EPSO RED DISPATCH

[paramedic80132]

Does anyone know if EPSO Red has a different takgroup other than 28784? I can hear EPSO Red at the station, but is not comming through on my scanner.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[firescannerbob]

Does anyone know if EPSO Red has a different takgroup other than 27874? I can hear EPSO Red at the station, but is not comming through on my scanner.

Thanks,
Matt

The correct TG is 28784. I think you've got the wrong one programmed in.

 

[paramedic80132]

I have it correct on the radio, but just typed it in wrong on the post. Sorry.

 

[firescannerbob]

I have it correct on the radio, but just typed it in wrong on the post. Sorry.

Well in that case....I don't know. I'm sitting here listening to EPSO red on a BC250D and hear it all the time on my Pro-96. Are you hearing anything else on the El Paso Cnty system? Any chance you don'yt have the nearest tower control channel programmed in? There is no other TG for EPSO Red.

-Bob
My feed: http://yp.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=colorado springs

 

[Liverdog]

Matt:

I'm a system user (EPSO) and I have a BC250d. There are some interesting things about the system that you should know about when trying to listen to EPSO RED or any of the station's individual channels (i.e. Falcon, Cimmeron Hills, Tri Lakes, etc...).
I can probably help you, but I need to know what station or area you are trying to listen from and if you are using a Uniden digital scanner.
Each of the voting repeaters in the system do NOT always repeat communications unless the repeater knows that there is a system radio using that repeater. For example, you could have the Site-5 repeater and the EPSO RED talk group programmed in correctly, but if no county unit is in range of Site-5 then that repeater will not broadcast (relay) the communications from the other repeaters. The trick is to identify the voting repeater that will likely always be in range of (in this case) a fire unit listening to EPSO RED. The Pike's Peak Site-6 repeater is usually best for this. The other side of this however, is that you as a scanner user have to be in range of Site-6 to hear the transmission. Unlike the county radios, our scanners don't associate with the system and "choose" the best repeater so you have to do it manually or program in a discrete repeater site's control channel in each bank of the scanner with the EPSO RED talkgroup programmed each time in each bank. Then you will scan each of the repeaters in the system and the scanner will stop on the active EPSO RED channel.
If you are a system user (you use a real city/county radio) then send me a private message and I can arrange to hook up with you and walk you through the setup.

Mike

P.S. I concur with Bob, but just wanted to give a few more details...

 

[firescannerbob]

Mike,
You're exaclty right. I have found that if you live in Colorado Springs, the Austin Bluffs tower is your best bet since there is rarely ever a time when someone in the city isn't selected on whatever TG you want to listen to. The exception may be if you wanted to strictly monitor Calhan or one of the far eastern FD's, but it seems to work most of the time.

-Bob

 

[SCPD]

The Pike's Peak Site-6 repeater is usually best for this.

Good explanation, but I believe that site 6 is Austin Bluffs and site 2 is Pikes Peak. I don't think the RR database is correct.

 

[paramedic80132]

I am using a Uniden BC296D and am using 860.9625 as a control channel. I am trying to listen to EPSO Red from the Monument area - Tri-Lakes Monument Station 1 especially.

 

[firescannerbob]

Try 868.7125 which is Fishers Canyon (I think thats up near the AFA, but I could be wrong) and 868.7625, which is Pikes Peak. You can (should) have multiple CC's in your scanner so that as you move around or sites go up and down, you can hopefully pickup the next site. I have all of them programmed in the scanners I'm using.

 

[Liverdog]

Kind of off the topic Bob, but I'm curious, did you program your Uniden with all the cc's in ONE bank or did you put a cc in each of the TEN banks?
I've tried it both ways, but the single bank method does not work well as the scanner will not move on to the next cc. The other issue is that when scanning TEN different cc's in TEN banks sometimes I'm on the fringe of coverage of the particular repeater, so the audio is very digitized, where I would be in range of another repeater with a stronger signal and if the Uniden had happened to be scanning the stronger cc, I wouldn't have this problem.

Two additional questions: 1) Do you have any other tricks to help either of these situations? 2) How does the Pro-96 deal with these scenarios? I've never used one.

By the way, logitec, I believe you are correct about the "naming" in the RR database. At one time (about two years ago), I sat down with Treport and my Motorola and went around and associated all the talkgroups and repeater sites and then asked one of the system admins to identify the repeater sites' names. I did conclude at the time the RR database was incorrect and sent a correction to the RR sysadmin, but I don't know if it was ever corrected. I still have my own scanner however, programmed per the RR database, so my naming reference may still be incorrect. I have the database that I created around here somewhere... I'll see if I can find it. The RR database is missing A LOT of talkgroups, esp. with the county. Some IDs-to-names are wrong too. I've been meaning to send in the info...

 

[SCPD]

I don't actually live in the Springs, so I haven't spent as much time as you guys listening to that system (only when I visit pretty frequently). Here are the sites I've verified using Trunker and being in close proximity (Pikes Peak being the exception - but that site has a huge footprint, which makes me think it is Pikes Peak):


Site #, Site Name, Frequency
1 Fountain - 860.7375
2 Pikes Peak (probably) - 868.7125
4 Calhan - 868.125
5 Woodland Park - 867.675
6 Austin Bluffs - 868.8875

I have the site numbers and frequencies for the sites through site 10, but I don’t know exactly where they are. The FCC database for that system is jacked.

 

[firescannerbob]

Kind of off the topic Bob, but I'm curious, did you program your Uniden with all the cc's in ONE bank or did you put a cc in each of the TEN banks?
I've tried it both ways, but the single bank method does not work well as the scanner will not move on to the next cc. The other issue is that when scanning TEN different cc's in TEN banks sometimes I'm on the fringe of coverage of the particular repeater, so the audio is very digitized, where I would be in range of another repeater with a stronger signal and if the Uniden had happened to be scanning the stronger cc, I wouldn't have this problem.

Two additional questions: 1) Do you have any other tricks to help either of these situations? 2) How does the Pro-96 deal with these scenarios? I've never used one.

You're correct in that the Uniden is lousy at switching from one CC to another. Since I'm using the Uniden on my on-line feed for just a few TG's, I have only concerned myself with finding CC's that work the best from my location, which is literally right under the Austin Bluffs site and also line of sight from Pikes Peak. I have the TG's I'm using in 2 identical banks, with different CC's in both.
The Pro-96 on the other hand, beats the snot out of the Uniden for switching CC's/sites as needed. I have the Pro 96 in my car, and as I travel around it automatically switches CC's. I have the Pro-96 set up with a different service (CSPD, CSFD, EPSO, EPSO Fire etc) in each bank and then copied all of the CC's into each bank. That setup works very well.
I also wouldn't mind some better labelling in the database for which site is where. Site 1, site 10, etc doesn't mean anything to me, and is rather confusing.

 

[paramedic80132]

So does anyone know the correct Fisher Canyon CC and Pikes Peak CC?