WS1080: Difficulty Staying on control channel?

[intel861a]

I have a WS1080 that I programmed for our local P25 system (TXWARN) and I guess I'm having a hard time keeping the control channel locked. The "T" indicator never stays constant. It blinks rapidly. I am hearing some traffic, but missing a lot, since I can hear it on another radio. A few questions:

1. Should the "T" indicator blink or should it be constant?
2. I imported the entire updated system into the scanner. Should I delete all sites except the one I'm primarily listening to?
3. I also have the same problem when I put it on my outside antenna which is mounted on a 40' tower with a yagi pointed directly at the site. Which is 10 miles away. When I do hear traffic, I am getting full signal on the display. Is there some other settings I should play with?

Thank for any info. Never had any problems with other scanners, so this one is throwing me for a loop.

 

[troymail]

I have a WS1080 that I programmed for our local P25 system (TXWARN) and I guess I'm having a hard time keeping the control channel locked. The "T" indicator never stays constant. It blinks rapidly. I am hearing some traffic, but missing a lot, since I can hear it on another radio. A few questions:

1. Should the "T" indicator blink or should it be constant?
2. I imported the entire updated system into the scanner. Should I delete all sites except the one I'm primarily listening to?
3. I also have the same problem when I put it on my outside antenna which is mounted on a 40' tower with a yagi pointed directly at the site. Which is 10 miles away. When I do hear traffic, I am getting full signal on the display. Is there some other settings I should play with?

Thank for any info. Never had any problems with other scanners, so this one is throwing me for a loop.

1. With good reception, the T should have a regular pattern of blink but it should be present most of the time.

2. Until you get good quality voice (and maybe even after), I'd only load the single site that is close to you/that you want to monitor... and then maybe even only program the control channel frequency.

3. Some say point your antenna at the site - others say point away from the site. The question is, assuming it's a simulcast system, where are the next closest towers for the site? If simulcast, these other towers would be the problem.

Reception on simulcast systems is all about location of your radio. What I tend to do is program a non-existent talkgroup ID and then HOLD on that talkgroup. The, slowly move the radio around until you find a location where the 'T" is solid and not blinking at all. This is where you'll get your best reception.

 

[AggieCon]

Howdy Intel, and welcome.

I have a WS1080 and sometimes scan TxWARN. TxWARN is BUSY BUSY BUSY. For now, and permanently unless you travel with the scanner, delete all but the site closest to you. Next, delete all of the channels except for the control channel actively used by the system. If you need help figuring out which is the active control channel, let me know, and I will assist.

What site are you trying to monitor? 10 miles might just be too far, especially if their are hotter trunked systems near you (on my SDR setup, I have to use a separate receiver with higher gain for TxWARN), but with your antenna setup, I'd think you should get it to work.

Out of curiosity, what scanner works well?

The "T" should remain almost constantly lite (mine usually briefly flickers out once a second).

Are you monitoring just TxWARN or other frequencies and systems too? My radio does best on one system, perhaps two at a time. But TxWARN is so busy, I don't know how you'd have a spare second to catch something else.

Keep in mind there is a lot of encrypted traffic on the system, and a lot of talkgroups talk both in the clear and in the dark, so it's not like you can lock out all of the encrypted traffic without missing something. You'll want to manually program the talkgroups in your area or import them by either county or agency (doing an import "by preferred"). However, while you are trying to figure out reception issues, I'd setup a Wildcard talk group and leave the scanner set to that (browse to it and hit select).

Leave your squelch all the way open. Make sure there is a ~.2-.3 delay for each talkgroup; that way, when there is an insult, it will stick with it rather than moving on.

Next, there are a ton of different settings to play with. Read more here: http://forums.radioreference.com/whistler-scanners/331800-p25-phase-1-conv-squelch-questions.html (my posts start around half way down)

Hopefully we can get it working. I'm pretty envious of your 40 ft mast. Keep me updated and ask away.