Not receiving all transmissions

[mistermightymoose]

Hi,

I have been listening to a great feed on Broadcastify for my area in Sudbury, ON. The feed has OPP, MTO, and city fire (https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/24701). While it's a great feed, I am really only interested in listening to the fire department.

I purchased a used HomePatrol 1. I used the Sentinal Software to update to the most current firmware and database (October 14, 2018). I have selected fire as the service type and I hear the dispatches and communication between the dispatchers and the trucks.

I have kept the Broadcastify feed running alongside my new scanner and have noticed that the feed is receiving some transmissions that I am not. Particularly, it's receiving the Tac Radio channels.

I'm not sure what the next steps are? As far as I know it's scanning these channels. I don't seem to hear the tac1, etc. channels (https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=8024). I do get the City and Regional Dispatches and they seem to the same area in the radio reference database. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[hiegtx]

Hi,

I have been listening to a great feed on Broadcastify for my area in Sudbury, ON. The feed has OPP, MTO, and city fire (https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/24701). While it's a great feed, I am really only interested in listening to the fire department.

I purchased a used HomePatrol 1. I used the Sentinal Software to update to the most current firmware and database (October 14, 2018). I have selected fire as the service type and I hear the dispatches and communication between the dispatchers and the trucks.

I have kept the Broadcastify feed running alongside my new scanner and have noticed that the feed is receiving some transmissions that I am not. Particularly, it's receiving the Tac Radio channels.

I'm not sure what the next steps are? As far as I know it's scanning these channels. I don't seem to hear the tac1, etc. channels (https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=8024). I do get the City and Regional Dispatches and they seem to the same area in the radio reference database. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

For the Uniden Home Patrol series scanners, the Public Safety Service Types that are enabled by default (when the scanner is first shipped) are the Dispatch channels. I.E. Law Dispatch, Fire Dispatch, EMS Dispatch, and Multi-Dispatch. The related Tac and Talk channels are not enabled at first.

I realize you bought a previously owned scanner, so those might have been changed. However, when you installed Sentinel on you PC, that may have reverted to the default types. Go into the Profile Editor in Sentinel either by selecting it from the drop-down Edit menu, or click its the icon on the second row at the top of the screen (it's the one that resembles a piece of paper with a pencil on it, right under the V in the View drop-down selection).

Once the editor is onscreen, select the tab labeled Service Types. Make sure that the Tac and Talk types for Public Safety are 'on' (the box is checked). Enable Law Tac and Law Talk, Fire Tac and Fire Talk, as well as those types for EMS and Multi-Dispatch. If you are using a Favorites list, make sure that those types are in the systems. If using the main database and location, update the database in Sentinel, those types would now be enabled. Write the updated profile to the scanner, which will reset the service types to "On" as well as any additional changes or updates.

 

[ko6jw_2]

Tac channels are usually simplex (no repeater). Whoever is providing the Broadcastify feed my have a better location and antenna. You may simply not be able to hear them. Check the radio settings as described above, but also realize that you may not be able to hear everything. Consider a better or outside antenna as well.

 

[hiegtx]

Tac channels are usually simplex (no repeater). Whoever is providing the Broadcastify feed my have a better location and antenna. You may simply not be able to hear them. Check the radio settings as described above, but also realize that you may not be able to hear everything. Consider a better or outside antenna as well.

That's not always the case. Looking at the trunked systems in the OPs area, there a number of fire related talkgroups under the "Fire Tac" service type. If a Tac channel is on a trunked system, it will be repeated, as well as likely recorded. However, as you noted, tac channels on conventional frequencies (such as used for fireground communications) are often simplex.

 

[mistermightymoose]

For the Uniden Home Patrol series scanners, the Public Safety Service Types that are enabled by default (when the scanner is first shipped) are the Dispatch channels. I.E. Law Dispatch, Fire Dispatch, EMS Dispatch, and Multi-Dispatch. The related Tac and Talk channels are not enabled at first.

I realize you bought a previously owned scanner, so those might have been changed. However, when you installed Sentinel on you PC, that may have reverted to the default types. Go into the Profile Editor in Sentinel either by selecting it from the drop-down Edit menu, or click its the icon on the second row at the top of the screen (it's the one that resembles a piece of paper with a pencil on it, right under the V in the View drop-down selection).

Once the editor is onscreen, select the tab labeled Service Types. Make sure that the Tac and Talk types for Public Safety are 'on' (the box is checked). Enable Law Tac and Law Talk, Fire Tac and Fire Talk, as well as those types for EMS and Multi-Dispatch. If you are using a Favorites list, make sure that those types are in the systems. If using the main database and location, update the database in Sentinel, those types would now be enabled. Write the updated profile to the scanner, which will reset the service types to "On" as well as any additional changes or updates.

Thank you for your detailed response. I opened up Sentinel and I see that the Fire Dispatch, Fire-Tac, and Fire-Talk are all checked off. I've also gone onto the unit itself and enabled made sure that those services are enabled.

 

[mistermightymoose]

Thank you for your replies. I will have to see if it matters what location the radios are being used in. If I determine that there is a problem and I'm not receiving the feed, is there a way to troubleshoot what frequencies are being used? I see that there is an Extreme feature that can be purchased. Would I need to try and discover the signals?

Thanks again!

 

[mistermightymoose]

Hello,

I was able to get some advice to solve my issue. The P25 fire system that I was interested in monitoring has a number of towers spread out across the city. These towers act as repeaters. So, using the Sentinel software I created a favourites list and only selected the tower closest to my location. Since all of the messages are relayed to all of the towers I get all of the communication. The delay, I believe, was from my HomePatrol 1 quickly switching from one tower to another. Now, there are fewer frequencies to monitor and I get all of the transmissions.