Meigs

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gabie

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Meigs County,OH
Yesterday I heard meigs SO talking about setting their radios differently. They have been working on the towers the past days. Today I hear nothing out of the sherriffs office but I am still getting ems. Might there b something I need to change on my scanner?
 

mtindor

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Carroll Co OH / EN90LN
Yesterday I heard meigs SO talking about setting their radios differently. They have been working on the towers the past days. Today I hear nothing out of the sherriffs office but I am still getting ems. Might there b something I need to change on my scanner?

They may have switched to the new MARCS-IP P25 system:

Ohio MARCS-IP: Multi-Agency Radio Communications (P25) Trunking System, Various, Ohio - Scanner Frequencies

1. The new MARCS-IP P25 sites are online in Meigs Co
2. Good bet that they switched to the P25
3. Talkgroups for Meigs on the new system are currently unknown

You'll have to set up your scanner to monitor the new MARCS-IP system, specifically all of the tower sites around you -- and you'll have to set your scanner up to listen in 'search / open' mode, or if you are using a GRE/RS scanner add a group wildcard.

If you do this and you do figure out what the new talkgroup is that they are using on the IP system, please let us know.

Mike
 

RadioTech19

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Pomeroy, OH
I am currently working to restore the audio in my feed, which covers Meigs County. I am going to try and get some of the talkgroups updated in the new database later this evening.
 

RadioTech19

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Gabie, it appears that you will have to completely reconfigure your MARCS scanner to accept the new frequencies and system. I have added the new talkgroups to the database.
 

gabie

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Meigs County,OH
Thanks RadioTech19, I did find the talkgroups but I have a bcd996t and believe I need a 50g filter put in it. I get weak a signal on all the towers. I don't hear much anymore. I'm thinking about getting a new bcd base, but i'm not sure if it will help, some say they pick up better on p25 than the old bcd's, as far as the 50g filter, I don't have one of those either. This is frustrating becuz I really enjoy my scanners, now they threw me a kink.
bcd996t and bcd396xt
 

RadioTech19

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Pomeroy, OH
If you are looking for some new gear, you might pick up one of the new radioshack digital models. I currently use a Pro-106 to broadcast my feed for Meigs, and love it. I was able to get it reprogrammed to the MARCS-IP system but I'm also having some minor reception issues. Not sure why that started happening all of the sudden. Any ideas, anyone?


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mtindor

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Thanks RadioTech19, I did find the talkgroups but I have a bcd996t and believe I need a 50g filter put in it. I get weak a signal on all the towers. I don't hear much anymore. I'm thinking about getting a new bcd base, but i'm not sure if it will help, some say they pick up better on p25 than the old bcd's, as far as the 50g filter, I don't have one of those either. This is frustrating becuz I really enjoy my scanners, now they threw me a kink.
bcd996t and bcd396xt

A 50g filter is not likely to improve anything. If you are in Meigs Co, you should have no problem monitoring any MARCS or MARCS-IP site as long as long as you are receiving an adequate signal -- and a different filter isn't going to improve signal strength. There are no simulcast sites in Meigs, so a BCD396/996[x]t, HP-1, BCD4|536HP, RS PRO-197/106, GRE PSR-500/600 (or the Whistler digital equivalents) should work just fine in Meigs.

If you are using the stock antenna, you can improve 700/800 mhz perfoormance considerably by purchasing one of those Radio Shack 800-mhz ducky antennas. They make a tremendous difference in performance on 700/800 mhz.

You'll also want to make sure that you don't have anything inside your house interfering with 700/800/mhz reception. My Dell laptop, when plugged into its charger, causes the charger to create a bunch of hash/interface on my scanner... not too bad on 700/800 mhz, worse on VHF.

But any problem you guys are having with reception of sites in Meigs are likely related to [lack of] adequate signal strength or interference.

Of course, with that said, I suppose if you live very close to a 700/800 mhz site, yyou could be suffering from some overload when trying to receive more distant sites. I guess a different filter could potentially help you out, but I wouldn't even bother going that route until you figure out if you actually hav ea problem with strong signal overload / desense, or if its an issue with lack of adequate signal strength / external interference.

Mike
 

RadioTech19

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Pomeroy, OH
As far as my problem goes, I think I may have figured it out. There are several MARCS towers in Meigs County. The main one, with all of the active talkgroups, is the Pomeroy tower. I do receive about half of the signal, but sometimes not enough to fully lock onto radio traffic. I get scrambled and bits/pieces.

Could anyone here recommend an exterior antenna of some sort, or even an amplifier of some sort? I don't have much experience with exterior antennas. I appreciate everyone's assistance!!
 

gabie

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Feb 22, 2009
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Meigs County,OH
I have a Palomar TX 100 Broadband 3-30MHz solid state bi linear amplifier(old) for a cb, anyway mayb I could use this on my 996T for marcs ip? I'm afraid to just try it, don't want to blow something up. RadioTech19 does better than I do on recieving, but my internet doesn't stay on very well, I really appreciate his live feed.
 

kayn1n32008

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I have a Palomar TX 100 Broadband 3-30MHz solid state bi linear amplifier(old) for a cb, anyway mayb I could use this on my 996T for marcs ip? I'm afraid to just try it, don't want to blow something up. RadioTech19 does better than I do on recieving, but my internet doesn't stay on very well, I really appreciate his live feed.


Does MARC-IP operate in 3-30MHz? I do not know the system, but I doubt it does, so that amp probably will not work...


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RadioTech19

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Pomeroy, OH
Can anyone recommend a good exterior antenna, what I would need to get it up and running, and of course how I would do so?
 

wa8pyr

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Can anyone recommend a good exterior antenna, what I would need to get it up and running, and of course how I would do so?

Almost anything outdoors and in the air will be a big help, but at a bare minimum I would recommend good quality RG-6 cable and any decent quality scanner antenna. Some folks pooh-pooh RG-6 as it's intended for cable TV use, but I've been using good quality RG-6 for scanner antennas for over 15 years and it works just fine.

Either the Antennacraft ST2 or ST3 (available from Scanner Master) would work fine. Both have been sold under a variety of brand names for years; I've used both in outdoor and indoor (attic-mount) situations for years and they're just fine for general purpose monitoring. One of these mounted outdoors and using good quality RG-6 cable would certainly improve reception.

If you're made of money and intend to only monitor the 700/800 MHz bands, go to Tessco.com and look for a suitable omnidirectional antenna like the ones on this page:

SMR Antennas, SMR Omnis | TESSCO 800 472 7373

Since the control channels are all on 700 MHz it would be best to look for 760-806 MHz coverage at least, and if you can find one that covers 760-860 MHz (unlikely) even better. The ones in the $140-200 price range should work well enough even though they cover 806-868 MHz.

If you're technically adept there are plans on the web for building your own collinear antenna.
 

RadioTech19

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Pomeroy, OH
Almost anything outdoors and in the air will be a big help, but at a bare minimum I would recommend good quality RG-6 cable and any decent quality scanner antenna. Some folks pooh-pooh RG-6 as it's intended for cable TV use, but I've been using good quality RG-6 for scanner antennas for over 15 years and it works just fine.

Either the Antennacraft ST2 or ST3 (available from Scanner Master) would work fine. Both have been sold under a variety of brand names for years; I've used both in outdoor and indoor (attic-mount) situations for years and they're just fine for general purpose monitoring. One of these mounted outdoors and using good quality RG-6 cable would certainly improve reception.

If you're made of money and intend to only monitor the 700/800 MHz bands, go to Tessco.com and look for a suitable omnidirectional antenna like the ones on this page:

SMR Antennas, SMR Omnis | TESSCO 800 472 7373

Since the control channels are all on 700 MHz it would be best to look for 760-806 MHz coverage at least, and if you can find one that covers 760-860 MHz (unlikely) even better. The ones in the $140-200 price range should work well enough even though they cover 806-868 MHz.

If you're technically adept there are plans on the web for building your own collinear antenna.

I think the ST2 looks good for what I am going to need. I have the signal to the tower that I need, just not enough. This extra antenna should be a good addition.

One more question, I hope this isn't the wrong place to ask this... But how would I ground this antenna? Would I even need to worry about grounding?
 

wa8pyr

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I think the ST2 looks good for what I am going to need. I have the signal to the tower that I need, just not enough. This extra antenna should be a good addition.

One more question, I hope this isn't the wrong place to ask this... But how would I ground this antenna? Would I even need to worry about grounding?

If it's not too high in the air I wouldn't worry about it. If you get a direct lightning hit you're going to have a lot more to worry about than a zapped scanner.
 

gabie

Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2009
Messages
33
Location
Meigs County,OH
As far as my problem goes, I think I may have figured it out. There are several MARCS towers in Meigs County. The main one, with all of the active talkgroups, is the Pomeroy tower. I do receive about half of the signal, but sometimes not enough to fully lock onto radio traffic. I get scrambled and bits/pieces.

Could anyone here recommend an exterior antenna of some sort, or even an amplifier of some sort? I don't have much experience with exterior antennas. I appreciate everyone's assistance!!
RadioTech19, We just put up a Yagi directional antenna for frequencies 740-806MHz with 11dBi gain. We are almost getting everthing you are and we haven't even tweaked it yet. We were using a Yagi for frequencies 806-866MHz(other Marcs).
 
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