Silicon Valley Regional Comms System (SVRCS) - No one home, I hear nothing.

[inetinfo2]

I live in the San Jose area of the San Francisco Bay Area, and I just lost all my local PD transmissions. I have a BCD536. So, I just downloaded the free trial of ProScan, and renewed my RR premium subscription. I then imported the SVRCS from Radio Reference and wrote it to the scanner. I have it on ID Scan, and in the last hour the scanner has not stopped one time. I have a discone on the roof about 10 feet up, and in the past (before people transitioned to the SVRCS) I regularly heard traffic from San Jose PD and other services. I still hear the Santa Clara County Sheriff (not on SVRCS but is "digital") and other analog systems no problem, so whatever mistake I've made, it's not in the signal chain.

What might I have done wrong to not be hearing *anything* from this system? Yes, some of the talk groups (apparently *all* of San Jose PD) are encrypted, but supposedly there are plenty of other agencies on the system that aren't encrypted.

Thank you for any help. I'm

 

[gmclam]

San Jose PD specifically, has encrypted ALL of their transmissions. You should still hear fire, Santa Clara County Sheriff. I pick up the Santa Clara County sheriff up here in the Sacramento area. Channel 1 is analog and the other channels P25 but not trunked.

 

[inetinfo2]

Thanks, yes, I realize (but didn't think to say in the above post) that SJPD is fully encrypted - I sure hope they reconsider down the road. And you're right, Santa Clara Sheriff has an analog channel and other P25 channels, and I hear them fine.

Since my first post, I am now hearing some moderate traffic. Very moderate. Another question though - should I have put every frequency into the 536? Or, is there some information as to what frequencies are in use right near me? I'm very unfamiliar with how to use RR to program my scanner.

Thanks for helping out someone who isn't very familiar with doing this.

 

[gmclam]

To make things clear, we are talking about this system. Note that there are several sites. You could just program in the site closest to you, or program them all in. With the scanner you have, you only need to program the colored frequencies (control channel and alt control channels).

 

[inetinfo2]

To make things clear, we are talking about this system. Note that there are several sites. You could just program in the site closest to you, or program them all in. With the scanner you have, you only need to program the colored frequencies (control channel and alt control channels).

Correct, that is the system I'm talking about. I will try only programming the control channels & alt control channels. As for determining which sites are closest to me, is it obvious just looking at the information at the link you posted? Is there some way to find out where the repeaters are so I can determine what's closest to me? I guess I can just do it by trial and error, adding and removing control channels one by one until I find the one with the highest signal strength.

Another (probably dumb) question - on the 536, when it stops on a talk group and I press "Channel" to hold that talkgroup, how do I see what frequency the scanner is receiving on? I've tried pressing "Alt Disp" to cycle between the two views, but I don't see any frequencies in either view. But I just found that by clicking on "Call Signs", then clicking on the site near Sunnyvale, I get a list of frequencies on that tower. I'll try it out!

Thank you for your help

 

[gmclam]

Correct, that is the system I'm talking about. I will try only programming the control channels & alt control channels. As for determining which sites are closest to me, is it obvious just looking at the information at the link you posted? Is there some way to find out where the repeaters are so I can determine what's closest to me? I guess I can just do it by trial and error, adding and removing control channels one by one until I find the one with the highest signal strength.

Click on the name of the site (such as west) and you'll see the details including lat, long and a map.

Another (probably dumb) question - on the 536, when it stops on a talk group and I press "Channel" to hold that talkgroup, how do I see what frequency the scanner is receiving on? I've tried pressing "Alt Disp" to cycle between the two views, but I don't see any frequencies in either view. But I just found that by clicking on "Call Signs", then clicking on the site near Sunnyvale, I get a list of frequencies on that tower. I'll try it out!

I haven't read the manual for the 536, nor have I driven one; so I don't know that answer. You'll have to look it up in the user manual.