Having trouble trunk tracking

[Marauder]

Hi, if anyone could help that would be great


I put in all the frequencies for my County (dutchess but this part of dutchess is closer to the ulster tower from Walker mtn) so I put in all 800 codes for the trunk under ed-hi and set my bc898t to scan and it's barely picking up a thing from the talk groups nd if it does its cutting short like I can't hear any conversations or I'll have a flashing talk group number for example 03-091 meanwhile if I tune to the actual 800mhz channels I can hear everything I double checked the numbers but it's like the scanner is just shipping over a lot I even limited it to just that one bank and still nothing much

 

[ka3jjz]

Are you just using an indoor whip? There's a chance here that the signal you're getting isn't very strong. Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

I'm assuming this is the system you're trying to hear...

NYCOMCO (EDACS) Trunking System, Various, New York - Scanner Frequencies

Note that anything marked 'E' in the mode is encrypted, and you won't be able to listen to these...Mike

 

[Marauder]

Are you just using an indoor whip? There's a chance here that the signal you're getting isn't very strong. Mike

Yeah I'm using the antenna that came with the bc898t the puny little thing haha I was thinking the same thing, is there anything I can do to increase reception without buying an external antenna? Any tin foil tricks or is that a myth lol

 

[Marauder]

I'm assuming this is the system you're trying to hear...

NYCOMCO (EDACS) Trunking System, Various, New York - Scanner Frequencies

Note that anything marked 'E' in the mode is encrypted, and you won't be able to listen to these...Mike

Thank you for the info but most of my area is analog only a handful encrypted

 

[darunimal]

First, firmware which version?, second LCNs?, third band plan settings?, 4 modulation and step size?

 

[Marauder]

First, firmware which version?, second LCNs?, third band plan settings?, 4 modulation and step size?

Only thing I know how to answer of those is the step is 12.5

 

[ka3jjz]

While there were no firmware fixes for the 898 that had to do with EDACS AFAIK, the LCN is very important in EDACS tracking. It must match precisely, or the radio won't trunk properly.

You would look in the database and see the little 2 digit number at the bottom left of each frequency. That is the LCN or logical channel number.

As for antennas; your simplest solution is to use a cell phone antenna (which are very wide banded) with a mag mount on a cookie sheet or similar (anything ferrous will do). It need not be very big - a couple of inches wide is fine. Then you could move it around to see where your signal is strongest.

Fortunately 800 Mhz antennas are quite tiny, and easy to hide. If you can't put something up outside, try the highest point in your apartment, nearest an outside wall, which is more likely to have a better signal - particularly at 800 - then an inside room. Even a small beam would be quite tiny at these frequencies.

I am assuming here that this is where you want to concentrate your efforts - there are multi band mobile antennas that cover 800 (like the well known Larsen whip) you can also use with the same idea, but the ground plane - which is what you will create when you put a mag mount on a ferrous surface - would need to be somewhat larger to accommodate the lower frequencies. Mike

 

[Marauder]

I am going to take all of that advice and try it thank you!

 

[DickH]

You would look in the database and see the little 2 digit number at the bottom left of each frequency. That is the LCN or logical channel number. ...

Just to clarify. The LCN is the channel number in your scanner where that freq. goes. Never start in channel zero in an EDACS system.
All the freqs. in that system start in channel 1. The only odd site is the ULSTER site where channels 5, 8 and 10 must be left empty.