Genesee County

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blong

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Hi there all, so i got my sds 100 and have been working to set it up. Learning something new each day. I have modt of my selections up amd running. My question is on Genesee County. I am on the west side of Rochester, Ogden. I have Genesee set up in sentinel and appended Batavia fire. Now I may be to far away but I do hear EMS Batallion loud and clear. Ocassionsly I hear EMS Dispatch.
So it seems I'm close enough to the tower to receive Genesee. But I do not seem to receive Batavia or any other tragic. I do not have any law programmed just EMS and Fire.

Any thoughts? Am I missing something?
All help I'd appreciated as I learn

Tks
 
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Thunderknight

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I believe the system is a single simulcast cell countywide, so proximity to one place or another in the county wouldn't matter... as long as you are receiving some of the talk groups clearly it wouldn't be a signal problem. UNLESS, you are actually scanning another county that the talk group is roaming too. Some counties allow some talk groups to roam onto other counties for cross-border coverage. For example, the county EMS dispatch might roam to Orleans County, but not Batavia's traffic. Make certain you are scanning Genesee County and not Orleans (which shares the same wide area network identifier in the database).

Otherwise double check that you added Batavia correctly so it is scanning that when scanning the other talk groups. Maybe start over without another scan list (or system, whatever the SDS100 calls it) and just try Batavia and see what happens (instead of appending it).
 

blong

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Thanks for the response, looking at the scanner I see it locked in on Genesee County tower not Orleans, clear as a bell for EMS Batallion and Fire/EMS dispatch talk groups. I can try deleting and rebuilding that piece.
 

mc48

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Consider yourself lucky, I live on the west side and I don't get enough signal from either site to hear anything. Try going into analyze mode and see which site gives you the best signal and then go into edit the sites and avoid the site with weak signal. This might help you hear more by not scanning both sites. You can turn off the site by going to Menu>Manage Favorites>Select Favorite>Review/Edit Sys>Select System>Edit Site>Select Site>Set Avoid. You can also try setting the radio to search Talk Group ID's and see what happens then, and check to make sure you have al the service types turned on and that you have the correct talk group ID's programmed in and not avoided.
 

blong

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Thanks I'll give that a try. So are both the Orleans and Genesee sites tied together or whatever the term is. Because I removed the Orleans site and just have the Genesee site active. I hear an occasional sheriff and Batavia police along with the EMS but really no amount of activity that I think would be normal.
 

ak716

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I'm no expert in the Genesee/Orleans Co system, but regularly monitor it out here in Buffalo. Users (not sure if all, but at least Public Safety users), can "roam" between the two counties cells. Normally, I am monitoring the Genesee cell. At times, an Orleans Co unit (fire or LE), will be on the Genesee cell, dragging that TG's traffic with it to the Genesee Co cell. Batavia PD and Batavia FD do have a fair amount of voice traffic, and I get them regularly on the Genesee cell. From what I hear, that system has pretty good coverage, MEMS units regularly call out at Strong and ECMC.
 

blong

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Yep I'm just monitoring tbe Genesee cell traffic is sparse, loud and clear when I hear it but sparse never the less. Perhaps it is a slow day in Batavia but haven't heard any FD traffic and only a few from PD. Just ttying to make sure I didnt do something wrong but seeing as i am receiving the small amount of traffic it must be programed right. I guess
 
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ak716

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Just for the heck of it, I just pulled it up just now, a decent amount of traffic on GCSO, OCSO, FD/EMS Dispatch and EMS Battalion over the last 20 minutes on the Genesee cell
 

blong

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Is it possible that I can hear some things do clearly and yet not others because of distance? I'll monitor for another day or so and see what happens. I am concerned because the signal of what I hear sounds strong but yet sparse.
I hear EMS Battalion real clear and yes even when the rig is at strong. I hear Leroy police, and even the occasional Sheriff. Batavia Pd very sporadic and no Batavia FD. Just thought if I heard some I should hear all
 

GTR8000

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Is it possible that I can hear some things do clearly and yet not others because of distance?
Assuming you're asking about the trunked system, then no. It doesn't matter how near or far a user is from your location; if you have a strong signal on the trunked site (or simulcast cell in this case), then you will hear all users on that site equally well (or equally bad, whichever). If Village A is 10 miles from you, and Village B is 80 miles from you, and both are operating on the Genesee simulcast cell, then you're going to receive them both at the same signal strength. Remember, it's the system repeaters that you're receiving, not the individual radios.

Genesee and Orleans share a "system core", or in plain English they operate on the same set of computers that control everything going on. The two are split when it comes to the radio side of things, so that each county uses a unique set of frequencies. Those frequencies operate in a simulcast cell, which is a collection of multiple physical transmitter sites throughout each county, all of which have an identical number of repeaters that are all operating on the same set of frequencies simultaneously. That's how they're able to provide wall-to-wall coverage across an entire county using only a limited number of frequencies. So in that regard, it doesn't really matter which physical transmitter site you're nearest to, as long as you can get a good signal from any of them, you're going to hear whatever comes across the airwaves. And yes, the talkgroups can and do roam between the two counties, subject to whatever restrictions each county may put in place, but it's certainly not unusual.
 

blong

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Interesting ingo and a good explanation. I'll re heck my programming to make sure I have all the talk groups I need for Batavia FD. Strange that I can't hear them.
 

GTR8000

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Make sure you have all service types enabled, and you may also want to put the scanner into ID Search mode if you're currently in ID Scan.
 

k2hz

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I have similar reception of Genesee where the control channel is fairly steady but it only tracks 50% or less of the traffic and varies during the day. It will show a TG active on the screen but no audio because it can't receive some of the voice channels some of the time. I often hear only one side of an exchange of transmissions since the voice channel changes on the reply.

In my case, this is due to the overload and selectivity issues the SDS100 suffers from. Same situation for me with Ontario and Livingston systems. That is why I said the SDS is great for your local system but YMMV for anything distant. It all depends on presence or absence of strong in-band signals from other systems in your area at the time.
 

GTR8000

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@k2hz brings up a good point which I failed to address in my post. It is absolutely possible that a scanner may have trouble with some, but not all, traffic channels of a system. You may have a decent signal on the control channel, but lousy reception of some of the voice channels. Yes, even though all repeaters are at the same site locations, and theoretically they all should be received roughly the same.

700 and 800 MHz frequencies are generally pretty clean, and don't usually have noticeable issues with nearby systems operating on the same frequencies. However with a device like the SDS100, which is built on an RTL chip (software defined radio), it would be more prone to overloading from nearby signals like cellular and LTE in the 700/800 bands than other receiver designs.

You wind up having to take the mediocre or flat out bad with the good when it comes to the SDS series. You may also want to try setting the site's filter to Invert, that sometimes helps.
 

ak716

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Just south of Buffalo, no way with my 436, even with my external antenna attached (I get a blip here or there). With a SDR, I get about 50% of the transmissions using DSD, and as I just started using again last week, about 95% clean audio on SDRTrunk.
 

GTR8000

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SDRTrunk is phenomenal. @DSheirer has done such a fantastic job with the most recent 0.5.0 releases. Well done, Denny! Can't praise that software enough, blows DSD+ out of the water and no hassling with Linux for OP25.
 

AZ645

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I'm no expert in the Genesee/Orleans Co system, but regularly monitor it out here in Buffalo. Users (not sure if all, but at least Public Safety users), can "roam" between the two counties cells. Normally, I am monitoring the Genesee cell. At times, an Orleans Co unit (fire or LE), will be on the Genesee cell, dragging that TG's traffic with it to the Genesee Co cell. Batavia PD and Batavia FD do have a fair amount of voice traffic, and I get them regularly on the Genesee cell. From what I hear, that system has pretty good coverage, MEMS units regularly call out at Strong and ECMC.
I here it in Buffalo suburbs but not great, what antenna are you using?
 

ak716

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I here it in Buffalo suburbs but not great, what antenna are you using?
I'm just using a centerfire discone, nothing fancy. Comes in decent too with the RTL-Blog dipole suction cupped outside my office window. Again, I'm using SDR's and SDRTrunk, not a traditional scanner too.
 

AZ645

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Thanks! Yes I've used DSDPlus as well as SDRTrunk, prefer those to the SDS100, sometimes it comes in better than other times.
 
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