Couple Washtenaw co. questions

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hanlonmi06

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I've recently moved to Washtenaw Co., from Wayne Co. and I've noticed a couple of things...

That it seems like there is a lot less radio traffic for the MPSCS talk groups one would more than likely monitor for police and fire, and especially along the I-94 corridor from say 275 to Michigan avenue is a bit of a dead area RF wise.

Granted, I've also started driving a different vehicle so I am playing with antennas and getting a new installation going, but I've been experimenting with the Austin spectra, Laird triband and comtelco all band (all seemingly quality antennas) and have noticed all three antennas don't seem to pick up a whole lot on the West side of Washtenaw Co.

Am i nuts? or do i need to find the right combinations for optimizing still...?
 

diskmonger

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Washtenaw County is on a MPSCS simulcast site, so if you are using a regular digital scanner it's going to sound pretty terrible and/or you will get a lot of missed transmissions.
 

hanlonmi06

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I'm regularly monitoring wayne co simulcast and monroe co simulcast and have no issues monitoring those systems. Those systems come in fine, plenty of trafffic, all makes sense...the volume of traffic seems dramatically less on washtenaw, so i wondered if in fact there was just less going on.
 

bprevost

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First I would wonder what talk groups you are listening to? State police dispatch in Washtenaw County area is done by the county dispatch and is on 81METRO WEST. That channel also handles Ann Arbor PD and any sheriff patrols in the county except for Ypsilanti/Superior region. The state patrols most township west and south of Ann Arbor and freeway calls. Plus MSP in the area is district 1 units whereas Wayne County is district 2 and they're #2 dispatch is split into two groups.

As for signal issues I usually don't have problems with it but every once in a while it will be garbled. Hope this helps.

PS Fire dispatch is done by Washtenaw pretty on a couple of groups for much the whole county and ambulance is HVA1. Most fire units will switch to FG channel when at a fire scene.
 

GeneseeCoMI

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I've recently moved to Washtenaw Co., from Wayne Co. and I've noticed a couple of things...

That it seems like there is a lot less radio traffic for the MPSCS talk groups one would more than likely monitor for police and fire, and especially along the I-94 corridor from say 275 to Michigan avenue is a bit of a dead area RF wise.

Granted, I've also started driving a different vehicle so I am playing with antennas and getting a new installation going, but I've been experimenting with the Austin spectra, Laird triband and comtelco all band (all seemingly quality antennas) and have noticed all three antennas don't seem to pick up a whole lot on the West side of Washtenaw Co.

Am i nuts? or do i need to find the right combinations for optimizing still...?

Of course Washtenaw Co has way less calls then Wayne Co, their population is much smaller (per the 2010 census, Washtenaw Co has 344,791 people compared to Wayne Co's 1,820,584).

I drove around Washtenaw Co (Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to be specific) a couple weeks ago though and I thought they had a decent amount of calls and my reception was pretty good. I programmed in all of their MPSCS TGs in the DB (police, fire EMS, plus the college campus PD's, including those in the U of M analog system). Which ones did you put in?

Seems like you were just in a bad spot. Washtenaw Co simulcast's towers are in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Manchester, Superior Twp, and Lyndon Twp.
 
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hanlonmi06

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oh...wow, I honestly did not realize there was that large of a population difference.

I imported the whole MPSCS and I've been picking through. For all intents and purposes I have virtually all talk groups programmed in, local and state authorities. As the crow flies i'm about 1.5 miles from the site on Bemis road so actually I almost wondered if I was getting de-sensed the closer I got home. In Livonia i was pretty close to a couple of tower sites on my normal commute and errand runs and never recall drops in reception indicating a desensitizing on the radio, which is a GRE PSR 800.

also, bprevost- thanks, that did help a lot.

i really do notice everything dropping off along Munger road near Carpenter, so i really think there is a dead spot there , so just trying to re-learn the particulars of where I am at now. 10 years in Livonia and now upending everything!
 

Ronaldski

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Swap antennas, occasionally the wires in the rubber duc can break

Try -
reception FAQ's

#11, have had several people who asked me about their poorer reception and it did indeed fix it! Even when there are no smokers in the house,
 
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hanlonmi06

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#11...

what a solid kick to the head.

Just shining a flashlight on the BNC pins, I can see filth both on the connector on the radio but I also have a 90 degree bnc on as well- filthy inside there...get that cleaned up and we'll see where we stand. I'm sill convinced there is a couple dead spots along my commute. RF- what a fickle little thing!
 

GeneseeCoMI

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Hey hanlonmi06:

I know this thread is a few months old, but I was just wondering, did you ever figure out what the problem was and solve it? Being 1.5 miles from a tower you should have a loud and clear signal, even on a simulcast system. I've literally been in the shadow of 3 different simulcast towers: Flushing (Genesee Co), Imlay City (Lapeer Co), and Bridgeport (Saginaw Co) with my Pro 106 and could hear them all perfectly even when I removed the antenna (Radio Shack 800 MHz for portables), so I don't understand what you mean by "de-sensed". Your results should be the same as mine. Was the squelch turned up all the way? Was the attenuation on? Was the volume turned all the way down? (I've done that last thing by mistake more than a few times myself). :D
 
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hanlonmi06

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Well, cleaning the connector seems to have made a difference but I still seem to be passing through 2 weak spots. I have a GRE PSR 800 on an Austin Spectra set high on the minivan and a Pro 197 on a Comtelco all band, set on the front hood, both on lip mounts that have set screws in contact with bare metal, and both exhibit the same drop outs in receiving various things. There is a stretch down 94 that things go quiet on. Not completely dropped out, but definitely seems like the closer i get to wayne county on 94 going towards 275 the more traffic comes in. The second spot and it makes a little more sense is on Munger road off of Michigan but that turns a little hilly and lots of trees so that doesn't surprise me much except for the fact that Bemis road and its towers are less that 3 miles as the crow flies. I've made sure the volume wasn't bumped and have played around with the squelch on both radios. Attenuaters i have played with but everything seems like there is just a weak spot.

The only other thing and its a real stretch is how i have the radios programmed. the 800 lets you do damned near anything you want, so I have a pretty large "Work drive" scan list that has Wayne, Monroe, Washtenaw simulcast towers as well as like northville, beech daily towers and it always seemed to be fine. When redoing the 197 for having moved, i tried the same approach and soon found the 197 wont take such a large system, so i did the Monroe scan list with Monroe towers and Monroe TGID's, and so on for other counties then did a mix-n-match of towers for MSP and event's and such. So, I'm at a loss really...no matter what i have done Washtenaw county just wants to be really digital on me for those two spots. When i get closer to work in Monroe, Washtenaw seems to start coming in clearer, the further i get! or...im loosing my marbles!
 

GeneseeCoMI

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Well, cleaning the connector seems to have made a difference but I still seem to be passing through 2 weak spots. I have a GRE PSR 800 on an Austin Spectra set high on the minivan and a Pro 197 on a Comtelco all band, set on the front hood, both on lip mounts that have set screws in contact with bare metal, and both exhibit the same drop outs in receiving various things. There is a stretch down 94 that things go quiet on. Not completely dropped out, but definitely seems like the closer i get to wayne county on 94 going towards 275 the more traffic comes in. The second spot and it makes a little more sense is on Munger road off of Michigan but that turns a little hilly and lots of trees so that doesn't surprise me much except for the fact that Bemis road and its towers are less that 3 miles as the crow flies. I've made sure the volume wasn't bumped and have played around with the squelch on both radios. Attenuaters i have played with but everything seems like there is just a weak spot.

The only other thing and its a real stretch is how i have the radios programmed. the 800 lets you do damned near anything you want, so I have a pretty large "Work drive" scan list that has Wayne, Monroe, Washtenaw simulcast towers as well as like northville, beech daily towers and it always seemed to be fine. When redoing the 197 for having moved, i tried the same approach and soon found the 197 wont take such a large system, so i did the Monroe scan list with Monroe towers and Monroe TGID's, and so on for other counties then did a mix-n-match of towers for MSP and event's and such. So, I'm at a loss really...no matter what i have done Washtenaw county just wants to be really digital on me for those two spots. When i get closer to work in Monroe, Washtenaw seems to start coming in clearer, the further i get! or...im loosing my marbles!

Same thing happens to me at home with the D130J and Saginaw Co simulcast. Doesn't matter which scanner I use, no matter how much I fiddle with them I just can't seem to make out a word they're saying. :(

Same thing most of the time with the Lapeer Co simulcast, but it's actually been coming in better than usual lately. :)
 
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hanlonmi06

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has to be that i'm loosing my marbles then!!

I think that's part of the fun of the hobby though, albeit frustrating at times, its fun to tinker and see what you can receive in.
 
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