Iowa Statewide Interoperability Communication System (ISICS)

[VASCAR2]

Ok that can be bad.

Honestly the way trunk systems are configured they are designed to operate with the two way radio voting one site for connectivity to the system. As long as you are hearing the Lee Simulcast ISICS site you will likely hear the Burlington traffic especially if the Beaverdale site has moved to the Lee simulcast system/sites. In Illinois Starcom system adjoining counties are usually carried on the sites. In rural areas of Illinois it is common for rural sites to only be assigned three to four frequencies. Number of frequencies assigned to each site is determined by the number of users and the volume of traffic. The system manager (ISICS manager) has access to a lot of data to make these determinations.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

And the plot thickens. Now I can't get anything from BPD at all on my scanner but I can get DMCSO just fine. Im only getting BPD off broadcastify. I saw a BPD unit pull a TS right in front of me and never heard it get called that how I realized something was up. I was picking them up last night just fine so I have no clue what they might of did now.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

Does anyone know who runs the broadcastify site that covers Burlington/Des Moines County? Maybe they could assist since their feed still picks up bpd.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

SITREP...I just got 1 BPD transmission... I feel like im getting trolled now.

 

[KE0BTJ]

I guess I confused you. Louisa isnt actually apart of this issue. Its programmed into my scanner to help with dropping. What im saying is I've never picked up anything off them at all. All I have picked up is the Lee County site but its clearly the Burlington and WB/DMC talk groups.

And its not like these are brief. They are full convos, for instance I heard a county unit call a traffic stop. Burlington called out to a disturbance. County had a car go off the road into a ditch etc. I thought maybe I was picking up pieces of larger transmissions at first just bounced off the Lee co site but it appears this is no longer the case. And I'd assume no one with a scanner that has all the surrounding sites programmed already would of even noticed the difference.

I need someone in Burlington with an sds to clarify if they are having the same issues.

I have stopped receiving Btown as well. I have a HP2 and the only hting I had in it was ISICS with Des Moines county and Btown. I noticed the other day that I haven't been hearing anything on it....I also have a BCD996---but it never really picked Btown or Des Moines county anyway. Everything else it picks up just fine. Henry county is perfect as well as Mercer County, Il

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

I have stopped receiving Btown as well. I have a HP2 and the only hting I had in it was ISICS with Des Moines county and Btown. I noticed the other day that I haven't been hearing anything on it....I also have a BCD996---but it never really picked Btown or Des Moines county anyway. Everything else it picks up just fine. Henry county is perfect as well as Mercer County, Il

I knew i wasn't going insane! No but for real im thinking the beaverdale site was taken offline for some reason and they are on Lee countys for the time being. Though I will say I hope it is resolved soon, my reception is spotty to say the least.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

I held the Lee County site for awhile while driving around, mostly just trying to see my signal strength, and I was getting decent results, even in places where I used to have issues with the 996P2 on the beaverdale tower, so that's a plus.

The next issue I ran into was while traversing agency headed eastbound back into Burlington from West Burlington. Lee Cos control channel seemingly dropped and the scanner started searching all frequencys at the site as I drove all the way to Roosevelt, turned and went down to the McDonald's on the Southside. It continued to do this through the entire McDonald's run well on until I got home, where it finally seemed to resolve itself.(for refrense my house is not that far from the McDonald's)

While waiting at McDonald's I had gotten broadcastify back up and noted I missed atleast one transmission from BPD, which leads me to believe my scanner freaking out with the control channel was a result of either my setup(recently changed my coax routing, still trying to perfect it)or heavy interference from something along my route.

But for the most part any transmissions I do receive are relatively good, though I note a that sheriff ops tend to drop more and are generally less reliable than BPD, which makes no sense if they are ran on the same system.

Gonna keep playing with it, hoping maybe we can figure out what exactly has occurred with the beaverdale site.

 

[mws72]

Might I suggest running a control channel monitoring program like unitrunker and see what it shows and which control channels are active.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

Might I suggest running a control channel monitoring program like unitrunker and see what it shows and which control channels are active.

No idea how to do that

 

[KE0BTJ]

I held the Lee County site for awhile while driving around, mostly just trying to see my signal strength, and I was getting decent results, even in places where I used to have issues with the 996P2 on the beaverdale tower, so that's a plus.

The next issue I ran into was while traversing agency headed eastbound back into Burlington from West Burlington. Lee Cos control channel seemingly dropped and the scanner started searching all frequencys at the site as I drove all the way to Roosevelt, turned and went down to the McDonald's on the Southside. It continued to do this through the entire McDonald's run well on until I got home, where it finally seemed to resolve itself.(for refrense my house is not that far from the McDonald's)

While waiting at McDonald's I had gotten broadcastify back up and noted I missed atleast one transmission from BPD, which leads me to believe my scanner freaking out with the control channel was a result of either my setup(recently changed my coax routing, still trying to perfect it)or heavy interference from something along my route.

But for the most part any transmissions I do receive are relatively good, though I note a that sheriff ops tend to drop more and are generally less reliable than BPD, which makes no sense if they are ran on the same system.

Gonna keep playing with it, hoping maybe we can figure out what exactly has occurred with the beaverdale site.

Let me know what you find out . It's frustrating

I knew i wasn't going insane! No but for real im thinking the beaverdale site was taken offline for some reason and they are on Lee countys for the time being. Though I will say I hope it is resolved soon, my reception is spotty to say the least.

The exact same thing happened to me with Lee County years ago. They just fell off and I have never heard them again. Even today I still cant hear them on any of my scanners and I have tried everything. I have external antennas in multiple locations on my house and garage. Some were up to at least 30 feet in the air. They are different types of antennas too. One of them I was able to talk to Galesburg on simplex when my ham license was still active. So it's not my antennas. I am currently listening to Mercer Co , Illinois and Henry Co Iowa just fine.

 

[KE0BTJ]

Let me know what you find out . It's frustrating

The exact same thing happened to me with Lee County years ago. They just fell off and I have never heard them again. Even today I still cant hear them on any of my scanners and I have tried everything. I have external antennas in multiple locations on my house and garage. Some were up to at least 30 feet in the air. They are different types of antennas too. One of them I was able to talk to Galesburg on simplex when my ham license was still active. So it's not my antennas. I am currently listening to Mercer Co , Illinois and Henry Co Iowa just fine.

I have scoured the internet for fixes, watched videos, reprogrammed everything 19 times ---Like you , I am very frustrated...

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

Let me know what you find out . It's frustrating

The exact same thing happened to me with Lee County years ago. They just fell off and I have never heard them again. Even today I still cant hear them on any of my scanners and I have tried everything. I have external antennas in multiple locations on my house and garage. Some were up to at least 30 feet in the air. They are different types of antennas too. One of them I was able to talk to Galesburg on simplex when my ham license was still active. So it's not my antennas. I am currently listening to Mercer Co , Illinois and Henry Co Iowa just fine.

That is odd to say the least.

 

[WillB]

I was having no issues picking up Descom in Henry County until I locked their ISICS channels out.

 

[mws72]

Seen today just north of Burlington.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

I was having no issues picking up Descom in Henry County until I locked their ISICS channels out.

Seen today just north of Burlington.

Did you actually receive a transmission off of it though? My scanner can see the site just none of the traffic comes in on it

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

I was having no issues picking up Descom in Henry County until I locked their ISICS channels out.

Actually kinda similar to what happened with me with my 996P2, the whole issue started with accidental button presses. But that doesnt explain the issue with my 200

 

[mws72]

Did you actually receive a transmission off of it though? My scanner can see the site just none of the traffic comes in on it

Actually it a friend's radio. But he doesn't receive anything but his work and certain others.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

Alright while we are waiting to still try and figure out what occurred with the Beaverdale site lets try and figure something else out.

Both of the scanners ive been mobile with(996P2 and SDS200) have absolutely hated going down Roosevelt in Burlington Iowa. Choppy transmission, dropped control channels etc.

Well I noticed with the 200 that I lose the control channel from Lee Co Simulcast, but not Beaverdale or Louisa(not that they are any use currently)even with the site held it still does this, from about West Avenue all the way down to MT Pleasant street.

My 996 did something similar when it was operating on the beaverdale tower, but it was no where near as bad or sensitive to it.

I remember someone talking about a 5G antenna somewhere along the route, and im wondering if it isnt part of the issue especially considering my phone is 5G capable and on while im out.

So basically how do I stop the scanner from loosing the control channel in this area? Its frustrating to lose the entire signal going through one of main parts of btown.

 

[DurangoPursuit2019]

I ended up changing my filters around and it seems to have helped, my blind spots are more online with what they were on my P2. Still not happy with it fully though, I know its not a signal issue, so its gotta be an interference issue.

 

[mws72]

I have am LTE filter on my TV coax. I wonder if that would work. It really improved the TV reception.