Mercy Springfield now on MOSWIN

[artmorris]

I'm trying to get a handle on how to listen to Mercy Springfield dispatch now that they've moved to MOSWIN. I live in Aurora, and used to be able to receive the Greene county P25 system, though its somewhat noisy.
I have reprogrammed my HP-1 for what i believe to be the correct Talkgroup for Mercy Dispatch.
Do I need to include additional frequencies (towers)? I have several MOSWIN towers programmed including Springfield 800, Springfield 700, Freistatt and others, but I only occasionally get any transmissions. I also have a couple of the Springfield PD channels, but only occasionally receive them as well.
Are the Springfield channels only on certain MOSWIN towers?
Have I missed a step?
Art in Aurora

 

[foster_006]

I'm trying to get a handle on how to listen to Mercy Springfield dispatch now that they've moved to MOSWIN. I live in Aurora, and used to be able to receive the Greene county P25 system, though its somewhat noisy.
I have reprogrammed my HP-1 for what i believe to be the correct Talkgroup for Mercy Dispatch.
Do I need to include additional frequencies (towers)? I have several MOSWIN towers programmed including Springfield 800, Springfield 700, Freistatt and others, but I only occasionally get any transmissions. I also have a couple of the Springfield PD channels, but only occasionally receive them as well.
Are the Springfield channels only on certain MOSWIN towers?
Have I missed a step?
Art in Aurora

You might have difficulty listening to Mercy EMS Springfield or any other Springfield agency with that scanner because of simulcast distortion. The Uniden SDS series scanners are the best and handle it with ease. You can also look into using a computer with SDR or software defined radio and a program like UniTrunker or DSD+.

Also, Springfield agencies (Police, Fire, EMS, Utilities and others) will only be heard on Zone 4 (Springfield Simulcast). Basically any 5 digit talk group that starts with a 4 will be isolated to the Springfield 800 simulcast site.

Mercy EMS serves several different counties and can be heard on various MOSWIN sites throughout Southwest Missouri. I've monitored Mercy EMS Barry Co, Stone Co and Lawrence Co on the Springfield 700 site and Hurley site. So far, I have yet to monitor the outer lying Mercy EMS service areas mentioned above on Zone 4.

Mercy still utilizes their VHF frequency to tone their Greene Co units in Willard and Fair Grove but traffic is usually limited to just the initial dispatch/tone out.

 

[scanman1958]

The new zone 4 Springfield is very specific to Greene Co. The signals for that site have been set up to remain focused within the county. I don't think zone 4 will use any MOSWIN sites outside the county including the Fair Grove site. So it will be difficult to hear Greene Co like you used to. You may try a yagi antenna with some low loss cable. That would probably work.

 

[KA0KDW]

You may wait for big antenna changes until later this spring. There will likely be new antennas installed for the Greene county simulcast. There was an error made ajd wrong antennas purchased for the digital system.

 

[artmorris]

Hey, Brad! That's great news. Once in a great while, a Springfield 700 call will break through here in Aurora, but most of the time, no. If I take my Whistler 1040 portable with me, I can start to pick it up between Billings and Republic on highway 60. So, maybe it wasn't designed that way. If they bought the wrong antennas, the coverage will certainly suffer. For instance, if they bought 800mhz antennas, but are trying to use them for 700mhz, they would have substantial VSWR. More likely, they were intended to be directional, and the patterns are wrong.

 

[KA0KDW]

Hey, that's great news. Once in a great while, a Springfield 700 call will break through here in Aurora, but most of the time, no. If I take my Whistler 1040 portable with me, I can start to pick it up between Billings and Republic on highway 60. So, maybe it wasn't designed that way. If they bought the wrong antennas, the coverage will certainly suffer. For instance, if they bought 800mhz antennas, but are trying to use them for 700mhz, they would have substantial VSWR. More likely, they were intended to be directional, and the patterns are wrong.

You say you’d pick up the 700 site. You can grab that all day and still not hear Mercy Springfield. Likely the mercy Greene talk group will only be on Greene simulcast. Those are the antennas being replaced.most antennas now a days are 700/800 they’re considered same band. The 800 are onomni directional but there’s other issues. All MoSWIN sites controlled by the state are Omni directional unless they’re within a certain distance from the state line (I think 5 or 7 miles).