Levy County (00A.92BFA) P25p2 Master Thread

[batdude]

I need some help on this Levy Co P25 system guys. I put up my outside yagi which greatly improved signal strength on the system, but I can't get good decodes (garbled). I have raised and lowered the gain, changed the ppm .1 step up and down multiple times in both directions, tried it with auto tuning both enabled and disabled, turned polarity checking on and off, enabled and disabled the bandwidth skirts, made sure only P25 decoding is selected, toggled the injection mode, and fine tuned the -ds and -dd settings all to no avail. I'm only 16 miles from the closest repeater site and I have other systems I monitor successfully with far less signal strength and further away. What else can I try? Another strange thing, only two frequencies are displaying in the activity channel window the last 24 hours and both stay on continuously like control channels. Previously in this thread I posted the P25 data for the system and it showed 6 total frequencies which have been displayed in the past. HELP! Thanks.

View attachment 200705

there are a couple of possibilities - just my opinion.

#1 - simulcast distortion. None of the SDR units are capable of mitigating simulcast distortion like the SDS series uniden scanners - or a 'real' radio. have you tried decoding the system from a significantly different location? same results?

#2 - much more likely. They are still testing the system - what you are seeing is fairly normal as systems are installed and tested. Give it time. Volusia (Daytona) has been installing their P25 system for YEARS ... and still has one site that spits out utter garbage on the control channel.

oh, and just as a data point, I have never, not once, in my years of using SDR + DSD+ had to monkey with offsets, polarity, or any of those types of settings to get good decode on a system.

 

[N4HFA]

there are a couple of possibilities - just my opinion.

#1 - simulcast distortion. None of the SDR units are capable of mitigating simulcast distortion like the SDS series uniden scanners - or a 'real' radio. have you tried decoding the system from a significantly different location? same results?

#2 - much more likely. They are still testing the system - what you are seeing is fairly normal as systems are installed and tested. Give it time. Volusia (Daytona) has been installing their P25 system for YEARS ... and still has one site that spits out utter garbage on the control channel.

oh, and just as a data point, I have never, not once, in my years of using SDR + DSD+ had to monkey with offsets, polarity, or any of those types of settings to get good decode on a system.

Thanks for the insights. As I mentioned to you before, I am going to make a field trip to Williston, Bronson and Chiefland to see if the system acts differently closer to the different repeater sites. I will post my findings when I have done it. I also plan on trying OP25 on the system to see if it makes a difference. As to your #2, it did cross my mind that maybe the techs were still fine tuning the system setup and that time will indeed remedy some issues. But you're right, it may be a wait and see situation. Thanks

 

[N4HFA]

Update: In the last few days the site has gone silent all day long and most of the frequencies have had a continuous locked-on transmit condition but no audio. Then at the end of the day it is returned to normal status and I start hearing calls again. It's obvious the radio techs are tweaking things because after the first silent day I started to get some reliable decodes (still some garble but improved). Today, after about 8:30 AM it went silent again and the same conditions. Hopefully, they will get things dialed-in some time in the near future. (I'm still seeing encrypted call testing so that may be in the cards in the future.)

 

[N4HFA]

Saw for the first time today, Levy Co. P25 system experimenting with LRRP. Also, the radio techs continue to test encryption. For the time being, everything is still in the clear for Williston PD and the SLERS patches.

 

[KC0MPD]

Looks like TG 5501(WPD) and 2001(Co Fire)are now encrypted.

 

[N4HFA]

Looks like TG 5501(WPD) and 2001(Co Fire)are now encrypted.

You are correct. No surprise since the radio techs have been testing encryption for some time. I just submitted updated info for the database yesterday. In time, I imagine all of it will be encrypted. The system is still evolving with frequent changes to talkgroups and patches. Interesting to watch.