DaneCom replacing MAPS?

[rcpwisc]

Thanks box and 62 ... your posts were very helpful. It's disappointing to say the least. I'm going to be in a community which neighbors Madison tomorrow and will take my scanner with me to see if I can get any better reception there. If I do, then I'll have my answer. I guess I'll just have to be happy with monitoring city stuff for right now.

So is there anybody in the city proper that's getting DaneCom coming through on their scanner? Here I thought I'd be in a prime location to hear it, and it turns out to be the opposite. I guess it was a good effort.

I would imagine that this is going to be a cause for some frustration - especially for first responders and others who had a vested interest in monitoring the old system with their scanners. Does anyone think anything will ever happen to make it easier to get the transmissions, or are we just outta luck?

Thanks everybody for the very helpful posts - this site has some great knowledge.

 

[rcpwisc]

Well ... I found out today that my scanner and software are working just fine. I took my scanner with me when I went to visit some friends who live about 12 miles north of Madison. I turned the scanner on, and ... low and behold, I heard all kinds of traffic on DanCom! Everything was coming through, and i could hear it just fine. So that's telling me that I definitely have a reception issue where I am in the city of Madison. My next test will be to take the scanner to the other side of town and see what I can get over there.

Major bummer that I seem to be in a dead spot here!

 

[box23]

Well ... I found out today that my scanner and software are working just fine. I took my scanner with me when I went to visit some friends who live about 12 miles north of Madison. I turned the scanner on, and ... low and behold, I heard all kinds of traffic on DanCom! Everything was coming through, and i could hear it just fine. So that's telling me that I definitely have a reception issue where I am in the city of Madison. My next test will be to take the scanner to the other side of town and see what I can get over there.

Major bummer that I seem to be in a dead spot here!

You mean around the Deforest area? Actually, you found a location that has an extremely strong signal from the site you were near which cancels out the other sites. In this case the scanner does not have to deal with multiple signals and can generally work better.

 

[rcpwisc]

I was actually in Sun Prairie, but probably close enough to DeForest. I guess I'll just have to bring my scanner when I go to visit my friends outside the city. It can be a talking point for our discussions!

 

[W9WTC]

It sounds like you are most likely experiencing problems related to the poor design of the current consumer scanners, often referred to as simulcast distortion. In short, your scanner is attempting to decode data out of a complex over the air signal using only a portion of the information contained in that signal.

DaneCom is a simulcast system meaning a single trunking site using multiple transmitters simultaneously. Simulcast systems inherently cause interference to themselves at times because a receiver can be hearing the same signal from more than one transmitter which is arriving slightly out of phase. In analog systems this manifests itself as noise which can be processed by the human brain to get the message. However in digital systems this causes data loss.

One method of compensating for this is to set the transmitter timing to geographically move these areas outside of the intended area of coverage or to specific points within the coverage footprint where degraded coverage is acceptable. With a high number of sites like DaneCom has it is not possible to move these spots outside the system coverage area. Public safety communications systems are also usually not tolerant of known degraded coverage areas as other services can be because Murphy will ensure a critical incident happens exactly in that area.

Therefore the manufacturers employ different methods to decrease the inherent interference of the system while at the same not created permanent areas of degraded coverage. Motorola's LSM is a well known method which employs varying amplitude of the signal which can not be properly processed by your scanner. I am not familiar with the Harris method but expect it to be similar.



The City system is an analog Motorola Type II system which works differently, even though it is also simulcast. WISCOM is also P25, but the majority of the sites are not simulcast and use normal C4FM modulation that the scanners can receive properly. FYI, WISCOM is not DaneCom. There is a link between the two, but they are both very much separate systems.



With P25 systems only the control channel frequency needs to be known. The two frequencies you mention are likely the currently active control channel and one of the designated alternate control channels, as listed in the RR database.

I'm new to the BCD006P2 scanner and P25 systems. When you mention you only need to program the control frequencies there is only 1 for Danecom with 2 alternates. What about all the other frequencies? Do you not need to program all those too?

Thanks

 

[bruce50]

bcd325p2 reception

I currently have a bcd325p2 scanner and not sure which settings I should use so I can pick up tthe danecom frequencies. plus it still sounds garbled even with the provoice upgrade . any suggestions would be wonderful.

 

[bruce50]

I have a bcd325p2 scanner and pick up madison great, but have hard time hearing danecom frequencies. I was wondering if there are some basic settings I need to use. i did the provoice and other upgrades. So was just curious as I live in stoughton.any help would be wonderful.