Meigs SO on Ohio MARCS

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gabie

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Meigs County,OH
Hello to all! I have been listening to Ohio MARCS and hearing the OSP and others.
I would really like to hear the Meigs SO. I heard them once around midnite a couple
days ago on the Racine tower (ID 22576). I've been getting talk on the Racine, Portland, and LittleHocking
towers. I have never seen the Pomeroy tower come up on the scanner. By the way, I live in Racine. I can hear Pomeroy PD and Middleport PD on the old freqs. I was wondering if the SO is having problems with change over or are they talking and I just don't get them?
Another thing, if they are talking does it come up on the tower they are closest to or does it broadcast on all or any of the towers? I don't no why the Pomeroy tower never shows on the scanner it is unlocked and on, is the Pomeroy MARCS antenna mounted on the Pomeroy or Middleport PD tower or is it on it's own tower?
By the way, I have ID search on.
 

mtindor

OH/WV DB Admin
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Carroll Co OH / EN90LN
According to FCC records (which are not always correct), the Pomeroy site is a quarter mile NE of Highland and Union on Memorial Dr.

The tower listed for that site belongs to Southeast Ohio EMS District, according to FCC records. Again, FCC records could be wrong.

Here are two different views on Google Maps:

Map View
Satellite View

Apparently that is extremely close to Meigs Co Emergency Services on Memorial Dr.

You should program 868.95 into your scanner conventionally and see if you hear a constant data channel (the control channel). If you hear it fine conventionally, then perhaps either it is not programmed into your scanner properly for trunking or perhaps there just isn't a lot of activity on it.

Any traffic you hear on one tower is not guaranteed to be heard on any other. If an OSP car is talking on the Racine tower, you may not hear anything on the Pomeroy tower unless there is another OSP car affiliated with the Pomeroy tower.

Mike
 
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gabie

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Feb 22, 2009
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Location
Meigs County,OH
I did what you said and programmed 868.95 in the scanner conv. and all I hear is static noise. You think maybe I am out of range for the tower. Sounds like maybe I hear faint talking on the freq. and a faint noise like dail up to a pc. I have the squelch off or I hear nothing.
 

mtindor

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Carroll Co OH / EN90LN
I did what you said and programmed 868.95 in the scanner conv. and all I hear is static noise. You think maybe I am out of range for the tower. Sounds like maybe I hear faint talking on the freq. and a faint noise like dail up to a pc. I have the squelch off or I hear nothing.

You should listen to a control channel of a tower site you are known to be able to hear, like Racine or Portland's control channel.

Program these two test freqs in - listen to the sound on each of them. This is what you should here, constantly, on the control channel of the Pomeroy site.

Racine: 867.05
Portland: 868.3375

Listen to the "digital noise" on those frequencies. You should hear the same thing on the control channel (868.95, according to the DB) for Pomeroy.

If you do not hear the same thing on 868.95, then eitehr the active control channel for Pomeroy has changed or you are out of range of Pomeroy. How far do you think you are from the Pomeroy tower, and are you down in the valley or up on a hill?

You should program the following frequencies in as test frequencies:

856.23750 867.18750 867.82500a 868.55000a 868.95000c

See if you hear something on one of these frequencies that sounds the same as what you hear on the Portland / Racine frequencies posted above. If you do, it may be that the control channels for the Pomeroy site have changed.

What model of scanner are you using?

Mike
 

gabie

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Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
33
Location
Meigs County,OH
I did like you said and I barely hear the sounds, mostly static and the squelch has to be off. The first time you helped I put the Racine and Portland freqs. in to listen to the difference. I do hear it on Pomeroy but barely, the rest of the Pomeroy freqs. were just static noise. I live on the river with a big hill across from the house. I get Pomeroy pd very well, Middleport depends on the weather. We use a BCD996T. Thanks for your help.
 

mtindor

OH/WV DB Admin
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Location
Carroll Co OH / EN90LN
Ok, if you're in the valley and the tower is up on the hill, the tower may specifically be targetting a certain area that isn't covered well with other towers - So in your direction, at 10 mi away as the crow flies, you may just be out of luck with regard to the Pomeroy tower.

From what you say, the signal for Pomeroy is just too weak. With any 800 Mhz listening, just moving the scanner around to a different area may produce a perfectly readable signal. I can often move around my house and copy different MARCS sites reliably with the stock antenna and then move to another area and not be able to copy those sites at all, but at the same time I may be able to copy other sites better.

So if you have your scanner in its "preferred" location and you can't hear Pomeroy's control channel well, you are probably better off not even having it in your scanner since you are more likely to hear "motorboating" on those days when the signal comes in a little btter but still not good enough for copy.

Mike
 
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