Durham Region System

[MetalCarnage]

Wondering if anyone living in the durham area could tell me where the Durham Region system tower is located. I am curious to know just where it is located but also curious due to the crappy strength of the Durham Region System compared to other 800 systems such as TPS system. Durham Fire seems to come in at no stronger then 3-4 bars on my 796D whereas TPS comes in at full strength many days of the week. Even if i go out as far as west oshawa i still get TPS stronger then Durham fire, so i am curious to why it is so weak. Anyways, if somoene could let me know where the tower is located that would be great.

 

[bluesman905]

Ya, it sure is a week signal, when I drive to work it's gone by the time i hit Scarborough (from Pickering)

 

[MetalCarnage]

Ya, it sure is a week signal, when I drive to work it's gone by the time i hit Scarborough (from Pickering)

Once or twice i picked it up from around Vic Park but it came in as mostly static, and that was on a good day, other then the odd occasion that happens i dont seem to be able to pick up jack past McCowan

No one know where the tower is?

 

[imcleish]

Durham Region Trunk/Oshawa Trunk has 5 sites which are simulcast.

They are in Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa, and 2 in Clarington.

Strategis.gc.ca shows the following:

857.387500 CLARINGTON, ONT - GANARASKA & HENRY
857.387500 MITCHELL'S CORNERS, ONT. C5, PTL30
857.387500 OSHAWA, ONT. 50 CENTRE ST S
857.387500 PICKERING, ONT. 2350 DERSAN RD
857.387500 WHITBY, ONT. 333 MCKINNEY DR

See the map attached and the red push pins are the tower sites.

Ian

 

[MetalCarnage]

Durham Region Trunk/Oshawa Trunk has 5 sites which are simulcast.

They are in Pickering, Whitby, Oshawa, and 2 in Clarington.

Strategis.gc.ca shows the following:

857.387500 CLARINGTON, ONT - GANARASKA & HENRY
857.387500 MITCHELL'S CORNERS, ONT. C5, PTL30
857.387500 OSHAWA, ONT. 50 CENTRE ST S
857.387500 PICKERING, ONT. 2350 DERSAN RD
857.387500 WHITBY, ONT. 333 MCKINNEY DR

See the map attached and the red push pins are the tower sites.

Ian

That explains alot, simulcast blows, they need to build one or two massive towers to do the whole area instead of crappy little weak simulcast towers which have no range at all....even from my house in ajax which is under 1km from the south station i only get 3-4 bars, lol, horrible....hmmm, i will make note of those locations, thanks a lot Ian

 

[imcleish]

From your description, you are approx 7-10 km from a tower, I am also aware that only southern durham utilizes the trunk system. This tells me this system has not been designed for long distance coverage. Strategis shows a transmit power of approx 20watts of power.

Myself I have never had reception issues with the durham trunk.

What antenna are you using in your configuration? What cable type and length are you using?

Ian

 

[MetalCarnage]

From your description, you are approx 7-10 km from a tower, I am also aware that only southern durham utilizes the trunk system. This tells me this system has not been designed for long distance coverage. Strategis shows a transmit power of approx 20watts of power.

Myself I have never had reception issues with the durham trunk.

What antenna are you using in your configuration? What cable type and length are you using?

Ian

I am using a MAXRAD 800, 12ft cable, bc796d....however none of this is relevent really since i can get TPS from well past oshawa heading east, so i know my setup for 800 band is not the issue or else the bad reception would be shown on all 800 bands....and since other ppl have had probs with reception i am going to stick with its the Durhams trunk system, and not my setup, there is not much more i can do to make it better setup wise.

 

[imcleish]

A few last toughts for you...

Have you accidentally turned on the signal attenuator? this can make a good signal a poor one.

Is there any moisture/corrosion in your antenna mount, either antenna to NMO or NMO to Cable? I always seal my NMO to Cable transition (Under side of any lip mount) with mastic putty as it is water tight and moldable, yet removeable if a problem seems to arise.

Has your reception always been this poor? I understand you have good reception of the Toronto Public Safety south site, as do I in Whitby and others in Newcastle.

Ian

 

[MetalCarnage]

A few last toughts for you...

Have you accidentally turned on the signal attenuator? this can make a good signal a poor one.

Is there any moisture/corrosion in your antenna mount, either antenna to NMO or NMO to Cable? I always seal my NMO to Cable transition (Under side of any lip mount) with mastic putty as it is water tight and moldable, yet removeable if a problem seems to arise.

Has your reception always been this poor? I understand you have good reception of the Toronto Public Safety south site, as do I in Whitby and others in Newcastle.

Ian

No signal attenuator on

No moisture/corrosion on the mount as it has never seen a day of rain, same goes for the antenna, and my mount came sealed already with a rubber guard. Reception has always been poor with Durham Trunk, thats using three different antennas on two different scanners, same no matter what.

P.S. If you live in Whitby you are by far much closer to multiple sites as there is one in north whitby and central oshawa, i am basically on the lakeshore almost directly between the pickering and whitby sites if you were to draw parallel lines down to the lake

 

[slicerwizard]

That explains alot, simulcast blows

Yeah, like that TPS system you're so fond of? Oops.

they need to build one or two massive towers to do the whole area instead of crappy little weak simulcast towers which have no range at all....

Right - I'm sure the portables will have no problem talking back to distant towers. Oops again.

TPS covers about 800 square km with about 16 repeater sites (50 sq km per site) while Durham covers about 825 square km (I'm being generous and only going 7 km north of Taunton Rd.) with only five repeater sites (165 sq km per site) and you want them to go with FEWER sites? Only in your dreams...

 

[MetalCarnage]

Yeah, like that TPS system you're so fond of? Oops.


Right - I'm sure the portables will have no problem talking back to distant towers. Oops again.

TPS covers about 800 square km with about 16 repeater sites (50 sq km per site) while Durham covers about 825 square km (I'm being generous and only going 7 km north of Taunton Rd.) with only five repeater sites (165 sq km per site) and you want them to go with FEWER sites? Only in your dreams...

Well at least i pick up TPS well, Durhams is always crappy, and thats the general opinion of many ppl i talk to to

 

[exkalibur]

Name one decent system that ISN'T simulcast.

York? Yep.
Peel? Yep.
Torontto? Yep.
Hamilton? Yep again.

You're using a scanner - don't expect miracle, because you will be disappointed.

The system wasn't designed for scanners. It was designed for REAL radios - ones that don't go for a **** fit when someone's cellphone rings. On a real system radio, coverage is excellent.

 

[MetalCarnage]

Name one decent system that ISN'T simulcast.

York? Yep.
Peel? Yep.
Torontto? Yep.
Hamilton? Yep again.

You're using a scanner - don't expect miracle, because you will be disappointed.

The system wasn't designed for scanners. It was designed for REAL radios - ones that don't go for a **** fit when someone's cellphone rings. On a real system radio, coverage is excellent.

maybe i will go out and buy a system radio, how much do they run at these days?

 

[jellotor]

Depends on the radio. Bear in mind that if your (unauthorized) radio affiliates to the trunked system in Durham or anywhere else, it can be killed remotely and turned from a relatively expensive radio to an extremely expensive doorstop in short order. Is that a risk you're willing to take?

You might be further ahead to try different types of antennas before potentially flushing money down the toilet for a radio that might get shutdown...

 

[slicerwizard]

Disable PTT. Disable auto-affiliate. Use RID zero (makes it stun proof). Even if it got stunned, you can just reprogram it.

 

[jellotor]

True enough, Andy...assuming the person who programs it knows enough to do that. Bottom line is that for 95% of the 'scanning public' a commercial radio isn't the best option.

That said, I'm not going to tell anyone how to spend their hard earned money...

 

[mikewazowski]

Disable PTT. Disable auto-affiliate. Use RID zero (makes it stun proof). Even if it got stunned, you can just reprogram it.

Latest versions of Motorola's CPS will not allow you to just reprogram the radio.

 

[exkalibur]

Assuming you aren't smart and use the newer CPS, yes. DOS rss allows you to fix an inhibit easily. That said, with some radios, you can disable radio inhibit, so it'll never get inhibited. As for price, you can get a decent Motorola for under 200 bucks.