GRE 600 / Fleetnet problem

[SuperTex]

I am scanning the Penetang 30 tower on Fleetnet. My problem is that occasionally the PSR-600 will not recognize OPP TG as being digital. So the display reads the TGID but it lists it as being VC (not DG) and all I get is the noise. It's not an encrypted TG, it's TG that I normally receive. I never had this problem before when I was just scanning Edgar 41 (before we moved). I am getting 3 or 4 bars at least all the time on this tower and it is way closer than Edgar.

Am I doing something wrong or the better question is how do I fix it?

 

[SuperTex]

Maybe I should post this on the GRE scanner section... No one has experienced this problem?

 

[pathalogical]

Does it look like the radio "hangs" or "gets stuck" on the TG longer than necessary ? If are you using the G or A or both together, try removing them. I have a Pro 106 (same as the 500) and sometimes it doesn't lock onto the TG, it'll flicker back and forth as if the radio is trying to decode but have noticed that only when getting 3 bars, getting 4 or 5 bars is no problem. My nearest towers are Toronto, Brittania and King City. Let see if I can explain my scenario : A user begins comms on Toronto site, then releases mic. A second user replies, but their radio grabs King City site but my radio "hangs" on Toronto site. First user replies, whose radio might get Toronto site and my radio proceeds with audio of comms. End result - I've missed part of the conversation !

I consistently get four or five bars on every sytems I monitor, anything with less strength results in poor decoding. Posting a video of my scenario would be much easier than typing it out, but since it could divulge personal info of people, I will not do so...as will give yet another reason to encrypt.

As for the decode speed, everyone says to reduce the DigINT (don't have radio with me) down to 20, but this does not help. Strong signal to your radio is the best for good decode. Hope this helps...

 

[SuperTex]

Yes the way you explained it does sound like what I am experiencing. I get the flickering "T" all the time.
I have "G" showing on my display, but no "A".
Like I was saying the display shows "OPP 1B Barrie" or "OPP 1H Huronia" and the CC 141.4050... but it also has "VC" which I suppose means VHF Conventional, when it should be "DG" for the digital talkgroup.
I'm thinking you are right about the signal strength, it just occurred now and I has a weak 3 bar strength. I know that many of the TG are patched together so it might even be a Dufferin or Collingwood unit that was patched...
I just found it odd seeing as it was occurring even with what I presumed was the local detachment, Huronia West OPP.
I have to set up some outdoor antennas in order to properly listen to some other services anyways so that will likely be the solution.
Thanks for your help, Pathalogical

 

[pathalogical]

DG displays the digital control channel of your site and VC is the voice channel associated with that same tower which is selected by the radio system so users can talk. When the radio is scanning, the T should be on solid and when receiving it will flicker based on signal strength. The problem I explained is quite annoying, I'll be hearing non stop action then 30 seconds of silence because it's been hanging on something. A quick hit on the up or down arrows gets things moving once again.

 

[SuperTex]

Okay that makes sense. I'm thinking we are not having the same problem.
The 600 seems to keep up with most of the transmissions that are coming through on the 996xt. I'm not "losing" 30 seconds of transmission at all, I just get the digital noise because it's not decoding due to signal strength (this is what I'm thinking anyways).
What happens when your 600 hangs up? Are you getting the digital noise? Or nothing at all? Because my 600's will "hang" with no audio sometimes too. But it's never as long as 30 seconds.

Maybe the difference is that you have 3 towers pretty close together and I have 2 that aren't so close. I would think that there would be more opportunities for communications to "jump" towers in your area... Though it does happen here, I've heard the same transmission on both towers (Edgar and Penetang) at the same time on different scanners.