Manitowoc County S.O. back on 159.2100 analog

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RevGary

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There was a discussion online about a month or so ago at another forum about some issues with the MCPS 800 mhz system. However, over the past several days, several persons also noticed that the old VHF 159.2100 mhz repeater system is on again. They mentioned that It does not sound as if it is a simulcast patch because some of them are receiving repeater access frequency traffic from mobiles in the county on 154.8900 mhz and it also sounds as if the 155.6400 mhz patch from the TRS dispatch talkgroup is turned off.

Anyone in the county know if this is temporary or if the issues that they were having were bad enough for them to go back to VHF?
 
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Tim

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Greetings...

For what its worth, In listening to the Manitowoc County Feed for a few hours today I didn't hear them at all. The Feed's page shows it monitors 155.6400, but doesn't show 159.2100 being listed. Maybe with some skip/lake ducting I am can pull them in on 159.2100 from home in Milwaukee as usual.

Tim
 

RevGary

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Thanks for the input, Tim...

If the 159.210 VHF system is still set up now as it was before the TRS was constructed, the ERP from their main tower near Cato is around 600 watts. I can hear them direct northwest of Green Bay on an old portable scanner indoors, so you should be able to hear them at your location if you have an outdoor antenna. Keep in mind that there is also a system on the same frequency from Dane County that I believe is still active, so listen for city names if you have time to monitor.

I agree that the 155.6400 patch is off line as of today.
 

Tim

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Ohh I have listened to them plenty of times from home with just the slightest of skip/lake ducting going on. Between them and Dane County Fire paging when they were on 158.7750, they were usually the first ones to come in.


Tim
 

Tim

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It appears like Manitowoc County Sheriff is back using 159.2100 (192.8) for some reason. I am not sure why, but the repeater seems a bit different than when they were full-time on 159.2100. After each transmission before, there would be a similar sound to the good ole ending "roger beeps" from years ago.

Now it just seems like a clean ending. I guess its no big deal...but also very curious why they are back on 159.2100.


Tim
 

RevGary

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Tim - Scuttlebutt has it that there were so many issues with the TRS that they went back to VHF for reliability and safety for their personnel. I don't have a scanner here capable of monitoring their TRS from that distance, so I can't confirm personally that the TRS is off the air. That's why I asked in post # 1 above if any locals could confirm the situation.

Thanks for your testing and feedback.
 

Tim

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I know from the many times that I have monitored the TRS passing though the county, it seems like there were plenty of times the scanner would lose the CC or it would go down to 1 Bar (Of course scanners and actual radios are 2 different things).

I wonder if the County Jail and/or County Highways are still using the system....


Tim
 

RevGary

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Good Question, Tim... I guess that we will just have to wait for a post from a local in that area to let us know what's going on.
 

Kursch1672

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I know that all of this week, the 155.6400 has been silent. They are using the 159.2100 (192.8). I know the dispatchers are happy about this because with the headsets on, the audio of the county squads would blow their ears out. Even listening her at home, I usually listen around 8-10 on my 396xt. When county hits, I would have to turn it down to 5 or 6, just to match the audio of the city squads. Very frustrating for all involved.
 

RevGary

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Shawn - Thanks for the feedback. Standing by for any additional comments from Manitowoc County residents...

Can anyone verify that the CITY is back on the municipal 155.610 repeater again as they used to be? I can't pull them out from the distance that I am from there.

Thanks.
 
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Kursch1672

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I got to do a "ride-a-long" with our county dispatcher on Aug. 7, 2013. Manitowoc County had a tornado that night, I couldn't believe the chaos in dispatch. There wasn't any time to ask many questions.
 

Tim

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Shawn - Thanks for the feedback. Standing by for any additional comments from Manitowoc County residents...

Can anyone verify that the CITY is back on the municipal 155.610 repeater again as they used to be? I can't pull them out from the distance that I am from there.

Thanks.

As far as I knew, the city (155.6100) never switched to the new system. I thought that only the Sheriff (Jail & Patrol) and the County Highway Department were the regular users of the system.


Tim
 

RevGary

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Thanks Tim and Shawn - Since I can't hear the TRS at my location direct, I didn't know if the city had joined the TRS or not.

Thanks again... and awaiting any local additional updates on issues that the TRS had to trigger the rollback to VHF.
 

RevGary

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Thanks, Shawn - We'll have to see what takes place at the July meeting.
 

Tim

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While listening 159.2100 tonight, it sounds like a patch from a P25 System. Some of the squads are digital sounding and some sound analog.

It would be great if someone local can chime in about usage of the P25 TRS, but If I had to venture a guess...I would say that maybe they are patching 159.2100 into the TRS now with the reasoning is they have radios with 159.2100 programmed into them already. That would be easier than reprogramming radios with 155.6400..

Tim
 

kb0uxv

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With standing patches in place and APX radios deployed, choice of talkpath (TG or repeater) may be up to the field unit. Especially considering what the field unit wishes to scan, when affiliated on the system scanning off it presents problems. Mainly loss of priority scan. On the repeater side one of the problems is the loss of audio quality on the digital to analog transition, as noted above.
 

ScanWI

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While driving through the area today, I only heard traffic on the Trunked system. I had one radio sitting on 155.6400 and did not hear anything. I did hear alot of traffic on 155.6100 though.
 
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