Cambria County 453.3 is way worse than 453.2?

[RedPenguin]

Living in the deep West End of Johnstown, I have never picked up Central on 453.2 excellent, but I got it always decent enough to listen to.

Yet, at soon as they merged Central with North making it 453.3, suddenly it came in like I was trying to DX, like static with words mostly made out.

Did Cambria totally change the configuration of which towers the channel is on or something?

Note: I have noticed this on 4 separate scanners in my area.

[n5ims]

According to the FCC ULS system (ULS License - Public Safety Pool, Conventional License - WQA839 - CAMBRIA, COUNTY OF), 453.2 is on a tower at "2KM INT TOWER RD & SR 2009, NEW GERMANY, PA CAMBRIA County" while 453.3 is on a tower at ".3KM INT W CUMBERLAND & ST BENEDICTSTS, CARROLLTOWN, PA CAMBRIA County"

They also list those frequencies on this license (ULS License - Public Safety Pool, Conventional License - WQHM852 - CAMBRIA, COUNTY OF) with additional sites (FB2 would be the repeater site). Since this second license has the narrow-band emission types, it may be the one in use, but they could use either (or even both) depending on what they're doing on those frequencies.

Please note that with the second license, 453.2 is listed as a fixed base and a mobile frequency (not a repeater) so it may have changed to simplex or simply as a backup simplex channel if the repeater (from license 1 above) goes down. Hard to tell simply by looking at the licenses.

[RedPenguin]

Thanks for that information that makes sense based on my location.

I seem to have weird luck with picking up from the Central area no matter where from the West End of Johnstown.

Like, CamTran Rural Division is in Pindleton and for at least 2 months they came in clear as you could expect, but before they were extremely staticy, now they are half staticy and half very clear. The signal just seems to fluctuate for me. Like I can pickup a lot at 11AM then 12PM only get pieces of conversation, then 1:30PM it could go back to picking everything up. Central PD 453.3 does the same for me, totally clear, then unlistenable, back to clear.

[RedPenguin]

Does anybody know if Cambria has changed stuff with 453.3 recently? Picking up in the West End of the city seems to be way clearer even on my older units that you couldn't even dream of them picking it up before.

[captclint]

Originally Posted by RedPenguin

Does anybody know if Cambria has changed stuff with 453.3 recently? Picking up in the West End of the city seems to be way clearer even on my older units that you couldn't even dream of them picking it up before.

I find the clear colder weather brings in things I haven't heard before in the early mornings, so this may change as the temp increases and/or the day wears on.