I live ~2 miles across the Anderson County line in Easley, and it is extremely rare for me to pick up any radio traffic from the Sheriff's Office. I have a uniden bcd436hp, and typically I'm using a trunk mounted antenna in my car. I can pick up Pickens County Sheriff's Office, Easley PD, Liberty PD, etc. just fine. I can also pick up Greenville County Sheriff's Office most of the time, and occasionally Travelers Rest PD. One thing I found interesting is that if I'm driving ~2-3 miles away from Wren High School, Anderson comes in crystal clear, and basically silences all other departments. However if I travel outside of that 2-3 mile range, it disappears almost completely. Even driving past the physical dispatching center for Anderson, I don't pick it up as well as when I'm near the High School. If anyone has any info on why this area in particular has such good reception, and how I can possibly increase the chance of me picking up Anderson from my location, I'd be more than happy.
Anderson County Reception Questions
- Thread starter huntbug
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The short answer is "The joys of a Simulcast System".
The longer answer lies in Simulcast Distortion. Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki
For you to eliminate the issue, you would need a Uniden SDS100 or SDS200 or a Unication G4 or G5.
The Wiki link should be able to give you some troubleshooting steps that might help your particular receiver.
The longer answer lies in Simulcast Distortion. Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki
For you to eliminate the issue, you would need a Uniden SDS100 or SDS200 or a Unication G4 or G5.
The Wiki link should be able to give you some troubleshooting steps that might help your particular receiver.
But what could possibly be making that one 3 mile radius such a hotspot? I can sit in front of the jail, which is where one of 3 antennas for the county is, and also not pick anything up. The nearest antenna to that hotspot is ~25 minutes away. Also, dumb question, is it just those 3 antennas for the whole county? I thought I saw somewhere that they also used cell towers.
It's important to understand exactly which site (or sites) you are monitoring to understand what agencies you will hear. Not all agencies are carried on all sites, so if you're specifically interested in listening to certain agencies, you have to know which sites their radio traffic is generally carried on and ensure that you're listening to that (or those) sites. Also, specific talkgroups can be carried on sites some of the time, but not all of the time, and which talkgroups are carried on a specific site at a specific time is outside of your control. All you can control is which sites you choose to monitor.
As mlindler said, simulcast distortion is likely part of your issue. Both the Anderson site along with the Greenville County site, use simulcast. Your 436 is going to struggle to decode traffic from those sites reliably. Since you're mobile, performance will change as you move to different areas. Literally, a few feet might make a huge difference in decode success. It's not a matter of signal strength per se, but instead the relative signal strength from the multiple towers (multiple towers make up a single simulcast site) you're receiving signal from. If you find just the right spot, you might have great decode, and move half a block and get little to no decode.
To my knowledge though, Greenville Co SD isn't carried on the Anderson site, and Anderson Co SD isn't typically carried on the Greenville site. So if you're monitoring one of those sites, or the other, you're probably going to miss one of those agencies, or the other. Maybe you also have the Clemson, Pickens and Seneca sites enabled? Or the Laurens site? Or the Due West site? All of these sites are non-simulcast, so you'll get better decode success (ie, reception) from those, depending on how far away you are. However, you'll receive different agency traffic from each of these sites, and not necessarily the agencies you want to monitor.
A little trial and error can help determine which agencies are typically carried on which sites. Restrict your monitoring to one site at a time, and monitor each site solo for a few days. You should be able to determine 1) which sites you can receive at all, and 2) which sites carry traffic from the agencies you're interested in monitoring. You may need to set up multiple "systems" in a favorite list to narrow down which agencies are associated with specific sites. Then you can use quick keys to allow easy toggling of specific agencies (departments) and sites you want to monitor.
Hope that helps.
As mlindler said, simulcast distortion is likely part of your issue. Both the Anderson site along with the Greenville County site, use simulcast. Your 436 is going to struggle to decode traffic from those sites reliably. Since you're mobile, performance will change as you move to different areas. Literally, a few feet might make a huge difference in decode success. It's not a matter of signal strength per se, but instead the relative signal strength from the multiple towers (multiple towers make up a single simulcast site) you're receiving signal from. If you find just the right spot, you might have great decode, and move half a block and get little to no decode.
To my knowledge though, Greenville Co SD isn't carried on the Anderson site, and Anderson Co SD isn't typically carried on the Greenville site. So if you're monitoring one of those sites, or the other, you're probably going to miss one of those agencies, or the other. Maybe you also have the Clemson, Pickens and Seneca sites enabled? Or the Laurens site? Or the Due West site? All of these sites are non-simulcast, so you'll get better decode success (ie, reception) from those, depending on how far away you are. However, you'll receive different agency traffic from each of these sites, and not necessarily the agencies you want to monitor.
A little trial and error can help determine which agencies are typically carried on which sites. Restrict your monitoring to one site at a time, and monitor each site solo for a few days. You should be able to determine 1) which sites you can receive at all, and 2) which sites carry traffic from the agencies you're interested in monitoring. You may need to set up multiple "systems" in a favorite list to narrow down which agencies are associated with specific sites. Then you can use quick keys to allow easy toggling of specific agencies (departments) and sites you want to monitor.
Hope that helps.
I’ve been having issues hearing any traffic on Caesars Head and Greenville Simulcast sites lately from my location in Anderson county. I was hearing a fair amount last year. I have only those two and Anderson Simulcast programmed in my SDS200.
All sites should have "some" traffic. SCHP at minimum, but Greenville Co Simulcast is very busy. If you're not hearing "any traffic" then you probably have a programming problem, or a reception problem. Double-check programming, pay particular attention to comparing the control channels listed on the Palmetto 800 page on this site to what you have listed in programming for each site. They change from time to time, and it's sometimes a challenge to keep your radio up to date with what's in the database. Then verify that you can receive each site. Scan one site only and put in ID Search mode. You'll hear any/all traffic on the site. That, and the signal strength meter, should indicate if you can receive the site, or not. Anderson County to Caesars Head is a little far, but not impossible, depending on your location in Anderson County (north end) and your antenna set-up. Greenville County Simulcast should be within range in most of Anderson County.
Consider the other sites I listed above that surround Anderson County- Laurens, Abbeville, Clemson, Pickens, Seneca. It can be interesting to listen to different agencies from time to time.
Consider the other sites I listed above that surround Anderson County- Laurens, Abbeville, Clemson, Pickens, Seneca. It can be interesting to listen to different agencies from time to time.
I live between the center of Anderson city and I-85, and had the same exact same problems on my 436, 536, and also my SDS100. Simulcast is definitely part of the problem on the 436 & 536, particularly towards the city of Anderson.
But I also discovered another problem, which can account for the problem that Huntbug is experiencing at his Easley home location: After some analysis, I recognized that my home was within the default range distances of the Clemson, Seneca, and Greenville County simulcast sites, even with my radios ranges set at 0. These 3 sites sites do not regularly carry the Anderson SD, but were occupying a fair amount of scan cycle time, thus reducing the percentage of time that the Anderson County site was being scanned. I reduced the range of these other 3 sites, and it corrected this problem. It appears that Huntbug’s location is also within the default range distances of the 3 sites, plus the Pickens and Caesars Head sites. Thus, his situation is even worse than mine. As Brian suggested, try monitoring a single site, such as Anderson County only, to see if that fixes this problem. If it corrects this problem, either lock out those sites (not recommended) or reduce their range distances as I did.
Hopefully this will help.
But I also discovered another problem, which can account for the problem that Huntbug is experiencing at his Easley home location: After some analysis, I recognized that my home was within the default range distances of the Clemson, Seneca, and Greenville County simulcast sites, even with my radios ranges set at 0. These 3 sites sites do not regularly carry the Anderson SD, but were occupying a fair amount of scan cycle time, thus reducing the percentage of time that the Anderson County site was being scanned. I reduced the range of these other 3 sites, and it corrected this problem. It appears that Huntbug’s location is also within the default range distances of the 3 sites, plus the Pickens and Caesars Head sites. Thus, his situation is even worse than mine. As Brian suggested, try monitoring a single site, such as Anderson County only, to see if that fixes this problem. If it corrects this problem, either lock out those sites (not recommended) or reduce their range distances as I did.
Hopefully this will help.
Very little traffic on the Clemson site also, except on football game days.
As KF4JYE points out, using Sentinel or another programming application to determine, in this case based on location and distance, to determine which site or sites you monitor, can be a disadvantage. The default range of site coverage in the RR database is just that, a default. It's not a hard and true accurate measurement. So while Sentinel may think a site is in range based on that figure, it won't necessarily be in range. And the RR database has no capability to link a talkgroup (or talkgroup group) to a site or sites that talkgroup is normally carried on. The database assumes all sites are equal.
As others have noted, the volume of radio traffic, aka the agencies carried on different sites, varies greatly from site to site. Unfortunately, most traffic most hobbyists want to listen to are on simulcast sites, which cause challenges for all of us still using scanners that don't support simulcast reception well. The choice of radios available to overcome that are few and expensive, and all have certain drawbacks. It's one of the primary ways this hobby is frustrating to many.
As others have noted, the volume of radio traffic, aka the agencies carried on different sites, varies greatly from site to site. Unfortunately, most traffic most hobbyists want to listen to are on simulcast sites, which cause challenges for all of us still using scanners that don't support simulcast reception well. The choice of radios available to overcome that are few and expensive, and all have certain drawbacks. It's one of the primary ways this hobby is frustrating to many.
I don’t monitor SCHP (but on occasion enable ID search). I reprogrammed and I have Caesars and Greenville simulcast associated with my Greenville Co favorites list and just Anderson Simulcast with Anderson Co. I tried multiple sites last night with no improvement. I only have the stock antenna on my SDS200. I guess I’m just out of range.
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