following edacs

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mniemey

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I live in north central iowa and want to listen to Black Hawk County. I have my scanner programmed to the freqs and talk groups. Do i need to get a freq for a tower in my area to listen to them. I checked the database for the Racom sites. I do not see any listed for my area. I found Racom sites for Chickasaw county and Cerro Gordo, but none any farther north. Any suggestions?

mike
 

fireside

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Black Hawk Co.

In order to here Black Hawk Co. on the RACOM system you will need to be fairly close to here them. I'am in TAMA Co. with an outside ant.,and only here it when the band opens up. Also you will need to use the site freqs. for the Waterloo or Cedar Falls tower, can't remember which one now.Hope this helped.
 

funtimeguy

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I'm in western Iowa, Sioux City and hear Black Hawk Co. from time to time, on a handheld and a rubber duckie antenna. Just depends on if the repeaters are open. I hear Polk Co. from time to time too.
 

Signal3and2

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Let me know what you find out regarding whether to use the Waterloo or Cedar Falls tower. I'm moving to Waterloo this week, and want to know which one I should program to listen to BH county, Waterloo, and Cedar Falls Police.

Also, on a side note, If you're ever listening to Buchanan County, listen for Independence 507. That's me :)
 

N0ZJT

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The main two sites you will want programmed in are:
861.9375-865.9375, 861.3375-865.3375 and
861.2625-865.2625, 861.5875-865.5875

The first one works better to the east, and the second one works better to the west and in CF.
 

Signal3and2

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thanks eric. Not real experienced with RACOM, so would i be best off to put both towers in, and any ID i want to listen to into the ID list for both towers?

Also, not being experience leads me to wonder... say i was in western iowa in range of aRACOM tower and had it programmed, could i put in, lets say Cedar Falls police ID's and listen to them via that tower out west?
 

N0ZJT

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You will want to program in both towers and all of the id's you want to listen to into both banks.
If you travel to another tower site you can only listen to the traffic that is coming over that site. You as a listener have no control over what is coming over the site. If waterloo police is coming over the site, you can listen to it, but if it isn't then you can't.
For example.....sometimes here on the Oelwein site I can listen to Polk county sheriff....but that is only because that traffic is coming through the Oelwein site. That is most likely caused by someone from that department being logged into the site......passing through the area.

Ben, as you are working, don't forget to take your handheld with you and put in the Oelwein site so you can listen to Oelwein PD. Sometimes things happen between the two area and both departments head out.
 

Signal3and2

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Wow, RACOM confuses me. Basically, any user on the racom system (a mobile vehicle for example, PD) has any tower that they could likely be in the area of programmed into their radio? Do they automatically switch sites, or is it a manual thing like when State Patrol switches from Post to Post?

Also, if 1 mobile user is logged on, does that also automatically allow you to hear the return-traffic (dispatch) on that same tower if they are from out of the area. Like if... a PD unit from Dubuque county was driving through Cedar Falls and logged onto the system to get radio access, would I also all the sudden be able to hear Dubuque county dispatch, provided I had the ID set for that area also?

Unfortunately, my 1 handheld isn't trunking capable :mad:
 

fireside

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Tama IA.
kc0jar,I have two RACOM sites in the 780 at home, Marshalltown and Malcom ( I-80 Poweshiek county). Whenever a RACOM user is in that area their radio automatically uses that tower. Thats why sometimes i'll here Dubuque or Polk county or anybody who is a RACOM user. You will also hear all traffic for that talk group. So i guess the bottom line is, if a RACOM user can get a control channel,it can talk no matter where they are at. I would think they use microwave to link all the towers together IMHO. Hope this helps.

Doug
 
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