Dutchess county EDACS

[Kev845]

Hello. I am a new to the scanning world and have just acquired my first scanner which is a uniden homepatrol1 . I currently live in Dutchess county and have been monitoring dutchess edacs. I am reaching out to someone with bit more knowledge that may have some explanation to my problem. Seems that when I try to monitor one talkgroup on the system lets say city of Poughkeepsie for example, I will get some chatter from there dispatch channel as its being transmitted from the walker mountain sight. Maybe one or two transmissions during an hour period or so. It seems that I am not receiving barely anything. I am curious to see what everyone may think. Is it limitation of this scanner. Or can there be some other logical explanation?? Thanks

 

[Spec]

It could be any number of things. Your antennae (indoor/outdoor ?) Location. Location of the radio inside. This is just to start. What talk groups you have up etc.

 

[Kev845]

Currently I have the stock rubber ducky antenna. I ordered a diamond srh-789 and should be here tomorrow. Not sure this antenna will help but worth a shot. The talk group I am having problem with is here https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=841 City of Poughkeepsie police . I have the whole talk group loaded in sentinel as a favorites list so the scanner is only monitoring those those channels on that talk group in that system. Every once and a while I do here dispatch on patrol 1. Comes in loud And clear off of walker mountain tower. But then the rest of the night there's nothing. I have a family member who works in that department so I know there is more activity then what comes through on my end.

 

[Spec]

Patience and reading the instructions are two big "first" points. Use the RR database to find what talk groups you are looking for and compare them to the ones you have "on" in the radio.

 

[paul]

What you describe could be caused by the things Spec listed. There may be another cause - lack of activity. I've been monitoring Poughkeepsie City PD for many years. In recent times, especially at night, I've actually checked the scanner to confirm it's working, so few transmissions. Of course, if there's an incident it picks up, as you might expect. You could try monitoring other departments (Town of Poughkeepsie, City of Newburgh) to confirm your radio setup (location, antenna) is OK. Hope the new antenna helps.

 

[Kev845]

I will give the new antenna a try. Hopefully that fixes the issue. I have read about a lot of reception issues that people have had with this scanner and it is starting to discourage me a bit. I am 2 miles south of the city of Poughkeepsie and only about 4-5 miles from the walker mountain site. I don't see my Geo. Location being an issue. And I also have a relative in that department that has also stated the hp1 is not receiving. I'll try the diamond antenna today and cross fingers. Thanks

 

[Spec]

I'm going to take an educated guess and say with the stated location ,and rubber duck that more than likely may be the problem, or at least half. Make sure you have the talk groups on and as stated above turn on the "town" also. Between the two there is more than enough activity. I suggest for the interim to turn on Dutchess 991 polling on the 800.

 

[Kev845]

Thanks everyone for the feedback here. Spike I have ulster 911 dispatch through 800 comes in loud clear. Dutchess 911 sounds good too.. I am able to pickup newburgh town and city police while coming in off my beacon site and also walker mountain site. And as for the town Poughkeepsie I get a little more coming through from them as compared to the city. Its almost like there is some kind of drop off. Last night I monitored town and city only,as added to a favorites list in sentinel and there was nothing for hours and then there would be one or two broken transmissions. I am starting to wonder if those other communications are being sent through another edacs site such as milbrook which my hp1 seams to have poor reception with. And to answer your other question spike I went through sentinel again and made sure all talk groups and site information matched radio reference. Everything looked good but I did notice on the walker mountain site there are two channels that say n/a. I am also curious weather these frequencies are being used which are not available for some reason on radio reference.

 

[Kev845]

"Spec" I apologize for my grammar. I referred to you as spike I meant to write spec but my time spent in a little Mexican restaurant with a little too much wine last night has hindered my ability to type apparently lol!! Thanks

 

[APX8000]

I'm thinking you probably have multiple sites programmed in your scanner and your scanner is locking on to one of those sites that doesn't carry the traffic. I'm assuming since you mentioned Dutchess you want to hear mostly that County's traffic, so delete all the other systems and just keep Walker. That should guarantee hearing Poughkeepsie since they are full time on that site.


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[Kev845]

Yes zero. I have all the edacs sight programmed into the scanner as define on radio reference database. On the hp1 you have the option to avoid sites or just lock onto one site and monitor all traffic. I have already tried locking on to the walker mountain site and I still barely get any traffic from City Poughkeepsie. I'm not 100% sure how the edacs system operates but I get transmissions from as far south as Woodbury and town and city of new burgh on the walker mt. site and also on the mt.Beacon site which Woodbury is well over 20 miles away. But for some reason there is silence from city Poughkeepsie. My thought was maybe they are using another site. Or pheraps an unknown frequency from the walker mt. site. I just put the new diamond antenna on and it deffinately improved lower frequencies but as for 800mhz it seems close to the same on the edacs. At this point I feel I have hit a wall persay with this. I guess the only other option really would be to get a different trunking scanner and give it a try.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Along the Hudson River, municipalities often use a repeater site that is across the river from them because of the terrain. Poughkeepsie might be using one of the sites on the west side of the river.

 

[Kev845]

Yes.The walker mountain sight is located just 3-4 miles or so west on the city which is supposed to be there primary control site so I hear. On a good note last night there was a lot of activity coming through. Also have seen some improvement today. The antenna upgrade may be helping some unless there was some sort of issue with the edacs system. Keeping my fingers crossed

 

[APX8000]

Along the Hudson River, municipalities often use a repeater site that is across the river from them because of the terrain. Poughkeepsie might be using one of the sites on the west side of the river.

Didn't I just say that?

 

[Kev845]

Yes you absolutely did say that signal lol. I did delete a lot of the other sights and I think the scanner may be doing its job a little more efficiently by doing this. Thanks

 

[Spec]

Kev- Here is an idea if you can't put up an outside ant. or don't wish to. If you can snag mag mount mobile ant. put it in a window on the west side of you place and connect it to the radio. That's all it takes sometimes. OR just place the radio in front of the window. As everyone has said the radio is most likely hearing Mt.Beacon as well as the Walker site. rarely will you need the Beacon site for Pok activity.

 

[Kev845]

Roger that. I will see if I can get my hands on one. Pondering the idea of a chimney mount (which would be on the west side of the house over my garage) Thanks for all your help. I have learned a lot of information over the past couple weeks here and it is great. Just wish I got into it sooner. But as the saying goes. Better late than never!

 

[DaveNF2G]

Didn't I just say that?

Maybe. I am not familiar with the "Walker" site.

 

[spawndriven]

I'm having the same issue. RadioShack Pro-652 scanner, I replaced the Ant. with a telescoping one capable of 800mhz nd higher. I'm sure all freq's nd talk groups are correct (downloaded from the program which I believe uses RR). I get traffic but not much. I beginning to wounder if I have to adjust something in the global settings? LT Automove? Fleetmap, Type 2?

 

[FIRECOM31]

The Walker Tower Site is Located on ILLINOIS Mountain in the Town of Lloyd (Highland,NY ). Just across the river from Poughkeepsie. There are several transmission tower site on the mountain range that is use by mutli agency's and company , plus several FM radio station and also a TV station . The tower site is about 1040 feet above sea level . The biggest tower is 982 feet high with several 300 foot tower sites as well that are in use.
Hope this information helps. Take care and have a good day.