Home Patrol 2 reception question

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Radref31

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I was away from scanning since the analog days and decided to get back into it. Purchased a Home Patrol 2 Scanner and had it professionally programmed for the metro area counties. I live in Burnsville and am using an 800 rubber antenna frim Radio Shack. As expected I get Dakota County very clearly. I also get many transmissions on St. Paul's 3 main channels and some transmissions from Washington Counties North and South channels, some from Bloomington police and fire, and a little Scott County fire.

I cannot receive any transmissions from St. Paul fire or Minneapolis police or fire. I took the scanner into the middle of both St. Paul and Minneapolis, but only get St. Paul police. I called the programmer and they said it worked fine for them in both cities.

I'm new to this digital world and am out of ideas. Can anyone tell me what might be wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks.
 

dwgelle

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Congratulations on getting a digital scanner. It's gonna be difficult to figure out why that is that you can't get those departments until we know what they actually programmed in. Such as which control channels for what sites and talkgroups. But if they know what they are doing like they say one should think you you should hear them.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

ab5r

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Information as to your antenna: inside or outside; distance to these different stations that you are wanting to receive; terrain between your home and them. ALL that helps.
 

ofd8001

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You are probably too far away to receive the Minneapolis and Ramsey county sub-systems. Whenever we visit this area, hearing Minneapolis past 494 is kind of "iffy". Ramsey county is even farther away.

The Minnesota ARMER system is a complex system, particularly around the Metro area. It consists of a number of sub-systems that work in concert with each other, to a degree.

Each of these sub-systems (Washington, Dakota, Hennepin East, Hennepin West, Ramsey, Minneapolis, Mnnesota State and Ramsey) is designed to provide coverage to just their areas. So for example, coverage for Minneapolis (called Minneapolis NS) fars off pretty dramatically just outside the city limits.

There is a means of allowing users to "roam" into another sub-system and setting up an affiliation. For example the Minneapolis police pursue a bank robber down into Burnsville. In that case, the Minneapolis radios will affiliate with the Dakota county sub-system and link back to the Minneapolis sub-system. What that happens, you can hear the applicable Minneapolis police talkgroup on the Dakota site. Once they leave the area, the link goes away and you no longer hear them.
 

ofd8001

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In taking another look at your original post and noticing you were in Minneapolis without receiving Minneapolis.

I can see a possibility of the programmer missing something because of the complexity of the system if the programmer wasn't familiar with the local area. There are two sub-systems called "Minneapolis". One is "Minneapolis City Center" and the other is "Minneapolis NS".

The "Minneapolis City Center" is the sub-system for state (such as state patrol) and EMS users. "Minneapolis NS" is the sub-system for Minneapolis users (Minneapolis police, fire). If the programmer did not program the Minneapols NS site, you won't hear Minneapolis.

Have you installed Sentinel and read your scanner? If so coulld you export the program file to and HPE file, then zip it and attach the zip file to a message? I can take a look at it for you.
 

Station51

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Might be something simple as well....
Be sure that the SERVICE type, eg FIRE. POLICE etc is enabled
That your RANGE is sufficient and
that your LOCATION reflects where you actually are.
I have had that exact experience, then realized that one of the above conditions was preventing me from hearing anything.
ALSO great advice from ofd8001
 

Radref31

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Thanks. My setup already conforms to the above. That's why I'm puzzled at this point.
 

Radref31

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That's what I was thinking that I might be out of range. But I can't figure out why I receive St. Paul Police channels, but nothing from St. Paul fire. And when I take the scanner physically into the City of St. Paul I get police channels, but nothing from the fire channels.
 

Radref31

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In taking another look at your original post and noticing you were in Minneapolis without receiving Minneapolis.

I can see a possibility of the programmer missing something because of the complexity of the system if the programmer wasn't familiar with the local area. There are two sub-systems called "Minneapolis". One is "Minneapolis City Center" and the other is "Minneapolis NS".

The "Minneapolis City Center" is the sub-system for state (such as state patrol) and EMS users. "Minneapolis NS" is the sub-system for Minneapolis users (Minneapolis police, fire). If the programmer did not program the Minneapols NS site, you won't hear Minneapolis.

Have you installed Sentinel and read your scanner? If so coulld you export the program file to and HPE file, then zip it and attach the zip file to a message? I can take a look at it for you.
Thanks ofd8001. Lots of good info. Beginning to think I might have a programming issue. I talked to the metro programmer twice to no satisfaction. They told me the chip worked perfectly in Minneapolis for two days straight broadcasting. We simply reached a stalemate in the discussion. So I went on my way. To double check the issue I took the scanner physically in the middle of both Minneapols and St. Paul. After half an hour no transmissions in Minneapolis. Then to St. Paul where I received police transmissions from their police districts, but no fire transmissions. And there should have been at least one fire dispatch as emergency units with lights and sirens passed by me. As to Sentinel, I hooked up to the computer without much success. I could only get to the general headings for local counties, but nothing for cities and services subsections for the counties. When it comes to computers I'm not that great. That's why I had it programmed so I wouldn't have to do much except turn on the scanner and set the location, services, range, favorites, etc. Silly me. But thanks for your help, it answered a lot of my questions. Thinking of getting a TRX 2 instead, but not sure that won't bring me a different set of challenges. The digital world is just so more complicated than the old analog world I was used to.
 

ofd8001

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Attached is a Minneapolis St. Paul file. When you unzip it, it should be MPLD_ST PAUL.hpe. Save that HPE file on your computer, remembering the folder where your computer stored it.

First step would be to connect your scanner to your computer and start Sentinel. Do a read from your Home Patrol - Home Patrol>Read From Home Patrol. Then click the Save icon so you'll save the files that are there. They will be stored on your computer.

Next go to File>Import from hpe file. A pop up window will appear. Choose New Favorites List, and assign a name. Click OK. Then a Windows Explorer like window opens and you can navigate to the folder where the hpe file was stored as noted in the above paragraph. Click on the MPLS-ST PAUL.hpe file and then click Open. You'll get a confirmation message sauomg tje fo;e was i,ported.

Then click Edit>Edit Profile. In the window that opens, click the Favorites List tab. If needed, change both Download and Monitor settings to On.

Last, do a write to scanner -Home Patrol >Write to Scanner. When you get up to the twin cities, you should be scanning Minneapolis and St. Paul. If you go around the Fort Snelling/Minnehaha Falls/old Ford Plant area, you should be able to hear both Minneapolis and St. Paul talkgroups just fine. These areas along the river should have sufficient overlap of both sub-systems.

Also I think about a year or two ago, St Paul did some changes and their fire units may be using some of the Ramsey county talkgroups.
 
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