Trouble Scanning Bell Fleet Net

[AricAAA]

I have been scanning the airwaves in Windsor and Essex County for over 2 years now using a Pro 96. I had programmed all the agencies around me manually and they worked fine, including Bell Fleet Net in the Windsor-Essex area.

With regards to Fleet Net Zone 1, while in Windsor, I got OPP, EMS, and MTO loud and clear with no problems.

I've recently moved to downtown Oakville, Ontario, in Halton Region. I pickup Halton Regional Police no problem.

However, when I try to program the fleetnet system for the Halton Region and the GTA, I've gotten pretty much nothing from the OPP or EMS.

I've even tried programming my scanner using Win96 and the radio reference database. I've programmed all the towers in and around Halton.

After programming by computer failed, I tried programming fleetnet manually, with all talkgroups. But still I've gotten barely anything. As far as I know, I've set the base frequency, offset, etc. all correctly. Is there anything that I might be doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

-Aric

 

[tonsoffun]

Aric,

I have moved your thread to get local help from the pro's here.

Welcome to RR
Thanks

 

[mciupa]

I've programmed all the towers in and around Halton.

I was in Milton last Saturday and was able to get these towers using a discone, so I imagine some of these should be heard down in Oakville.

• City of Guelph
• Ballinifad
• Charlton
• Cayuga
• Britannia
• Skylon
• Fonthill
• King City
• Mowat

Where these on your list of towers?
This would give you OPP coverage around the Golden Horseshoe.

 

[EJB]

Oakville is far enough away that you will struggle to get the areas fleetnet towers.
Are you able to pick up the control channels of any of the towers that mcuipa listed?
When I am in Oakville in my car I have trouble getting any of the local towers with any stock or duckie antenna. What are you using on our scanner?
Instead of trying to scan Mowat and Brittania and Charlton try Fonthill. It is pretty much right across the lake and it nomrally carries all the local area talkgroups in the GTA , even Halton EMS.

 

[AricAAA]

RE: Fleetnet

mciupa,

I was focusing mainly on Ballinfad and Britannia towers. Although I used Win96 to program in every single tower into 4 separate banks. I didn't seem to get much, but I'll try your list out. Thanks.

 

[AricAAA]

To EJB

EJB,

Thanks for the tips. I will try out Fonthill.

I think I have been able to get some of the control channels that mciupa listed, a few times from the Britannia tower, and maybe once from the Mowat tower.

The transmissions I get are very very scarse and cut out pretty quickly.So you may very well be right, I may be too far from the towers and not have a big enough antenna.

I have tried using the stock antenna and another whip antenna about twice its size. I'm guessing I'd probably have to get one of those massive aerial antennas if I really wanted to pickup my local Fleetnet.

I feel that I might be doing something wrong though, programming wise. A friend of mine was showing me his iPhone the other day, and he has a radio scanning application on it. And at pretty much the exact location I live, he was able to pickup the OPP on his iPhone loud and clear.

Unfortunately, his iPhone didn't give any details about the specifics of what it was scanning, but it was definitely the OPP. I wish I could remember what their call sign was so I could figure out what district they were policing.

Anyways, thanks for the advice.

-Aric

 

[AricAAA]

Fleetnet Towers

Sorry I forgot to add one other point to my previous posts. When I was in Essex County, I recall traveling down to Wheatley Provincial Park for a weekend. That is a pretty great distance away from the Essex Fleetnet Tower, about 40 minutes away by car.

Even while in Wheatley, I was still able to scan Bell Fleetnet Zone 1 loud and clear for the Windsor-Essex area.

That leads me to my next question, which is: do some fleetnet towers have greater range than other fleetnet towers?

I was under the impression that the fleetnet system had incredible range, but from what I've been experiencing up here in Oakville, it doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[AricAAA]

One Problem Solved. One Problem Remaining

Well, ironically enough, I moved my radio from one side of my desk to the other side (1 meter over), and all the sudden Fleetnet is working. I'm only receiving from the Britannia Tower (in Mississauga).

I'm getting EMS and OPP. This is strange because I tried moving the location of my radio before around my room and I didn't have much luck.

I now have a new problem. I only seem to pickup Fleetnet when I program my radio manually. The problem with that is that I would like to separate the OPP and EMS talkgroups, but that can only be done by computer as far as I know.

I tried to program the Britannia tower in by computer and select only OPP talkgroups for the GTA area. But unfortunately, I'm not picking up anything on the computer programmed channels. Only the manually programmed channels seem to be working now.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[AricAAA]

Fleetnet

I'm also able to get the Toronto Fleetnet Tower loud and clear now too.

Again the only problem is Fleetnet only seems to work when I program it in manually, not by computer using Win96.

 

[AricAAA]

All problems solved

Sorry about all the excessive previous posts.

I have finally solved all of the problems I have been having with my Pro 96 and Bell Fleetnet Zone 1.

I'm now picking up the Toronto and Mississauga towers loud and clear. And I have successfully programmed everything using Win96. No more picking up obnoxious EMS, MTO, or encrypted surveillance transmissions.

Thanks to everyone who offered me advice.

-Aric

 

[gary123]

for oakville use the mississauga towwer and the hamilton tower. As you travel towards Niagra Falls switch to the welland and niagra falls towers.

Handhelds like the 396 work fine in Oakville off the Mississauga tower. You can load in the Port Credit/Cambridge and Burlington/Niagra Falls talkgroups.

 

[derevs]

In Oakville skip the Ballinafad tower, too far away, up near Orangeville.

 

[mikewazowski]

Ballinafad is nowhere near Orangeville.

In fact, it's right on the border of Wellington County and Halton Region.

Since AricAAA has a Pro96, it would make sense to throw it in for the times he goes mobile. It should be easily heard from mid to north Halton Region.

 

[EJB]

Ballinafad is nowhere near Orangeville.

In fact, it's right on the border of Wellington County and Halton Region.

Since AricAAA has a Pro96, it would make sense to throw it in for the times he goes mobile. It should be easily heard from mid to north Halton Region.

With this antenna I found that even as far north as the 407 thru Oakville and Dundas (old Hwy5) the B-fad tower was hard enough to listen to.
Even as far north and west as Guelph Line (Exit 312) it was hard to get.

Maybe the Pro 96 is more sensitive than the 396T I have.



KS3SMA - Micro Magnet Mobile Scanner Antenna With SMA Style Connector Canada

 

[torontokris]

so how did you solve the problem? what was it?

Sorry about all the excessive previous posts.

I have finally solved all of the problems I have been having with my Pro 96 and Bell Fleetnet Zone 1.

I'm now picking up the Toronto and Mississauga towers loud and clear. And I have successfully programmed everything using Win96. No more picking up obnoxious EMS, MTO, or encrypted surveillance transmissions.

Thanks to everyone who offered me advice.

-Aric

 

[AricAAA]

As mentioned in my previous post, the main problem was my radio was placed in a bad spot for whatever reason. I had my radio positioned on the right side of my desk, and I was getting Halton Regional Police fine but couldn't get Fleetnet at all.

I tried moving my radio throughout my room, but didn't have much luck. Then I finally moved my radio onto the left side of my desk and suddenly Fleetnet was working fine.

As to why that fixed the problem, I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps my radio was too close to my telephone, my wall, or my wireless mouse base.

-Aric

 

[AricAAA]

As for my trouble programming using Win96, I think there was two things causing me problems. #1) I needed to have the fleetnet banks set to CLOSED MODE and #2) I needed to program just the control channels for the fleetnet towers using Win96, rather than all the frequencies.

After doing both those things, everything has been working great.