Lake in the Hills Moved to SEECOMM

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jobes

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The move happen this morning May 1 (and it was a sad sign-off to listen too). Does anyone have further info for new freq's or anything?
 
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I can confirm today that LITH PD Dispatch and Huntley PD Dispatch are now on SC-21 TG #34103. I have heard them all day here in Huntley. Both on Kane Simulcast Tower and also McHenry Simulcast sites too. Bless 'em... Phase 1 NOT Encrypted!!! Bless 'em. Joyful indeed. But their voices do sound different. At least No encryption. Hooray folks. (Admins...my first post. Please update the SC-21 database, thanks.)
 

Awesomeman92

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Only encryption I've seen from what looks like SEECOM radios is on TG 34139. Given the talkgroups, my slightly educated guess would be that Algonquin will be on 34101, Crystal Lake on 34102, and Lakewood on 34104, although the only basis I have for this is the alphabet. They've been affiliating with site 149 sporadically from what I'm seeing so far, which is what I figured given the locations of some of SEECOM's agencies. Only a handful of the 12 talkgroups I've logged from the SEECOM "block" have actually had voice traffic on them. I'll put a post in the SC21 thread as well, I know at least one admin is subscribed to that one and it may get it into the database faster.

Welcome to the forum, RF-Guy!
 

jobes

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Ok, looks like I'll have to reeducate with trunked again to reprogram the Uni.

Thanks

Only encryption I've seen from what looks like SEECOM radios is on TG 34139. Given the talkgroups, my slightly educated guess would be that Algonquin will be on 34101, Crystal Lake on 34102, and Lakewood on 34104, although the only basis I have for this is the alphabet. They've been affiliating with site 149 sporadically from what I'm seeing so far, which is what I figured given the locations of some of SEECOM's agencies. Only a handful of the 12 talkgroups I've logged from the SEECOM "block" have actually had voice traffic on them. I'll put a post in the SC21 thread as well, I know at least one admin is subscribed to that one and it may get it into the database faster.

Welcome to the forum, RF-Guy!
 

jobes

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I give up:( When does the Sentinel DB get updated? I did a refresh but
I'm not seeing it yet
 

N9JIG

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I added the talkgroups to the database today but they won't be in Sentinel until Monday.
 

jobes

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Well I figured out what I needed to manually enter to get the talk group working for Huntley/Lith PD.

The audio is certainly more difficult to understand especially from the portables. Super strong signal from the site.
 
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BCD436HP Starcom talk-groups

Hello. I live in Crystal Lake I was wondering if I can get some help accessing Algonquin, LITH and Huntley PD on starcom. I have a uniden BCD436HP and can’t hear them when I use the zip code feature. I do have up to date sentinal software. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.
 
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BC436HP Starcom TGs

Hi, I ran across this post last night. The zip code method has drawbacks. First, their is so much information in the Database Set (as in thousands of entries there), that you'll completely miss adding the things you want! You have to dig and dig and dig into this set to find 3 talk groups under Illinois/McHenry/Statewide/Starcom21/McHenry County - Law Enforcement. They will be listed there if your Database is up to date. Crystal Lake is still on analog NFM, so they won't be in this section, but the others are there or in the McHenry County - Fire/EMS section. Be sure that you are using the talk group info and not other info, or old analog channels still listed. FYI,

Huntley/LITH PD - TG # 34103
Algonquin PD - TG # 34102
Huntley Fire - TG # 1179
Algonquin Fire - TG # 34108

The problem is now in the details. The SC21 powers that be have setup the Huntley/LITH PD Talk Group to "Always" be available on the Starcom21 (McHenry site). Notice the word "Always". Same is true with the Algonquin Talk Groups. They will "Always" be available on the SC21 (McHenry site). But the Huntley/LITH and Algonquin Talk Groups are "Only Sometimes" available on the some other Starcom21 sites, (Kane site) but Not always there! Truly hard to guess 'em. Has to do with Talk Group Priority and their field radio to the tower site affiliations in the actual Starcom21 system programming setups on their end. So if you only picked the SC21 Kane site Control Channel, you'd miss most of the calls. You'd have to pick the McHenry site as your main "Site" to stay on. You also need to click on and activate "Service Types" for these in your favorites list, but that should have auto selected by itself. IF everything was setup right, you still might have been trying to stay locked onto the Lake Co Site or the NWCD Site, which were weaker and may not have "always carried" those particular talk groups. It gets messy.

Months of actual monitoring have led me to this brilliant conclusion, the SC21 system has a mind of its own when it comes to whose Talk Groups are Currently (as in Right-this-minute) available on which particular "SC21 Sites". And each "Site" is a combination of radio towers, not just one tower. You may get some good freqs off of one tower and some bad freqs off of the same Site and this is all pretty deep, but it'll affect your reception and you'll certainly hear it. I need to monitor the McHenry and the Kane Sites near Sunset Park to hear everything local and most of the ISP talk groups. The Kane site at my location always yields a perfect signal that never cuts in and out, but the McHenry site is much stonger yet gives me some breakups. The 436HP has the least problems with most of the sites as it has the true NFM filter inside, which is a real plus for you. Mine does a great job dealing with anything. You might want to get the 800Mhz antenna from Remtronix (REM800S) with the SMA connector, it will give 1-2 more strength bars on most sites, works slightly better than Uniden's stock antenna.

The best advice and generally the toughest one to setup, is to scrap the Zip Code method, and really dig into the software and setup your own "New Favorites List" and Right mouse click to Edit this Favorites List, and then (a New Window opens) setup your favorites Your own way. I would also do this, setup one SC21 complete system using the McHenry Site Frequencies and give that a Quick Key, say #1 (for that whole site) then setup another SC21 complete system using the Kane Site Frequencies and give that say Quick Key #2. You can cut n paste the data from one Site to the other, the Talk Group lineup will be exactly the same on each Site, just with different Site Frequencies. Then you can turn the "Sites" On/Off or have both on when you go to listen. Also most of the ISP Talk Groups are not carried on the McHenry Site, the McHenry Site runs mostly the McH Sheriff and local PDs. I do not have good reception from the SC21 NWCD site, nor the SC21 Lake County site (freqencies) as I'm too far west, but you may test try these sites out instead of the Kane site I mentioned, it all depends if you're closer to Lakewood or closer to the east side of Crystal Lake. Remember, the McHenry site will always carry Huntley/LITH & Algonquin Talk Groups but the other (Sites) are a gamble as in maybe yes/maybe no today! It took me nights to try to figure the programming out. I missed things all the time in programming and then, nothing heard. It still happens now. This is not easy.
 
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MikeyC

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... Months of actual monitoring have led me to this brilliant conclusion, the SC21 system has a mind of its own when it comes to whose Talk Groups are Currently (as in Right-this-minute) available on which particular "SC21 Sites". And each "Site" is a combination of radio towers, not just one tower. ...

Yes and no ;) What talkgroups are available on a given site is generally a function of radios being affiliated with that talkgroup on that site AND if the talkgroup is "allowed" to be on that site. To have your talkgroup(s) available on other sites besides where your department is located costs the agency more money per month.

Not all sites have multiple towers. In the larger suburban areas the sites do have multiple towers and that can wreak havoc with scanners (MANY discussions on simulcast systems and their effect on scanners are all over this site). Out here in corn country (or beans depending on the year) our sites are just one tower :)

My 2 cents on programming the newer Uniden scanners is to definitely create your own Favorites lists. The "type a zip code and hear everything" is great but in RF rich environments you'll hear a lot of things you don't want to hear and miss what you do want to hear. When it comes to trunked systems you don't need to duplicate talkgroup lists to listen to multiple sites. Just create one "system", add in the talkgroups you want to hear, then add in the sites you want to monitor.
 
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NWCD Fire Departments

Hate to bug you yet again but I have another question. I want to make a separate favorites list for just the NWCD Fire departments. So I did that and found them in the sentinal software. Made my list and put it on the scanner but the scanner says "nothing to scan" when I have it just monitor the new NWCD list. But when I put the NWCD departments in my other lists, it comes in and the scanner will pick it up. And advice? Thank you!
 
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Nothing to Scan in 436HP

You need to find the Select Service Types in the Settings/Menu on the Scanner itself. See what is OFF/ON. I had some similar situations and had some odd channel types programmed in, they showed up on my Favorites list, but it would never scan them. Be sure to check on the Talk Group/Service Types in your NWCD Favorites List too and give them a Fire Dispatch (or whatever) you want there type listing. It is a drop down menu in the Sentinel Favorites List Editor window. If you hand pick the channels/talk groups yourself it defaults to Custom1- Service Type and this list may not show up as being "On" in the Select Service Types Scanner Menu. Be sure that Custom1- Service Type is always set to "On", as those are a fail safe for Your Own Lineup picks. Check to be sure you picked a Quick Key number for the NWCD Only Favorites List and also have put the Site Frequencies in for it. I know the Talk Groups are heard on the McHenry Site and would be of course heard on the Cook North/NWCD site.
 
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