Can anyone confirm whether these sites are simulcast?

saioke

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Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
40
So I have a Whistler ws1065, using an outdoor yagi pointed in the direction of some towers that I want to pick up on the Ohio MARCs System. Typically, I get 4-5 signal strength bars and the T symbol shows constantly when scanning the trunk sites. Currently, I just run wildcard pulling in whatever is in those areas. However, the issue I've been having is that a lot of the time, a tgid will appear as if someone's talking, but there's no audio. Sometimes, those same IDs will talk, and they'll be clear. Sometimes, those IDs will be garbled and cut in and out, but the signal strength never really changes from 4-5 bars.

I have each of these sites:
Vinton County: Allensville, Mcarthur, Indian Camp, Union Furnace and
Jackson County: Jackson, Camel Church

All in two separate Tsystems in two separate scanlists split between counties. My conventional channels are all in a single scanlist as well split away from the tsystems. One odd thing I've noticed under the Jackson site, is that the CC frequency "774.53125c" isn't even listed under either of the callsigns. I still have it programmed in the scanner, but this seems odd?


I have squelch set at a minimum, as low as I can without conventional channels staying active. Other settings are practically default, and I can't seem to decode the trunk towers at all when I turn on the att. Tried turning off digitalAGC as well, but that made no difference.


I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, if I'm doing anything wrong. Some of those sites seem to have multiple callsigns listed, and some have more towers. I've heard simulcast typically doesn't use C4FM modulation but I've also read that it can. So, anyone think any of the sites listed above are simulcast and that's why I'm having these IDs pop up that stay silent? Occasionally I'll see an ID pop up from another county entirely from the ones I've entered into the system so that kind've leads me to believe it may be simulcast?
 
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dave3825

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The first few I looked at are not simulcast. Look at each fixed location and note its freqs, then look at the next. If the freqs are the same, its simulcast. If they differ, it's not simulcast.




Or, sort freqs, no duplicates, not simulcast.

1715682186647.png
 

Nasby

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Apr 4, 2004
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Since you are running Wildcard, it’s very possible you’re receiving encrypted talkgroups (hence the garbled transmissions).
There’s lots of encrypted talkgroups in your area and with Wildcard you’ll receive them all.
 

mtindor

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So I have a Whistler ws1065, using an outdoor yagi pointed in the direction of some towers that I want to pick up on the Ohio MARCs System. Typically, I get 4-5 signal strength bars and the T symbol shows constantly when scanning the trunk sites. Currently, I just run wildcard pulling in whatever is in those areas. However, the issue I've been having is that a lot of the time, a tgid will appear as if someone's talking, but there's no audio. Sometimes, those same IDs will talk, and they'll be clear. Sometimes, those IDs will be garbled and cut in and out, but the signal strength never really changes from 4-5 bars.

I have each of these sites:
Vinton County: Allensville, Mcarthur, Indian Camp, Union Furnace and
Jackson County: Jackson, Camel Church

All in two separate Tsystems in two separate scanlists split between counties. My conventional channels are all in a single scanlist as well split away from the tsystems. One odd thing I've noticed under the Jackson site, is that the CC frequency "774.53125c" isn't even listed under either of the callsigns. I still have it programmed in the scanner, but this seems odd?


I have squelch set at a minimum, as low as I can without conventional channels staying active. Other settings are practically default, and I can't seem to decode the trunk towers at all when I turn on the att. Tried turning off digitalAGC as well, but that made no difference.


I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, if I'm doing anything wrong. Some of those sites seem to have multiple callsigns listed, and some have more towers. I've heard simulcast typically doesn't use C4FM modulation but I've also read that it can. So, anyone think any of the sites listed above are simulcast and that's why I'm having these IDs pop up that stay silent? Occasionally I'll see an ID pop up from another county entirely from the ones I've entered into the system so that kind've leads me to believe it may be simulcast?

None of those sites are simulcast. They are all C4FM. And the 774.53125 is part of the State of Ohio statewide SL license, so you won't find a location for it in Jackson in an FCC record.
 

saioke

Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
40
Since you are running Wildcard, it’s very possible you’re receiving encrypted talkgroups (hence the garbled transmissions).
There’s lots of encrypted talkgroups in your area and with Wildcard you’ll receive them all.

Oh I do pick up encrypted talkgroups for sure, but that's another type of garble. I mean like, voices cut in and out, and sound weak, hard to understand. When the encrypted channels speak, they don't sound human. One ID in particular - 51540, uses encryption, but not all the time. Actually that's one of the tg id's that I spoke about above. 51540 will show, but no audio will come. Could that also be encryption?
None of those sites are simulcast. They are all C4FM. And the 774.53125 is part of the State of Ohio statewide SL license, so you won't find a location for it in Jackson in an FCC record.

Thanks for confirming. See, I've been told C4FM can also be simulcast, but heard that it also can't. Just a lot of weird information out there that you can't really rely upon.

The first few I looked at are not simulcast. Look at each fixed location and note its freqs, then look at the next. If the freqs are the same, its simulcast. If they differ, it's not simulcast.




Or, sort freqs, no duplicates, not simulcast.

I appreciate the knowledge, didn't know it was that simple to determine if it's simulcast lol. I guess something else must be at play here.
 
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