CHP - King City

I have a digital scanner in my car so I can hear the new digital frequencies in Monterey County. However, when I installed it I lost the ability to hear CHP unless the patrol vehicle is really close to me. I hear them on the extender freq. I input the same frequencies as my old analog scanner into the digital scanner but it doesn't pickup traffic now. Any ideas what is wrong?

I think some more info would help.

Which specific frequency are you trying to listen to? Is it the low band system, or 700MHz?
What are you using for an antenna?
What model scanner?

I’m usually able to hear them on these frequencies:
42.4600
42.7000
I’m using a Uniden BCD996P2 scanner. Unfortunate I don’t know what model the antenna is.

Low band really needs a good antenna to work well. Unless you are running an antenna on the outside of your car, your experience sounds typical.

The longer the antenna, the better the reception is with low band. Also, make sure you have the correct tones entered and the correct setting for the tones too. I have made that mistake before. KC CHP is great to listen to when traveling through the area. There use to be so much speed enforcement when the limit was 55. That was one of the main reasons I got into scanning... needed to stop getting tickets! Good luck.

I have an antenna mounted on my roof. I think its a Comtelco All-Band Low-Profile Mobile Antenna. I have the correct tones input. I'm not sure if there is another setting wrong. I seem to only receive the 700 freq on their extenders now.

Maybe try a new antenna? Any suggestions?

Make sure when you programed it you did not lock out the tones you need. I did that with a system once on my BCT15.

Do you mean locking out the channel the frequency is saved to? I'm not familiar with locking out tones.

qtrhrslv said:

Do you mean locking out the channel the frequency is saved to? I'm not familiar with locking out tones.

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I really know how to program CHP and what it takes to listen to them. First re-program the radio if you are not receiving low-band. Or you can create a new conventional system and give it a quick key of 99 for testing.

Put in both the base and mobile unit frequencies. Do not use a PL tone. Just use CSQ so we make sure its not a PL tone issue. Make sure you are using the radio in your car do not use the antenna with the radio. VHF low band won't work. Use a mag mount outside the car which most likely you are. Your metal car will act as a good ground plane for low band.

Not sure if you are in area where you can pickup any other CHP frequencies and try programming them too. But most likely not. You are in King County which is pretty rual area.

allend said:

You are in King County which is pretty rual area.

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King city is over in Monterey county, not KINGS county, which is on the other side of the hills. And even then I hear all my local CHP traffic fine (VHF-LOW to 700mhz).

King city CHP area has to sites one at Williams Hill and the other is at their office in King city. It's low power it only covers King City city limits. You need a low mobile antenna the small stock antenna won't cut it. I have a low band antenna on a 30ft pole hook up to a moto CMD750 works great, but then again Soledad is in the middle of the valley I can pick up both north and south sites. Mt. toro is the site that repeats mobiles.

qtrhrslv said:

I have an antenna mounted on my roof. I think its a Comtelco All-Band Low-Profile Mobile Antenna. I have the correct tones input. I'm not sure if there is another setting wrong. I seem to only receive the 700 freq on their extenders now.

Maybe try a new antenna? Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

The possibility of programming issues aside, the antenna is likely the issue.

Two things that pop out….

"All-Band" - While manufacturers like to claim "all band", it's just not true. Likely it's an antenna that works well on VHF High, UHF and 700-800MHz. While they may have some coincidental performance on the VHF Low band, it's going to perform very poorly. VHF Low band really needs to be using a longer antenna, specifically designed to cover the frequencies the CHP uses on low band.

"Low-profile" - Always a bad sign. Especially on low band. Antenna length is proportional to the frequency in use. Lower frequencies need longer antennas. There is no way around that. Trying to jam a low band antenna (which really needs to be several feet long) into anything sold as "low profile" is going to result in dismal performance.

You pretty much have two options…
1. Give up on trying to get any better performance on the CHP frequencies.
2. Get an antenna designed to work on low band.

For the antenna you have, your experiences are what would be expected. Low profile and low band are going to result in minimal range.

With a proper antenna, you shouldn't be having any issues with reception. The Williams Hill site down near San Ardo covers the valley really well.

mmckenna thank you for your info.

Do you have an antenna you could suggest?
Looking at the multi-band antennas, the only one I see that lists frequencies that low is the Austin Spectra Mobile Antenna. I'd like to keep the multi because I listen to the 150.000's a lot too. The Spectra is a bit expensive but I'll buy it if that's what I need.

Any other recommendations? Spectra experience?

Thanks

If all you want to listen to is the CHP and frequencies around 150mHz, then a 5/8th's wave length VHF antenna would work.
They are 5/8th's wave on 150MHz, and 1/4 wavelength on VHF low.

Larsen NMO-150 would be my choice. I've used Larsen antennas for years and they've never let me down.

If you need to listen to UHF, 700 and 800MHz, then the Austin Spectra might be a good choice, although I've never used one of them.

I downloaded my current program and these are my current settings:

Display: Black - Base
Frequency: 42.46000
Tone: 167.9Hz
Step: Auto
Mod: NFM
NAC:
Audio Type: Analog only

Display: Black - Mobile
Frequency: 42.70000
Tone: 167.9Hz
Step: Auto
Mod: NFM
NAC:
Audio type: Analog Only

Is there anything programmed wrong? If not, I will try a new low range antenna.

qtrhrslv said:

I downloaded my current program and these are my current settings:

Display: Black - Base
Frequency: 42.46000
Tone: 167.9Hz
Step: Auto
Mod: NFM
NAC:
Audio Type: Analog only

Display: Black - Mobile
Frequency: 42.70000
Tone: 167.9Hz
Step: Auto
Mod: NFM
NAC:
Audio type: Analog Only

Is there anything programmed wrong? If not, I will try a new low range antenna.

Click to expand...

Mod is always fm on low band. If u Leave NFM you will have low volume... also turn off delay so after dispatch speaks..it goes right to mobile.

qtrhrslv said:

I have an antenna mounted on my roof. I think its a Comtelco All-Band Low-Profile Mobile Antenna. I have the correct tones input. I'm not sure if there is another setting wrong. I seem to only receive the 700 freq on their extenders now.

Maybe try a new antenna? Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

I love my Austin spectra for chp... but the liard low band is the best... comes in so much better. The best is to dedicate a Uniden 15x for low band. Than run another mobile on your wide band.

Part no. WPC39S0B

I replaced my antenna with a Spectra antenna this weekend. I tuned it for the 42.600 band. Seems to help with the CHP bands. Thanks everyone for the help.

I painted mine flat black...did not like the brass look. Enjoy your new Antenna.

If you are in a mobile you won't hear low band with a rubber duck in the car. 700 mhz extender in the vehicle is less than 5 watts so unless you are within a couple of miles won't hear that either. In order to hear CHP this is what I have done since the 80's. Scanner in vehicle attached to a vhf quarter wave antenna. I found a 136 mhz 1/4 wave works well. That is a whip with no coils about 2 feet long. It will work well for other bands too. Of course the roof top is best location but I have had trunk mounts that worked well too. CHP transmitts their calls via mountain tops. They switch between transmitter sites depending on mobile locations. King City on the 101 in Monterey County uses Williams Hills. Although not very high in elevation I can hear it from Tempeton to Soladad. If they switch to Fremont Peak then King City to San Jose on 101. I think they still have Anderson on the coast SR-1 and a few others like Toro Peak. Many of the mobile antennas block out low band by design. They are manly for vhf, uhf and 700/800 bands. Unless they specifically claim to cover low band then subject to actual testing find out. Again, the 1/4 wave works well for me.