I have a question regarding the Hillsborough County EDACS system that I monitor here in Tampa. First some background:
To monitor the system, I use a Yaesu VX-8DR HT that is mounted behind the seat of my truck. It runs full time and is connected to vehicle power. Due to it not being a trunked capable receiver it doesn’t follow a given conversation, it just moves on to the next busy channel when a transmission finishes. In a way, I prefer this. It allows me to hear more dispatches and car traffic rather than following just one conversation to its completion. My interest is in knowing what may be in my way rather than hearing the full details about any given situation.
I have two types of setups for this configured in the HT.
The first setup uses 35 memory channels with the assigned frequencies used in this system. This allows me to lockout the control channels so I don’t have to listen to computers scream at each other, in turn this allows the scan to be in “busy” or carrier operated mode so I can listen to the entirety of a transmission. Limiting the scan to just the channels involved in the county system also provides for quick scanning of the system.
The second setup uses the VFO band limit feature of the HT. In this scan the HT constantly scans between 851 and 854 MHz. At 12.5 KHz this covers the 240 frequencies between the two limits. In this setup I run the scan with a 10 second duration mode due to the control channels which never stop transmitting (when tropo conditions exist there can be additional control channels to contend with as well).
With the second setup I have noticed something odd, and this is where the question comes in:
During the VFO limit scan I can hear a given transmission as one would expect. But sometimes, within a minute or so, I hear the exact same transmission again. For some reason the original transmission is recorded and re-transmitted. What would be the purpose of this? It happens fairly often with both the Sherriff’s office and EMS. Being that I don’t hear this when only monitoring the 35 channels, I assume it is being done outside of the EDACS system. Why is this?
To monitor the system, I use a Yaesu VX-8DR HT that is mounted behind the seat of my truck. It runs full time and is connected to vehicle power. Due to it not being a trunked capable receiver it doesn’t follow a given conversation, it just moves on to the next busy channel when a transmission finishes. In a way, I prefer this. It allows me to hear more dispatches and car traffic rather than following just one conversation to its completion. My interest is in knowing what may be in my way rather than hearing the full details about any given situation.
I have two types of setups for this configured in the HT.
The first setup uses 35 memory channels with the assigned frequencies used in this system. This allows me to lockout the control channels so I don’t have to listen to computers scream at each other, in turn this allows the scan to be in “busy” or carrier operated mode so I can listen to the entirety of a transmission. Limiting the scan to just the channels involved in the county system also provides for quick scanning of the system.
The second setup uses the VFO band limit feature of the HT. In this scan the HT constantly scans between 851 and 854 MHz. At 12.5 KHz this covers the 240 frequencies between the two limits. In this setup I run the scan with a 10 second duration mode due to the control channels which never stop transmitting (when tropo conditions exist there can be additional control channels to contend with as well).
With the second setup I have noticed something odd, and this is where the question comes in:
During the VFO limit scan I can hear a given transmission as one would expect. But sometimes, within a minute or so, I hear the exact same transmission again. For some reason the original transmission is recorded and re-transmitted. What would be the purpose of this? It happens fairly often with both the Sherriff’s office and EMS. Being that I don’t hear this when only monitoring the 35 channels, I assume it is being done outside of the EDACS system. Why is this?