MN State Patrol

[stmills]

I have been playing with Minneapolis channels the last few days:
Police
P01 on towers 1-009, 1-001
P02 on towers 1-009, 2-001
P03 on towers 1-009, 1-001 & 2-001 but I believe this was the result of a talkgroup patch

Fire
F01 & 03 towers 1-009 & 1-001

 

[mnrick]

Thanks but I do not seem to be getting anything off Minneapolis N-S or City Center. I tried putting in Hennepin East, and still all I am getting is a occasional choppy transmission. I am probably just too far away from the city.

I have a different question: I live very close to the Bloomington Ferry Bridge and Scott County. I see that Scott and Carver share a system and have a number of towers. Some times they (Scott & Carver) come in very clear and then a second later it is all choppy and unreadable. I have separate scan lists for Scott & Carver and am wondering if it would help if I figured out what towers primarily served either Scott or Carver and try to only put those into those Scanlists and if that would help get rid of the problem I am having with that.

 

[johnmoe1]

All of the towers in a site broadcast exactly the same signals at the same frequency at exactly the same time. You can't pick a single tower (except possibly with a very directional antenna or something).

 

[ofd8001]

What I suspect you are experiencing is called "Simulcast Distortion". The systems you are listening to a simulcast systems. That is where a sub-system (such as Hennepin East) has 10 different transmitter sites all operating on the same frequencies. This "syndrome" is quite common (and frustrating) to many listeners.

Your scanner is probably picking up 2 (or more) transmitter sites and the signals are a tad bit out of sync. The scanner is getting strong signals, but is having difficulty with decoding these out of sync signals. So what you hear is either no audio or garbled/choppy audio.

(If I was a betting guy, you are probably right between the transmitter towers at 8100 34th and 7501 Hwy 169 or perhaps 120 West 81st).

A solution, or at least some improvement, can be obtained by setting the Attenuator (Atten or ATT) to ON.

From Mark's Easier To Read Manual:

Atten: When set to 'On', applies 20 dB of attenuation to all transmissions in the system. Useful in areas where interference from nearby strong signals is present. Default is Off.

Press

or

to select On or Off. ​

Note: AttenMode must be set to Normal for this setting to apply.
You can also toggle this setting by pressing ATT while monitoring any talkgroup in the system.
Easier to Read Pro-106/197/PSR500/600 Digital Scanner Manual

I imagine you can improve this problem. Around Labor Day I at a cousin's home near Dwan Golf Club, which is think is near you. I was getting fairly good reception.

 

[blue5011]

Lastly, what is L-TAC? Is that part of the Statewide Interoperability Talkgroups or is that something specific to Hennepin County. I was listening to Bloomington tonight and they had a officer attempting to stop someone who crossed the line into Edina and the officer asked for a patch to "L-TAC" with Edina.

Last night around midnight-1AM there was considerable chatter on L TAC 2, TG 506 in my area of southern MN. After referencing the radio ID numbers I found it was a Blue Earth/ Nicolett County operation. Am waiting to see if I will read about it in the local papers.

Only reason I picked it up, is because lately I set the scanner to "ID Search" instead of "ID Scan". Normally I only listen to my county dispatch and the State Patrol talkgroups.

 

[johnmoe1]

Last night around midnight-1AM there was considerable chatter on L TAC 2, TG 506 in my area of southern MN. After referencing the radio ID numbers I found it was a Blue Earth/ Nicolett County operation. Am waiting to see if I will read about it in the local papers.

I just listened to that. Crazy.

It is sort of interesting how news seems to spread and the number of people listening increases. At 11:35 L TAC 2 was only (in the metro area) going over Hennepin East. Just after 1 am, it was being carried by 8 of the 11 sites I monitor (City Center, Anoka, Dakota, Carver/Scott, Washington, Minneapolis N/S, Hennepin East and Ramsey).

 

[blue5011]

Last night around midnight-1AM there was considerable chatter on L TAC 2, TG 506 in my area of southern MN. After referencing the radio ID numbers I found it was a Blue Earth/ Nicolett County operation. Am waiting to see if I will read about it in the local papers.

From the Star Tribune: "A chronic criminal violating a protection order in the Mankato area fled police, waved a gun out his SUV window and eventually shot himself during a standoff early Sunday with law enforcement, authorities said.

The entire incident lasted about 100 minutes, starting about 11:30 p.m. Saturday in North Mankato and ending a short distance to the south at roughly 1:10 a.m., according to the North Mankato Police Department."

Now I wish I had had the "record audio" option checked... Also, I am surprised I heard it (on L TAC 2) at all. I was only listening to the Blue Earth tower, which is 40 miles away from Mankato.

 

[johnmoe1]

As almost always Police Clips http://facebook.com/PoliceClips has the audio: AUDIO: Nicollet / Blue Earth County Police Chase And Armed Standoff - Minnesota Police Clips - MNPoliceClips

 

[blue5011]

Thanks for the info.

I didn't mean to hi-jack the thread...

 

[mnrick]

The other night I did hear a pursuit on L Tac-1, it was with Nobles County and ended with "shots fired" and a officer requesting a ambulance.

I was impressed with the reception considering I am in the Twin Cities.

ofd8001, I am located slightly E of 169 & Pioneer Trail. I am in Bloomington but not far from Eden Prairie. I did push my ATT button and now I have a "A" on my screen which I assume means it is on.

Does anyone know who is based on the W Hennepin system? According to this chart here: MN Metroscan Homepage everything is based on 201 (E Henn). This information is a little old, I just want to make sure I have the correct home system programmed into each system I have in here.

Thanks for all the info.

 

[ofd8001]

Last night around midnight-1AM there was considerable chatter on L TAC 2, TG 506 in my area of southern MN. After referencing the radio ID numbers I found it was a Blue Earth/ Nicolett County operation. Am waiting to see if I will read about it in the local papers.

Only reason I picked it up, is because lately I set the scanner to "ID Search" instead of "ID Scan". Normally I only listen to my county dispatch and the State Patrol talkgroups.

I highly recommend that anyone monitoring the ARMER system program all of the statewide interoperability talkgroups (which includes the L TACs). Perhaps even going as far as setting them as priority talkgroups.

Most likely any incidents of major significance involving multiple agencies will find their way on to a TAC channel.