TxWARN P25 System Question

[JonL008]

I have some questions about the TxWARN system here in Walker county and surrounding counties.

1. What is the difference in a Simulcast, Multicast, and just regular broadcasting?
2. Why if I set on a wildcard setting do I pick up Montgomery County and even Liberty County when I am setting on the Walker County frequencies.
3. Any information on how this trunked system works. I dont really know anything about how trunked systems work.

Thanks for the help,

Jon

[N5AMS]

i can answe question #2 for you its because a radio is affiliated with the site your listening to due to smartzone (not getting to technical) when a radio is within range of a site and that radio has affiliation with that site you will hear whatever is on that radio at that particular time until either the radio is turned off or the radio is out of the range of that site of affiliation is terminated with that site some others can explain it better than i can but thats basically why you are hearing that on walker county sites

[redhelmet13]

Originally Posted by N5AMS

i can answe question #2 for you its because a radio is affiliated with the site your listening to due to smartzone (not getting to technical) when a radio is within range of a site and that radio has affiliation with that site you will hear whatever is on that radio at that particular time until either the radio is turned off or the radio is out of the range of that site of affiliation is terminated with that site some others can explain it better than i can but thats basically why you are hearing that on walker county sites

In other words, lets say you are listening to site "A" and a radio that has talkgroup "X" which is normally on another site in the system affiliated to site "A" (the one you are listening to) and that radio is on talkgroup "X", you should be hearing traffic on talkgroup "X" since there is radio that has come into range of site "A" (and affiliated to site "A"). Once the radio turns off or goes out of range, the radio is un-affiliated from site"A" and you wont hear that talkgroup... Clear as mud?

[loumaag]

Originally Posted by JonL008

I have some questions about the TxWARN system here in Walker county and surrounding counties.

1. What is the difference in a Simulcast, Multicast, and just regular broadcasting?
2. Why if I set on a wildcard setting do I pick up Montgomery County and even Liberty County when I am setting on the Walker County frequencies.
3. Any information on how this trunked system works. I dont really know anything about how trunked systems work.

Thanks for the help,

Jon

Reference your questions:

1. Simulcast is a set of towers, all on the same frequencies and all broadcasting the same information on the same frequency at the same time (~timing is the main issue here). Multicast is the same thing being broadcast at the same time over different towers on different frequencies, a patch is an example of a multicast. "Regular" -- well it is ... regular.
2. This was answered above and can be explained well with #3.
3. I would suggest that you read the Trunking Basics Wiki article, it will fill in a lot of the information that you are seeking.

[JonL008]

Thanks for the info, the "trunking basics" really helped.

[jschandua87]

I live in Brazos Co. just south of College Station I just want to see if I could pick up anything south of us like Montgomery Co, or Harris Co. I know I am far away but maybe on some days I can pick it up from here.

[mfn002]

Originally Posted by jschandua87

I live in Brazos Co. just south of College Station I just want to see if I could pick up anything south of us like Montgomery Co, or Harris Co. I know I am far away but maybe on some days I can pick it up from here.

No, you can't really pick up sites that far south of you (unless you have a really good antenna).

[loumaag]

Originally Posted by jschandua87

I live in Brazos Co. just south of College Station I just want to see if I could pick up anything south of us like Montgomery Co, or Harris Co. I know I am far away but maybe on some days I can pick it up from here.

Originally Posted by mfn002

No, you can't really pick up sites that far south of you (unless you have a really good antenna).

I agree, Tomball would really be the closest site that would reliability have fair selection of Harris Co. and Montgomery Co. traffic on it so you are looking at ~60 air miles away. Certainly an outdoor antenna would be necessary and probably a beam at that and then it would be weak.

[Txbull816]

So my question is: How am I able to hear ETMC operations out of Tyler and other points east on just the antenna that came with my scanner? Must be the atmosphere because it comes and goes but when I hear it it is fairly clear.

[loumaag]

Originally Posted by Txbull816

So my question is: How am I able to hear ETMC operations out of Tyler and other points east on just the antenna that came with my scanner? Must be the atmosphere because it comes and goes but when I hear it it is fairly clear.

I am assuming by your question that you are not actually getting the Tyler site but rather traffic from the Tyler area on the Waco site. It simply means that someone affiliated on the Waco site has the radio tuned to one of the ETMC channels that covers Tyler (and/or other "points east").

If anything I just said doesn't make sense to you, then I recommend that you also read the article I linked previously.

[Russell]

ETMC combines their dispatch channels at times and one dispatcher will cover a very wide area. There is also a possibility that a local ETMC radio is tuned to the channel (talkgroup) you are hearing.