WRUP533
Member
Lol
Palmetto 800 Master Thread
- Thread starter mrat1234
- Start date
I recently had reprogrammed an SDS-100 for a friend and we've noticed that for some reason it will not receive any traffic on the Palmetto 800 system. We've tried both the newer Draytonville site and the Thicketty site in Cherokee County as part of a favorites list that includes all of the talk groups for SCHP Troop 4. He's complained he never hears any traffic, and I've personally tried it with the same results. The scanner shows full signal and the P25 indicator pops up on the screen so it is locating the control frequency at times, but nothing comes through.
Anyone have any ideas? It receives other systems OK- just not Palmetto 800. The service types are all enabled as well, so it isn't that either. I'm at my wits end with this one. I'm out of ideas.
Anyone have any ideas? It receives other systems OK- just not Palmetto 800. The service types are all enabled as well, so it isn't that either. I'm at my wits end with this one. I'm out of ideas.
Try switching the system to ID Search mode. See if it receives any talkgroups. Then troubleshoot why it won't receive specific talkgroups.
- Check service types (tag column in the RRDB). Make sure the applicable ones are turned on for the talkgroups you want to hear
- Scan only one site at a time: Site Hold
- If you set quick keys at site or department levels these need to be turned on
- If you do a channel hold on a known busy talkgroup (Press channel key, dial in TGID, press channel key again) do you hear traffic?
Good idea. I deleted all of the Departments from my P800 favorites list so only the two sites remained.
First I avoided the Draytonville site & enabled ID Search mode on the Thicketty site. I am getting traffic via this method (mostly Spartanburg County talk groups, but it is traffic).
Second, I avoided Thicketty and locked in the Draytonville site by itself. I've received no audible traffic at all via the Draytonville site when ID Searching.
I still have only managed to pick up one single HP transmission on Thicketty in hours of scanning which I just don't understand. Their channels use to be non-stop activity with all the talk group patching.
Does anyone know how they're patching dispatches now? I know it use to be the Cherokee/Union TG was typically patched with Chester/Fairfield, and York operated on its' own.
Good ideas, I double checked and all service types are enabled, and I don't have any quick keys configured at all. My next test is going to be to reprogram my favorite lists and let it sit on one of the HP talk group channels all day connected to the PC and see if anything pops up.
Glad you verified that scanning the sites in ID search mode worked. That eliminates some questions/doubts about programming.
It seems logical that there's not much traffic on Thicketty (other than Spartanburg County) and Draytonville other than state agencies, since there aren't really any other Palmetto 800 users in those areas. Similar to the York site. Draytonville is a relatively new site, and thus may not be programmed into many subscribers. Which means they are somewhat less likely to roam to that site.
As to why you're not hearing much SCHP, that's a valid question. Thicketty is the main site that covers I-85 in from the NC line to the Spartanburg County line. I would think at least one trooper would be in that area, affiliated with the Thicketty site, most of the time. I don't monitor Troop 4 channels much, so can't speak specifically to the current typical patching protocols. But I feel certain they're still doing it to some extent.
So tonight I experimented with this a little more. I sent my Favorites lists back to the SDS100, but I made one change and unlocked all of the SCHP talk groups for Troop 4. I set it on the Thicketty site, and let it sit with ProScan running. In about an hour or two I got three hits from the Cherokee/Union HP TG (but none from the other HP talkgroups- York, Chester, and Chesterfield/Lancaster, which in the past would be almost non-stop).
After confirming that some traffic at least occurred, I switched to the Draytonville site. In the hour or so I left it on I received no traffic there, but tomorrow I'm going to leave it connected and logging all day to see if anything pops up during the daytime hours.
Maybe with the use of car computers there is just less traffic than their use to be? I will admit I haven't listed to HP in a long, long time simply because Thicketty was so hard to pick up at my location.
I monitored the Thicketty site this morning for about 10 minutes around 8am. Other than the usual Spartanburg County talkgroups, the only SCHP talkgroup I saw active was SCHP Spartanburg (typically patched with Greenville now). There is plenty of traffic on that channel.
Are you in range of any other sites in Troop 4, aside from Thicketty and Draytonville? So that you can compare relative busy-ness on the SCHP Troop 4 talkgroups?
Are you in range of any other sites in Troop 4, aside from Thicketty and Draytonville? So that you can compare relative busy-ness on the SCHP Troop 4 talkgroups?
Just Thicketty & Draytonville, the rest are too far away since there are no other Palmetto 800 users in this area. I can receive the York County system though- I can try the patched HP TG on it.
I did hear SCHP Cherokee/Union on the Thicketty site this morning in about 15 minutes of monitoring.
wcu02mpa
Member
I have recently moved to the Columbia SC area and am still trying to get a handle on the PAL-800 system. Is it a mix of simulcast and multisite? The big question is I can spring for an SDS-200, but will I be able to at least monitor SCSHP and other state (and non-state that are on it) agencies (non-AES of course). The PAL-800 is much different than I remember. Thanks.
wcu02mpa
Member
So I did order an SDS200 but also have a follow up. I have a Whistler TRX-2 remote mounted in my truck and I did a firmware update and loaded PAL-800 into a zone just to see if I could pick anything up. I am picking everything up and clear. I traveled around the Irmo area and picked up both SCHP and various city/county agencies. I held the talk group button and no distortion or loss of radio traffic on any of the talk groups. I am running a 700-800 MHz antenna. Whatever Whistler has done with firmware it seems to be quite the improvement. I have been up in Virginia the last three years where STARS went full encryption and monitoring just to local agencies. I will keep up the testing and my SDS-200 should be here next week.
I'm glad to hear you're having success. And with a SDS200 and TRX2 you'll be capable of monitoring talkgroups that transition to Phase II at some point in the future.
But, It matters which site you're monitoring, which you didn't specify. In the Irmo area, the Harbison site would likely be the best bet for monitoring. Harbison is a single-tower site, not Simulcast, so I wouldn't expect the TRX2 to struggle with it. Harbison carries a lot of talkgroups most of the time, but it may be lacking some talkgroups of interest at times as subscribers affiliate and dis-affiliate with the tower. That, of course, depends on what specifically you're interested in monitoring, which you didn't specify. To hear "all" Richland County talkgroups pretty much all the time, you'll want to monitor the Richland simulcast site. Likewise, to hear "all" Lexington County talkgroups, you'll want to monitor the Lexington Simulcast site. There's a lot of overlap in coverage between these three sites, but none of them carry "all" talkgroups from all agencies.
wcu02mpa
Member
So I have my shiny new SDS200 and sentinel software. I owned an SDS100 a few years ago but some of that trunking programming has escaped me. I can program in conventional stuff just fine. I am wondering if the best thing to do is get a GPS for this as I travel a lot in the state. I am wanting to set up different Favorites lists such as: Lexington County, SCHP, STP, DNR,etc…. The problem is for just Lexington County it wants to load every tower site in the state. I remember when I lived in Virginia I was able to load VSP (STARS) just for my area but I have forgotten the way to do that. The TRX-2 only goes to traffic on whatever the closest site is. Other than the GPS how would one set it up to just scan the talkgroups I want on what ever tower is nearby on the SDS200? Thanks
I'll tell you how I monitor Palmetto through the state and you can decide if my method suits your needs. Warning - it's a good bit of work to get thing set up.
I create Favorites list for each county in the state. I also create one Favorites list for conventional state agency channels (which aren't used much anymore) and a Favorites list for each airport.
In each county favorites list, I create a System for conventional channels, a System for Palmetto 800, a System for Fleettalk, and additional systems for any other trunked system I'm interested in. For Charleston, Beaufort, York and Horry, I make a System for their respective county trunked systems. I try to keep Quick Key assignments consistent in each Fav List.
I add all of the talkgroup groups I want into each trunked system, which as you note, adds every site on the multi-site systems by default (assuming you're using Sentinel). For Palmetto 800, I add state agencies to each county trunked system. Once I finish adding talkgroup groups and assigning them to appropriate Department quick keys, I delete all sites except those located in the respective county. I assign quick keys to each site. This limits scanning in each "county" trunked system to only those sites within the county. There are a few exceptions where a site exists near a county border and carries talkgroups from both counties, in which case that site would exist in both county's respective trunked system.
As I travel, I enable and disable Fav lists as I cross county boundaries. I might enable the next county as I'm approaching it and scan two counties for a while near the border. Seems to work pretty well and ensures I'm not trying to scan sites well outside the area I'm in at the time.
To your point, GPS can help with the automatic enabling and disabling. But remember that the geo-tagging of sites and systems is somewhat inaccurate - it can only be established as circle, and none of our counties are perfect circles. This results in a good bit of overlap, especially a long narrow county like Charleston or Greenville. Your GPS will enable Charleston County while you're in most of Berkeley and Dorchester Counties, for example. I prefer more direct control, but that's difficult to do safely when you're driving.
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