Thanks,
As someone who know Tolland County radio infrastructure pretty well I can explain why there is such diverity in the repeaters you hear.
First off you are right, the infrastructure is a patch work of 33 MHz low band and UHF base stations and repeaters spread throughout the county at varying locations and tower eleveations. These sites are used according to the department(s) who have an active incident. I will go over the Spring Weekend setup and explain from there some the reasons why you may or may have heard all of the converstations.
On Thursday the CSP brought in one of the comm trucks and activated ITAC3. Mainly because from UCONN you have your choice of UNION or BIRCH MTN both which poor talk-in from UCONN. The trucks have limited range so that would not be to easy to pick up from too far away. I have listened to ITAC repeaters off UNION and BIRCH on my ITAC portable at my house in Coventry so talk out is not a major issue.
Friday night they were using 33.78 for staging and coordination of ambulances. If you monitored the low band side you would eather hear a 250 watt Daniels base station located at the top of Bald Hill in Tolland when TN keyed up or a 45 low band cross bande repeater at 55' on the Coventry tower. Or maybe they were using a low band mobile in which case you have been hard pressed to hear that from very far away. The UHF side 453.9625 is a 2 watt signal @ 20' on the Coventry tower. This is the only 33.78 cross band repeater in Tolland County. 33.78 is not one fo the primary operating frequencies it is used as a backup, cover assignements during structure fires and the dive team uses it for operations.
In addition they were using what TN calls Fire Ground Red 458.4125 for the local operations. At my house in Coventry I would hear mobiles loud and clear but portables were weak and scratchy.
They were trying to use a TN UHF 453.275 frequency for command but the repeater was having trouble. When it is working this a 180 watt ERP frequency on the top of the bald hill tower in Tolladn.
On Friday and Saturday they used a repeater at the Coventry tower on 453.350 for coordination. Again this is a 180 watt ERP repeater at the top of the Coventry Tower. You should have been able to hear it from a fair distance away.
UCONN's repeaters are located on a tower near Horse Barn Hill. They have some decent FB2 licenses on 453.4 adn 453.9 so you should have been able to hear them from a good distance.
When it comes to listening to Tolland County it helps to know where the cross band repeaters are so you can dial in the better UHF frequecny. TN operates on 33.44(Columbia,Mansfield, Andover, Bolton, Coventry, Tolland, Ashford), 33.86(Somers, Ellington, Stafford, Union, Willington), 33.48 (Vernon) and East Windsors UHF LTR trunk system. They dispatch on 33.80 and 153.125 but again it is town/department specific. So say Toland Fire goes out and you will hear the 33.80 and 153.125 250 watt base station on the Bald Hill tower in Tolland. Then say Columbia goes out and they hit hte 33.80 and 153.125 radios at the Coventry tower. This will sound very different to someone listening in say Bloomfield. This is the main reason why you hear varying levels of audio and signal quality.
Most of the radios that TN operates have been replaced and are brand new Daniels radios. Low band are 250 watt Crescend PA and UHF are 150 watt PA's tuned down to 50 Watts.
Sorry for the length hope this helps.