Head Scratcher, help please

[DSH84]

Need help recieving hometowm police, ems, etc.
I'm in Delta County, my home town is Cedaredge. I've studied every aspect I could about general scanning and about my new RS pro 106 and decided i'de manually program it myself and I have successfully, I feel. Except for a few things that really have my confused. I've been at it for about a week and a half now. First off I'm i'll post my area links in an attempt to keep this organized:
Link # 1 Delta County, Colorado (CO) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Link # 2 State of Colorado DTRS Trunking System, Statewide, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies
I recieve clearly 2 of 3 towers in my area there name per link 2 are "Delta", and "Tank Hill." "T.V Hill" isn't as clear but its ok cause I didn't care to scan that neighboring town. Its mostly blocked by some mountains etc. but still comes in just very rough. I recieve clear signals, and always have, from Delta P.D., Sheriff, State Patrol, and a few others from the city of Delta, but nothing at all from Cedaredge!
Things im suspecious of:
per link # 1 notice "Monitoring Notes" just under "Delta, County of" if I read right it expresses several scannable things and claims there all on "DTRS TG 8743" well... there just not (its marked "June 2009" outdated perhaps????). I've set aside a scan list on "Wildcard" w/ that DEC # and NOTHING is ever on it, AREAWIDE and heres why I think so. Link # 2 (scroll down a ways and under "Delta County Talkgroups" they all have there OWN DEC # which I also have programmed in my scanner. So heres the deal: I recieve and always have recieved (keep in mind the following is City of "Delta" and not county) Delta P.D., Sheriff, St. Pat. etc. but never much EMS, or my hometown of Cedaredge (Cedaredge itself has no tower). I recieve them by way of there own DEC # as per link 2 btw. I even recieve some pretty crazy stuff like railroad, and random things i've entered under conv. and tgrp both, but never hear anything closest to me (Cedaredge). How can I get.. "bug control 123" (i dont really know what it was) miles away but not my hometown (Cedaredge) P.D. less then a 2 min. drive away??
Things that may or may not matter: I manually scanned and picked up clearly and additional 5 tower sights but 1 was on a county border (Mesa/Delta) and the other 4 were in different counties (somewhat close counties) I found the CC by manually listening for the "deisel engine" sound then searched this website and found where they were, then entered all cc + alternates one day. None included Cedaredge P.D. Furthermore in manual searching I found an additional 5 weak signaled towers from what I thought were very far away counties and repeat above and nothing... How? well my home is located in what I would consider to be an ideal place for a tower itself!!!! (further confusing me). I've since deleted those towers and cc's and am now left w/ a total of only 3 towers "DELTA", "Tank Hill" and "Mesa Point" I've entered all CC AND Alternate CCs. (I know, i've read some of you don't by as I understand it, you should. Besides it only a total of 12 channels for me).
Now my settings FYI for helping purposes: TSYS set as "P25 Auto" tagged towers w/ random name, Everything default except multi site is "stat" when home "roam" when driving, only been driving once.
Global settings: default except ATT mode is sometimes on "normal" not global, Global ATT is sometimes on but ussually "off" (off while scanning)
Func + Global settings: everything default except: Flexstep "on" Trunking ch. # "on" show radio I.D. is "yes" Thats really all i've done till I figure out why im not recieving certain tlkgrps. Until then i'll not mess w/ anything else till I learn more about those areas.
My best guesses: This websites section (for my area) possibly outdated (as it pretty much states!) or somethings funky (per what I talked about up top) but def. doubt that cause I manual searched, found, entered, etc...on top of everything else.
I think i'm in a perfect place for interc. signals but maybe i'm in just the right place to NOT get my local P.D.'s signals (highly doubt this more then the first one, because from my balcony I see... well, so far out that you'de have to be here to believe me.)
Or: Im missing something so simple im gonna kick myself but I doubt it because theres to much in common.. Link #1 is suspecious and makes no sense to me under "monitoring notes" I've only never gotton Cedaredge P.D., ems anything except voice page in conv. channel, and no nieboring police dept. EXCEPT.... notice from link #2 that under Detla Cnty Talkgroups the sheriff ops ( DEC # 8473) is supposedly "all law enforc. dispatch". Well i have heard a few guys say there city name and then unit i.d. (or whatever) and even a few say ".!@#ckl^$$#.. ambulance" but never Cedaredge, and never through there OWN DEC ID #. None of this is making sense. Thanks for the help.

 

[tracker1]

Some Suggestions

I’ve read your post a couple of times and if I understand correctly, your main goal is listen to Cedaredge PD, EMS, etc. I live on the east side of the state so I can’t contribute any firsthand knowledge of what radio systems and frequencies they use. I have been scanning for many years so maybe I can give you some hints to solve the mystery yourself.

Problems:

1) Radio reference is a fantastic scanning resource, but is far from %100 accurate. The frequency and tower information frequently comes from public FCC license registrations which are mostly correct, but not always. DTRS talkgroups frequently come from listener submissions through reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is not an exact science and takes a lot of time. It is also open to misinterpretation of what is heard over the air and other issues. Encrypted talkgroups are particularly difficult to ID, and then what's the use ?

2) Even though many cities and counties have transitioned to the state DTRS system, they have maintained their conventional licenses and some radios as backups. Transmissions on these frequencies are infrequent, if at all. Most of your “Link 1” references probably fall in this category.

3) With cell phone carriers offering “Push to Talk” capabilities, it’s possible a small entity might communicate entirely over their phones. These of course are not scannable. My local metro district does this.

4) The radio systems and political entities themselves are dynamic. New towers are occasionally added and new talkgroups show up. I regularly update my scanner programming based on new information. Sometimes it’s only once a week, and sometimes it’s 20 times a day. This is why programming software with a cable and PC is so valuable. I would highly recommend it.

Suggestions:

1) Spend some serious time with your Pro-106 in Signal Stalker mode. This should help you id strong, local frequencies. Field trips are also fun. Depending on your location, you might want to find a comfortable park bench or something similar if it gets you closer.

2) I’m partial to WIN500 programming software and it allows me to remotely control my scanners and record off the air. If transmissions are infrequent or you just can’t listen 24 hours a day , this could help.

3) Run in a scan mode where you lock out everything you know. That way unknown transmissions stand out.

4) Use the visual and audible feature of your scanner to help. For instance, you can have an audible alarm go off when receiving the Wildcard object.

5) Submit corrections and new information to radioreference.com to make it better.

6) Check out the FCC Universal License web page. There are advanced search functions where you can enter your county or geographical coordinates with a radius. You then get a listing of all license holders. This can be a time consuming process but can also yield some surprises.

 

[hpycmpr]

I'm not in CO, but I frequent the western slope in summer. Part of your problem is an apparent typo in the Monitoring notes ; 8743 should be 8473. That would be the Delta Sheriff. If you check the DTRS site:

State of Colorado DTRS Trunking System, Statewide, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies

and scroll down to Delta County Talkgroups (TGs) you will find the other TGs for Cedaredge. Add them and things will improve. Your towers appear to be correct. Enjoy.

Steve

 

[DSH84]

First off sorry that post was so long, I didn't really notice that while posting. It seems at this point I have noticed hometown police on the general sherrifs dispatch after listening closely. My guess is that being this is a small area, they dispatch all three surrounding (small towns also) areas through the tlkgrp "Delta County Sheriff Ops (all law enforcement dispatch)" #8473. I believe the typo just threw me as you noticed as well. What else threw me was its amazing how little my hometown dept. does along w/ the surrounding areas! haha. I believe I identified them through how they call into dispach, but havn't fully translated some... "Cedar ...#..." is my hometown officer units, but thats as far as I got. I guess the only question I would have left is:
why even give C.P.D., along side other small town surrounding areas, there own tlkgrp DEC ID. And that even includes, as noted, the ENTIRE COUNTY Ambulances! if there never used...? And they havn't ever been used for going on two weeks now. Is there a simple way I could I.D. them individually that im forgetting about or not thinking of? Thats not as important really but maybe this could help someone else w/ there learning curve like it did me. Thanks guys, very helpful. Just glad to see I wasn't way off.

 

[n0nhp]

As you have discovered, although Cedaredge PD has their own talkgroups they don't use them very often, mainly to decide on which coffee shop to stop at ;-).
They are dispatched by the Delta SO dispatchers. Call signs "Cedar x".

The Cedaredge Ambulance and fire are also dispatched by the SO dispatcher. Just going to their own talk group for tactical comms. The question as to why they were assigned their own talkgroups is a good one. Usually answered by "It is easier to get them in the first place and not use them, than to find you need them and try to get them later".

I don't have a real good handle on Delta County but usually keep them in a separate scanner that monitors much of the non Mesa County traffic that comes through the local towers.

A question you asked earlier about some of the comms you heard during a wild-card search regarding hearing traffic from great distances like they were local is due to the nature of the trunked system that is use in Colorado.
If a radio from an agency affiliates with your local tower, you will hear all of that agencies traffic as if it is local. The group that oversees the system tries to discourage the practice of "dragging" your local talkgroup outside of your area, but trying to educate all the users to go to a "travel" group seems to be improbable if not impossible. It is just too tempting for the off-duty firefighter or CSP commander to listen in on what is happening back home, just because they can.

Have fun with the hobby.
Bruce