. sheriff, life flight helos etc. Bottom line question,,,,,what am I doing wrong or what freqs. do I need to input to receive something again? I am specifically located on the fringes of Painesville city, near RT. 44 and RT. 84 interchanges. Any help is greatly appreciated. BTW,,,, I use ARC 500 and ARC 250 software respectively to program my radios. Thanks Much, John

[mtindor]

Originally Posted by johnp3205

My gear is this: Uniden BC796D and Radio Shack Pro197, Diamond D130 and a 800 mhz yagi on the roof.
So here is my problem/issue. I pick up Lake county P25 stuff just fine however I am not picking up any Ohio MARCS stuff like I used to, ie: Chardon post OSP, Ash. post OSP, or anything. I used to punch in the sites for Chardon, Ash, Cherry Valley, Wickliffe, or anything close to my Painesville location and I would receive stuff like the OSP posts, Ash Co. sheriff, life flight helos etc. Bottom line question,,,,,what am I doing wrong or what freqs. do I need to input to receive something again? I am specifically located on the fringes of Painesville city, near RT. 44 and RT. 84 interchanges. Any help is greatly appreciated. BTW,,,, I use ARC 500 and ARC 250 software respectively to program my radios. Thanks Much, John

The first thing you should do is look at the Ohio MARCS system in the RadioReference database and manually enter in each red/blue control channel pair for each site and verify that you are hearing a 24/7 digital control channel on one of them [for each site] still. If you aren't, then they changed control channels [and quite possibly changed to the rebanded frequencies].

So check to see if you actually hear active digital control channel data on the red/blue freqs in the database for Cherry Valley, Wickliffe, Chardon, Ashtabula, etc.

Mike

[a388sig2]

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't a lot of former "Post 28," traffic now go through "Ravenna?"

Is the OP certain they have all Warren D-4 talkgroups entered into their receivers?

[johnp3205]

What the heck am I doing wrong? Or is my location just not able to receive Ohio MARCS? I was the original poster for this thread. My Location is off of rt. 84, 1 mile east of rt. 84 and rt. 44 interchange, on the fringe of the city of Painesville, I have tried all of the suggestions provided me in this thread. Nothing works at my house. I programmed up my handheld, BC396T and drove around and picked up MARCS, just fine from Mentor and Painesville while mobile. My radios at home don't receive MARCS. I get Lake County P25 new system just perfectly and other 800 mhz. stuff fine. Could I be in a dead spot where I live? I would think my 800 yagi or D-130 antennas should get me a signal? Any other suggestions? This is frustrating at best. Thanks, John

[W8RMH]

There could be a strong RF near your home overpowering the MARCS signal. Cellphone towers play havoc with some 800 Mhz signals.

I see you are just north of the Union Community Church? I see two or three towers just east of there and one looks like a cell tower.

[johnp3205]

Originally Posted by W8RMH

There could be a strong RF near your home overpowering the MARCS signal. Cellphone towers play havoc with some 800 Mhz signals.

I see you are just north of the Union Community Church? I see two or three towers just east of there and one looks like a cell tower.

I am within 500 yards of those towers and yes they have a multitude of devices on them including cellphones,,,in addition there is a cell tower about 700 due east of those towers on the south side of rt. 84,,,I believe it is a verizon one that was put up in the last 5 years. That is a ridge and the highest point from the lake erie shore so obvious why all the towers. Your reasoning is very valid,,,I need to investigate it further. The lake county system tower is in Painesville that I hit but it is north of me, which is why I am not having any problems with it. So,,,,I suppose I am just stuck with the problem then? Thanks for the dialogue.
John