Iron County MOSWIN tower sites?

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rbritton1201

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Which MOSWIN Reynolds and Iron County tower sites are the best ones to plug into programming? I've been guessing at it based on the MOSWIN tower site maps, but the tower site names are often inaccurate. I have what appear to be the obvious ones plugged into my Uniden BC536HP, but haven't heard anything from MSHP.

I'm kind of puzzled because Uniden's Sentinel Program doesn't have a Troop listed for Iron County in the data base, whereas, for example, the Uniden Sentinel Program data base specifically references MSHP Troop G for Reynolds County, which I also have plugged into programming, and assume the main tower site is Lesterville-Taum Sauk. But, haven't heard anything out of MSHP for hours, not a typical situation in my experience.

Now, this could be because I'm just too far away, located in Franklin County. But, I am receiving about two bars of signal from the Taum Sauk tower in Reynolds County. I did hear one, and only one, transmission from Troop G today, which isn't typical in my experience. Must have been a fluke, and the signal just happened to make it up to where I'm located.

Does anyone know if there is an Interop Tower Link, or simulcast kind of scenario setup, where I could plug in certain towers and hear Iron and Reynolds County from my location in Franklin County?
 
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nd5y

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dispatch235

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Try using the Shirley/Washington county site... I am in Pulaski Co and I pick up Troop D out of Springfield off the Lebanon/Laclede tower quite well. Most of the time if you can find a site in between your area and the area you are wanting to hear on MSHP talkgroups this will work fairly well.
 

rbritton1201

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Shirley is one of the towers programmed in, and the scanner indicates a fully deflected control channel data stream signal bar on the scanner when it stops on Shirley, also have Rolla programmed in, same scenario, no verbal traffic, which I assume is a function of whether the talk groups for Iron and Reynolds County are programmed into the Shirley and Rolla towers.

I have all the towers within and surrounding Iron and Reynolds Counties programmed into the scanner from the MOSWIN tower maps, whose names are sometimes not accurate or up to date either, which can have you thinking you're programming a particular tower, but if it's not accurately identified on the MOSWIN map, then you may be entering a tower whose name doesn't actually correlate with where you believe the tower is on the MOSWIN map.

I'm not receiving any signal bar deflection from the other towers I have programmed into the scanner. So, I can only assume that I must be too far away here in Franklin County, near Union, to pick up towers where the Iron and Reynolds County talk groups are programmed into.
I did hear one transmission from Troop G dispatch, which covers Reynolds County, nothing from Troop E (Iron County) though. And, only one transmission seems like it was probably just a fluke that a signal from the Troop G (Willow Springs) tower made it through to Franklin County.

I guess the next step might be to add in some more surrounding towers into the scanning sequence, to see if any will produce a full deflection signal bar data stream on the scanner, and hope that maybe some of them might also have the talk groups I want programmed into those towers. But, I assume that even if that be the case, if I'm still too far away to pick anything up consistently from those towers, I am going to be out of luck.

Try using the Shirley/Washington county site... I am in Pulaski Co and I pick up Troop D out of Springfield off the Lebanon/Laclede tower quite well. Most of the time if you can find a site in between your area and the area you are wanting to hear on MSHP talkgroups this will work fairly well.
 
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stlouisx50

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Try doing a limit search for the vhf, 700 and 800 mhz.
148-174 mhz "example". If you see P25 traffic, search the database for the site's number. You can write down any Frequencies that are P25 and search the database for which tower it may be.

Alternative to that, you can likely search the same way as above, but search for control tower data and then look up which site you can hear based on frequency..

Once you know this info, program in that site.
 

stlouisx50

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I did some long extensive research and found using my Pro668 and VHF J-Pole the following to be true.
-The closer the actual TX-tower height is to your RX-antennas elevation the lower the signal.
-Towers that have no max land peak elevation between you and the TX-tower are the ones you can receive, up to 56 miles away.
-Distance alone from Rx-antenna to TX-antenna is an unreliable way of determining reception chances. It's just a starting point.
-Distance is affected by the peaks in the land between RX and TX.
-The higher the TX antenna is above the land peaks, the better the signal.
-TX Towers (antenna elevation height) lower than the RX antenna are not heard.
-The closer a max land peak is to the total tower elevation, the lower the signal.
-Towers that have a land peak elevation higher than the RX antenna are not heard.

Here is my chart.

Tower LocationDistance to towerMy ElevationMax Land ElevationTower Land ElevationAnt - Ant change (ft)Tower Height (ft)Elevation of TX antSSI Strength
New Hope2689097097032324312135
Americas2689093188919719810874
Drake2789091891534031512303
Warrenton4.289089887222023811105
Imperial4089088688639940312890-1
Shirley568901394139462311915130-1
Weldon Springs248908936541043409940-1

The tools used to figure this out. Air-line Map and decoding the towers long/lat to determine point a-b.
 

rbritton1201

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Very impressive research, and very much appreciated! In my further research, Iron County does have a tower, and I receive their signals here in Union, Missouri, all be they weak, pretty much static, but readable. They are on analog VHF however, and that would be a little different receive expectation compared to MOSWIN tower sites, from which I would expect lesser distance performance than via VHF tower transmissions with respect to output power.

With respect to your comments below, just trying to further understand, It would seem that the closer a maximum land peak is to the total tower elevation, the better the signal reception at a receive antenna would be, and visa versa with respect to land peak elevation in excess of tower elevation. But, there again, MOSWIN towers are not Analog towers. With respect to Analog towers, I would expect the above performance. But, I stand open to further explanation.

[QUOTE="stlouisx50, post: 3568060, member: 82553"
-The closer a max land peak is to the total tower elevation, the lower the signal.
-Towers that have a land peak elevation higher than the RX antenna are not heard.

Here is my chart.

[/QUOTE]
 

stlouisx50

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With analog, you will get the static. With digital, you will get packet loss. This would be the only difference. I like analog static over missing a digital signal because the signal was too weak to be decoded. :)
 

daddyjohn

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I've used this line of sight calculator many times when trying to see what is between me and a tower I'm researching.
 

stlouisx50

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I've used this line of sight calculator many times when trying to see what is between me and a tower I'm researching.
Thanks, I always appreciate trying a new app or program.
 

scanman1958

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To the original member, rbritton1201. Are you using an antenna that came with the scanner (rubber duckie or back of set) or do you use an outdoor antenna? Also, do you have all the nearby/neighboring MOSWIN sites programmed in your scanner? And if so, do they work OK? Just from what I have read, if everything is programmed properly you may be too far from Reynolds and Iron counties. Though Taum Sauk could be a site that travels the farthest because of it's elevation.

I visit Laclede/Dallas Co quite often and with an outside antenna I regularly pick up about six MOSWIN sites. If I move to the top of a nearby hill in my car with a mag mount I can pick up three to four more. I would keep trying to monitor the close sites and gradually test the ones that are a little farther out and see what might work better. Moving the scanner, or making adjustments with your programming. Also a yagi might help bring in farther away sites.

Good luck.
 

rbritton1201

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I like this program a lot, and have used it recently to plot a few scenarios. Thank you for providing it!

Does anyone know where to find the actual MOSWIN tower (antenna) heights above sea level in order to factor that into the equation. It appears that the program plots latitude and longitude, but antenna height needs to be factored in order to plot the signal path as it relates to topography that is likely to interfere with propagation between points A and B.

I've used this line of sight calculator many times when trying to see what is between me and a tower I'm researching.
 

nd5y

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Does anyone know where to find the actual MOSWIN tower (antenna) heights above sea level in order to factor that into the equation.
You would have to calculate the antenna height AMSL yourself. FCC licenses have site elevation AMSL, stucture height AGL with and without appurtenances and antenna height AGL. All measurements are in meters.
 

nd5y

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I like this program a lot, and have used it recently to plot a few scenarios. Thank you for providing it!
Be careful with that. It only calculates based on elevation and doesn't take into account the earth's curvature. It will show line of site paths over ridiculous distances like between mountain tops in California and Hawaii.
 
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