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shadow7g

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I,m having no luck monitoring American Electric Power using a pro 652 and win 500. I'm in WV on the Fayette Kanawha county line. I think I might be picking wrong sites and/or talk groups. Do I have tried selecting the ones nearest me from both counties but never hear anything. Any advice anyone has to offer will be appreciated.
 

mtindor

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Carroll Co OH / EN90LN
You might not have much luck, for various reasons. I don't know exactly where you are, and I don't know if you are just using a ducky antenna or an outside antenna for the 800 mhz band with quality low-loss coax. So, it's hard to tell if you would pick up any of the sites from your location.

401 Ansted
403 Coal Fork
405 Madison
423 Hernshaw
424 Bolt
485 Elkhurst

Now, those sites are the ones that pretty much surround the Kanawha / Fayette line. However, I'm not sure that the LCN order has been _confirmed_ on any of those sites. And if the LCN order (as listed in the DB) has not been confirmed, you likely will never copy traffic.

1. Decide in your mind which one or two sites are the closest to you geographically
2. Using your scanner, tune to EACH frequency listed at each of those two sites

One frequency on each site will have an EDACS 24/7 control channel. It'll make a funky sound (if you've never heard an EDACS control channel).

If you tune to every frequency on the closest two sites and you hear _nothing_, then you simply aren't picking up the sites and need a better antenna system.

If you tune to every frequency on the closest two sites and you find a control channel (its not voice, its a control channel - you'll clearly know what it is), then determine if the signal strength is pretty good.

If the signal strength is pretty good on a particular site, program the site into your PRO-652. Only program sites in if you know you can pick them up with decent signal strength -- again, figuring that out by finding the control channel for each site and looking at signal strength.

Assuming one of the sites above is close enough to you for you to get a good signal on the control channel, program the site into your scanner just how it is listed in the DB and keep your fingers crossed.

NOTE: because I don't know if the LCN order for any of those sites has been confirmed, you may not be able to trunk track (follow conversations) even if the site is trong enough for you to pick up until you determine the proper LCN order.

Unless you are extremely lucky, I have a feeling that either you won't be able to reliably pick up a site due to your location / antenna setup OR if you can pick up a site it might not have the proper LCN order listed in the DB and thus you won't be able to follow voice conversations.

One thing you definitely want to do, if you program in one of those EDACS sites, is to add a Group WildCard and a Private Wildcard for the system. That way, you'll hear whatever talkgroups are active even if you don't have those talkgroups programmed in.

Hopefully somebody down in that neck of the woods will respond and indicate that some sites close to you are online and that the LCN order listed in the DB is accurate. I just don't know.

Mike

Mike
 

shadow7g

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Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
14
Location
southern WV
Thanks, I have an antenna with an amp about 40 feet up so I think I'm probably pretty good on that, I'm easily within range of Coal fork and Hernshaw and probably Anstead but hear nothing on the control freqs. I put all the freqs in as conventional and have heard nothing. i know AEP in Indiana went to some other system I'm starting to think the same may have happened here I'm going to take my 651 and old pro 95 closer to the towers and see what if I can get anything it may be possible that the signal is being blocked by high ground between there and here.
 

mtindor

OH/WV DB Admin
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10,647
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Carroll Co OH / EN90LN
Thanks, I have an antenna with an amp about 40 feet up so I think I'm probably pretty good on that, I'm easily within range of Coal fork and Hernshaw and probably Anstead but hear nothing on the control freqs. I put all the freqs in as conventional and have heard nothing. i know AEP in Indiana went to some other system I'm starting to think the same may have happened here I'm going to take my 651 and old pro 95 closer to the towers and see what if I can get anything it may be possible that the signal is being blocked by high ground between there and here.

If the towers I mentioned were online at some point, they would/should still be online. The EDACS control channels change daily, so don't count on just the red frequencies for verification as to whether or not a sight is online.

If you have an antenna at 40 feet with an amp, you should be good - but only if the antenna/amp are designed for 800 mhz and you are using some decent coax (LMR-400 or something).

In your neck of the woods, I don't know if there is any other 800 mhz in use that you could compare against, but you should certainly try to verify that you actually are pulling in 800 mhz pretty well.

WV did not go to Opensky. They would still be on the EDACS system. AT some point they will go to P25, I'm fairly sure, but I doubt that has happened yet. Regardless of whether it is EDACS, P25 or Opensky, you would hear _something_ on at least one frequency of each one of those sites.

I believe all three of hte sites you mentioned have been confirmed online in the past. So, if you can't pick up a 24/7 control channel when scanning all of 15 of those frequencies conventionally, I think you've got a problem with your antenna system or are simply out of range of those sites.

mike
 
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