TACN Cleveland Site 049 is down

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richard4537312

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As of 7:15 AM today, TACN Cleveland Site 049 is down. EMA 1 informed CPD dispatcher that officers may not be able to use their portables in "dense buildings." Site 049 has been silent ever since. Those who were monitoring Bradley County agencies prior to the startup of Site 049 a year or so ago will remember the significantly degraded reception. All transmissions are coming from North Bradley, Oswald Dome and occasionally Chattanooga Simulcast. Anyone using a Pro96 scanner to monitor TACN in Bradley County will hear nothing, since that radio does not support 700 MHz trunking.
 

SnoopyDog2

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After Cleveland went down I was getting some off Oswald Dome but now I'm getting nothing on any tower. I used to hear North Bradly a lot with city, county, and THP traffic. I still get tone outs for BCFD that were simulcast on both old system and the new system. Any more news or ideas?
 

richard4537312

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DonnieDog2, which model scanner are you using? When monitoring TACN in Cleveland area with a scanner, signal strength and cellular interference are bigger problems with the 700 MHz signals from Oswald Dome and North Bradley, than with the 800 MHz signals that had been coming from the nearby Cleveland site. Cellular is a sneaky interference, because you don't hear anything. The scanner simply goes silent. Worst culprit is the cell tower located behind Food Lion at intersection of North Lee Highway and Paul Huff Parkway, which can silence a scanner within a radius of about a half mile. Radio Shack and Whistler scanners seem to be more susceptible to this problem than Uniden scanners. Here are my suggestions: 1. Use a Uniden scanner, if you have a choice. 2. Relocate away from cell towers. 3. Use your scanner's attenuation settings to reduce the cellular interference, keeping in mind that they will further reduce the weak signals that may be available to you from North Bradley and Oswald Dome. 4. Place a high quality (and unfortunately, expensive) pre-amplifier/filter such as the JIM M-75 between your scanner and its antenna.
 

SnoopyDog2

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Cleveland TACN, North Bradley is quiet

Thanks for the info. Using a Uniden 436HP. I have moved it to different locations in the house and found places that it works much better, also been playing and searching on some of the settings to help. It just seems that a station will start talking, then sort of fade for a few seconds and then clear up again. Going to turn the auto threshold off and try some manual settings. I hope the Cleveland site comes back up soon, as it seems the other sites don't do as well now as they did before the Cleveland site came online. I have also ordered an antenna especially for 700-900 as I have an older scanner to monitor non trunked systems and freqs. If you are in the Cleveland area, what towers to you monitor, I listen to THP, Cleveland city PD and FD, Bradley SO, FD, and EMS and the Life Force net. Thanks for any help you can give and I never monitored a trunked system until about a year and a half ago, but ben scanning since early 70's.
 

richard4537312

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I think the 436HP is by far the better scanner for monitoring TACN agencies in Bradley County. I monitor essentially the same agencies you have mentioned. The 436 is not particularly good at selecting the best signal at any given location, and seems to waste some time looking for control signals for sites that are out of range, sometimes resulting in missed calls. I have a favorites list devoted to Bradley County Agencies, and I included the Oswald Dome, North Bradley, Chattanooga Simulcast and Cleveland Sites. Rather than allowing the scanner to select the site it will lock onto, I assigned each site a separate quick key. At any given location in the county, I usually have a pretty good idea which site will be providing the best signal. Using the quick keys, I can quickly turn on that site, while leaving the other three turned off.
 

SnoopyDog2

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Cleevleand site 049

Just noticed increase in radio traffic, seeing Cleveland tower back. THP, EMS, CPD, all back, haven't heard BCSO or fire yet but I'm hoping they come back.
 

richard4537312

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Yes, it's back up. I'm in the downtown Cleveland area, getting excellent reception with all sites except Cleveland 049 locked out.
 
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