New RI scanner user

[HannaMary]

Hi,

I live in Little Compton and recently purchased a Home Patrol 1 scanner to listen to local police and fire calls. I'm new to this...but I figured out how to create a favorite's list searching for Little Compton under the RISCON list in the database and it's been up and running fine for two weeks until today. Haven't had a squawk or call all day long...and as quiet as this town is...there is always roll call at least twice a day. The scanner appears to be scanning and I can receive NOAA weather. I did a firmware and database update through the Sentinal software and still no luck. Not sure what the problem is... and no...I don't have it on mute nor is the volume turned down. Can someone recommend a reliable way to test it?

Thanks,
Hanna

 

[frankie811]

Hi,

I live in Little Compton and recently purchased a Home Patrol 1 scanner to listen to local police and fire calls. I'm new to this...but I figured out how to create a favorite's list searching for Little Compton under the RISCON list in the database and it's been up and running fine for two weeks until today. Haven't had a squawk or call all day long...and as quiet as this town is...there is always roll call at least twice a day. The scanner appears to be scanning and I can receive NOAA weather. I did a firmware and database update through the Sentinal software and still no luck. Not sure what the problem is... and no...I don't have it on mute nor is the volume turned down. Can someone recommend a reliable way to test it?

Thanks,
Hanna

How 'bout Tiverton or Portsmouth? Fall River? Did you input the old VHF/UHF frequencies or the RISCON frequencies & talk groups?

 

[KB1UAM]

As far as I know Little Compton PD is on 453.3875 and Fire is on 453.4875

 

[coolrich55]

As far as I know Little Compton PD is on 453.3875 and Fire is on 453.4875

LC PD and FD are on RISCON.

 

[ecps92]

Correct

Newport County Fire Departments - Scan New England Wiki
Newport County Police Departments - Scan New England Wiki
and
Rhode Island Digital System - Scan New England Wiki

LC PD and FD are on RISCON.

 

[frankie811]

As far as I know Little Compton PD is on 453.3875 and Fire is on 453.4875

Those are NOT RISCON frequencies. RISCON is on a Phase I 800Mhz digital trunking system. You must know what talk groups LC are on. Check here https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=4275

 

[HannaMary]

Thanks for your help and advice. Don't know what the problem was....but things seem to be up and running again. Just happen to live in a very quiet town.

 

[frankie811]

Thanks for your help and advice. Don't know what the problem was....but things seem to be up and running again. Just happen to live in a very quiet town.

All the action in town seems these days to be in the town hall chamber.

 

[HannaMary]

Well, it's been a year and a half since my first post when I described the difficulty I was having receiving Little Compton Police and Fire via RISCON. RISCON reception continued to be infrequent and erratic and then stopped altogether. I tried moving the scanner to different rooms with no luck and finally turned off my HomePatrol 1 and got caught up in other projects.

I recently decided to give the HomePatrol another try and after multiple attempts I still can't receive any RISCON signal for anywhere in RI and it's making me crazy. Here's what is working...I can receive Fire and Police in Bristol County MA including Fall River, Westport, Dartmouth no problem, so I don't believe the scanner is the problem. I even drove over and sat next to the RISCON South Zone Tower in Little Compton on Amy Hart Path and still no RISCON signal. Is it possible I'm programming it incorrectly for the statewide system?

If the scanner is defective or if there is some other reason the Uniden HomePatrol 1 can't pick up my town, I don't want to continue wasting my time. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[firemndon]

The HP1 does not perform well on simulcast P25 systems. I live in Warwick and only under certain conditions am I able to pick up any reception on the RISCON system. My HP536 decodes the system without any problems.

 

[ecps92]

You indicate you hear VHF/UHF Mass Agencies, have you tried the Mass SP 800 ?
That might help indicate if your radio is experiencing an 800 Mhz Failure.

If you get the MSP, then everything points to
a. Configuration of RISCON
b. As others mentioned the HP not handling Simulcast systems well.

What are you running for an Antenna ?
It may sound stupid, but try a Paperclip

Well, it's been a year and a half since my first post when I described the difficulty I was having receiving Little Compton Police and Fire via RISCON. RISCON reception continued to be infrequent and erratic and then stopped altogether. I tried moving the scanner to different rooms with no luck and finally turned off my HomePatrol 1 and got caught up in other projects.

I recently decided to give the HomePatrol another try and after multiple attempts I still can't receive any RISCON signal for anywhere in RI and it's making me crazy. Here's what is working...I can receive Fire and Police in Bristol County MA including Fall River, Westport, Dartmouth no problem, so I don't believe the scanner is the problem. I even drove over and sat next to the RISCON South Zone Tower in Little Compton on Amy Hart Path and still no RISCON signal. Is it possible I'm programming it incorrectly for the statewide system?

If the scanner is defective or if there is some other reason the Uniden HomePatrol 1 can't pick up my town, I don't want to continue wasting my time. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[HannaMary]

Thank you for your replies. Per your suggestion, I have the scanner programmed to the MA SP 800 and I'm not receiving anything. Is there any kind of a fix for an 800 MHz failure?

 

[HannaMary]

Update...

Thank you for your responses. I drove out of town to Fall River late yesterday with my scanner and it worked fine picking up RISCON and MA state police. Not sure why it picks up reception in Fall River but not in Little Compton, but at least I've discovered that the scanner is not the problem, but rather my local reception is.

Firemndn, your suggestion appears to be correct that the HP-1 does not perform well on simulcast P25 systems....at least in some locations. Good to know that the scanner doesn't need repair but that I need better reception and I will look into an 800 MHz antenna or an alternate scanner...not sure how much more time or expense I want to put into this.

I appreciate your help.
Helen

 

[MrAntiDigital]

As a general statement, I used to be able to pick up many of the R.I. fire and police departments when they were on the analog system at my home in Connecticut.

Providence, Warwick, FDs etc came in "loud and clear". Now of course it is NOT happening. I miss listening to them unless I go online to listen. But then I don't have the ability to "lock out" or "listen to" individual frequencies as I was once able to do. I could then listen to any two, three, five, etc or twenty five channels as I wished.

My home is about 50 miles from Providence. My question is how well or how far can a place like Providence or Warwick be heard with this newer system ? Have those closer been affected by this change over as well ? That could be part of the problem even with using an 800 antenna. The reception distance is much more limited.

 

[UPMan]

In general, new radio system installs are designed to only cover the area intended to be served by the system. 50 miles is typically way outside the intended coverage area for a city system. Sometimes you can overcome this by having a very tall antenna mast. To get the city, you'd need to be sure you were monitoring the Providence City Simulcast site, as that is the site most likely to carry traffic for city agencies.

As to the 800 MHz issue, in your other thread you said that the scanner was not receiving 800 MHz at all. But, I did not see how you diagnosed that. The RISCOM system is licensed for the following frequencies in your part of the state:

851.0125*, 851.2375, 851.4625, 851.5125*, 852.0125*, 852.0875, 852.15, 852.2375, 852.45, 852.5125*, 852.925, 853.0125*, 853.175, 853.4125

(oddly, several of those frequencies that I marked with an asterisk are not shown as being part of the trunked system on the RadioReference page, and a couple that are not on the FCC license for that site are shown in the site data on that page ... 851.6625, 853.875. I don't know if this is a defect in the FCC license or in the RadioReference dB. A local person would be better qualified to address this.)

If you have the Extreme Upgrade, I'd check to see what the system analysis looked like. It shows signal strength, decode quality, and system activity. If you do not have the upgrade, then I'd program all of the above 16 frequencies into a conventional system with each channel set to Digital and monitor that way. One channel (the current control channel) might lock on with no audio. Avoid it if it does that.

I'd do the same thing on the RI Public Transit Authority frequencies...actually, I'd probably start with that one for two reasons: 1) Fewer channels to program and 2) The control channel noise for a Motorola system is loud and distinctive. If you hear it, you know that your scanner can receive 800 MHz.

 

[ecps92]

851.0125, 851.5125, 852.0125, 852.5125 and 853.0125 are Conventional Analog channels and not part of the TRS - google NIFOG

In general, new radio system installs are designed to only cover the area intended to be served by the system. 50 miles is typically way outside the intended coverage area for a city system. Sometimes you can overcome this by having a very tall antenna mast. To get the city, you'd need to be sure you were monitoring the Providence City Simulcast site, as that is the site most likely to carry traffic for city agencies.

As to the 800 MHz issue, in your other thread you said that the scanner was not receiving 800 MHz at all. But, I did not see how you diagnosed that. The RISCOM system is licensed for the following frequencies in your part of the state:

851.0125*, 851.2375, 851.4625, 851.5125*, 852.0125*, 852.0875, 852.15, 852.2375, 852.45, 852.5125*, 852.925, 853.0125*, 853.175, 853.4125

(oddly, several of those frequencies that I marked with an asterisk are not shown as being part of the trunked system on the RadioReference page, and a couple that are not on the FCC license for that site are shown in the site data on that page ... 851.6625, 853.875. I don't know if this is a defect in the FCC license or in the RadioReference dB. A local person would be better qualified to address this.)

If you have the Extreme Upgrade, I'd check to see what the system analysis looked like. It shows signal strength, decode quality, and system activity. If you do not have the upgrade, then I'd program all of the above 16 frequencies into a conventional system with each channel set to Digital and monitor that way. One channel (the current control channel) might lock on with no audio. Avoid it if it does that.

I'd do the same thing on the RI Public Transit Authority frequencies...actually, I'd probably start with that one for two reasons: 1) Fewer channels to program and 2) The control channel noise for a Motorola system is loud and distinctive. If you hear it, you know that your scanner can receive 800 MHz.

 

[rescueone]

In general, new radio system installs are designed to only cover the area intended to be served by the system. 50 miles is typically way outside the intended coverage area for a city system. Sometimes you can overcome this by having a very tall antenna mast. To get the city, you'd need to be sure you were monitoring the Providence City Simulcast site, as that is the site most likely to carry traffic for city agencies.

As to the 800 MHz issue, in your other thread you said that the scanner was not receiving 800 MHz at all. But, I did not see how you diagnosed that. The RISCOM system is licensed for the following frequencies in your part of the state:

851.0125*, 851.2375, 851.4625, 851.5125*, 852.0125*, 852.0875, 852.15, 852.2375, 852.45, 852.5125*, 852.925, 853.0125*, 853.175, 853.4125

(oddly, several of those frequencies that I marked with an asterisk are not shown as being part of the trunked system on the RadioReference page, and a couple that are not on the FCC license for that site are shown in the site data on that page ... 851.6625, 853.875. I don't know if this is a defect in the FCC license or in the RadioReference dB. A local person would be better qualified to address this.)

If you have the Extreme Upgrade, I'd check to see what the system analysis looked like. It shows signal strength, decode quality, and system activity. If you do not have the upgrade, then I'd program all of the above 16 frequencies into a conventional system with each channel set to Digital and monitor that way. One channel (the current control channel) might lock on with no audio. Avoid it if it does that.

I'd do the same thing on the RI Public Transit Authority frequencies...actually, I'd probably start with that one for two reasons: 1) Fewer channels to program and 2) The control channel noise for a Motorola system is loud and distinctive. If you hear it, you know that your scanner can receive 800 MHz.

I might have solved the problem. The license that had Little Compton as a transmit site (WQEE894) has EXPIRED. The new license (WQDV555) shows Portsmouth as the closest site to her location. If they have changed transmit sites for the control channel (853.875) that would explain why she was receiving this system before, but not now.

 

[HannaMary]

UPMan and RescueOne,

Thanks very much for your research and responses relative to the expired licensing for my local Little Compton tower which is very likely related to the problem I'm having receiving RISCON and MA State Police. I guess I would have thought that I would pick up the Portsmouth tower because my location in Little Compton is right near the intersection of West Main Road and Meetinghouse Lane and I'm just across the Sakonnet River from Middletown and Portsmouth.

There are some local forum friends on scan-ne.net who are assisting me as well with this news.
Puzzled in Little Compton

Many thanks for your assistance. I will keep this thread updated as we try out a couple of things locally.

Helen

 

[ecps92]

LC is still active, I think Portsmouth never got implemented, altho was licensed
It seems some of the Licenses never got Renewed, so new Call signs got issued.
Some others might have lapsed, but that doesn't mean they are not using them.

I might have solved the problem. The license that had Little Compton as a transmit site (WQEE894) has EXPIRED. The new license (WQDV555) shows Portsmouth as the closest site to her location. If they have changed transmit sites for the control channel (853.875) that would explain why she was receiving this system before, but not now.

 

[kr19]

This might be a useless suggestion, but did you enable multiple service types on the HP-1? I had that problem in the beginning; I wasn't receiving anything digital until I enabled the services.