Hearing Santa Clara (city) from Palo Alto

[Toddbert]

Is this possible? I'm not getting anything, and am wondering if I have misprogrammed the scanner, or if I just can't get the signal from here.

 

[74596]

Don't know if this it what you're are hearing, but maybe possible?.?.?.?

Here in Elk Grove (just outside of Sacramento) when I tune into 153.9650 I hear what sounds like a Fire/EMS channel.. I heard them say something about Grass Valley (Nevada County) and someone used the call sign "Ambulance 4". A quick database search shows 153.9650 as the "Primary" channel for Nevada County Fire Agency.

I know we are at least 100 miles apart from each other, so I don't know if this is what you're hearing in Palo Alto.

 

[ScannerDude244]

Is this possible? I'm not getting anything, and am wondering if I have misprogrammed the scanner, or if I just can't get the signal from here.

Is it the Santa Clara city 800mhz trunking system?

 

[Toddbert]

Is it the Santa Clara city 800mhz trunking system?

Yes. I hear oodles of non trunked stuff, some of it quite a bit more distant.

 

[trooperdude]

Santa Clara has two VHF fire patches from their 800 trunked system so the
volunteers can hear what's going on via their legacy VHF pagers.

Are you hearing the VHF patch, or you are hearing the actual 800mhz
trunked system ?

Several channels on their 800 system are high-level, so it's not a problem
to hear them from Palo Alto.

If you are not, you are having either programming problems, or an antenna issue.

 

[Toddbert]

Santa Clara has two VHF fire patches from their 800 trunked system so the
volunteers can hear what's going on via their legacy VHF pagers.

Are you hearing the VHF patch, or you are hearing the actual 800mhz
trunked system ?

Several channels on their 800 system are high-level, so it's not a problem
to hear them from Palo Alto.

If you are not, you are having either programming problems, or an antenna issue.

I'm Not hearing anything on the trunked system-- I'm guessing it's a programming issue; while I am actually good at programming the scanner, I'm not very good at 'reading' frequency charts to know what to program (for example, I set up the San Mateo trunked system wrong three times, but not because I couldn't program the scanner-- but because I didn't know it was "UHF").

In this case (city of Santa Clara), I have set up the scanner as '800Mhz standard', motorola, and put in what I think are the data channels-- 867.33750* 867.86250* 868.62500* 868.88750* (since it's a Uniden, that should be sufficent).

Thanks.

 

[trooperdude]

In this case (city of Santa Clara), I have set up the scanner as '800Mhz standard', motorola, and put in what I think are the data channels-- 867.33750* 867.86250* 868.62500* 868.88750* (since it's a Uniden, that should be sufficent).

What scanner model and software are you using.

I may just be able to mail you the file if It's something compatible that I use.

Motorola Type2 800mhz trunking.
867.33750* 867.86250* 868.62500* 868.88750*
Are the correct control channels.

Do you have any talkgroups programmed in, or are you running it as open
mode ?

If it's closed mode and/or with no talkgroups, you won't hear anything, even if you have
the correct frequency and trunking type, depending on the scanner model.

 

[inigo88]

I can speak for Radioshack/GRE scanner models... Common problems are:

a.) You forgot to put that bank in the correct trunk mode (Motorola)
b.) You mis-entered one or more of the control channel frequencies
c.) You entered all the freqs right but forgot to put each freq in motorola mode (MO) to coincide with the bank trunking system setting (since there can be only one system per bank, you're telling the scanner which freqs are part of that system and which are conventional and unrelated).
d.) The system is in Closed mode (-) with no talkgroups stored like trooperdude said. Open mode is denoted by a (+).

Rather than chasing all these problems down, the first thing you should do is actually tune your scanner to each one of those frequencies and FIND the active control channel. It will sound like a repetative machine gunning sound, and there should be little or no static distorting the signal. Then, if you have that freq stored and set up for MO mode, you should go to that memory entry in manual mode and see the System ID on the left side of the bottom of the display, and the signal decoding rate in percent. If it's like 5% or nothing, you're out of luck and you're going to have to experiment with other antenna possibilities (like an 800 MHz antenna). If it's 99% or thereabouts, you're golden and it's definitely a programming issue.

Again, start by making sure you can hear the machine gunning sound on the active control channel freq BEFORE doing anything else regardless of your scanner model, and then let us know from there.

-Inigo

 

[EMSJUNKY]

You should be able to hear the SNC VHF Patch (153.965) from Palo Alto without a problem. I have a 1/4 wave antenna on a vertex HT and it works fine.

With that said, the trunked system may not reach Palo Alto.

 

[Toddbert]

Thanks, ingio8-- I tried what you suggested, and I can't pick up the signal from here. That;s fine, as I can hear plenty of other stuff.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in.

 

[trooperdude]

Thanks, ingio8-- I tried what you suggested, and I can't pick up the signal from here. That;s fine, as I can hear plenty of other stuff.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in.

Are you using the duck antenna, or an external roof-top antenna ?

Inside or outside ?

I can get Santa Clara just fine on my Pro96 with the RS 800 duck in
Palo Alto.

 

[Toddbert]

Are you using the duck antenna, or an external roof-top antenna ?

Inside or outside ?

I can get Santa Clara just fine on my Pro96 with the RS 800 duck in
Palo Alto.

I have a BCD396T, and am using a duck antenna. I was actually able to pick up the trunked system while driving to work this morning, so it's obviously a location/antenna issue.