Marion County

[ekmeyer]

Just upgraded to P25-capable digital trunking (RS Pro-106 and Pro-197) but disappointed to hear very little additional traffic.

KSCIS appears to have licensed a tower near Aulne, but only Cottonwood Falls and McPherson seem active, albeit with weak signal apparently leading to a lot of false positives, particularly on talkgroup 1237 (KHP Salina). Also picking up and discarding Reno, Saline and Wichita KHP (2366, 2368, 1520, 314 and 315) but nothing else. Any insight on when, if ever, Aulne wil come online or how to better set for what's available now?

Otherwise, about all we've managed to do is learn digital squelch tones not in the database for some analog frequencies:

Marion County EMS -- CTCSS 146.2
Marion County highway maintenance -- DCS 565
Florence fire -- CTCSS 162.2
Hillsboro fire -- DCS 506
Tampa fire -- DCS 411

and for some non-public-saftey frequencies found in the licenses database:

USD 408 -- 155.295, CTCSS 179.9
Ag Service -- 464.075, DCS 072
Atmos Energy -- 451.575, CTCSS 123.0
Tabor College -- 152.36, CTCSS 114.8

The database's Tac 1, 2 and 3 have had no traffic all week. Florence fire is abnormally weak. Marion fire appears to be unused; EMS frequency is used instead. Have not yet picked up signals for any other school district or business.

Haven't been able to hear LifeTeam on old 152.345 or 467.95 despite calls, and have even had trouble picking up NOAA's Abilene tones.

Any ideas on when the 21st century will arrive in Marion County or what we might be doing wrong?

 

[n0lqt]

Hi,

Welcome to the forums. One thing that will help a LOT is to toss the rubber-ducky that came with the Pro-106 and get a good 800 MHz antenna, Radio Shack 20-283 or an equivelant. The stock antenna is crap for anything above 500 MHz. On the Pro-197, a good outside omni antenna, such as a Discone, is a good investment. Just getting the antenna outside of and above the interference inside your house (TV, microwaves, cordless phones, baby monitors, computers, wireless routers, and such) helps a BUNCH. Just being able to put it a couple of feet above the peak of the roof will open up a whole new worlds of signals out there. One thing though, RG-58 is a bad idea. Use RG-8U or RG-8M if you must, 9913 is better. RG-8 has about 10 db of loss per 100' at where as 9913 has about 4 db loss (RG-58 has about 20 db of loss). I've even seen people use RG-6SAT TV cable. There is a impedence mismatch loss of about 4 db, but the cable loss is significantly lower at these frequencies.

The KSICS system is still in the build out stage, so many towers will be coming in the not too distant future. Look for some more Butler county real soon I understand. When Marion County is coming, I haven't heard.

Here on the west side of Newton, I can get an 85+% decode rate on McPherson, Wichita, & Partridge with a Discone at 35 feet. Lyons and Cottonwood Falls are ususally 50% or greater. True, I am using hardline which is VERY low loss, but a reasonably good feed line and antenna can make a world of difference, especially with a digital signal at higher frequencies. The number one limiting factor in most scanner set ups is the antenna and feedline....

 

[rankin39]

A note on the discone antenna: Most of them (Radio Shack, ICOM, etc.) have a threaded stud on top of the disk at the center. In some models it is covered by a small rubber dome that can be removed. Get yourself a dedicated 800 MHz. gain collinear antenna -- the type many KHP cars have mounted on the rear deck, and screw it to the stud on top of the discone. This arrangement improves my 800 MHz. reception on the discone by several S-units.

Bob, WoNXN

 

[KD0BSS]

Lifeteam doesn't use those frequencies anymore, they are on the state's 800 system. They are merging with EagleMed within the next month or two though, so not sure how that will affect their operations as far as what freqs they use go.

 

[ekmeyer]

Thanks to the excellent suggestions, we're now up and running, typically receiving a 98% decode on the McPherson tower and, depending on weather, the Dillon tower in Dickinson County. Cottonwood Falls is sporadic in the western (valley) portions of Marion but strong in the eastern (hill) portions. We sometimes pick up Butler County and even Wichita but not reliably. Still looking forward to the Aulne tower south of Marion, possibly by June 30.

The problem now is we're being deluged by KHP Troop C transmissions on C1, especially because we're working mainly off McPherson, I suspect. We've been trying for several days to monitor the C zones in hope of determining which are actually Marion County, which is really all we care about, (We're a newspaper office.) However, we've picked up zero traffic on them. Are we doing something wrong?

Also I'm curious about NOAA weather radio. Abilene, which has the county's SAME code, covers only part of the county. Wichita covers most of the rest but doesn't have the SAME code. Marion's valley(the business district, where we're mainly located) is spotty for either of them, even with an external antenna on the roof of a two-story building such as ours. I know there are grants out there to install local transmitters. Anyone have any experience with whether such projects have been combined with KSICS upgrades. As long as someone is messing around with the Aulne tower, it seems it might be a good time to look into the NOAA situation, too.

 

[unclebob67]

change the rubber ducky

I agree with n0lqt. He assisted on this site when I got my handheld 396xt and had the same reception problems. The 800 antenna made a world of difference. Yesterday I listened to the grass fire between Potwin and ElDorado with it sitting on our kitchen table!

 

[dgruver911]

The LifeTeam/EagleMed merger is dead as of a couple of weeks ago. Not sure why but the deal is off. As for the Aulne tower, the South Central Homeland Security region gave money back to the state to get Aulne upgraded and I'm not sure why it is taking so long. I've yet to see a new license for it. On that note, the license for the new tower on the west side of Hutchinson was issued last week. I'll get those freqs submitted to the database.

 

[n0lqt]

Do you know, are they putting it out at the Hutch KDOT yard? I had heard at one point Hutch wanted it out on East 4th.....

 

[dgruver911]

Looks like it. License says 500 N Hendricks, that's where the KDOT yard is. Guess since the state is footing the vast majority of the bill they can put it where THEY want.

 

[Ed403]

Thanks to the excellent suggestions, we're now up and running, typically receiving a 98% decode on the McPherson tower and, depending on weather, the Dillon tower in Dickinson County. Cottonwood Falls is sporadic in the western (valley) portions of Marion but strong in the eastern (hill) portions. We sometimes pick up Butler County and even Wichita but not reliably. Still looking forward to the Aulne tower south of Marion, possibly by June 30.

The problem now is we're being deluged by KHP Troop C transmissions on C1, especially because we're working mainly off McPherson, I suspect. We've been trying for several days to monitor the C zones in hope of determining which are actually Marion County, which is really all we care about, (We're a newspaper office.) However, we've picked up zero traffic on them. Are we doing something wrong?

Also I'm curious about NOAA weather radio. Abilene, which has the county's SAME code, covers only part of the county. Wichita covers most of the rest but doesn't have the SAME code. Marion's valley(the business district, where we're mainly located) is spotty for either of them, even with an external antenna on the roof of a two-story building such as ours. I know there are grants out there to install local transmitters. Anyone have any experience with whether such projects have been combined with KSICS upgrades. As long as someone is messing around with the Aulne tower, it seems it might be a good time to look into the NOAA situation, too.

With the State System, you will not be able to just narrow in on Marion County KHP. The Troopers in Marion County work off KHP C-1, C-2 and C-3. So in order to hear Marion Troops, you will also hear all the other Troopers in Troop C. Which is basically 18 counties. Hope this helps.

 

[n0lqt]

With the State System, you will not be able to just narrow in on Marion County KHP. The Troopers in Marion County work off KHP C-1, C-2 and C-3. So in order to hear Marion Troops, you will also hear all the other Troopers in Troop C. Which is basically 18 counties. Hope this helps.

Not necessarily. With the digital system each transceiver has a unique Radio ID number similar to the ESN on a cell phone. Certain scanners (Radio Shack and GRE for certain, not sure about Uniden) allow you to also enter Radio ID numbers into a scan list. I have a number of Troopers radios in Harvey, Sedgwick, Butler, and Reno counties in mine so that they appear in their proper county scan list as well as the general KSICS scan list. Check your scanner to see if that can be done. Turn on the Radio ID display function, if needed and listen for your Trooper. Write down their Radio ID number and add it in a stand-alone list. Instead of all of Troop-C, all you will hear is that Trooper’s radio (most have a both a vehicle and TO, so you will need both Ids). On the down side, unless you add Salina State Dispatch consoles, you won't hear the other side, but if you do, then you hear all traffic from that console whether to your Trooper or not....

Before anyone asks, I prefer not to give out the Radio ID numbers I already have. Nothing illegal or improper, it is just that it is a unique identifier and I sort of consider it "personal information." Anyone with too much time on their hands can do the same thing, just the retired cop in me I guess.....

 

[Ed403]

Not necessarily. With the digital system each transceiver has a unique Radio ID number similar to the ESN on a cell phone. Certain scanners (Radio Shack and GRE for certain, not sure about Uniden) allow you to also enter Radio ID numbers into a scan list. I have a number of Troopers radios in Harvey, Sedgwick, Butler, and Reno counties in mine so that they appear in their proper county scan list as well as the general KSICS scan list. Check your scanner to see if that can be done. Turn on the Radio ID display function, if needed and listen for your Trooper. Write down their Radio ID number and add it in a stand-alone list. Instead of all of Troop-C, all you will hear is that Trooper’s radio (most have a both a vehicle and TO, so you will need both Ids). On the down side, unless you add Salina State Dispatch consoles, you won't hear the other side, but if you do, then you hear all traffic from that console whether to your Trooper or not....

Before anyone asks, I prefer not to give out the Radio ID numbers I already have. Nothing illegal or improper, it is just that it is a unique identifier and I sort of consider it "personal information." Anyone with too much time on their hands can do the same thing, just the retired cop in me I guess.....

I did not know you could do that. Thanks for the information. I would guess that is time consuming, but would be a good project for a rainy day. BE SAFE