I've got a perplexing problem that has been bugging me for some time with the IWN in District 6 (Central Washington) http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=3509, specifically channel 59612 for dispatch. Now normally the area is only Analog/Conventional for all public safety, but every now and then I'll pick up this system on digital, which is exciting because its all there is digital and I like hearing it over analog. The problem is it doesn't last. When it works I'll usually hear it the whole day, or as long as I'm scanning, like I did yesterday (4/22). Today? Nothing, not a peep. And its like this all the time, I'd say I probably only hear traffic on it once or twice a month. I highly doubt they just decide one day to broadcast digital and others they don't. So I feel like I'm missing something. I locked my HP-2 on the conventional analog and my SDS200 on the IWN and they would both key up at the same time with the same traffic (broadcasting digital and analog simultaneously).
I'm right smack dab in the middle of two sites, usually when I hear traffic its on site 49 (Beezley), yesterday it was site 46 (Burch). I don't think its a signal issue since I had my base scanner hooked up to an external antenna and my mobile to an expandable antenna indoors, both picked it up fine. So what am I missing? I've heard some trunk systems switch control channels randomly or on a rotation, could that be it? Are there just frequencies for the site that could be missing? Do scanners check all the frequencies to see if one is actually a control channel but not labelled as one? I'm a complete noob when it comes to discovering, so not sure how I would go about finding "missing frequencies" if that's even the case. Does anybody else in central washington pick up this system consistently? Thanks for any insights or advice.
I'm right smack dab in the middle of two sites, usually when I hear traffic its on site 49 (Beezley), yesterday it was site 46 (Burch). I don't think its a signal issue since I had my base scanner hooked up to an external antenna and my mobile to an expandable antenna indoors, both picked it up fine. So what am I missing? I've heard some trunk systems switch control channels randomly or on a rotation, could that be it? Are there just frequencies for the site that could be missing? Do scanners check all the frequencies to see if one is actually a control channel but not labelled as one? I'm a complete noob when it comes to discovering, so not sure how I would go about finding "missing frequencies" if that's even the case. Does anybody else in central washington pick up this system consistently? Thanks for any insights or advice.