Westland MPSCS Wayne County & Whistler TRX-1

[kuczw]

I would appreciate any help please
I just bought a TRX-1 to listen to Westland, Garden city PD-FD / Wayne County MI area and nothing No chatter at all from where I want to listen to
I know they are on MPSCS and I have tried all kinds of different programing options with no help
Anyone have any experience with listening to these cities or the TRX-1
Thanks

 

[troymail]

There could be a varierty of reasons for the issues you are having. One possibility you can try to overcome fairly easily (as opposed to some you probably can't do anything about) is try to control which site your TRX is trying to monitor.

I see 6 different system "sites" for Wayne County on MPSCS.

When you program your TRX using more or less default imports, the entire system and all (199?) sites...

Further - the scanner ALWAYS attempts to find what it considers to be the "best" of those 199 sites in terms of reception... and that may not be the site you really want.

The first thing I'd do is import the system into a new configuration and limit the import to only the sites near you in Wayne County (and possibly one or more outside Wayne depending upon your location). Put this import in scanlist 1. For now, I would also import ALL of the frequencies for each of those sites (i.e. do not use the "import only frequencies marked as control channels")

Then, in EZ Scan, edit that system and lock out all but one of the imported sites.

Next, use the DUPLICATE button and create a 2nd copy of the system. Edit the 2nd copy and (a) lock out all but the 2nd imported site and (b) change the scanlist associated with each talkgroup to scanlist 2.

Repeat the above step once for each additional site being certain that each copy is fully in/assigned to a different scanlist.

When you load this onto your TRX, you will now have the ability to control which site or sites you are trying to scan (vs. allow the radio to pick one for you).

This also gives you the ability to determine if you are even receiving a specific site (can be determined by the stability of the "T" symbol on the display).

Enable one scanlist at a time and determining how well you are receiving each site.

If you are interested in trying this and need additional assistance, fell free to ask and I'll gladly help.

 

[troymail]

Maybe I missed a bigger question - are you receiving some talkgroups but not others (Garden City, Westland) -or- not receiving anything at all?

 

[kuczw]

none Local

I am receiving cities like Detroit and down river , and state or Wayne county but I have not heard nothing local at all ? ??
Thanks

 

[troymail]

I am receiving cities like Detroit and down river , and state or Wayne county but I have not heard nothing local at all ? ??
Thanks

ok - I am not familiar with the area at all but a few things to consider....

If you are receiving something but not what you are looking for -and- we're sure those agencies are on the system, it is possible/likely that the radio has looked onto a site that does not carry those talkgroups.

Some groups of users - particularly for smaller areas - are likely only to be carried on a couple of specific sites. Talkgroups do not tend to be carried across all system sites unless the system was setup to do that and/or there is a radio affiliated with a given site and switched to that talkgroup.

Assuming the site (or sites) carrying the talkgroups of interest are in range and receivable at your location, you might want to try the above procedure (or some variation of it) to try and force the radio to receive one of those sites.

However, if you think the site you are now (or in the future) receiving and you still don't hear them, they either are not there and/or you might not hear them if they are employing encryption (total pure speculation but something to consider). Hopefully, someone else in your area will chime in with more....

 

[kuczw]

Thanks that is what I am try to confirm if my area is using encryption

 

[troymail]

Thanks that is what I am try to confirm if my area is using encryption

If they are using encryption, by default, the TRX will still stop on those talkgroups when they are detected (unless you've selected other options). The encryption will sound like a telephone busy signal (or gibberish on P25 Phase 2 talkgroups).

 

[kuczw]

That is what I am getting is a busy signal Thanks

 

[troymail]

That is what I am getting is a busy signal Thanks

Ah - I really need to ask more questions before replying. Sometimes folks just don't want to answer questions in a response to a question they have - but obviously this proves it is necessary!

 

[gpp10x]

If you look at the cities of Western Wayne County in the RR database in the mode column if the mode is DE the talkgroup is encrypted. I have a TRX-2 and in my opinion it is a terrible radio. I have programmed Detroit Fire & the Eastern Wayne County systems along with others. When I listen to Detroit & EWC I will only receive EWC as Detroit Fire goes deaf. I have compared it with a 2nd scanner & Broadcastify. Even if I have EWC locked out the radio will not hear DFD. I set up a V-Scanner folder with Detroit only & the radio works just fine. I only have the control & alternate control channels programmed. I have programmed the radio multiple times too. I have traded emails with Whistler Support but they haven't come up with any reason for my problem. I have a friend who also had the same issue with his TRX-2.

 

[troymail]

If you look at the cities of Western Wayne County in the RR database in the mode column if the mode is DE the talkgroup is encrypted.

True - I haven't looked specifically but many times, talkgroups are encrypted but not noted as such in the database. This may be because they were not when they were first submitted or they were only partially encrypted so they didn't want to mark it as encrypted at the time so you could still import it (that issue in the database has been potentially partially fixed).

The only way to know for sure is to load the talkgroups and listen. And you really should/have to do this is you want to look for new talkgroups with a wildcard and don't want to be bothered by/waste time on known/existing and/or encrypted talkgroups.

I have programmed Detroit Fire & the Eastern Wayne County systems along with others. When I listen to Detroit & EWC I will only receive EWC as Detroit Fire goes deaf. I have compared it with a 2nd scanner & Broadcastify. Even if I have EWC locked out the radio will not hear DFD. I set up a V-Scanner folder with Detroit only & the radio works just fine. I only have the control & alternate control channels programmed. I have programmed the radio multiple times too. I have traded emails with Whistler Support but they haven't come up with any reason for my problem. I have a friend who also had the same issue with his TRX-2.

Again - I don't know that area but is it possible that this is related to my original response (above) regarding sites and how the radio selects one?

 

[kuczw]

Thanks I was told the TRX-1 would work and nothing in the area showed encrypted I am thinking they got it wrong I had a HP2 scanner that worked great up until 2015 or so then everything around my area went quite zip code 48186

 

[troymail]

...and nothing in the area showed encrypted...

Yup - there is nothing you can view (on this site or elsewhere) that verifies this 100% (unless you are a system admin for the system in question). And it can be unencrypted today but encrypted tomorrow (or, less likely, the other way around).

 

[kuczw]

Thanks again I think I will be sending my scanner back darn it

 

[gpp10x]

Thanks I was told the TRX-1 would work and nothing in the area showed encrypted I am thinking they got it wrong I had a HP2 scanner that worked great up until 2015 or so then everything around my area went quite zip code 48186

The HP2 should still work on the MPSCS system unless your radio died. Try one of the Uniden handhelds.
I would suggest trying to listen to West Wayne County off the Northville tower to see if it will pick up Garden City & Westland.

 

[troymail]

That is what I am getting is a busy signal Thanks

If this is true for the talkgroups of interest, the Uniden isn't going to work either.

 

[freqs]

That Radio should work . Gardin City is Multi Dispatch with Westland Talk Group 22109 .Its within the Western Wayne Law Enforcement Talk Groups non Encrypted only Livionia is Full Encryption .I use a Uniden 436 here in Macomb works great but ive heard and read the TRX will work .

 

[smithken]

As far as I know Livonia PD and Canton PD are encrypted full time, most other departments are in the clear

 

[gpp10x]

Delete

 

[gpp10x]

Again - I don't know that area but is it possible that this is related to my original response (above) regarding sites and how the radio selects one?

It's what I was thinking. Sounds similar to the issues I am having.[/QUOTE]