City of Palo Alto, Santa Clara County Ques.

[notsoscansavy]

Hi all, thanks for reading.
I can't hear any transmissions from Palo Alto, but, I can hear all from it's neighboring cities.
I'm wondering if if anyone knows something about this city that I obviously don't.
If they were on digital, how would I find out?? What could the problem be?
(This is for PA fire, the frequencies I have are 153.770 and 154.055.)
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Eng74]

You may be to far away. I know when I am in Foster City, San Jose is not that great. I can get a few SFFD TG's on my PSR-500 but the 396 is nothing. What radio and antenna do you have can also make a differance.

 

[notsoscansavy]

Thanks for responding.
I guess more of my question would be does anyone out there get Palo Alto's transmissions?
I could be too far I guess.

 

[brian95008]

You have the correct freqs. So, it's probably either an antenna or location problem.

Verified = www.sccfreqs.info

Brian C.
Yahoo Group - BayFire, List Owner

 

[trooperdude]

Palo Alto uses a lot of downtilt on their antennas, to keep the RF footprint within the city.

I have problems hearing them as well in West San Jose and Saratoga.

 

[brent1]

I was up in Palo Alto for 5 years for school (up until last spring) and found that Palo Alto fire was by far the strongest public safety signal in the area. It came in clear up to Foster City and south even past san jose (in the hills). I am pretty sure their transmitter is somewhere up in the hills behind Stanford, giving excellent coverage to silicon valley. That said, the area around there is hilly and terrain can definitely create dead spots. Your frequencies are correct. Where exactly are you located?

 

[trooperdude]

Correct, Palo Alto has several transmitter sites, including one on Black Mountain to cover the hills, but the primary is on the police building downtown.

About a year ago when they upgraded their entire system, they added a considerable amount of downtilt on their antennas, as well as additional voting receivers.

So while it's true they used to have quite an RF footprint, the system has been re-engineered to keep most of it within the city limits.

 

[notsoscansavy]

I was up in Palo Alto for 5 years for school (up until last spring) and found that Palo Alto fire was by far the strongest public safety signal in the area. It came in clear up to Foster City and south even past san jose (in the hills). I am pretty sure their transmitter is somewhere up in the hills behind Stanford, giving excellent coverage to silicon valley. That said, the area around there is hilly and terrain can definitely create dead spots. Your frequencies are correct. Where exactly are you located?

I am in San Jose, East of the 101 off Mckee Rd. Anyhow, I am happy to hear that you have heard their transmissions, that gives me hope. I was thinking that it must be my location since I can't pick up on Mountainview either. I read another thread that would allow me to "map" my area and see if I am getting a clear shot at their transmitter. If anyone knows how to explain that to me without being too technical, that would be great!
Thanks again to all for their input.

 

[brent1]

One more thing that occurred to me after thinking about your problem. If you haven't already done so, make sure you listen for an extended period of time (maybe even an hour straight). The PAFD system can be quiet for long periods of time, which may lead you to believe you are not picking it up. In fact, the system is usually pretty boring to listen to as the majority of the transmissions are "Engine 6 in quarters" etc. 90% of the medical calls are elderly people with "difficulty breathing", and structure responses happen very infrequently. When they do happen, the responding units will switch over to 154.055 - command 2. Otherwise that channel will almost always be quiet. But I don't mean to discourage you! Being back in Los Angeles has spoiled me.

 

[notsoscansavy]

I am here listening most of the day, also have transmissions rec. when I am away. And there has not been anything.
I'm almost convinced its the location of the transmitter they have on their hill. I looked at the terrain map on google, and from my area to there, there is a good part of a mountain west of me in the way, and especially if they have downward tilt, as stated in previous post, then that's not good news for me.
I'm sure LA is a busy city! I have San Jose to listen to (and it's non stop), so I can't imagine LA. How's the out of control wildfire down there? I heard Santa Clara county dispatch some engines there this morning.

 

[brent1]

It's definitely wild. I've never scanned a wildland fire before so it takes a while to figure things out. I am south of hollywood so I am sure there is lots of chatter I can't even pick up, but it is nuts to watch the action on the news and hear the play by play from the scanner. This is topped only by the classic LAPD high speed car chases that we are famous for here.