DTRS: Adco 700 Simulcast sites

[RFsponge]

Happy New Year Everyone!

Now that this incident is long over, I feel it's now appropriate to ask...

So I had the wonderous experience Monday nite of standing out in the weather for 6 hours in Northglenn while Mr. Sex Offender shot a Northglenn Officer twice before shooting himself twice some time later. Why these guys can't reverse the order and save everyone the trouble is beyond me, but I digress...

As many of you probably know, all the operations that night ended up unencrypted on Northglenn's DTRS Channel 3 TG. I even had a woman come up to me listening to that TG on her I-phone! How it got there, I don't know. I was afraid to ask what website she was accessing, but again, I digress.

The reason for this post is that, while I was smack in the middle of them, I didn't hear a peep from any of ADCO's 700 simulcast sites all night long. I was getting traffic from Smokey Hill and Lookout and the radio saw the CC's for the simulcast sites, but they were apparently never used. I've kept an eye on them since and still haven't heard a peep...

I've confirmed my programmed freqs with the DB and they are correct. So...

Are agencies waiting for 700 mHz capable radios? Or are the sites idled? Or encrypted? Or awaiting future expansion? Obviously Adams County ticks along just fine using other sites, so nothing critical is happening...

Just curious and trying to stay on top of things. Thanks in advance for the info.

Success, good health and happiness to you all in 2011!

Rob

 

[kc0kp]

Does your scanner hear anything on 700? My Pro 106 is pretty deaf on 700 but does hear them when I am in Adams County. Use the analyze function to see if you can hear the control channel and what the bit error rate is. If you have less than 90% decode, it will not work relaiably.
Craig

Happy New Year Everyone!

Now that this incident is long over, I feel it's now appropriate to ask...

So I had the wonderous experience Monday nite of standing out in the weather for 6 hours in Northglenn while Mr. Sex Offender shot a Northglenn Officer twice before shooting himself twice some time later. Why these guys can't reverse the order and save everyone the trouble is beyond me, but I digress...

As many of you probably know, all the operations that night ended up unencrypted on Northglenn's DTRS Channel 3 TG. I even had a woman come up to me listening to that TG on her I-phone! How it got there, I don't know. I was afraid to ask what website she was accessing, but again, I digress.

The reason for this post is that, while I was smack in the middle of them, I didn't hear a peep from any of ADCO's 700 simulcast sites all night long. I was getting traffic from Smokey Hill and Lookout and the radio saw the CC's for the simulcast sites, but they were apparently never used. I've kept an eye on them since and still haven't heard a peep...

I've confirmed my programmed freqs with the DB and they are correct. So...

Are agencies waiting for 700 mHz capable radios? Or are the sites idled? Or encrypted? Or awaiting future expansion? Obviously Adams County ticks along just fine using other sites, so nothing critical is happening...

Just curious and trying to stay on top of things. Thanks in advance for the info.

Success, good health and happiness to you all in 2011!

Rob

 

[abqscan]

The info is correct for the 700Mhz sites. I pick them up at my store and get a good enough signal to run Pro96Com on them. I'd check your programming to ensure everything is set up properly.

 

[jeffreyinberthoud]

Might I suggest using sunset : ) (LONGMONT BOULDER 356 774.20625 )
Guess someone changed the name

for western adams county I do and it works great

If you are apossed to 700 freqs try

Thorodin 105 853.97500 is another good site for adams

 

[nathancarlson]

Sunset/Longmont has been a blessing to me. It carries a lot of traffic from other Counties and areas I would not expect radios to affiliate with. Since its relitavely new, I wonder if they will eventually restrict some agencies since it has such a variety or if they will keep it that way. I have found the coverage to the north of the City isn't very good but it works great in all other directions. There are a lot of dead spots here in Longmont though (according to my pro 106).

I don't know how anybody would be broadcasting an encyrpted channel on an audio feed since its not possible to decode without an authorized radio. I wonder if there is a chance it was accidentally patched to a conventional channel or another DTR TG? Some of my friends have shown me aps on their phones that have audio feeds that seem to be the same as RR feeds but have different names for the aps. I will try to ask around and find out what the names of the aps are. Pretty unusual! I know I listened on Northglen 1 until about 8pm with no problems.

 

[thorntonoid]

Double check your cc for simulcast. I listened to this incident until midnight. They never eliminate themselves from the gene pool until their backs are against the wall. At least he saved us from an expensive court trial. My 700 simulcast worked well that night. I have the Thorodin cc in also in case 700 ever goes down. I never tried Sunset, guess I should give it a try. I ran an experiment once with two radios one with simulcast and one with thorodin. Thorodin picked up about 40% of what was being brodcast on simulcast.

 

[RFsponge]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9800; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.1+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.246 Mobile Safari/534.1+)

Thanks all. Looks like I've got some investigating to do on my end. Since the sites were in use and you guys heard them, the problem is obviously on my end. Probably a setting that I need to change or something.

Thanks again!

Rob

 

[04Z1V6]

I also listen from Castle Rock it did get choppy at times from here but its clear most of the time.

 

[datainmotion]

First of all, NG's Tac Channel (sometimes referred to as "Channel 3" by NGPD) isn't encrypted. Every Law agency in Adams Co. has a "Channel 3" (and have since they were on 460 Mhz). It's typical use could best be classified as "miscellaneous".

Rob, that neighborhood (Washington to York, 112th to 120th) is horribly over-saturated with cell signals. This most notably is caused by the site at 112th and Washington and the sites at 110th and Irma. Distant sites like Thorodin and Lookout may be heard, but Adams Simulcast is a crap-shoot when in that area. Another suggestion for a handheld in that situation would be to switch to a unity gain antenna.

 

[N0GTG]

Another idea: if you have lots of RF signal, as indicated on the S-meter on the display, but poor reception, try activating the ATT (attenuate) function. This will reduce the sensitivity of the radio, and possibly help your radio reject those unwanted signals. I often find I can clear up my reception and still have enough of the desired signal to receive well. Just don't forget to turn it off when you don't need it, or your radio will seem half-deaf.

 

[RFsponge]

Betcha this is it!

...that neighborhood (Washington to York, 112th to 120th) is horribly over-saturated with cell signals. This most notably is caused by the site at 112th and Washington and the sites at 110th and Irma. Distant sites like Thorodin and Lookout may be heard, but Adams Simulcast is a crap-shoot when in that area. Another suggestion for a handheld in that situation would be to switch to a unity gain antenna.

This incident was basically 112th and Washington. Just a couple blocks off. And might as well have been at the base of the tower at 110th and Irma. I'm sure a $7000 law enforcement radio can handle the RF soup much better than my $500 scanner can... Something I didn't think about that night. (Frozen brain tissue)

Curt- Yes. I messed with the attenuation settings that night (my 396-T) to no avail...

Thanks again all!

Rob

 

[MikeyB]

I've been listening to the Adams Simulcast site with a PSR500. I will get a 100% decode rate for a few minutes and then it will suddenly drop to less than 30% and then down to 0%. I still get all of the bars on the 'S' and I don't move the scanner at all. Any ideas why I go from perfect reception to no reception at all? I tried to turn on Att and then I get no lock on the control channel.