CharMeck - Red Fez site?

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kg4pbd

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I heard South Div dispatch making an announcement this morning that the "Red Fez" radio site would not be operational today.

Can anyone tell me what that is? Is it one of the system repeater sites?
 

Newshound

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That is the repeater site on the shoreline of Lake Wylie, near the SC Border. It covers the south-west portion of the county, where there is some lower terain.
 

CFDtracker

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That site only has 5 channels. It is mainly used to pickup any handhelds on the southwest part of the county. It is referred to as the “East” site on our database. Why, I’m not sure, considering it’s on the west side of Charlotte.

You do not have to program in any of it’s frequencies into your scanner. Any conversation held on that tower will also be broadcast on the rest of the simulcast system.
Again, its use is to pickup handhelds that are on the outer reaches of the county.
 

kg4pbd

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There was a radio service broadcast this morning announcing that the Red Fez site would be off line again today. Also mentioned the Southpoint (I think) site being offline. They said they were adding frequencies to the Red Fez site.
 

derekjmu

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There are two 5-channel Smartzone sites used to fill in the Steele Creek / W Mecklenburg areas where the Tyvola Rd & Bellhaven sites don't reach. They are known as the Red-Fez & Southwest Sites.

There is a new 28-channel simulcast site on the new radio tower at Southpoint in Gaston Co. that will replace the 2 smartzone sites. The Southpoint site was to be up & operational by late Tuesday, but i'm not sure it's 100% yet. There was extensive testing Monday afternoon, as was obvious by the sound of the simulcast system in the pineville area.

If all goes well, i would imagine the Red-Fez & Southwest sites will be shut down completely by the end of the week, if they aren't already.

By this time next year another 28-channel simulcast site (the 8th one i think) is planned for the Cabarrus Co. tower at Albemarle Rd & Flowes Store Rd, to fill in a MAJOR gap in coverage in the Mint Hill, Harrisburg Rd, E mecklenburg Co. area.

To my knowledge there are 28-channel simulcast sites at...

1. /\/\ Radio Shop @ 85 & Sugar Crk (Prime Site)
2. Babe Stillwell Farm Rd tower
3. Tyvola Rd tower (near Closeburn Rd)
4. Uptown
5. Monroe Rd & Matthews Twnshp Pkwy
6. Bellhaven Blvd
7. (new Southpoint tower in Gaston Co.)
 

CFDtracker

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Derek,

The "Southwest site" that you refered to is called "Paw Creek".
It's located off Wilkinson Blvd.
It is referred to as the “West” site on our database.

Other than that, you summed up the entire system :)
 

kg4pbd

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Since you guys seem to be very knowledgable on the coverage of the system I'm curious if there has been any discussion on coverage in the extreme south part of the county along Rea Road.

I live in that area and coverage is poor as far as I'm concerned. I understand that a motorola HH is going to do better than my consumer grade scanner however I did have an occasion to be standing next to a batt. chief from CFD on our street. He had a very difficult time getting out from his HH. What's odd is on Rea Rd. itself it's ok but once you turn off onto the side streets it gets bad. In my house I have to use a Yagi in the attic to get a good signal. My 396 on a RS 800mhz duck averages 3-4 bars but with alot of static.

Since it's all about ME, I'd love to know if anything is planned to increase signal strength in our little corner of the county :)
 

derekjmu

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i haven't heard of any plans in that part of town. I know the Mint Hill & E Mecklenburg area has a lot of 'dead spots' where you can't talk out unless you're on a mobile radio. Consistent documentation of specific dead spots is resulting in a new site in the works for that part of town.

With all the commercial & population growth in the Arboretum & Ballantyne area, I would imagine that would be an area of consideration for the next tower, especially if there is documented coverage issues.
 

Grog

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Will the SouthPoint site in Gaston County use the same freqs as the main Char/Meck site?

I will have a lot better chance at hearing them at work when it's up & running.
 

derekjmu

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the Southpoint site is up and running, and uses the same 28-channels as the other simulcast sites.
 
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