DTRS Site Question

[ArkTex]

Anyone know anything about the Copper Mountain site on the DTRS?

I've been hitting on it constantly from Grand Junction getting San Juan County SO. I thought the DTRS was more like the front range entirely where a site denied all but the intended users for that site. I'm also getting the Betasso site for Grand Junction PD.

 

[RMason]

Frequencies are reused on multiple sites throughout the state. The Copper Mountain site uses some of the same frequencies as the Mesa Point site which is located in Mesa County. The same is true with the Betasso site and the Redlands site (which is in Mesa County). I suspect that you are not receiving traffic from the Copper Mountain site nor the Betasso site. You are receiving the Mesa Point and Redland sites.

I recommend only programming sites that are in range of your location.

 

[RMason]

For reference, here is a similar discussion from South Carolina:

Question about Aiken County Simulcast in Spartanburg

Hello, I'm new to scanning and enjoying it! I am in Spartanburg City and have a SDS100 with the stock antenna. While messing around the other day I noticed that I was able to receive all my Spartanburg Departments from Aiken County Simulcast. I don't understand how since Aiken is over 100 miles...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[Spitfire8520]

The 852.6875 MHz alternate control channel for Copper Mountain is the primary control channel for Mesa Point and the 853.500 MHz alternate control channel for Betasso is the primary control channel for Redlands. If you compare the Copper Mountain and Mesa Point sites or the Betasso and Redlands site, you will notice that they almost share the same frequencies by design. The frequencies for sites are commonly reused when there is enough distance or geographic separation (like mountains) where there is no chance of the sites overlapping and interfering with each other.

Scanners are not smart enough to know the difference, so it will show whatever active control channel it is receiving and the site it was programmed under.

I agree with RMason's reply, you probably have too many sites programmed if you imported the entire system and are experiencing duplicate control channels. The scanner will scan for every single site and every control channel programmed unless you have a GPS addon, which means you have a good chance of missing traffic while it is scanning. DTRS has 243 sites in the database with most of them using four control channels, so that more than 900 different control channels programmed for the system that it is checking every scan cycle.

 

[KevinC]

On the BTT look at the NAC for site. That should narrow down the possibilities.

 

[RMason]

You should be able to observe the Site ID and/or NAC to confirm what site you are hearing. For example:

Site	Site ID	NAC
Mesa Point	060 (3C)	D1C
Redlands	056 (38)	D18

 

[donc13]

Anyone know anything about the Copper Mountain site on the DTRS?

I've been hitting on it constantly from Grand Junction getting San Juan County SO. I thought the DTRS was more like the front range entirely where a site denied all but the intended users for that site. I'm also getting the Betasso site for Grand Junction PD.

Only local towers deny local agencies because the front range has so many agencies and great coverage from 10 or so towers. For example, the only site that CSP Districts 1 and 3 uses in the Denver metro area is the Golden site.

 

[ArkTex]

So basically the best course when scanning something as massive as the DTRS is either just programming what is in range or using a gps puck. Is this correct?

 

[JethrowJohnson]

The way I programmed mine is I just put in the sites that were in my county.

 

[natedawg1604]

So basically the best course when scanning something as massive as the DTRS is either just programming what is in range or using a gps puck. Is this correct?

Yeah. I would suggest putting your scanner in band search mode and searching for all 7/800 control channels you can pickup from your location. That is the most accurate way to determine what sites can be heard from a particular location. The control channel should display "data", and be active constantly with no audio. The control channel will display a site NAC, you can co-relate that against RR data to figure out what site it is.

The GPS puck is better for driving, especially in areas you don't frequently visit. For your house, work, commute route etc. you need to figure out what sites you can pickup and program your scanner accordingly.

 

[ArkTex]

Yeah. I would suggest putting your scanner in band search mode and searching for all 7/800 control channels you can pickup from your location. That is the most accurate way to determine what sites can be heard from a particular location. The control channel should display "data", and be active constantly with no audio. The control channel will display a site NAC, you can co-relate that against RR data to figure out what site it is.

The GPS puck is better for driving, especially in areas you don't frequently visit. For your house, work, commute route etc. you need to figure out what sites you can pickup and program your scanner accordingly.

got it. thanks.

 

[ArkTex]

So I put only the mesa county, delta and garco sites into the SDS100, and that fixed my issue. Turns out it'll still want to pick up San Juan county at random, so I'm still working on narrowing down the sites.

In other news, the combination of scanning the DTRS and local airband is surprisingly going a lot better than I first thought. No issues at all.

 

[Steve2003]

Somewhat related - the Montrose dispatch center handles the radio for San Juan Co SO. I frequently see CSP 5C patched with their ch on the sites around summit county.

CSP keeps switching up which dispatch center is handling troop 4C (Summit Co). I suspect when Montrose is working their radio they patch it with 5C and San Juan if anyone is wondering why their SJSO is always showing up in Summit Co.