Granite City PD -I have not heard them

[stlcardinals]

But only once in a great while.Have not heard much digital over the past week-the state I hear more of but then seems they just go out for a good time.

Granite - I got nothing today.

I'd appreciate any help,Thanks.

 

[dakota91]

Whenever I listen to the Edwardsville site (3-25), I hear Granite City and all of the other surrounding agencies frequently. What site are you monitoring? Are you sure you don't have their trunk group locked out in error?

 

[stlcardinals]

Thanks for the reply dakota.
ID-7921 - don't know about the sites.

I'm not very experience at this...still learning.

Now this morning they have been on a few times but I know I'm not getting what I had in the past.
Don't know if I messed up any setings. I looked at some and just don't know enough to determine what's wrong.

 

[dakota91]

As you may know, the sites only broadcast radio traffic if a radio is associated with that site. You could be listening to a site on which a Granite City unit only occasionally registers. From looking at the various sites in this area, the ones that are closest to GC are Edwardsville (site 325) and East St. Louis (site 323). You should also program in the alternate control channels since it could be the primary may be down (they also sometimes switch to the alternate for a few days). Either program the two sites separately and use a wildcard to see what you're getting or put in all control channels in a single group.

FYI, something strange has been going on with StarCom21 in this area recently. Motorola has already taken the Mascoutah, Belleville, and Caseyville sites off line so they may be depending on the St. Clair Simulcast system rather than their own system. I'm guessing that Motorola may also be using the St. Clair system to cover western Clinton county since they don't have any sites in this part of the county. Trying to monitor St. Clair is difficult since our scanners do a poor job of decoding simulcast systems, especially one with as many sites as St. Clair has.

 

[stlcardinals]

I use the win500 to program my PRO-106 scanner.
Should I reprogram the scanner again?

 

[dakota91]

It would help to know exactly what you're programming into the scanner. At the very least tell us what control channel frequencies you're using and if you've removed the wildcard and are using specific trunk groups.

As I said in a previous post, you probably need to monitor both the Edwardsville and East St Louis sites (you can get their control channel frequencies from the RR database) in order to catch everything. I hear a lot on the Edwardsville tower including all of the nearby agencies. Another thing you can do is do a search between 765 and 868 Mhz and record all frequencies where the scanner locks up and gives you a site ID. The ones that have the strongest signals are the ones you should be monitoring.

You also need to realize that unlike analog, you need a really strong signal to listen to digital radios. On my scanner, anything with less than 3 bars won't even register and even with 3 bars the voice is sometimes garbled. Monitoring a control channel with 4 or 5 bars usually has good voice and will provide you with reliable monitoring of the desired agencies. In some cases you may need an external antenna to pull in a good signal.

 

[bighooch1]

granite city pd

kind of new at this i was using win500 but switch to arc500 to program its really user friendly im getting feg
i never got before granite city is one of them. they have a free trail for 30 days you might want to try it. it will walk you though the programing so you can get all the feg you want in your area, also some of these post are really helpful these members really know their stuff just try some of their suggestion you can always reprogram if you mess up, its all trail and error feel free to email me if you need help bighooch@att.net

 

[stlcardinals]

I programed Granite City's 3 digital frequencies with the talk groups in bank 5 or whatever they call it.I put Granite EMS(analog) in a separate channel/bank-this comes in most of the time.Most of the rest of the programing is State and Sheriff.They come in much of the time but sometimes I get little from them. I didn't program Edwardsville in. I have win500 and did it with this.

Sometime Granite comes in -last night they came in a few times but most was garbled.Sometime they'll go for days with nothing.I thought if I reprogrammed(cause i read something about rebanding) maybe it would help.
I live in Granite and thought they'd have strong signals.When I first bought my scanner last year,I had no problem getting Granite in for several months-some garbled but most good.

bighooch1,I didn't know arc500 was free for 25 days.Maybe I'll look at it if it may help.

 

[dakota91]

StlCardinals, the only frequencies you need to program are the control channels for Edwardsville and East St. Louis. The frequencies you should be using are as follows::
852.11250 (Edwardsville CC)
852.36250 (East St. Louis CC)

You can also add the alternate control channels for both sites if you want. You don't need to program in voice channels since your scanner will switch to them from the information in the control channel data stream.

Using a program such as Win500 or PSREdit500 will make it easier to program your scanner, but if GC is all you want to monitor then you don't really need the software.

 

[dakota91]

StlCardinals,

After reading your last post again I'm wondering exactly what you're programming. You shouldn't have separate programming for the state, county, and GC police since they all operate from the same system. All of them are simply different trunk groups that are broadcast from the same site (Edwardsville). If you have a GRE 500/600 or Radio Shack 107/197 scanner then let me know and I can tell you the exact steps you need to program what you want to monitor.

 

[stlcardinals]

I have a PRO-106 from Radio Shack.I programed only Granite digital in bank 5,Granite analog in 7.The State PD, Sheriff,Arch,Madison,car to car and others are in different banks.

When I programed it, I mainly wanted to separate GC from the rest so I could turn the others off when I just wanted to hear GC.

I purchased win500 last year. I want more than GC but GCis my main one. Do you think I need to sit down and reprogram it and put things in their proper place?

I thought you only needed to program the frequencies anywhere.

 

[ChargerSRT8]

I don;t think you are grasping the idea they are a trunked system.
First you need to program(download) the trunk system Starcom21. using site 3-025 Edw. frequencies.
2. Program(download) talkgroups you want to listen to; in your case G.C. ISP, MadCo etc.
3. Repeat above for site 3-023 EStL frequencies. Now you can hear them on whichever site that you receive better at any given time due to conditions.

Sorry I can't be more specific for your scanner, I haven't used a RS digital, just Uniden.

The anolog (conventional channels) are programmed as usual.

hope this helps.

 

[stlcardinals]

Thanks to all who helped me program my scanner.I redid it with the frequencies,talk groups and sites you all gave me. I now get Granite pretty good- so far today.

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Starcom21]

on the GRE/RS (like 500) you can program the Talkgroups into whatever "bank" (or banks) (quick key) you want.... but the system (all freqs/towers) are running in response to the banks.

If you want to turn off qk 5, 6, 7 to get rid of others besides Granite City, it should work fine. (If say granite city is on quick key 4 and it is turned on)

Make sure you have all the surrounding control channels & alternates just in case...... even those sites that are not right next to you or might not be on the air right now.

 

[stlcardinals]

Thanks, I'm going to program it again in the next couple days-I missed some sites/frequencies so I'll have to do it again.

Thanks again to all for the help.

 

[acepilot340]

I dont know if this means anything but when I monitor the Will county site 113 in search mode on my 396XT I have lately been hearing St. Louis talkgroup 7017. It just seems weird that I can hear talkgroups 150 miles away even though its a simulcast site.

 

[cecile1949]

StlCardinals, the only frequencies you need to program are the control channels for Edwardsville and East St. Louis. The frequencies you should be using are as follows::
852.11250 (Edwardsville CC)
852.36250 (East St. Louis CC)

You can also add the alternate control channels for both sites if you want. You don't need to program in voice channels since your scanner will switch to them from the information in the control channel data stream.

Using a program such as Win500 or PSREdit500 will make it easier to program your scanner, but if GC is all you want to monitor then you don't really need the software.

Does this hold true for the Alton Ill area? I am about 15 miles north of granite city. I have a pro 197. If so how do I program it? You may email me @ cecile1949@yahoo.com

 

[dakota91]

Cecile1949,

No, your programming will be slightly different. Given the location of the towers, it appears that the tower you should be monitoring is site 355 (Godfrey). The frequency for the Godfrey control channel is 851.87500. I would still monitor the Edwardsville site as a backup.

Once you program in the control channels, you then need to program the trunk groups for the agencies you want to monitor. You can also just leave the default Wildcard in place if you want to hear all of the traffic on those sites. If you use the Wildcard then you can use the StarCom21 section of RR (StarCom21 Statewide Illinois P25 Trunking System, Statewide, Illinois - Scanner Frequencies) and do a search on each trunk group to find out who they are. Once you know the ones you want, you can get rid of the wildcard setting and program in only the desired trunk groups. If it's only a few then you can program it by hand, if you want a lot then you can download one of the programs to make it easier. Since you own a Pro-197 then you likely don't have the cable you need to use the software unless you purchased the cable separately.

 

[cecile1949]

Thanks loads. I will program it in and monitor for awhile to see how I do. I am saving your post in my email so I can find you again. So, Please look for me here. I have learned so much from this posting thread.
Cecile1949

 

[cecile1949]

Thanks loads. I will program it in and monitor for awhile to see how I do. I am saving your post in my email so I can find you again. So, Please look for me here. I have learned so much from this posting thread.
Cecile1949

I decided to take note on the frequencies I heard things on. I had hoped that I could look them up here but alas it is a pay thing.
Since I can't afford to learn the locations that way, would you please explain what P25:1co means for an example? I have more but get confused easily so I will try just this one since it seems to be with lower and higher frequencies.