Brown County SIREN system

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seanfromdepere

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I turned on my Pro-107 for the first time in about a year, and discovered just about everything in Brown County had gone dark. After a little research, I found it had moved to a digital trunking system called SIREN. So I dropped some change on a Pro-107, upgraded the firmware to current (2.1) and used my ARC500 software and RadioReference subscription to program the SIREN system into the Pro-106.

Every once in a while I get a blip of audio, occasionally a word or two, but really nothing intelligible. I'm in downtown Green Bay (right near Mason and Webster). I would imagine my location would be right near some of the highest priority coverage, being in the middle of GBPD territory. The broadcasts from the state police on WISCOM seem fine. So, I'm a little concerned that I made a poor purchase.

Can anyone provide some insight?

Besides the frequencies currently provided by RR, I added any frequencies I could find to the SIREN Trunk System configured in my scanner:
771.856250
772.106250
772.356250
772.631250
770.556250
770.806250
771.156250
771.556250
771.856250
772.106250
772.356250
772.631250
Many of those frequencies might be outdated or wrong, but I'm just trying to start with some clear signals here.
 
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kb8zxe

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Jul 6, 2004
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Location
Wakefield, MI
Welcome to the club. Most likely you are experiencing simulcast distortion. Simulcast distortion is really bad in Brown County. I was able to get it a lot better with a beam and attenuator but it has not been perfect. Infact I think it is worse in the summer with the leaves out. There is not a whole lot that you can do besides try a bunch of different things.


Bob
 

kb9mwr

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Apr 8, 2003
Messages
263
Location
Green Bay, WI
About a year ago I bought a Pro-106, and too discovered the same thing. Blips of audio, but really nothing intelligible. As Bob said, this is due to Brown County's simulcast system. If you used it somewhere where they weren't transmitting from multiple towers at the same time, it would work just fine. Simulcast systems use CQPSK modulation instead of C4FM. And scanners use C4FM.

If you live in a newer neighborhood with very small trees and open areas and have a clear view of the towers of one site, try a directional antenna. I live in Allouez and no matter what I did, I couldn't make it work. I also tried other scanners like the BCD396.

I ended up picking up a commercial radio like the cops use and had it programmed it as a non-affiliating scan radio and have had no problems since. This is not for the faint of heart however.
 
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