Louisville Metrosafe

[ofd8001]

MetroSafe is a simulcast system with 13 sites. Most every place in Jefferson County is within the coverage footprint of several sites. Great for responders, but for scanning because scanners have more trouble decoding these multiple in-coming signals than the $2-3K radios used by responders.

The technical term for this is "simulcast distorion" and there are many posts on this topic. If your scanner has a setting for Site Attenuation, you might try turning it on.

Some scanners deal with the issue better than others. My old Uniden x96 scanners were real bad. The newer x36 are much better.

You can hear KSP Post 4 on the Fairgrounds tower quite well and there is a lot of radio activity as you'll hear all the transmissions for the post. As far as KSP being active (as in "doing things", they don't do much in Jefferson County. Troopers will make an occasional traffic stop. Fish and Wildife (7000 units) will do things as will Commercial Vehicle Enforcement units (4000 units).

As noted above, I also hear Post 5 on the Lagrange tower (but I need an outside antenna) and Post 12 on the Shepherdsville tower).

During the state fair, KSP is the primary law enforcement entity at the fairgrounds. They are quite active then and are on either 153.92 or 154.92 using a repeater at the fairgrounds.

 

[ledzep11]

I programmed both 153.92 and 154.92, not hearing anything. I am assuming these are P25? Do you have the NAC for these?

 

[ofd8001]

Yes they are P25. They are using 154.92 with 289 as the NAC (listening to them as I type this).

 

[k9jus]

Extra dumb question about the 536 HP. When monitoring of the metro safe site i attempt to turn on the attenuator by pressing function and number 4. The scanner then gives me an error beep. It might as well be telling me I'm an idiot for doing this wrong. Do i have to go through the menu? They say the only dumb question is one not asked but I think I may have made an exception here

 

[ofd8001]

Were you holding on a channel when you did that?

I'd probably just change the attenuator via keypad or Sentinel programming. The only site that needs attenuation is the Jefferson County site, as that is all that is simulcast.

 

[k9jus]

I was holding on a channel....not sure if it was still scanning site or not

 

[k9jus]

Att set on and only scanning jefferson county sites. About ready to throw this dang 536hp out the window

 

[mricketts]

Att set on and only scanning jefferson county sites. About ready to throw this dang 536hp out the window

Good luck. I bought the 436 about a month ago and have tried a ton of different settings and still can't get MetroSafe to receive properly. I'm aware of the simulcast issues, so perhaps I'm just out of luck. At this point, though, I refuse to believe that. The signal indicator in the top right hand corner shows a strong signal, but i either get nothing, or it's constantly dropping audio. I've tried about five different antennas, too (no outdoor antenna). I'm only 15 miles from downtown and about 5 miles from Dixie HWY and PRP. I've also changed the P25 threshold mode to manual because I've heard auto doesn't work. I can't find a threshold level that fixes the problem either. I will admit, though, that I wasn't receiving anything until I changed the threshold mode to manual, so that's some progress, but it's still not worth listening too. In central downtown it works fine, but even when driving around other parts of the city the audio drops frequently. Strange how I can pick up Motorola Safe-T from several counties away yet can't pickup Louisville even though it's just a few hundred yards away ( I live right by the river). I'm sure it'll get better during the winter without the foliage, but I think there's an answer somewhere that I just haven't found yet. I'm open to all suggestions!

 

[k9jus]

Well, the problem is that its two completely different radio stations. Indiana has the safety system so you have a frequency in a tower. That makes it easy you just pick the tower that's closest to you and put it in your scanner. But with Louisville simulcast you have several different towers all talking at once and your scanner cannot make it out. I can't get much luck here and I've tried the whole gamut of p25 settings. I go one block up the road and everything comes in fine. I can tell you this. And outdoor antenna I do not suspect will help. With most of us it's not that we're getting enough signal it's that we're getting too much signal from several towers at once and the scanner cannot make right from left. I've heard of guys using paperclips and it working. I told the wife we need to move so I can get better radio reception lol! Motorola radios are somewhat cheap on eBay. You just have to make sure they have the right settings. And as long as you have them sent to where they cannot transmit, you're good to go. The only problem with that is finding someone who knows the proper settings that you need and knows how to program the radio. There are people on this thread don't know how, maybe one of them will pipe up and help you. Best of luck to you, DE, k9jus. 73

 

[mricketts]

Thanks for the reply. I understand SAFE-T and MetroSafe are different systems. I guess I was just trying to highlight how differently they work, or don't work. Anyway, I'll keep trying and keep my fingers crossed. It would be nice to find out someday that Louisville plans to make enhancements that might help this issue. Of course, it would also be a pleasant surprise to find out that Uniden has a solution and plans for a firmware update. It's definitely frustrating. I read a few days ago that someone else with this same problem who has a 536 reverted back to the previous firmware version and claimed that P25 reception was much better. I've considered doing the same just to try it out. Anyone know where I can find the file for the previous version of the firmware for the 436? I suspect it shouldn't be too hard to find.

I noticed a YouTube video where this guy was able to determine the error rate for a P25 system on his 536, but I can't seem to find a way to do it with my 436. Was that feature left off of the 436? I have my threshold level set to five, which at least gives me some reception. I can't tell a difference between five and eight, but if I go higher it seems the reception progressively gets worse.

 

[ofd8001]

The problem isn't whether you are getting a strong enough signal, rather it is you are getting signal from too many places. The problem is the scanner can't easily deal with signals coming from two (or more) sites.

You will see places in Louisville where you do get clear audio. That's because you are close to one site and it "drowns" out the others.

Just for the heck of it, try removing the antenna and see what happens. There are places out here in Okolona where I get the system without having an antenna and it is clear.

As a scanner listener, this simulcast isn't very pleasant to monitor. But as a responder I loved the system - had much better coverage in and out with excellent clarity. That's the difference between $500 scanners and $2,500 radios.

The 436 also does error rate, but the sequence to start doing so is different. It is Press Vol then Func the Vol. (See page 59 of the manual).

 

[k9jus]

Unfortunately, we have to remember that the radio systems are in place for the public safety officials and not the scanner listeners [emoji6]

 

[Napalm]

I'm having the same issues as everyone else with Metrosafe. Part of the problem is there's a tower here on the Indiana side too. I can get a great signal everywhere but it's choppy as hell. I usually have the attenuator on at all times.

Today I started playing with the threshold settings. I have a 325P2 which I access the threshold settings by holding the HOLD button and rebooting.

So far, level 13 (the highest) results in zero decode. I think 6 is somewhere like a good compromise but I still need to play around.

Any thoughts? What are your all's favourite threshold settings.

 

[ofd8001]

There isn't a "one size fits all" for the decode settings. What works good one place may not 100 yards away. So you'll just have to tinker with it and use what works best for you.

As a public safety responder, I really loved the MetroSafe system. The coverage was awesome, the voice qualifty superb and the channel resources were excellent. It was one of the best public safety improvements I saw in nearly 40 years.

As a scanner listener, I hated it because of the simulcast distortion. It took a lot of time to get the settings "just so" and then there are still places where I get garble/broken reception when mobile.

 

[Napalm]

It's almost pointless me listening to it sometimes... I live in District 8 otherwise I'd be happy just listening to the rebroadcast dispatch on 155.580.