Help needed: no longer picking up anything in Seminole County

[Trekker2103]

Hello all,

Longtime lurker, first time poster. I'm in Central FL and I've been listening to Seminole County Fire/Rescue and the local LE agencies for years now. Recently, though, my HomePatrol-1 (I know, I know) has stopped receiving. I'll leave it on for hours and it's silent. Occasionally I'll get a blip of chatter, but I'm not hearing 99% of what I used to hear.

Does anyone know if anything's changed in Seminole County? I tried to search on the forums, but this is pretty specific, and I wasn't able to find anything relevant. Apologies if I missed a post. I see that the fire alerting/paging system changed, but would that also affect LE agencies?

I realize this is probably my issue, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it could be. I've read other posts on here regarding HomePatrol-1 and its issues, but mine had been working faithfully for years up until about a week or so. Nothing's changed on my end - I hadn't changed any settings. When this happened, I updated the HomePatrol software and replaced my lists on the scanner; I even replaced the antenna. Is it possible that every agency has switched to a format I can't pick up? Has my scanner turned into a paperweight?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. A better scanner is on my wish list, but for now, I'd be ecstatic if I could get this little guy working again.

 

[hiegtx]

Hello all,

Longtime lurker, first time poster. I'm in Central FL and I've been listening to Seminole County Fire/Rescue and the local LE agencies for years now. Recently, though, my HomePatrol-1 (I know, I know) has stopped receiving. I'll leave it on for hours and it's silent. Occasionally I'll get a blip of chatter, but I'm not hearing 99% of what I used to hear.

Does anyone know if anything's changed in Seminole County? I tried to search on the forums, but this is pretty specific, and I wasn't able to find anything relevant. Apologies if I missed a post. I see that the fire alerting/paging system changed, but would that also affect LE agencies?

I realize this is probably my issue, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it could be. I've read other posts on here regarding HomePatrol-1 and its issues, but mine had been working faithfully for years up until about a week or so. Nothing's changed on my end - I hadn't changed any settings. When this happened, I updated the HomePatrol software and replaced my lists on the scanner; I even replaced the antenna. Is it possible that every agency has switched to a format I can't pick up? Has my scanner turned into a paperweight?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. A better scanner is on my wish list, but for now, I'd be ecstatic if I could get this little guy working again.

Hopefully, someone familiar with your area will chime in.

The trunked system you are trying to monitor is simulcast, which can be an issue for most scanners other than Iniden's SDS series. Here's a map of the tower locations:


Possibly the antennas on one or more of the sites were repositioned, either to adjust coverage, or perhaps moved accidentally by a storm or during routine maintenance.

This may not help, but won't cost anything to try. Get a large baking pan or cookie sheet, and use it to block signals coming from your north. That would push the scanner to only be able to hear that site near Chuluota. If your scanner now receives the system, then simulcast is what's impacting you. (You might also try repositioning your 'blocking pan (or sheet)' in sort of an arc to see if one spot works better than the other.

 

[wtp]

move it, move it, move it...
i forget how many have said that on shows but,
my 396XT sat in the middle of a window when our system was 800 analog simulcast.
now we have gone to 700 digital simulcast.
and we have moved the radio many times.
the best reception is when it is shoved into the corner and in a cell phone holder and turned horizontal.
the wife hates the look, but it works !
try laying the antenna down and put the radio on a lazy susan.

 

[maus92]

Three possibilities: there were changes on the system side, a new comms service or new construction somewhere is causing interference, or a component on your radio has failed or programming has become corrupted. The system has always been simulcast, so that is unlikely to be your problem as your issue arose recently and suddenly (although the HP-1 does not do well with simulcast systems in general.) You can rule out the radio by going on a roadtrip and assess it performance elsewhere in the county, or try it on a similar system in another jurisdiction. You can also try reprogramming the HP-1 for the Seminole system, just in case it became corrupted. I don't see any recent activity wrt FCC licensing, so a major change in the system itself is unlikely.

 

[Bolt21]

If you've been listening successfully and then one day all of a sudden you can't, the control channel may have changed. That may or may not be reflected in the rr database.

 

[maus92]

If you've been listening successfully and then one day all of a sudden you can't, the control channel may have changed. That may or may not be reflected in the rr database.

Indeed a possibility if the radio was incorrectly programmed initially. All control channels should be entered to increase resilience if the system rolls to an alternate.

 

[james32746]

It’s definitely simulcast distortion, there are times it happens with my SDS100, sometimes you need to relocate the scanner if you are using an portable/HT antenna.

 

[bravo14]

I don't know if you watched the video posted here Great YouTube Video on Simulcast system monitoring from theScannerGuys
Try a paper clip (look at the hole and paper clip) make sure they are close to size. Times you may have to move the antenna.

 

[Trekker2103]

Really appreciate all the tips and advice. You're giving me hope that my scanner's not completely worthless. It did feel like I lost a tower or a control channel, because I'll pick up parts of a conversation but not everything. I re-did the programming three times, and I went through the list of channels on this site, but I'll check again.

Thank you all!

 

[maus92]

Really appreciate all the tips and advice. You're giving me hope that my scanner's not completely worthless. It did feel like I lost a tower or a control channel, because I'll pick up parts of a conversation but not everything. I re-did the programming three times, and I went through the list of channels on this site, but I'll check again.

Thank you all!

You shouldn't hear anything from the system if you lost the control channel (unless you are scanning the system frequencies conventionally.) The reception of partial transmissions suggests "simulcast distortion," the possible the loss of a tower site, a loose or broken antenna or connector, or a combination of the above.

 

[Trekker2103]

That's true; I was thinking of the alternate control channels. I'll try moving it around the house as others have suggested and see if that helps.

 

[batdude]

based on your post - and assuming you are still having issues receiving Seminole County - I would suspect something has gone wonky with your programming. Make sure your service type settings are correct (Law Dispatch, Law Tac, Fire Dispatch, etc. etc. etc. - are checked)

i can hear/decode this system fine from Brevard- but I am far enough away that the simulcast distortion problem doesn't affect me.

also verified/checked the RR dB and the control channels are correct as published.

keep us posted.

doug

 

[Trekker2103]

Appreciate everyone's advice. I took the scanner to another location in the county, and I was able to pick up significantly more chatter, so it looks like this is an issue with my current location. Anybody have any recommendations on better scanners than the HomePatrol that won't break the bank?

 

[zlandmedia]

Appreciate everyone's advice. I took the scanner to another location in the county, and I was able to pick up significantly more chatter, so it looks like this is an issue with my current location. Anybody have any recommendations on better scanners than the HomePatrol that won't break the bank?

Since the system is simulcast, your only options would be to go with the SDS series (SDS100 or SDS200), and those definitely "break the bank."

Or if you want to, get a couple RTL-SDRv3 dongles and listen to the system via SDRTrunk.

 

[tvengr]

I updated the HomePatrol software and replaced my lists on the scanner

Did you update the database? If you are scanning the master database and something in the system has changed, that should fix the problem if the change has been submitted to the database.

 

[wtp]

your county and town are on broadcastify.
why not try and contact the provider and ask about their set up ?
you might not have enough post to send a personal message or you have it turned off.
if they are using a uniden SDSxxx radio, that will tell you something about how good they are.
it is really a computer that checks the signal and figures out what to do with "the extra little ones"
just a joke for computer guys here...101

 

[hiegtx]

Since the system is simulcast, your only options would be to go with the SDS series (SDS100 or SDS200), and those definitely "break the bank."

Or if you want to, get a couple RTL-SDRv3 dongles and listen to the system via SDRTrunk.

Don't forget the Unication pager & the BlueTail Receiver.

The Unication is not, technically, a scanner, You can program multiple sites and/or systems, along with talkgroups. But it will only cover one site/one system, and only up to 64 talkgroups at one time. (I don't have one, but the comments I've read indicate that you can use the scroll knob to switch systems. sites, and sets of talkgroups.)

The Blue Tail Receiver is considerably less expensive than the SDS series scanners, and, based on comments in the Blue Tail Forum, it does well with simulcast systems. I believe that it also has more flexible programming than the Unication, in that you can set up & monitor more than one system. You program it with a PC, then it will run stand-alone, but you do need to provide power via USB. Either from your PC, a power adapter in your vehicle, or one of the power banks used to charge tablets and cell phones. Again, this is not a device that I own, but it has a large number of comments in it's dedicated forum.