getting spotty radio traffic

[mgorman]

Hello,

I live in Northville and I get spotty radio traffic from Washtenaw. If I listed to the web feed and my scanner there is a lot of stuff that doesn't come through on my scanner. Any ideas?

 

[Jimmy252]

My first guess would be that you're listening to the Northville MPSCS tower. I belive the Northville tower only carries some of the main dispatch talkgroups whereas the Washtenaw Simulcast carries all talkgroups assigned to the county. Which tower do you have programmed?

 

[mgorman]

EDIT: Ooops those were my MOT 800 freqs

These are the freqs i have in the my washtenaw TSYS
855.087500
855.287500
866.450000
867.912500
867.925000
868.962500
854.237500
855.237500
867.100000
868.862500
868.937500

 

[Jimmy252]

According to the database, the Washtenaw Tsys should be programmed with the following

855.0875, 855.2875, 866.4500, 866.6625, 866.8625, 866.9500, 867.2250, 867.4500, 867.6125, 867.6875, 867.8625, 868.2500

Maybe that's the problem

 

[mgorman]

Do I want it on P25 AUTO or P25 MANUAL? Or does it not make a difference?


EDIT: Made no difference adding those frequencies. I still don't pick up the Washtenaw Co traffic. Only sometimes do I get it..

 

[detroit780]

Washtenaw

Well if you live in Northville you may not be able to listen to Washtenaw 100% because it is a simulcast system. he control channel is on all of their towers and all scanners have some issue with the FM mutipath effect. The PSR 800 is the best of the GRE radios for this but if you aren't inside Washtenaw county you might have issues even picking up the control channel. This has been discussed here for years now and if you search for P25 simulcast you probably will find all of the discussions.

Monitoring the Northville tower may give you some Washtenaw traffic it all depends on the Washtenaw vehicles locations, if they are close enough to affiliate to the Northville tower you will hear traffic. I live in Livingston county and a fair amount of Washtenaw traffic is repeated on the Howell tower but not all.

Do I want it on P25 AUTO or P25 MANUAL? Or does it not make a difference?


EDIT: Made no difference adding those frequencies. I still don't pick up the Washtenaw Co traffic. Only sometimes do I get it..

 

[kd8ati]

The PSR 800 is the best of the GRE radios for this but if you aren't inside Washtenaw county you might have issues even picking up the control channel.

This is not the first time I have heard this, and still do not understand the logic behind it. The whole problem here is the multipath issue. Since every tower within a simulcast system broadcasts the control channel on the same freq, at the same time, the closer you are to this system the worse the multipath issue will be. So to say that you have to be within the county to pick up the system is completely inaccurate.

Here are just a few examples.....

I live in Ferndale which is in the extreme southeast corner of Oakland county. I live 1 mile north of the Detroit city limit. I can NOT pick up the detroit system no matter what I do. I have tried outdoor antennas, as well as 3 different rubber duck antennas. I have even taken both my Pro-96 and PSR-500 right into downtown Detroit for different events and still can not get the system. I can hear it, but the scanners just simply do not decode it. Now on the other hand I have a friend who lives out near Troy who has no problems picking it up. why??? Because im so close im picking up to many towers and its overloading the scanner. My friend in Troy is a lot further away so he is only picking up 1 or 2 towers. His scanner is not getting overloaded.

The same can be said for Washtenaw. I can pick it up with very little problems. However this is not the first time I have heard of someone who lives close to, or in Washtenaw CO who has a hard time picking it up.

So in my opinion it would seem you need to be a little ways away from the simulcast in order to pick it up better.

 

[rdale]

It also depends on whether the tower you are closest to is directional and pointed away from you or directional and pointed towards you or omnidirectional. Also depends on whether the other towers are to the side of you or if they are all in a line.