Am I too far away to pickup Carroll County?

[kgor93]

Hey everyone, I'm currently streaming Howard County, MD on OpenMHZ.com. I'd like to add Carroll County as well, but I don't know if it's feasible. The radioreference wiki shows Carroll County's main site as having a 17 mile range. I am about 24 miles away. Using RTL-SDR's.

So here are my questions:
1. Am I too far away to pickup Carroll County?
2. If no, what antenna should I be using? And with what tuning settings?
3. Carroll County is P25 pt II. Does trunk recorder support this?

 

[ka3jjz]

Where are you in relation to the border with Carroll which is generally north of you? If you're close to the border, there's a small chance, particularly if you can get a beam - however these newer systems tend to concentrate their coverage inside their region and heavily attenuate it outside of that. Someone who scans that county can confirm that.

What kind of antenna are you using now?

Mike

 

[maus92]

Depends where you live in Howard County. Carroll County is a simulcast system, and two of its transmit towers are more or less bordering Howard; one in Mt Airy, and another in Sykesville. So it might be possible. I have no idea of the capabilities of Trunk Recorder, but DSD+ and OP25 will work.

 

[Spleen]

Yes, what Mike said. Depending on where you are in HoCo, you may need a beam. And if you give up on trying to pick up the P25, you can always stream the Fire/EMS Dispatch channel on 155.055...unless you're at the bottom of a quarry you will receive it.

 

[kgor93]

Depends where you live in Howard County. Carroll County is a simulcast system, and two of its transmit towers are more or less bordering Howard; one in Mt Airy, and another in Sykesville. So it might be possible. I have no idea of the capabilities of Trunk Recorder, but DSD+ and OP25 will work.

Where did you find the tower locations?
the RR site just lists 1 location

Carroll County Site: Simulcast

Carroll County Site: Simulcast Details

www.radioreference.com

 

[ka3jjz]

This map from the FCC database shows it much clearer than just naming sites.

RR Database Home

The most complete database of radio communications data

www.radioreference.com

Mike

 

[SpectrumKing]

I did a test, drove from HoCo to Carroll with my Uniden BCD436HP. Didn’t pick up any Carroll transmissions until I was over the county line. And it dropped out at the county line on the way home. Seems like they’ve really tuned the system to not broadcast out into adjacent counties.