DaneCom replacing MAPS?

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rcpwisc

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Hi everyone: I'm going to be downloading the DaneCom frequencies into my scanner this evening. Is my understanding correct that DaneCom is replacing Madison Area Public Safety frequencies? Will I eventually be able to remove MAPS from my scanner, or am I not understanding how this works?

Thanks for the help!
 

mzems2

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DaneCom went live this morning at 7am. I wish I knew how to program my whistler1065. The system is up and running, we used it several times today for EMS calls, and there were several calls going on at the same time. Seems to be working for now. I wouldn't remove the old system yet, just in case. They did "turn it off" this morning, but all agencies left in "legacy" zones just in case

Any pointers on how to program without software? I'm used t ofrequencies, but DaneCom will be all talkgroups now and I have no clue where to start.

Rick
 

R8000

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"Madison Area Public Safety" (800 MHZ) is owned by the City of Madison and serves the city's needs. Danecom (VHF) is owned by the county, and serves the county's needs. Two totally different systems.

In the next year or so, the City of Madison 800 MHZ system will migrate from analog to P25 digital. Construction is currently underway for the project.

The analog conventional Dane County VHF channels will change. All county channels are now off except for analog paging. Those channels are forever gone if all goes well with Danecom.

Paging, the two new analog tac channels, and inter operable channels such as IFERN, VTAC, MARC...etc will still be in operation.
 

rcpwisc

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Thanks R8000 ... that makes more sense to me now.

I wish I could help you, Rick - I use PSRedit, and put the talkgroups in via the computer.

I have DaneCom in now, but I'm not really hearing much of anything. I've had the scanner stop briefly on Fire Adam and a few EMS channels, but not long enough to hear anything. Other than that, have not really heard anything.

I am, however, still hearing everything on Madison Area Public Safety - Fire/EMS paging, communication from the ambulances, etc. Channels from WISCOM are also coming in as they have in the past.

I didn't change any settings when I did the import from RR to my software. Am I going to need to change something to get it working more reliably?

Thanks everybody.
 

W9WTC

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Uniden BC780XLT Dane Com Compatible?

I too am one of the victims of the DaneCom conversion. I currently have 2 Uniden BC780XLT scanners and have had no problems with them until the DaneCom conversion. I downloaded the new trucking list and imported it to the BC780XLT. However, nothing heard. Does anyone know if these BC780XLT are compatible with the new digital DaneCom trunking system? Or does anyone have any tweaking tips to make it compatible?

Worst case scenario being I like Uniden does anyone have recommendations for a new desktop/mobile Uniden that would be compatible with the new DaneCom digital trunking system?

Thanks

JD
 

rcpwisc

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JD - Can you listen in on WISCOM at all? I don't hear a ton of stuff on WISCOM, but I do get the southwest highway patrol and some transmissions from Iowa County. Comparing WISCOM to DanCom, it looks like they are the same system (at least as RadioReference lists them), so if you're getting WISCOM stuff, you should be able to listen to the DaneCom talkgroups too.

I compared the settings in PSRedit for WISCOM and DaneCom. For WISCOM, the Multi-Site mode is set to ROAM, but for DaneCom, Multi-Site is set to off. I really don't know what that is, and am not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Hopefully we can figure it out!
 

W9WTC

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WISCOM

I'll have to import the WISCOM from radioreference and see if I get any reception on WISCOM. Antenna is not an issue, I figured I'd throw that if too, as I have an external scanner antenna mounted in the attic. I can get Madison PD trunked frequencies but they are in the 800 range.

Thanks
 

rcpwisc

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I'm going try and put DaneCom on my Grecom digital trunking scanner which I keep in a different building, and I'll see if I get any action over here. It could be a reception issue maybe?
 

W9WTC

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Recption

Shouldn't be a reception issue as I have an external antenna and receive Madison and other freqs just fine, May be a P25 trunking issue that my BC780XL may not be able to do.
 

W9WTC

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P25 Compatible

Been reading up on the Uniden BCD996P2 and BCD536HP P25 scanners. Does anyone have any preferences or which one would be a better scanner especially with the changing technology these days? It appears they both have pros and cons.
 

sfd119

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Either would work for you. I would go with the 996P2 though, easier and you can use FreeScan to program it.
 

rcpwisc

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I did some playing around with the scanner last night, and I could get some DaneCom stations to come in if I was holding the scanner physically, and even then, the transmissions were somewhat garbled. To me, it seems like a reception issue, but I'm right in the city of Madison. I can't believe that I can't pick up DaneCom, but I can listen to the city and WISCOM (which is the same system as DaneCom) without any problems.

I have a GRE PSR-600 scanner, and a Radio Shack Pro 106, and neither one of them are picking up the DaneCom talkgroups.

I did notice that when I downloaded the information into PSREdit, there are only two frequencies that come down. There's a whole bunch of other ones that I found. I tried putting them in, and that doesn't work either.

I even took my scanners outside to give the antennas unobstructed views of the outdoors, and I might have gotten a bit more activity, but still garbled words and not much else.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might not be working or any tips on things to try? I must be missing something, or there's something not transferring from RR to the software. The only thing I thought of was to try different software - Win500 or Arc500? Perhaps there's something that's not working between PSREdit and RR? I'm befuddled!

Thanks everyone.
 
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W9WTC

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In doing some additional checking I don't believe the Uniden BC780XLT is P25 capable. I believe this is what DaneCom is now using. Here's a link to what I found for their new talkgroup and frequencies:

Wisconsin Scanning Homepage - Dane County P25 TRS Page

Hope this helps. I just purchased a new Uniden BCD996P2 which is supposed to be P25 capable so I'll know next week when I receive it and get it programmed.

Thanks
 

w9bsd

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I did some playing around with the scanner last night, and I could get some DaneCom stations to come in if I was holding the scanner physically, and even then, the transmissions were somewhat garbled. To me, it seems like a reception issue, but I'm right in the city of Madison. I can't believe that I can't pick up DaneCom, but I can listen to the city and WISCOM (which is the same system as DaneCom) without any problems.

Actually, the city seems to be one of the worst places for DaneCom reception. I think the problem is that the simulcast overlap and reflection from the infrastructure really impact the signal. WISCOM is single-site, so you don't have so much overlapping RF for the radio to try to decode.

I did notice that when I downloaded the information into PSREdit, there are only two frequencies that come down. There's a whole bunch of other ones that I found. I tried putting them in, and that doesn't work either.

The control channel is almost always on 172.500, so as long as you have that one you should hear the system.
 

JT-112

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I did some playing around with the scanner last night, and I could get some DaneCom stations to come in if I was holding the scanner physically, and even then, the transmissions were somewhat garbled. To me, it seems like a reception issue, but I'm right in the city of Madison. I can't believe that I can't pick up DaneCom, but I can listen to the city and WISCOM (which is the same system as DaneCom) without any problems.

I have a GRE PSR-600 scanner, and a Radio Shack Pro 106, and neither one of them are picking up the DaneCom talkgroups.

I even took my scanners outside to give the antennas unobstructed views of the outdoors, and I might have gotten a bit more activity, but still garbled words and not much else.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might not be working or any tips on things to try? I must be missing something, or there's something not transferring from RR to the software. The only thing I thought of was to try different software - Win500 or Arc500? Perhaps there's something that's not working between PSREdit and RR? I'm befuddled!

Take a look at my post in the overall Danecom thread:

http://forums.radioreference.com/wisconsin-radio-discussion-forum/246852-danecom-10.html#post2665609

Danecom will be hard to monitor without a CPQSK-capable radio. However, there are some SDR dongles that will probably work well, but that requires some tinkering.
 

box23

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I did some playing around with the scanner last night, and I could get some DaneCom stations to come in if I was holding the scanner physically, and even then, the transmissions were somewhat garbled. To me, it seems like a reception issue, but I'm right in the city of Madison.

...

I have a GRE PSR-600 scanner, and a Radio Shack Pro 106, and neither one of them are picking up the DaneCom talkgroups.

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.

I can't believe that I can't pick up DaneCom, but I can listen to the city and WISCOM (which is the same system as DaneCom) without any problems.

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.

I did notice that when I downloaded the information into PSREdit, there are only two frequencies that come down. There's a whole bunch of other ones that I found. I tried putting them in, and that doesn't work either.

I even took my scanners outside to give the antennas unobstructed views of the outdoors, and I might have gotten a bit more activity, but still garbled words and not much else.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this might not be working or any tips on things to try? I must be missing something, or there's something not transferring from RR to the software. The only thing I thought of was to try different software - Win500 or Arc500? Perhaps there's something that's not working between PSREdit and RR? I'm befuddled!

Thanks everyone.

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.
 

w9bsd

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Danecom will be hard to monitor without a CPQSK-capable radio. However, there are some SDR dongles that will probably work well, but that requires some tinkering.

DaneCom sounds great on my PC using only DSD+ Fast Lane. UniTrunker piped to DSD+ didn't work quite as well. OP25 sounded good too, and decoded TDMA as well, but it's annoying to get running and the UI sucks.

I've heard lots of comments about how good it sounds from users testing on the radio. Obviously that's not the whole story, but hopefully after this many years they got it right!
 

KC9UNK

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DaneCom sounds great on my PC using only DSD+ Fast Lane. UniTrunker piped to DSD+ didn't work quite as well. OP25 sounded good too, and decoded TDMA as well, but it's annoying to get running and the UI sucks.

I've heard lots of comments about how good it sounds from users testing on the radio. Obviously that's not the whole story, but hopefully after this many years they got it right!
I listen to wiscom a lot on my DSD with Unitrunker but something isn't completely right because even though ID's pop up a lot I dont get the full conversations
 
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