PRO 106 / no P25

[KA5QYR]

Hi Everyone,
I am not able to receive any P25 comms on my 106, is this a common problem or am I doing something wrong. Many thanks for any tips.

KA5QYR

 

[OsloViking1975]

Hi Everyone,
I am not able to receive any P25 comms on my 106, is this a common problem or am I doing something wrong. Many thanks for any tips.

KA5QYR

I see you are in West Texas. Texas has numerous systems. What county are you monitoring? You said it is a P25 system. Is it analog and digital, or just digital, or does it use P25 with NAC codes?

 

[KA5QYR]

Howdy Oslo,
Yes I am in Nolan County and they are using P25 and NAC. I am also using the ARC 500 software. I programmed my cousins 106 and I couldn't receive any P25 on it, so I must not be getting something right in the programming Oslo. Many thanks for the response.

KA5QYR

 

[hiegtx]

Howdy Oslo,
Yes I am in Nolan County and they are using P25 and NAC. I am also using the ARC 500 software. I programmed my cousins 106 and I couldn't receive any P25 on it, so I must not be getting something right in the programming Oslo. Many thanks for the response.

KA5QYR

KA5QYR,
In order to receive Nolan County S. O. (everything), you need to enter their frequency twice. While it's the same frequency, they are using it in both digital, and analog, modes,

For one entry of their frequency 155.685, your squelch mode will be CTCSS (also known as a PL tone). Enter the PL tone listed, which is 123.0. That 'channel' is text-tagged in the database here as Nolan SO 1A.

For the second entry of their frequency 155.685, your squelch mode will be P25 (Win500 calls it "NAC", not sure what ARC500 calls it, as I don't use that software. It's listed as 'P25' if entering manually on the scanner.) Enter the NAC code, 177. The text tag for that one is showing as Nolan SO 1D (probably the A is for analog, the D for digital, just in the database here).

Several of the Fisher County frequencies, just to your north, show as being used as 'mixed mode', so you would need to enter each of them twice, once with the PL tone (94.8 is shown), the second entry for each frequency with the NAC (076). Scurry County, just to your west, also shows their frequency 155.700 as being used both as analog and digital. Again, double entry is needed. There are a few others in your area. Check the database entries for counties within 50-60 miles of you (basically "two counties" out). Many of these are fairly strong systems, that carry pretty well.

While I'm out of range to monitor your area on any kind of regular basis, I get out to Abilene & the 'Big Country' occasionally. I spend more time a little farther east, in the Stephens/Palo Pinto County area. What I've seen in some cases, like Stephens, is that the S.O. units, law enforcement, may be using mostly the digital mode, while the analog mode is often retained and used for the volunteer fire departments, dispatched by the county.

I've seen this pattern enough in that area that for all the counties in range of where I'm going to be (I'll be in Breckenridge this weekend), or in range during my trip, I'll go ahead & create a 'digital search' entry for them if they are only analog at present. I have found a couple before they were reported to the database.

Remember that for Texas DPS, no double entry is needed. It's all P25/digital, so just enter the frequencies and NAC codes.

 

[Ensnared]

Dual Modes

KA5QYR,
In order to receive Nolan County S. O. (everything), you need to enter their frequency twice. While it's the same frequency, they are using it in both digital, and analog, modes,

For one entry of their frequency 155.685, your squelch mode will be CTCSS (also known as a PL tone). Enter the PL tone listed, which is 123.0. That 'channel' is text-tagged in the database here as Nolan SO 1A.

For the second entry of their frequency 155.685, your squelch mode will be P25 (Win500 calls it "NAC", not sure what ARC500 calls it, as I don't use that software. It's listed as 'P25' if entering manually on the scanner.) Enter the NAC code, 177. The text tag for that one is showing as Nolan SO 1D (probably the A is for analog, the D for digital, just in the database here).

Several of the Fisher County frequencies, just to your north, show as being used as 'mixed mode', so you would need to enter each of them twice, once with the PL tone (94.8 is shown), the second entry for each frequency with the NAC (076). Scurry County, just to your west, also shows their frequency 155.700 as being used both as analog and digital. Again, double entry is needed. There are a few others in your area. Check the database entries for counties within 50-60 miles of you (basically "two counties" out). Many of these are fairly strong systems, that carry pretty well.

While I'm out of range to monitor your area on any kind of regular basis, I get out to Abilene & the 'Big Country' occasionally. I spend more time a little farther east, in the Stephens/Palo Pinto County area. What I've seen in some cases, like Stephens, is that the S.O. units, law enforcement, may be using mostly the digital mode, while the analog mode is often retained and used for the volunteer fire departments, dispatched by the county.

I've seen this pattern enough in that area that for all the counties in range of where I'm going to be (I'll be in Breckenridge this weekend), or in range during my trip, I'll go ahead & create a 'digital search' entry for them if they are only analog at present. I have found a couple before they were reported to the database.

Remember that for Texas DPS, no double entry is needed. It's all P25/digital, so just enter the frequencies and NAC codes.

From time to time, I travel to Big Spring to see my father. Hence, I monitor Nolan County. After reading your post, I went back into Win500 and found that the software only loaded the digital channel for Nolan County. It is an easy fix, but I will start to look for this sort of situation when programming.

I suppose one could deactivate the "skip duplicates" when programming since both of these frequencies are shown in the RR DB.

Thanks for this information.

David

 

[hpycmpr]

An alternative to duplicate frequency entries is to leave the coded squelch on FM. The radio will tell you which mode its receiving and will switch automatically as needed. That will save needed memory space unless you have co-channel interference.

Steve

 

[Ensnared]

Scratching My Head Here

An alternative to duplicate frequency entries is to leave the coded squelch on FM. The radio will tell you which mode its receiving and will switch automatically as needed. That will save needed memory space unless you have co-channel interference.

Steve

Thanks. Well, come to think of it, I thought my GRE PSR 500 had a feature that would activate P25 if it were a digital frequency. Nevertheless, I will go on & leave the changes intact.

I checked my west Texas V-Folder and found that Fisher County showed P25 on several of their frequencies.

I will monitor such when I travel out there.

David

 

[N8IAA]

Thanks. Well, come to think of it, I thought my GRE PSR 500 had a feature that would activate P25 if it were a digital frequency. Nevertheless, I will go on & leave the changes intact.

I checked my west Texas V-Folder and found that Fisher County showed P25 on several of their frequencies.

I will monitor such when I travel out there.

David

David, if you leave the Mode in Auto, and the Squelch Mode in Search, it will automatically pick the correct mode and squelch/NAC.
Larry

 

[Ensnared]

Auto Mode

David, if you leave the Mode in Auto, and the Squelch Mode in Search, it will automatically pick the correct mode and squelch/NAC.
Larry

Thanks Buddy, that it is what I was trying to say. I've never really had trouble picking up frequencies that were listed as analog & turned out to be digital.

 

[hiegtx]

David, if you leave the Mode in Auto, and the Squelch Mode in Search, it will automatically pick the correct mode and squelch/NAC.
Larry

That's true, and I do use that method when I run across a newly licensed frequency for one of the counties of interest, not knowing if it's in use, for what, and whether it is analog or digital, or possibly mixed.

However, for the ones where one or both have been identified, I prefer the double entry. Channel capacity is not a problem out there. Simply not enough agencies to fill up the PSR-500 (or it's cousin, a Pro-106). Also, they seem to re-use those frequencies about every third county or so. For the OP, KA5QYR, his county of interest, Nolan, uses 155.685. Three counties east (look at the database map, and you'll see what I mean by 'three counties) is Stephens, which I also mentioned. They also use 155.685 as their primary S.O. dispatch channel. When Stephens first went to mixed mode, I occasionally got a staticy hit (from Stephens) of Nolan County traffic. When conditions are fair to good, and with no terrain obstructions, signals often travel farther than expected.

There are a few other counties that I am in between when spending time down in Stephens County, that share the same frequency, so unless dispatch is identifying themselves as something other than 'dispatch", or "S.O.", or giving a city or known highway (other than a county road), it can be hard to tell them apart.

 

[Ensnared]

Interesting comments

That's true, and I do use that method when I run across a newly licensed frequency for one of the counties of interest, not knowing if it's in use, for what, and whether it is analog or digital, or possibly mixed.

However, for the ones where one or both have been identified, I prefer the double entry. Channel capacity is not a problem out there. Simply not enough agencies to fill up the PSR-500 (or it's cousin, a Pro-106). Also, they seem to re-use those frequencies about every third county or so. For the OP, KA5QYR, his county of interest, Nolan, uses 155.685. Three counties east (look at the database map, and you'll see what I mean by 'three counties) is Stephens, which I also mentioned. They also use 155.685 as their primary S.O. dispatch channel. When Stephens first went to mixed mode, I occasionally got a staticy hit (from Stephens) of Nolan County traffic. When conditions are fair to good, and with no terrain obstructions, signals often travel farther than expected.

There are a few other counties that I am in between when spending time down in Stephens County, that share the same frequency, so unless dispatch is identifying themselves as something other than 'dispatch", or "S.O.", or giving a city or known highway (other than a county road), it can be hard to tell them apart.

Well, that surely sounds interesting regarding the setup. When I go through Sweetwater, I step lightly since I know DPS are like ducks on a June Bug there. Typically, I hear them transmitting on digital. Like I said, I will maintain the changes I've made and see how the radio behaves during my next sojourn to west Texas.

 

[Ensnared]

Nolan County

That's true, and I do use that method when I run across a newly licensed frequency for one of the counties of interest, not knowing if it's in use, for what, and whether it is analog or digital, or possibly mixed.

However, for the ones where one or both have been identified, I prefer the double entry. Channel capacity is not a problem out there. Simply not enough agencies to fill up the PSR-500 (or it's cousin, a Pro-106). Also, they seem to re-use those frequencies about every third county or so. For the OP, KA5QYR, his county of interest, Nolan, uses 155.685. Three counties east (look at the database map, and you'll see what I mean by 'three counties) is Stephens, which I also mentioned. They also use 155.685 as their primary S.O. dispatch channel. When Stephens first went to mixed mode, I occasionally got a staticy hit (from Stephens) of Nolan County traffic. When conditions are fair to good, and with no terrain obstructions, signals often travel farther than expected.

There are a few other counties that I am in between when spending time down in Stephens County, that share the same frequency, so unless dispatch is identifying themselves as something other than 'dispatch", or "S.O.", or giving a city or known highway (other than a county road), it can be hard to tell them apart.

I am re-visiting this thread to post an observation I made while traveling through Nolan County. This time, I noticed the odd behavior of 155.685. I forgot to put my PSR 500 into "auto" and "search." Man, the radio hung up on that channel and never transmitted right. So, I made these changes. Of course, this might also be the sound of encryption since the description in the RR DB indicated occasional encryption. But, this sounded different than any encryption I've heard.

So, when I come back through, I will see what happens.

 

[hiegtx]

I am re-visiting this thread to post an observation I made while traveling through Nolan County. This time, I noticed the odd behavior of 155.685. I forgot to put my PSR 500 into "auto" and "search." Man, the radio hung up on that channel and never transmitted right. So, I made these changes. Of course, this might also be the sound of encryption since the description in the RR DB indicated occasional encryption. But, this sounded different than any encryption I've heard.

So, when I come back through, I will see what happens.

I'm going to be out that way (in Abilene for a short visit) next Thursday (the 29th). I'll see what I pick up as well.