Scanners for Loudoun County

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brownlab

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Well it's interesting (and funny) that after over a year, you can still hear a lot of Loudoun County traffic on the 996XT provided someone out there is transmitting on FDMA. On a side note, lots of Game Warden traffic on STARS this time of year. That is one job you can have, confronting well armed hunters in the woods (lol).
 

thefireguy07

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After realizing that the firmware was corrupted, I reinstalled the scanner files. Also used the current DSP.
Boom it works. Using an 800mhz mag cellular antenna removed signal interference is the only other thing I needed to monitor loudoun. It has never worked right since day one however that is no longer a problem. The LCSO feed is up and running with almost all voice and not digital noise. Once it had everything it needed, I have had no problem with positioning/major signal errors.If your looking for a new toy, I recomend the PSR 800.
 

n4knw

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Nov 13, 2011
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Loudoun County, VA
Thanks again!

Thanks again to all for responding to my original post. Got a PSR-800 for Christmas and have it up and running monitoring LCFR, LCSO, and VA STARS without any issues. Enjoy your holidays!
 

cowboywildbill

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So if I get a PSR 800 or radio shack PSR 8 I should be able to just take it out of the box use an 800 cellular antenae and be up and listening to LCSO without doing anything fancy?
 

c5corvette

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So if I get a PSR 800 or radio shack PSR 8 I should be able to just take it out of the box use an 800 cellular antenae and be up and listening to LCSO without doing anything fancy?

Correct.

However, if you live in any poor reception area (about 49% of the county since the scanner isnt that great at decoding the LSM signal) you may have to do "fancy" things like hold the scanner in one hand while standing on the other all while leaning out an upstairs bedroom window, unless its raining on Wednesday then you have to do other things to get it to hear every conversation.

If you live in a good spot, they work great.
 

brownlab

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Dec 19, 2002
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Washington DC, Alexandria/Fairfax County /Loudoun
Really like the PSR 800 and is perhaps the best scanner I have ever owned (and we are going back to crystals sets). I do not know why some owners have so much trouble with them (although I do believe that some turkey units are produced but you need to contact GRE if you know there is an issue. They will take care of you). That said the weak point I believe is the USB port in the radio and you need to be careful not to jerk out the wire when you disconnect from your laptop or adapter and like any electronic product, try not to drop it and let it fall off the table however I have found that the unit is pretty durable. As far as the PRO 18 goes, I assume that it will work in Loudoun but I do not know if anyone has found that out yet. If someone has, please let me know. C5corvette is correct about reception but we have posted lots about various antennas to try and use. Basically no problem east of the mountain. Western Loudoun can be hit and miss but the important thing is that the unit will decode Loudoun Public Safety and if you have to play around with various antennas, that is half the fun of scanning-LOL
 

thefireguy07

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Psr 800

I can finally say the psr 800 is a great scanner. After running it through a pre amp and a vocoder with pc interface most voice is understandable. The only location in my house that it works is on my basement floor.
After working off and on for a couple months, I have come to a conclusion. Inside county and not driving around=a hassle with decoding the signal. Outside the county=party on. I've come to the conclusion that simulcast systems are a hassle to decode due to signal multipathing. Without the preamp and vocoder the voice gain is unpredictable and can make it sound as off everyone is yelling into there radio.
Equipment used:
1)psr 800 with all current firmware versions.
2) a variable attenuator.
3) moot mag base and stubby low pro 800 antenna
4) mono to stereo preamp with high and low control
5)realtime vocoder and audio up scale software
6)a lot of patience if your location is in the path of multiple system towers or cellular comm towers(the receiver seems to be to touchy for its own good. Found that the background noise was causing decoding errors.
I'm just glad to be able to say TDMA is not a problem for the psr 800. But warn anyone with a simulcast system with directional antenna. You will have issues and the only solution I've found is to go as low *** possible in your house or live under a control site.
Time for another thing to obsess about randomly until I figure it out.

I would love to hear how well the par 800 has been working for others.
 

mikev

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Dec 19, 2002
Messages
218
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Northern VA
I have a PSR-800, living in a 2nd floor condo in Leesburg, not far from the Airport... I have no problems receiving the system using just an 800MHz rubber duck, and all voice is perfectly readable using just the scanner with no external equipment. Volume seems to be fairly consistent using just the AGC built into the scanner.
 
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brownlab

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
708
Location
Washington DC, Alexandria/Fairfax County /Loudoun
I can finally say the psr 800 is a great scanner. After running it through a pre amp and a vocoder with pc interface most voice is understandable. The only location in my house that it works is on my basement floor.
After working off and on for a couple months, I have come to a conclusion. Inside county and not driving around=a hassle with decoding the signal. Outside the county=party on. I've come to the conclusion that simulcast systems are a hassle to decode due to signal multipathing. Without the preamp and vocoder the voice gain is unpredictable and can make it sound as off everyone is yelling into there radio.
Equipment used:
1)psr 800 with all current firmware versions.
2) a variable attenuator.
3) moot mag base and stubby low pro 800 antenna
4) mono to stereo preamp with high and low control
5)realtime vocoder and audio up scale software
6)a lot of patience if your location is in the path of multiple system towers or cellular comm towers(the receiver seems to be to touchy for its own good. Found that the background noise was causing decoding errors.
I'm just glad to be able to say TDMA is not a problem for the psr 800. But warn anyone with a simulcast system with directional antenna. You will have issues and the only solution I've found is to go as low *** possible in your house or live under a control site.
Time for another thing to obsess about randomly until I figure it out.

I would love to hear how well the par 800 has been working for others.

I think in a nutshell, you have pretty much said it all in regards to scanning X2 TDMA in Loudoun County. My radio always works on the breakfast bar in our kitchen. I mainly use a rubber duck which is on a hinge and I point it slightly to the west. Location, location, location. Some places in the house the 800 will not pick up anything but a couple of inches one way or another makes all the difference in the world. I pretty much have the 800 dedicated to Loudoun and use my 996XT for STARS, Fauquier, Warren, Clark and Frederick Counties (VA). BTW, we have a place in Southeastern Fairfax County and the 800 works great there as well (but so does the 996XT)
 
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