Brownstown Tower weak signal on bcd396t

[bigge8882]

I have uniden bcd396t handheld I use to monitor freqs I recently noticed in the last few weeks that the tower in brownstown is transmitting very weak signal maybe it is my scanner idunno but can someone please tell me why this is? I can hear the henryville tower better than brownstown and I live in seymour. Is it possible it is encrypted? I have a friend that has the same scanner and we can be at the west end of seymour with the scanner placed side by side and all radio traffic on the brownstown tower is very choppy
please help need educated on this
thanks

 

[Viper43]

Sounds more like interference from a structure or TREES. The "tower" won't be encrypted, thats at user level, the site is just a repeater that repeats the transmissions. So try different locations, sometimes a foot makes a big difference

 

[bigge8882]

I can be moving in car and still the traffic is choppy even on my friends bcd396t the radio traffic that transmits on the brownstown tower is seymour pd it is choppy cant understand it at all and sometimes the jackson county sheriff does the same thing I wonder if there is something missing in the programming of the scanner? I have no idea but it is getting very frustrationg seymour pd was transmitting on the seymour tower now they switched to the brownstown tower and i cant here it is choppy please help thanks

 

[bigge8882]

brownstown tower on bcd396t signal very weak

Seymour pd had been using the seymour tower since they got thte 800mhz radios they have recently started transmitting on the brownstown tower I can here the traffic on the brownstown tower but it is very choppy and hard to de-cipher could this issue be possibly programming in the scanner? my friend has the same exact model of scanner and the same program in it and his does the same exat thing. anyone please help me with this issue I have tried moving to get a better signal and just bought and outside discone antenna to try and see if that would help any but it hasnt still just have 2 bars of signal on the brownstown tower. any help would be greatly appreciated thank you

 

[Yaris07]

I live in Columbus area, and I hear Seymour PD and Sheriff really good. 396XT here. Seymour-Brownstown- and Bartholomew towers are what I have programmed in my scanner.. I also get Jennings county. Have a good day..

 

[Viper43]

I don't think Seymour PD would be using the Brownstown site unless there is a problem with the Seymour tower. They don't switch for just any old reason. edit: they will connect to the nearest operational site
As for programming the only change might be rebanding and I'm not close enough to check the sites for their frequencies.
Since the discone didn't help that could mean there is something blocking the signal from the Brownstown site, as I mentioned before a building or trees.

 

[Viper43]

I live in Columbus area, and I hear Seymour PD and Sheriff really good. 396XT here. Seymour-Brownstown- and Bartholomew towers are what I have programmed in my scanner.. I also get Jennings county. Have a good day..

Do you have Shelby Co (Fairland) as well, I get Bartholomew Co and Hope PD off the Fairland site

 

[bigge8882]

do you ever here the transmission being choppy while on the brownstown tower? the scanner you have is the newer version of mine

 

[bigge8882]

how do you check the sites for rebanding? the other poster on here says he can hear brownstown tower fine and im closer than he is maybe there is something wrong with the scanner but as i said earlier my friend has the same model i have and if put side by side they will do the same thing choppy im really stuck on this one cant figure it out for the life of me. thank you so much for your help

 

[jerk]

Brownstown has always been weak at my location. But I'm sure it is a directional site intending to fill in towards Bedford and Bloomington. Lately lots of Jackson County fire traffic is coming across Fleenortown tower.

I would check you Control Channels for Seymour, and also read up on Trunking Systems in the Wiki

 

[del1964]

I live right downtown Seymour just East of the State Police Post where that SAFET tower is. I also have always had problems receiving the Brownstown site....so much so that I never include it in my scanning....but yet I have a FEW sites South, East and North of me that come in great. Just something about West of Seymour that seems to be the issue. I'm with the guy up above who says that their tower may be more directional and aimed West towards Bedford and other towns? I don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything however. I can hear Jackson Sheriff talking about being at Crane Hill and other points West off of the Seymour Site.

 

[jerk]

Ok I looked up the lcoation.
It's all the way over in Owent Township, way west of 135 and North of 50 and on the otherside of the knobs in that area.

Google if you want a better look.
thompson and county rd 200, Jackson county Indiana - Google Maps

Just to the west of that intersection.

 

[del1964]

Ok I looked up the lcoation.
It's all the way over in Owent Township, way west of 135 and North of 50 and on the otherside of the knobs in that area.

Thanks for the info. Yep, that is waaaay over there. The signal strength bars on my 396XT barely register one bar on that Brownstown site from Seymour but Columbus (North), North Vernon (East), Fleenortown (South) all have 3 bars at least from Seymour.

 

[UPMan]

Ignoring intentional antenna directionality, you can get an estimate of a site's coverage by following the instructions at:
http://forums.radioreference.com/general-scanning-forum/115818-how-far-can-i-receive.html
and using the values for location of:
latitude 38.90478° N longitude 86.1785° W
elevation 1012 ft above sea level (104 ft above ground)

In the attached image, the antenna has a direct line-of-sight only to those areas painted red.

 

[jerk]

Ignoring intentional antenna directionality, you can get an estimate of a site's coverage by following the instructions at:
http://forums.radioreference.com/general-scanning-forum/115818-how-far-can-i-receive.html
and using the values for location of:
latitude 38.90478° N longitude 86.1785° W
elevation 1012 ft above sea level (104 ft above ground)

Great info... much of the problem is the town reference really does not fit the antenna actual location. It should only be 10 miles (if in Brownstown) from my location, but is really 20-25 miles. And on the other side of a big hill.

 

[bigge8882]

Okay great info I'm still learning but it is so fun I was wondering why the seymour pd would be on the brownstown tower? maybe it has something to do with the state post leaving? Idunno Deputy electronics has looked at my scanner and they think it might have something to do with maintenence on one of the towers but if anyone can answer this question I thank you.

 

[bigge8882]

Even with my discone antenna hooked into the scanner i still cannot receive seymour pd on the brownstown tower some of the county on brownstown is ok but seymour pd on the b-town tower is very choppy Is there some kind of amplifier tha would help this?

 

[jerk]

Okay great info I'm still learning but it is so fun I was wondering why the seymour pd would be on the brownstown tower? maybe it has something to do with the state post leaving? Idunno Deputy electronics has looked at my scanner and they think it might have something to do with maintenence on one of the towers but if anyone can answer this question I thank you.

Simply, a radio from Seymour PD was affiliated with the tower, and so you heard all there traffic.

Read here you need to have a basic understanding of trunking to appreciate how the system operates.
Trunked Radio Systems - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[del1964]

I did this (UpMan's suggestion) with the Columbus and Seymour site....very cool. I couldn't find the elevation of the Seymour or Columbus tower so I used 419 feet as given in the example....I'd attach the image but ....don't know how to do it...lol