GRE Scanners in Utah

[qlajlu]

Which site are you using to monitor Tooele Dispatch? I'm just over the Oquirrhs from you and use Nelson (site 011). Haven't noticed any problem. I'm on "Stationary" and of course I'm using a PSR-600, but you should also be able to hear it without interruption. Maybe you should add another site to your TSYS Frequency List of CCs and let the scanner pick the one that gives it the best signal.

 

[jjwhite29]

I am useing Site 30 South Mountain for my Tooele Dispatch and channels. I guess I can't really explain that good but I pick everything up really clear but just in the middle of a long conversation there is a short pause than it picks right back up but i hear most of the traffic. Just gets kinda annoying lol.

 

[wbloss]

I wonder if it is going to a priority channel that is it blanking?

Wbloss

 

[qlajlu]

I am useing Site 30 South Mountain for my Tooele Dispatch and channels. I guess I can't really explain that good but I pick everything up really clear but just in the middle of a long conversation there is a short pause than it picks right back up but i hear most of the traffic. Just gets kinda annoying lol.

I can understand that. Why not put in the CCs from Delle (site 031, 853.3750) and Nelson (site 011, 853.5500) and let the scanner decide. I get a lot of Tooele traffic of Salt Lake (site 003, 868.1125) as well as Nelson.

I wonder if it is going to a priority channel that is it blanking?

wbloss has a good point. If you have a priority set, it will leave the transmission you are listening to in order to sample the priority TG.

 

[jjwhite29]

Thank you guys you all helped and I programed my scanner diifferent and now it does not cut out I just just put all the CC in one group I have 003 011 029 030 031 032 in and than I put AC33 seperate and Wasatch seperate and works great ageain.

 

[N7YUO]

Background noise on Davis Sites

I believe this is due to the sites and the variety of other radio transmissions in the Davis area.
At this time, I am still using the Pro95. It hang on the dash during my commute from Kearns to Hill AFB.
Anytime I am monitoring Davis Simul from anywhere, there is background noise. I can monitor SL Simul from the same location and it is clear.

What do you mean there is no help file for Win500? We are creating it right here!
I haven't bought my new scanner yet, but I have been watching the threads to learn the pros and cons.
I heard this scanner had a steep learning curve, so I downloaded the owners manual and Win500 to learn before I buy.

What I like before I even buy one:
It will trunk many systems including vhf, uhf including 380.
It receives P25 without motorboating.
Lots of bells & whistles like alerts, LEDs.
It already has a discriminator tap.
It can be remotely operated.

 

[N7YUO]

New PSR 500

Well, with the help of this forum, I ordered a PSR 500 from the folks who offered the instant discount plus the RR members discount. I should have it in a few days, then the fun really begins.

 

[qlajlu]

I believe this is due to the sites and the variety of other radio transmissions in the Davis area.
At this time, I am still using the Pro95. It hang on the dash during my commute from Kearns to Hill AFB.
Anytime I am monitoring Davis Simul from anywhere, there is background noise. I can monitor SL Simul from the same location and it is clear.

That's kinda what I thought, too.

What do you mean there is no help file for Win500? We are creating it right here!

We are certainly trying.

Well, with the help of this forum, I ordered a PSR 500 from the folks who offered the instant discount plus the RR members discount. I should have it in a few days, then the fun really begins.

I wonder how many members of this board now have new GRE PSR-500s or PSR-600s. I can count at least eight and I think there are more.

 

[bneilson]

...when dispatch is doing a call out and it sometime cuts out in the middle of the message and than picks it up but by than I have missed some info...

I haven't seen this on my GRE but it sounds like a priority check or something. Are you listening to a Trunked Dispatcher or one on Conventional?

 

[qlajlu]

I haven't seen this on my GRE but it sounds like a priority check or something. Are you listening to a Trunked Dispatcher or one on Conventional?

Okay i will try that and see if it works. I was saying my Local I was reffering to Tooele channels I figured since I was close it wouldn't cut out. It is kinda weird seems like it only happens whan Dispatch is talking.

Thank you guys you all helped and I programed my scanner diifferent and now it does not cut out I just just put all the CC in one group I have 003 011 029 030 031 032 in and than I put AC33 seperate and Wasatch seperate and works great ageain.

Brett, he was listening to Tooele and he already found a fix.

 

[N7YUO]

Multi-Site mode and programming the PSR500

As I read the owner's manual again and again, I have come to these conclusions:
1. If I want to program the UCAN TGRP objects only once, I will have to choose Multi-Site,
and deal with all the additional parameters.
2. If I want to be able to select individual sites: WB Simul, DA Simul, SL Simul, UT Simul,
then I will have to program each of those as separate TSYS each with it's own set of TGRP.
Common TGRP such as Landing Zone 1 and Event(s) will need to be programmed for each
different TSYS.
3. Scenario: I program TSYS Weber County. I use the CC for WB Simul. I program all the Event,
and air ops TGRPs. Now I program for other counties and I "map" those common TGRPs to the other
scan lists. Now I am in Wendover trying to monitor a helicopter landing on LZ-1, but the parameters for that TGRP say that it belongs to WB Simul site, not Wendover Peak site. Since it cannot receive WB Simul CC, the radio stays mute.
4. If I were to travel to an unfamiliar area such as Seattle, Multi-Site and Roam would be beneficial, since I would not know the coverage areas of the various sites. Here in Utah, I know when to switch sites. Also, with IR sites like Nelson and Mt Ogden spewing rf far and wide, I don't want my radio jumping to those sites just because they have the highest threshold values.

Your comments, criticisms, opinions are welcome !

 

[gldavis]

That sounds like what I found on my 500. I have SL County in one "bank", and Davis County in anouther. I found I have to duplicate all the TalkGroups in both banks in order to hear things. Not a very efficient way to do things, but it works.

I've started playing with the "Virtual Folders" trying to set them up for the different areas/sites that I might want to listen to. I've set one Folder up with the Military and Federal systems and freqs that I'm intersted in. Anouther folder will have the UCAN sites seperated. A third one I'll set up for traveling.

 

[N7YUO]

Multi-Site Trunking on UCAN

The PSR500/600s bring us a new challenge, Multi-Site trunking.
I won't describe the details of it. You can read about it in the manual. Anyway, there are many areas in Utah where this could be an advantage. Here are some examples:
Highway 89 in Davis County. As you travel north, you are on DA Simul.
Due to terrain, it drops out and Francis Peak is the only Davis site received.
It too drops out and Mt Ogden comes in. Mt Ogden drops and Davis Landfill comes in.

Other Utah areas where Multi-Mode might be used:
Sardine Canyon, I-80 from Salt Lake to Evanston, Tooele County,
Provo Canyon, Daniels Canyon.

Anyone planning to travel through these areas could use their GRE Radio to analyze the CC signal strengths. you would need to keep notes about where the signas begin to diminish. Drop outs do not count, because they would obviously be zero.

What I propose, is to pool our efforts and publish the results on RR.com so that everyone could benefit.

As soon as I get a chance to analyize the sites along Highway 89 in Davis, I will get them posted.

Any help will be appreciated.

 

[qlajlu]

Once I had the above part taken care of I found that the middle line alternated so that the CC info did not display long enough to get the number so I asked about that too.

• Press PROG > F3 (GLOB soft-key) and the down arrow on the 5-way key. Scroll down until you find "LCD Blink." There are two settings here, one for how long the first line displays and one for the second. The default is 150 and 50. When you have one of the lines in the correct position, press the right arrow, then use numeric pad (0 - 9) and the CLR key to change this setting. Click Done soft-key then move the second line into position. I set mine to 100 and 100. Click Done soft-key and Save soft-key and go back to scanning.

• You will now see both lines for the same amount of time. One problem though. If/when you make an upload (edit TGs or frequencies) to the scanner, these Blink settings will go back to default. Also be careful because the LED Blink settings are right there too. Change the right ones.

One thing to remember if you use a program such as WIN500 to make these changes, the numeric keys (0 - 9) on your PC's keyboard DO NOT WORK! You must use the mouse to click the simulated keys in the display on your screen.

I was thinking about this situation (in the bold print) the other day and had an opportunity to question Don Starr through a post in the GRE Forum about the LCD settings going back to default when an upload to the scanner was made. Seems there is a fix in WIN500 I overlooked.

I wish you could include a setting in the software that would allow us to set and retain the "Blink" on the LED and LCD settings so that whenever we make an upload to the scanner we would not have to go back in and reset them. Anytime a change is uploaded (added TG or frequency) those settings go back to default.

At the top-right quadrant of the "General Settings" tab is a block labeled "Alert, Sound, Light, Display Settings". At the bottom-left of that block are 4 edit boxes that control the LED and LCD blink on/off times. Is that what you're looking for?

Just thought you guys might like to know about this.

 

[salemid]

Log me in as another brand new GRE500 user. Excellent service from the Radio Company. Loaded a few things tonight with WIN500.

I'm struggling to get my head around the best way to handle UCAN. I loaded site3 in and all is well. Now trying to figure out if there is a way to alleviate entering duplicate TalkGroups if I add Davis and Utah counties. I saw the following.

That sounds like what I found on my 500. I have SL County in one "bank", and Davis County in anouther. I found I have to duplicate all the TalkGroups in both banks in order to hear things. Not a very efficient way to do things, but it works.
.

Is there a better way?

salemid

 

[bneilson]

No Duplicates!

Hello salemid!

Welcome to RR and our group. Please feel free to ask questions as we all like to help.

As for this question. I have all of the UCAN TGs in my scanner and not one duplicate.

The way you set it up depends on how you use your scanner. For me, I have all the sites programed that I want to listen to and toggle between the different roaming options as needed. Mostly I am parked on Site 3 (Salt Lake County), but I just have to enable roaming or Stationary to start picking up the others.

This is one of the main reasons I got the 500. The ability to enter all of the TGs UCAN has without any duplicates and to be able to reference them all in a single Scan List (bank).

If you send me a PM with your email address, I would be more then happy to send you my programing. Since Draper Shares a channel with South Jordan, I would be we are listening to much of the same stuff...

 

[salemid]

no dupes

Will send PM shortly. Is there a good FAQ that explains the Roam/Stationary options.

Also I assume you can only add control channels that are EITTHER rebanded or not????

thanks for your offer to help.

salemid

 

[Utah_Viper]

Was just looking over features of the GRE 500 and Radio Shack Pro-106 Now that the big switch has happened MUST get a new scanner soon

A couple thoughts/Questions....

How are these handling the rebanded sites?
Can you put to TYS in one scan list? (I would love a single Fire list with all of VECC and SLC fire)
Has anyone considered setting up a GRE 500 with UCAN online with that really cool monitoring tool from don?

 

[kf7yn]

I have a GRE 500 and it works perfectly, as does the Pro-197, Pro-96 and Pro-2096. All scanning rebanded systems with no glitches.

 

[qlajlu]

By the way, have any of you with GREs been picking up a large amount of background noise when listening to TGs from Weber, Davis Counties, and some Salt Lake? I don't get that on the 780s but it is quite noticeable on the 600. I'm wondering if it is a particular site having problems, but why don't I hear it on the Unidens?

Actually, I do have questions. I experience a lot of background noise on the GRE when I am receiving from UCAN sites other than site 003 (Salt Lake County) and site 011 (Nelson Peak). It sounds like static but my Unidens do not have that. Is it the radio circuitry, just a cheap speaker, or my scanner in particular?

I have read elsewhere that some folks have plugged a set of powered PC speakers into the scanner. I haven't tried this yet. Would that work?

I have been getting some static on my audio as well. But I've attributed it my environment. I'm in a building with LOTS of electronic equipment making all sorts of noise. Try moving the radio/antenna around and see if that reduces the noise.

I have moved the scanner around, moved the antenna, pushed it in and pulled it back out, even turned off my computer which my scanners sit next to, but I still get the noise except on the sites I listed above on the GRE. What made me take closer notice is that my Unidens DO NOT have the noise sitting side-by-side with the 600 locked on the same TG.

I don't know if the sites have anything to do with it but it seems strange that some sites have more noise associated with them than others. I can tell you that if a Davis County TG affiliates with site 003, I don't seem to get the noise, but if a SL TG affiliates with site 002 I get static. Some are worse than others.

It is not enough to make the audio unreadable, but it just starts to wear on you after a day listening to it.

Have you tried using attenuation? Sometimes that works. One problem with the GRE 500 & 600 are they are a bit too sensitive and tend to overload. I find myself enabling the attenuator on my PSR-500 when I get close to cell towers.

The sites that have the "static" are the ones that are further away from me such as Davis County (site 002), Weber County (site 001), and Mt. Ogden (site 007). All my scanning is done from a stationary location.

Now that we have been through the throes of rebanding I have come to the conclusion that it is UCAN's equipment that has been causing the noise I've been hearing in the PSR-600. I only hear it now if the scanner is copying traffic off of Site 001 Weber County WHICH happens to be the only site left to be rebanded. If a Weber TG affiliates with another site, the noise is not present. I'm willing to bet that once Site 001 Weber County is rebanded, the noise will be a thing of the past. One can hope, anyway.