MARCS question

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Nick0207

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Hello all,

Having trouble picking up the Campbell tower since rebanding. My scanner will not detect a control channel for some reason, although I use freescan to program. I was wondering if anyone else in the region had the same problem or any solutions? Or is this tower part of the MARCS-IP? In which case would a 996XT pick the new system up?
 

mtindor

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Hello all,

Having trouble picking up the Campbell tower since rebanding. My scanner will not detect a control channel for some reason, although I use freescan to program. I was wondering if anyone else in the region had the same problem or any solutions? Or is this tower part of the MARCS-IP? In which case would a 996XT pick the new system up?

Yes, others do have the problem -- Many have reported it. But out of those I've heard reporting it, they did report that they could tune manually to the frequency and hear the control channel -- but that it wasn't being decoded.

If you tune your scanner to 853.275 , can you see a strong signal present? -- can you hear the control channel? Does it sound inherently different than other local MARCS control channels that you can pick up?

I'm tuned to the East Palestine site right now and running UT, and I can see that it is advertising Campbell as a neighbor and I can see that it is listing 853.275 as the current (up to the second) control channel frequency for Campbell.

I can only wonder if some of you are in areas where other agencies with trunked systems in the area have very strong signals on 850 mhz that are obilterating the front end of your scanner and making you unable to pick up the Campbell control channel.

As an example, down here in Jefferson co, now that all the public safety TRSs are on 850 mhz, I get a lot of front-end overload. The local county TRS has a tower just a couple miles away which is extremely strong. I hear images of that control channel all over 850 mhz. It often obliterates a strong MARCS control channel to the point that if I tune to the MARCS control channel I can see it is S9+ in signal strength but it isn't decoding. I end up turning on the attenuator, and suddenly I'm able to perfectly copy the MARCS control channel even though it may be S5 -- simply because the overpowering county trunked system frequencies are no longer so strong as to wipe out the front end of my receiver.

Mike
 

Nick0207

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I read on the MARCS-IP wiki page that the campbell tower will now have a 700mhz frequency. When will this take effect? And will the 996XT be able to monitor the new system?
 

W8RMH

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I read on the MARCS-IP wiki page that the campbell tower will now have a 700mhz frequency. When will this take effect? And will the 996XT be able to monitor the new system?

I monitor the MARCSIP system on my 996XT and 396XT. It comes in very well, a lot better than the old MARCS system. Today I monitored the following sites as I drove through Franklin, Clark, Madison, and Fayette counties and all were very clear using a Laird Tech TRAB7603 760-870 MHz Phantom antenna.
 
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mtindor

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I read on the MARCS-IP wiki page that the campbell tower will now have a 700mhz frequency. When will this take effect? And will the 996XT be able to monitor the new system?

Campbell -- MARCS/IP will take effect when guys like you scan 700 mhz and search for new control channels that might be Campbell :) We insert information into the DB as we receive reports that a site is online. Periodically people should scan 768-775 mhz and make note of any P25 control channels (their System IDs, site IDs, WACN, etc) and then compare them to what is already in the DB. Campbell might be online and we just don't know it. The only way to tell is for you to scan for its online existence and let us know :)

And I say to do a search between 768 and 775 mhz because there is no way to tell what frequency the control channel would be ahead of time.

Mike
 

mtindor

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I read on the MARCS-IP wiki page that the campbell tower will now have a 700mhz frequency. When will this take effect? And will the 996XT be able to monitor the new system?

Nick -- Please re-read my original response to you in this thread. In my response I asked a few questions. I'd appreciate it if you would answer them for me.

Thanks

Mike
 

Nick0207

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Mike... When I tune to 853.275, I hear nothing. I have 5 bars according to the scanner, meaning I am well within range to monitor the site. I never hear any traffic on the channel when I have the scanner in the hold position. Hope I gave you what you need!
 

yfdgricker

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I caught a lot of OSP Post 50 (Canfield) traffic on the Lisbon tower freqs Friday night. They were coming over talk group 16960 and heard Canfield 252 making a traffic stop at 224 and California by the Southern Park Mall.

I programmed all the towers in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana Counties and set up all the OSP District 4 talk groups.

On the 996XT display, it shows 853.2875 on the display when trying to scan the Campbell tower. That freq is suppose to be the voice frequency according to the 996XT manual. That frequency isn't even one listed for that tower. What's up with that?
 
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mike6pmnews

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Campbell tower

I lost reception of the Ohio Marc's system in the Youngstown Ohio Area a couple months ago , I assume because of rebanding. I updated the frequencies on the various sites, but still hear nothing on the 996T but just yesterday started hearing OSP on the 996XT.

Does anyone know if I have to go through the below instructions posted on ProScan support in 2009 to restore marcs or am I making this more complicated than it needs to be?

1) Make a backup of the database.
2) In the database treeview click on the rebanded system to select the system.
3) Click on "Add" then choose "Site (Frequencies)" next choose "800 MHz Custom"
4) Now that the Custom site has been added, click the "Band Plan" button and fill in the lower freq, upper freq, spacing, and offset. then click "OK"
5) Drag the frequencies from the old site to the new site.
6) Delete old site.
7) Upload with the "Delete All Items in Scanner That Is Not In The Database".

I am using ProScan v. 6.7 on a Uniden 996T with latest firmware installed.

I have not yet gone through the instructions outlined above because I don't understand them.

Upper and lower frequencies? Do i have to do these for each tower site (are they different for each site)
Spacing? How do I determine this?
Offset? How do I determine this?

Can you give me an example of how to determine the numbers I need. Any other info would be helpful.

Here's the info from RR I'm working with.

System Name: Ohio MARCS - Multi-Agency Radio Communications
Location: Statewide, OH
County: Statewide
System Type: Motorola Type II SmartZone Omnilink
System Voice: APCO-25 Common Air Interface Exclusive
Last Updated: November 18, 2013, 11:41 am (Changed Site # 001 (Marion) to 001 (Marion))

6F10 017 (11) Alliance Columbiana 852.66250 853.16250 853.52500a 853.72500c


6F10 040 (28) Kensington Columbiana 851.81250 852.85000a 853.90000c 857.63750


6F10 048 (30) East Liverpool Columbiana 851.13750 851.73750a 852.15000c 854.08750 858.13750

6F10 063 (3F) East Palestine Columbiana 851.68750a 852.81250c 853.71250 859.08750


6F10 064 (40) Lisbon Columbiana 851.13750 851.55000 852.75000a 852.76250 853.03750 853.33750c
6F0F 033 (21) Campbell Mahoning 851.71250 852.17500 852.58750 852.90000a 853.27500c

6F10 062 (3E) Salem Mahoning 852.05000 852.20000 852.62500a 853.06250c 857.86250

6F0F 050 (32) Leavittsburg Trumbull 852.41250 852.77500 853.36250a 853.96250c


6F0F 051 (33) East Trumbull Trumbull 851.63750 852.25000a 852.65000c

I have yet to input the below site frequencies.

Ohio MARCS-IP: Multi-Agency Radio Communications (P25)
Location: Various, OH
County: 45 counties
System Type: Project 25 Phase II
System Voice: APCO-25 Common Air Interface Exclusive

Last Updated:
November 28, 2013, 10:16 pm (Changed Site # 019 (Salem) to 019 (Salem))

348 1 (1) 099 (63) Alliance Columbiana 771.30625 772.20625a 773.80625c
348 2 (2) 019 (13) Salem Mahoning 770.20625 770.85625 774.55625a 774.80625c
348 2 (2) 021 (15) Leavittsburg Trumbull 769.80625 770.05625 770.90625a 773.08125c
 

fpo701

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Mike,

In Proscan, you must set the "Site Type" for each site to be custom. As for the upper, lower, spacing, and offset values, see this wiki page:
Software Support for Uniden Rebanding - The RadioReference Wiki

Make sure you enter both band plans for each site.

The sites you have listed in your "yet to input" section are for MARCS-IP, not MARCS. They are completely separate systems with different system types, sites, frequencies, talkgroups, and users. You'll want to set MARCS-IP up as its own system. OSP is currently only on the MARCS (not IP) system. I believe they won't move to MARCS-IP until the tower build-out for MARCS-IP is completed statewide.

As a side note, I recall that that 996T can't handle multiple sites under a system. You have to create a system in the radio for each site you want to monitor and "duplicate" the talkgroups. It wasn't until the XT models that you could put multiple sites under the same system.
 

Nick0207

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So since I am not the only person reporting these issues, how are others dealing with the problem? What does anyone recommend?
 
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