Got the roseville trunking system half working

[oneeyebear]

I'm very new to scanning and this is my first time using a trunking scanner. The RadioShack employee had told me that about 6 months ago or so the Roseville, CA system switched over to digital. Now I think that was false information as I am able to get control channel sounds and my percentage is between 0-20%... I am in the southern Lincoln, ca area.
I am using the frequencies provided on this website, and am using a pro-164. I have successfully programmed another trunked system. I am programming by hand because I don't have software or usb cord.

 

[oneeyebear]

Don't want to really make another post but I couldn't find the edit option for my original post... So anyway I went out and got the usb cable, and I used the arc300 software to import The Roseville system from radioreference and sent that to my scanner. Still getting the same results ...actually I am now getting between 0 - 2 % of a read on my scanner.

 

[Markinsac]

They didn't go digital, although it is always possible in the future. They did, however, reband their system. You'll need to make sure you've got the latest firmware in the radio (version 1.08). If you don't, go to the product support page for the scanner on the RS web site to download it.

Since it is rebanded, there may be other things that may have to be done - I'm sure someone else will reply with that information soon.

 

[oneeyebear]

alright, thanks I do know I am on v1.08 and have set the rebanding option for that bank

 

[oneeyebear]

Finally stumbling across this page,
Roseville, City of Site Details (Roseville)
In my search to get this trunking system working, I now believe that I must just be out of range because if that red circle resembles coverage than I am further away than I thought I would be. With roseville, just south of me I definitely thought that I would be a lot closer... that's too bad I bet they are a lot more interesting than lincoln =D

Anyway this I'm sure explains my issues, and thank you all who tried to help me out as best as possible.

 

[kma371]

The red circle is just a reference.

What kind of antenna are you using?

 

[whitenoise]

I am in Loomis area (near lake Folsom) and require a yagi to pick up Roseville trunk system. It's full quieting but definately marginal on a discone if you outside the coverage area. As the other poster indicated, they are still analog but did reband so keep that in mind.

 

[oneeyebear]

The red circle is just a reference.

What kind of antenna are you using?

I am using an 800MHz radio shack antenna on a pro-164

I am literally about one mile north from the edge of that red circle on the link I posted.

....and I'm pretty sure my radio gets at least 5 or 10 miles of range or so it seems.

 

[kma371]

More specific info needed on the antenna. Is it a portable antenna or out door? If outdoor, is it on a roof? In a room? Basement?

We need more info than that to help. You want to get the antenna up as high as possible if it's outdoors. If its a rubber duck antenna, you may be out of luck, range is limited.

 

[oneeyebear]

yeah its a portable handheld scanner, I believe its called a rubber duck type of antenna just 6" I believe. Second floor in my bedroom. Its weird though because I can get Auburn PD and that's about 13 miles away, Roseville is probably 2 Miles away. I suspect that there might be an unlisted channel in the RR database maybe? I just ran into that problem once, and just fixed it in my scanner for the local casino's trunked system.

 

[kma371]

I suspect that there might be an unlisted channel in the RR database maybe?.

Sorry, all the frequencies are correct in the database. Time to upgrade the antenna

 

[oneeyebear]

Sorry, all the frequencies are correct in the database. Time to upgrade the antenna

I actually found another control channel for Roseville, CA ...after I added that now my scanner reads between 80-99% for the system SYS-7A3B. But when I press scan, I still can't trunk track them... now it seems like an antenna issue... will make a submission for the control channel I found.

EDIT:
Funny thing is I wasn't able to listen to Sacramento County's Trunking system either, and I found a control channel for it that wasn't listed and now I am getting 70% on their system, and trunking just fine.

 

[kma371]

I actually found another control channel for Roseville, CA ...after I added that now my scanner reads between 80-99% for the system SYS-7A3B. But when I press scan, I still can't trunk track them... now it seems like an antenna issue... will make a submission for the control channel I found.

EDIT:
Funny thing is I wasn't able to listen to Sacramento County's Trunking system either, and I found a control channel for it that wasn't listed and now I am getting 70% on their system, and trunking just fine.

Which control channels are you saying are missing? Do you mean you didn't have all of them in your scanner? Or something was missing from the Database?

 

[oneeyebear]

Which control channels are you saying are missing? Do you mean you didn't have all of them in your scanner? Or something was missing from the Database?

They were control channels that were missing from the RR database, I have made submissions on them.

 

[kma371]

They were control channels that were missing from the RR database, I have made submissions on them.

Ok something's not right. The frequencies you are submitting aren't part of the system or licensed to the agency you are trying to monitor.

The only ones you should be entering are the ones listed in the DB. If you have a "control channel only" scanner then only enter the red & blue control channels.

 

[oneeyebear]

Ok something's not right. The frequencies you are submitting aren't part of the system or licensed to the agency you are trying to monitor.

The only ones you should be entering are the ones listed in the DB. If you have a "control channel only" scanner then only enter the red & blue control channels.

Yea I noticed that also, ...on my scanner I put in just the control channels, both red and blue. This resulted in 0% so I scanned in hopes of finding a control channel and I did, when put into my scanner I am now at 99% and trunking just fine. Next to the 99% it shows the system ID and both show the correct ID number. So idk whats going wrong, but using

Roseville:
852.3875
Sacramento Regional County:
853.8875

my scanner is able to trunk like it should.

 

[Sac916]

Sacramento Regional County:
853.8875

Currently 853.8750 is the Control Channel for SRRCS Site 2 C116h-0002

Roseville is 852.3750 SID-7A3Bh

 

[sacscan]

To the OP: It sounds like your scanner is 12.5 kHz off. Years ago a friend had a Pro-90 like that. If it's still under warranty I would take it back and exchange it. If not, it needs to be realigned by a qualified person. If it were my scanner I would have Radio Shack's repair department fix it.

 

[oneeyebear]

To the OP: It sounds like your scanner is 12.5 kHz off. Years ago a friend had a Pro-90 like that. If it's still under warranty I would take it back and exchange it. If not, it needs to be realigned by a qualified person. If it were my scanner I would have Radio Shack's repair department fix it.

That must be what is wrong with this thing, because now this morning I had to search for and program in Roseville, and Thunder Valley Casino again...

...This time I was picking up control channels but I was getting like 0-20% again for thunder valley casino there was the listed control channel of 935.4375 ....doing a search scan I found another unlisted for the same system and it was 935.45... after putting that in I was back up to 99%
For Roseville there was the listed control channel of 853.55... when I searched I found another for the same system and it was on 853.5625... after programming that in I was back to 99%

All of these results come back to what you are saying about it being 12.5kHz off. So I am definitely going to take back this scanner.... that's what I get for buying an opened box item. Damn Radioshack. I just hope I can find a replacement because I had to drive to 3 different stores to find this one.

Thank you for the reply sacscan... i would have probably never guessed that that is what is wrong with my scanner.

 

[sacscan]

You're welcome. I've had bad luck with used items sold as new from Radio Shack. One time I had good luck though. They sold me the last Pro-2053 they had, which was a demo in perfect condition. They gave me an additional year on the warranty because it was a demo. That scanner worked perfectly, but when all the rebanding talk started I sold all my non-rebandable scanners including that one.

Hopefully you can find another Pro-164. I know how frustrating it can be to find scanners at RS when every store in the area is out of them. When you take it back, have them look in their computer to see who has one in stock so you don't have to drive to multiple stores.