MECA Digital: reception issues and solutions

Status
Not open for further replies.

rdale

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 3, 2001
Messages
11,380
Location
Lansing, MI
First off there are TWO CC for MECA SYS 1 858.1875 and 856.1625 The county is cut in half west side mostly on 856.1625 amd East side 858.1875 these are operating at the same time so if you loose one the scanner should find the other.

My point is - if he is in one location, he should keep it on the closest CC no matter what.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
So are these the only two frequencies I need to enter into the table for the scanner? What would be a good mobile 800mhz antenna?


I would enter all the freqs for SYS 1 that way if they rotate CC"they have not yet" you wont be left in the dark if they do. Make sure you have 1 and 2 seprate they operate like two seprate systems that.
As for 800 Moble I made my own but there are companys out there that sell them i will look around and post some links I mainly been looking at base antennas.
 

IndyEmsGuy

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
123
Location
San Tan Valley, Arizona
I am using Win500 to program my scanner. I am going through and double checking everything. For the MECA system 1 should there be anything listed under Trunking Table? I have data there for some reason. I used the web import in Win500 thats grabs the data from the RR database. See the screen shot (TrunkTabel.jpg). There is an option for selecting standard band plans. I was curious if the P25 800mhz Standard should be selected? See screen shot (TrunkTableSel.jpg) to see the list of choices. I don't know if any data should be here or not but I am sure that if it were not correct it would cause a lot of issues. Thanks for the help!!!
 

Attachments

  • TrunkTable.jpg
    TrunkTable.jpg
    40.8 KB · Views: 107
  • TrunkTableSel.jpg
    TrunkTableSel.jpg
    46.3 KB · Views: 102

Viper43

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2005
Messages
3,272
A (beam) antenna will help, but for a portable scanner, it makes it hard to keep portable.
.


No really? Maybe thats why he asked about at his apartment and I gave him the recommendation for there.

V
 

jerk

Active Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2003
Messages
2,448
Location
jerkville
I am using Win500 to program my scanner. I am going through and double checking everything. For the MECA system 1 should there be anything listed under Trunking Table? I have data there for some reason. I used the web import in Win500 thats grabs the data from the RR database. See the screen shot (TrunkTabel.jpg). There is an option for selecting standard band plans. I was curious if the P25 800mhz Standard should be selected? See screen shot (TrunkTableSel.jpg) to see the list of choices. I don't know if any data should be here or not but I am sure that if it were not correct it would cause a lot of issues. Thanks for the help!!!
It looks right, but I don't know. I recommend joining the GRE 500 Yahoo group.
This is what my Uniden BCD395 has for P25 systems
851.006250 6.250
762.006250 6.250

Also, try changing locations in your house/Apt first before you do anything else.
It might surprise you. And there are one or two other users on here that have GRE's
This guy, tbhausen has an online feed of a GRE 600.
Also try the attenuator in case it is getting overloaded.
 
Last edited:

Viper43

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2005
Messages
3,272
Do you have those same settings in the Trunking Table?

Whatever it had from the factory is how it is setup. The real issue is reception, not settings. Here at home right now I am actually using a discone antenna at a whopping 7 feet... no joke. It's on a 6 foot fence until the new tower goes up next week. The new tower will be 50 feet (crank up and tilt tower). The tower will have the discone at the top, a 2M beam and an 800Mhz beam. The 800 beam will go to the garage and the discone to the house. Theres advantages to being in the country :) and reception won't be an issue any longer.

V
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
I don't have those settings in my trunking table. My trunking table is empty and I pick up MECA P25 just fine. Why is the 762 MHz frequency in there?

GTO_04

The 762 is part of the band plan that should be in there the MECA CC puts out that info on what P25 Band Plan they are using so I would think that would be ok.
This is the correct band plan that the CC puts out with the Unidens it is put in by the CC you dont have to change it I would think that the GRE do to at least the one I tested did.

851.00625 6.250
762.00625 6.250
 

rdale

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 3, 2001
Messages
11,380
Location
Lansing, MI
Trunking tables are not needed and have no impact on the scanner.
 

Viper43

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2005
Messages
3,272
The table is only needed on specific systems, and they can impact the scanner if entered wrong. For MECA the CC Channel carries the data required so the table is not required, it's an explicit mode system, only implicit mode systems need the trunk tables.

V
 

IndyEmsGuy

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2007
Messages
123
Location
San Tan Valley, Arizona
Last edited:

jerk

Active Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2003
Messages
2,448
Location
jerkville
Thanks for all of you for clearing that up for me. Does anyone know of any place local to get a good 800mhz outdoor antenna? What antenna would be best to use?

Was looking at one of these two leaning more towards the 2819 but don't know if there is even a better one than that .

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/misc/4810.html

http://www.wpsantennas.com/browsepr...d-806-896Mhz-3-Element-6dBd-Yagi-Antenna.HTML

Either one, but the 2819 is cheaper & 9.5 gain is quite good, you should be able to reach north of Marion County with that type of gain and the right height. And you could always reuse it with a cellular booster later. ebay may have some antennas also.
 

Viper43

Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2005
Messages
3,272
Thanks for all of you for clearing that up for me. Does anyone know of any place local to get a good 800mhz outdoor antenna? What antenna would be best to use?

Was looking at one of these two leaning more towards the 2819 but don't know if there is even a better one than that .

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/misc/4810.html

http://www.wpsantennas.com/browsepr...d-806-896Mhz-3-Element-6dBd-Yagi-Antenna.HTML

The first should be OK, I wouldn't go with a three element. More gain also means more rejection from the back side and less intereference.

V
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top