Berks County - Proposed 700/800mhz Digital Trunked Radio System

[bartold]

Should we be scanning only north or only south? Could the cutting out be the fact that it is scanning to the south when the better one is north?

 

[Warden1716a]

just bought a Uniden 996p2 and programed it up using Arc XT pro with the radio reference subscription I am not receiving anything other than berks dispatch. I am using the included back of the unit antenna as it sits on desk next to a window trying to monitor fire and police any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[mattl3320]

Form what I see in the database it looks like police and ems in berks on this system is enc. Is this true only fire channels are able to be listened to. I just bought a bcd436hp to listen to this system and chester county new system I hope we don't go with police and ems enc .does anyone here now what other systems around pa area are p 25 phase 2

 

[n3ouc]

Mattl3320,
Not all of the ems are encrypted, mainly just the hospital to ambulance transmissions. The call-outs are not encrypted as of yet. I live in the Allentown area and the only other current phase II action nearby is the NJICS system in New Jersey. I can always pick up the Hunterton Simulcast site from my location as well as the Walpack relay site. Sometimes when conditions are right, I can also pick up the Berlin Simulcast. Otherwise in Bucks County, they are in the processs of building out a phase II system to take over the Bucks County P25 Motorola system now in existance. I had heard that the new Bucks phase II should be completed by this Summer and I read on the forums that they already have some of the sites undergoing testing, but I cannot hear anything of them yet here in Allentown.

Mike

 

[mattl3320]

Thanks mike that makes me feel better about the new radio I will have to test when it arrives here just hope my county doesn't end everything no word yet.

 

[mattl3320]

That should have said encrypt everything no word yet

 

[mattl3320]

Hi guy I just got my bcd436hp in last night and I am having trouble with this system I am not hearing anything the firmware is up to date and so is the data base . I can hear Delaware state police and Lancaster and other p 25 systems around me but not berks . can some one here walk me threw setting the manual doesn't help me much. I did make a fav of the system with system set to tdma and nothing there either I am three miles from county line so I should be able to hear this system .

 

[mattl3320]

hi mike u said you changed the system to 2xtdma and changed the p25 thresh mode to manual. And the p25 thresh level to 10 what did u do to the p-25 waiting did u change this? if so what to I am trying what u did to see if I can get berks system working here. Also if u can send me a file from your radio would help so I can but in the radio software as I only have trial software for arc536 pro any help would be helpful.

 

[mattl3320]

I am going to run this set up and see what happens I am also going to try my amp on it a see if It helps with 800mhz antenna. my be I am not getting the control channel causing my radio not to work. I did notice I get a thing that said lnk in the lower right hand side of the radio but not p-25 .all other p-25 systems around me are working just not this one. Berks and Chester County was the reason I bought a phase 2 scanner so I hope I can get this working here.

 

[mattl3320]

Thanks n3ouc for the threshold settings that u had and thanks to sibbley for the import file for arc536hp. I made a fav file with sibbleys file made the threshold changes. And everything started to work the biggest thing for me is my home qth even less then a mile from berks county line. I can not copy system here I went to Walmart and on my way there I let the scanner running both the database and fav berks system I picked up one dispatch for fire on the database one and I heard fire ems and enc police on fav berks the data base one has the wrong system type . the weird thing is I only went across the street and head north for about 5 minutes and boom berks county came in like crazy now back at home and nothing. I might pick up a Yagi antenna for 700/800mhz and see what happens. Does anyone have any other ideas I can try?

 

[mattl3320]

well after going threw some of my antennas I found I had 4 rs 800mhz antennas so what I did is put two of the together with a t connect and put that on top of a tv pre amp with a right angle bnc so I could turn the dipole placed of of this on a tv mast with the tripod I have in my room put up till it almost touched the roof hooked up the scanner put the scanner on hold for berks move ant till strong single from tower and now I am listening at home. some talk comes in loud and some don't but this will work until I get some yagi 800mhz antennas since I am getting between 1-4 signal bars should I buy a high gain antenna or one around say 3 to 6 db for this does anyone have any Ideas. I have found a couple antenna between 6db and 15 db for less then a 100 dollars with shipping.

 

[n3ouc]

Mattl,
I was away for the weekend and didnt look at the forums until this morning. Glad you were able to get something to work for you. I am perplexed a bit because the Berks system towers come in very strong here in Allentown. I can receive both systems so much better with a paper clip than I can with an outside antenna sometimes. It is weird that you have this receive issue but found a way to receive them. The system is usually very busy and has no lack of interesting things to listen to.

 

[cavmedic]

Cant even pull a control channel in at 1 mile into Montco with a PRO-668 . 800/700 yagi , vert , multi band vert, paperclip , or a wet noodle ........ good thing i got this on the cheap from craigs list and scans Montco perfectly.......

 

[HM1529]

Cant even pull a control channel in at 1 mile into Montco with a PRO-668 . 800/700 yagi , vert , multi band vert, paperclip , or a wet noodle ........ good thing i got this on the cheap from craigs list and scans Montco perfectly.......

I received the Berks system as far east as Limerick on 422 using a magmount antenna with a BCD436.

 

[cavmedic]

I made some additional tweaks and switched the trunking frequencies to narrow band ( default was "fm" ) , now i get a lot of garbled crap, so it is a step in the right direction.


I can pick up the Lancaster system awesome , and Bucks, but dealing with UHF vs 700. I sit at 430 ft above seal level and have great coverage to my west, but my entire township is a RF hole for 800 mhz with Montco. My APX and XTL' portables break up on fire talk groups and our apparatus can hardly transmit half the time until we get about 1/4 mile from our station .....

I am going to go back up on the roof tomorrow and see if I can fine tune better tomorrow with a short jumper right off the yagi , and get the tower locations , plot and see if I can tweak any better...


This wouldn't be an issue if they would get our APX's onto the Berks systems... Getting someone to answer us from up there on the interops repeaters on mutual aid is like pulling teeth.

 

[bgottschallberks]

This wouldn't be an issue if they would get our APX's onto the Berks systems... Getting someone to answer us from up there on the interops repeaters on mutual aid is like pulling teeth.

What process are you using that is resulting in you not being answered?

 

[cavmedic]

What process are you using that is resulting in you not being answered?

A few weeks ago there was a mutual aid dispatch for units to respond for a structure fire in Berks. Units went responding on 8call90, when asked if patch was setup on any of the 8 tac's, Berks responded with operations are on Fire Ops 1. When replied that we don't have those capabilities and that's the reason for the request and for the responce to Berks on 8call90,there was no response. About 8 minutes later , a phone call was made to the comm center to get the status of requested patch, the entire 11 minute response time to the scene was spent on the phone, including with a supervisor. Was first asked by a call taker if we responded on U tac , advised it was 8 call 90 as we ( Montco) units operate on 800 MHZ , then put on hold, then transferred to supervisor. When explaining the whole thing over again and why we asked for the patch, was asked if responded on 8 call 90 , explained yes and the supervisors response was " so whats the problem" . Had to explain that the problem was that we asked for a patch and one wasn't granted or even acknowledged and we were responding in deaf, couldn't get incoming instructions etc

 

[bgottschallberks]

A few weeks ago there was a mutual aid dispatch for units to respond for a structure fire in Berks. Units went responding on 8call90, when asked if patch was setup on any of the 8 tac's, Berks responded with operations are on Fire Ops 1. When replied that we don't have those capabilities and that's the reason for the request and for the responce to Berks on 8call90,there was no response. About 8 minutes later , a phone call was made to the comm center to get the status of requested patch, the entire 11 minute response time to the scene was spent on the phone, including with a supervisor. Was first asked by a call taker if we responded on U tac , advised it was 8 call 90 as we ( Montco) units operate on 800 MHZ , then put on hold, then transferred to supervisor. When explaining the whole thing over again and why we asked for the patch, was asked if responded on 8 call 90 , explained yes and the supervisors response was " so whats the problem" . Had to explain that the problem was that we asked for a patch and one wasn't granted or even acknowledged and we were responding in deaf, couldn't get incoming instructions etc

Thanks. I will look into this.

 

[cavmedic]

Thanks. I will look into this.

Are the counties 800 interop repeater receivers set to narrow band ? Ive noticed when Montco users use them , the audio is muffled and low and sounds like they are a few kc off freq. But when other users come online, they are crystal clear. This is on the 800 side, not going through any patches or on the talk group side.

This is noticed on our XTS's, XTL's , MCS's and APX's. Ive run into this before when a receiver was narrow band and the transmitter was wide band.

If this is the case, I wonder if the Montco templates are set for wideband on those interop pairs.

 

[Engineer332]

Brian, what happened to the 8 call system since we spoke two weeks ago about the vcall channels and the other legacy interop frequencies.

When I transmit,, we get no audio back. The light blinks on our radios that it is receiving a transmission ( like wrong PL) but no audio. (This has been tried on about 5 different MontCO radios)

Prior to this, I mentioned to you the heterodyne on receive on all the 8 tacs / 8 call 90, but now there is nothing opening our receivers.

If I go on a non Montco system radio that has the interops programmed, but can drop the PL, I hear the audio once again and the towers ID in Morse...