End of an Era in Portland

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ChrisP

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It's official - the 372A analog Portland/Multnomah County Motorola trunked system was shut down this morning. I noticed the control channel from the simulcast backbone went of the air about 10:35 AM.

Now listening to the last analog trunked system in the area - WCCCA - at least for now...

- Chris
 

KE7JFF

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30 years ish on the system right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

CatCow

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I noticed this afternoon that I wasn't hearing fire dispatch on my BCT15X anymore. Now I will have to find something new to do with that one.

Not quite as sad a day as when the VHF and UHF channels went off the air(and kinda sad that I still remember what some of those frequencies were!).

On a more curious note, the internet can really turn into a black hole of information. I know I've run across the articles about the mid-1990's failure of the then-new trunked system by accident many times, and now as I was searching specifically for that info it is nowhere to be found!
 

rosecitytransit

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NOOOOO! My 346xt works fine, and I don't want to have to get a digital scanner.


But was the number of users dependent on the system down to zero? Also, what about how current scanners have trouble with digital simulcast decoding? Amateur listeners can certainly be ignored, but I'd bet there are a fair amount of professionals who want to know what's going on beyond their own department.
 

Danny37

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Is the P25 system that bad? I have to give kudos to them for remaining in the clear. It seems like most agencies upgrading to P25 these days are encrypting.
 

JB

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Is this the thread you are looking for? Several different threads link off of it.

https://forums.radioreference.com/oregon-radio-discussion-forum/360059-portland-area-70s-80s.html



I noticed this afternoon that I wasn't hearing fire dispatch on my BCT15X anymore. Now I will have to find something new to do with that one.

Not quite as sad a day as when the VHF and UHF channels went off the air(and kinda sad that I still remember what some of those frequencies were!).

On a more curious note, the internet can really turn into a black hole of information. I know I've run across the articles about the mid-1990's failure of the then-new trunked system by accident many times, and now as I was searching specifically for that info it is nowhere to be found!
 

nautlynch

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These are all part of the Washington County trunked system, not Portland.

- Chris


I thought I heard them report Portland street names for location and it wasn't trunked. I also heard police or (public safety?) on 155.1900.

To be able to hear Washington county from near Gresham in my basement is pretty impressive for a handheld with a stock antenna. My cell phone hardly gets reception in the basement.
 
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Otto

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I was trying to figure out if my scanner was messed up this evening. No control channel. This explains it.

I was going to buy a unication pager, but I blew that money on this instead.

cb58bd39a634267e78387f7d8d752cc3.jpg


Oh well. I can still hear BOEC on my HP2, but it suffers terrible simulcast problems, even with my yagi set up. So many radios I want, so little money. ARRGHH.
 

3King

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Is the P25 system that bad? I have to give kudos to them for remaining in the clear. It seems like most agencies upgrading to P25 these days are encrypting.

The p25 system is amazingly clear on my 536hp in my truck. I run a NMO roof mount antenna with a 65 inch whip. It was far clearer than the analog system. And Portland won’t be encrypting anything except a few Tac and swat channels. They are currently adding 5 more encrypted Tac channels per my source who happens to be a technician.
 

Otto

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The p25 system is amazingly clear on my 536hp in my truck. I run a NMO roof mount antenna with a 65 inch whip. It was far clearer than the analog system. And Portland won’t be encrypting anything except a few Tac and swat channels. They are currently adding 5 more encrypted Tac channels per my source who happens to be a technician.



You’re one of lucky ones. I get terrible simulcast distortion on that system all the time. I even have a yagi pointed that my closest site, and still get distortion. Running mobile, forget it. Between the cell tower interference and the simulcast distortion, I gave up on listening while mobile.
 

3King

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You’re one of lucky ones. I get terrible simulcast distortion on that system all the time. I even have a yagi pointed that my closest site, and still get distortion. Running mobile, forget it. Between the cell tower interference and the simulcast distortion, I gave up on listening while mobile.


Do you have a good roof top antenna? Say a D 130 j? Good antenna cable such as. LMR 400, I live in castle rock Washington and Portland comes in like I am in their com center. I have the d130j and LMR 400 and I monitor everything from Portland clear to Bellingham Wa crystal clear.
 

3King

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So is my Radio Shack 668 able to pickup the new system and if so how do I do it as I noticed it and my OLD Bearcat 895 no longer hear anything. Guess I must have been using the trunked stuff.

Yes your pro 668 will receive the system get your self a roof top antenna. If you don’t have one already. Get a d130j it does amazing.

Go on Facebook and look up digital scanner programming I am in that group and have helped people with their setups
 
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