Can hear surrounding towns but not my own

[RonnieUSA]

I know their radio works because I've had them come to my house and they used the radio.. LOL

I hope not in a bad way. Give DSDTune a try, and see if that helps any.

Improved my receiving sound a bunch, it's now clear for the NXDN Systems I'm listening to.

https://github.com/dreinhold/dsdtune

 

[slicerwizard]

I used the NOAA broadcast its aligned pretty well. 35ppm

VHF signals aren't suitable for setting PPM correction values.

If the transmitter of interest is indeed only one mile away, you should be hearing it as long as you don't have the RF gain in the dirt.

I surprised that apparently you haven't indicated what system you're trying to monitor, nor has anyone asked. Isn't that part of Troubleshooting 101?

 

[br0adband]

I surprised that apparently you haven't indicated what system you're trying to monitor, nor has anyone asked. Isn't that part of Troubleshooting 101?

Should it be? I asked/mentioned multiple times to verify the frequencies to the best of the OP's ability, he/she stated they're accurate as far as he/she knows, that there's an online audio stream of the system that apparently labels it with the same frequency or frequencies also, and that it's a digital-based system as well. I thought to ask which specific system the OP is trying to monitor directly but didn't figure it mattered overall - it's just another radio transmission, after all, and if it isn't showing up on the spectrum as it should then either a) the antenna is so bad it can't tolerate or receive said frequency or frequencies with any sensitivity at all, b) it's overloading the front end severely to such a degree that system just doesn't appear as it should, or c) they're not broadcasting on the assigned frequencies like they should (which again could potentially be an issue with ppm).

I use NOAA weather at 162.550 - that's in the VHF-Hi band, you know - to set my ppm on my two RTL sticks and I don't have to change it again 99.9% of the time; every so often I'll need to adjust it 1 single digit positive or negative to get a particular NXDN system to decode properly. Aside from that when I discovered the ppm for each stick, that was that: it's the same from 110 to 940 MHz on my hardware. I can't speak for anyone else but I don't find myself adjusting the ppm at all, and if I do it's like once a week at most.

As far as the RF Gain is concerned, even if it was set for 0, and no RTL AGC or Tuner AGC is enabled, with a proper antenna attached (which that little 5" thing certainly doesn't qualify for to any degree at all), a 110 watt transmitter on a tower broadcasting from ~1 mile away is most certainly going to show up on the spectrum "loud and clear" - the one I mentioned above and posted a picture of will still give me peaks of -15 to -10 dB (as per the second pic below) - and that's only 30 watts from 0.6 miles away, 110 watts would be booming by comparison from a similar distance.

Regardless, the OP will figure it out at some point... or go buy a real scanner I suppose.

 

[popnokick]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_6 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11B651 Safari/9537.53)

This may read as a dumb question but I haven't seen it brought up in this thread yet so here goes...
Regarding the "officer's radio in your house" scenario: You know to tune to the repeater input channel to hear the handheld transmit.... Not the output (dispatch) channel... Right? And asking that also makes me wonder if you have checked inputs and outputs... And are reading the listings correctly. I know.... Basic question. Sorry.

 

[malware]

ok guys..
just to report back.. I got an antenna from radio shack (20-176), rigged it outside and I can now hear my local PD.
Sounds to me the tower listed in the database isn't actually broadcasting or I would be able to get them before. What's odd is that location is actually where PD and dispatch are located.

Either way, problem solved. Thanks everyone for the help and I apologize for us all burning brain cells on, what seems to be, incorrect data.

Thanks
- Ray

 

[br0adband]

If it's a really small town or locality, and not terribly busy, they may actually keep the Operations Center which is typically where all the police/fire/EMS/911/etc radio communications are centralized at "the police station" itself, but for larger metropolitan areas they almost always keep that stuff in a different location than the police station or HQ directly. It's entirely possible the info about the actual transmitting tower is somewhat out of date or just hasn't been updated with more accurate and up-to-date information (which happens frequently when a locality may make an upgrade like going from analog to a digital system, etc).

Regardless, if it works now that's what matters, so congrats.

 

[malware]

Yes its a relatively small town but it actually handles the dispatch of 3 or 4 others towns as well.
Dispatch is at the police station as that's actually who answers the door when you go there... Been there a couple of times to deal with firearm permits and always thought it was funny that dispatch answers the door. Even with handling 4 towns, they are still slow traffic and have time to chit chat with people that walk in the door.... LMAO

 

[ecps92]

If they are using the Repeater (If needed) they are operating from
WOOD HILL RD
BOW, NH MERRIMACK County 43-07-00.3 N, 071-33-03.3 W


If they are operating Simplex they are transmitting from
12 ROBINSON RD
BOW, NH MERRIMACK County 43-08-35.1 N, 071-29-51.8 W

ok guys..
just to report back.. I got an antenna from radio shack (20-176), rigged it outside and I can now hear my local PD.
Sounds to me the tower listed in the database isn't actually broadcasting or I would be able to get them before. What's odd is that location is actually where PD and dispatch are located.

Either way, problem solved. Thanks everyone for the help and I apologize for us all burning brain cells on, what seems to be, incorrect data.

Thanks
- Ray

 

[slicerwizard]

Should it be? I asked/mentioned multiple times to verify the frequencies to the best of the OP's ability, he/she stated they're accurate as far as he/she knows, that there's an online audio stream of the system that apparently labels it with the same frequency or frequencies also, and that it's a digital-based system as well.

The OP made it clear that he wasn't qualified to say with certainty that the signal of interest was broadcasting from a specific point or on a specific frequency, but you feel that it's good enough to assume that the information is correct. Just like you assume there is such a thing as a "negative system"...

If the OP hadn't been so shy about what he wants to listen to, the confusion would've been cleared up immediately, as can be seen in the posting by the member who managed to figure it out despite the OP's lack of candor.

Around here, "Where do you live and what are you trying to monitor?" is typically the first question asked when that information hasn't already been provided. And why? Because it gets results, time after time. Go figure...

As to your other points, I see more assuming on your part. I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, good to see that the OP is sorted out now.