Monitoring Butler County P25

[KD8MLK]

Hello! I'm considering buying a Pro-96, with the hopes of monitoring BRICS (and perhaps hamilton county as well). I heard that they are going to switch the system to TDMA (phase II, I'm assuming), which would make it unheard on the Pro-96. Is this true?

Also, how much of a problem is multipath? I'm located in fairfield, I don't want to end up getting a scanner and not even be able to listen to it.

Thanks!
-Andrew

 

[radioscan]

Hello! I'm considering buying a Pro-96, with the hopes of monitoring BRICS (and perhaps hamilton county as well). I heard that they are going to switch the system to TDMA (phase II, I'm assuming), which would make it unheard on the Pro-96. Is this true?

Please cite your specific sources for this. I know several people involved with the system and this has never been brought up.

Also, how much of a problem is multipath? I'm located in fairfield, I don't want to end up getting a scanner and not even be able to listen to it.

Some people have reported a problem with this. It all depends on your location between tower sites. The newer generation scanners such as the PSR-500/600 will provide much better audio and digital decoding than the Pro-96 will. Some remedies are to use the attenuator or use a yagi pointed at the closest tower site to help reduce multipath distortion.

 

[KD8MLK]

Thank you for your response! The phase II thing I read was from another member, however I might have misunderstood him.

I would like the Pro-106, but I'd like to use a 96 if at all possible (only reason being the price). I read you mention that the fairfield site is in harbin park. I am within a literal line of sight range of it (I can see the site from my window). Do you know where the other sites are? Hopefully if they are far away enough I wont have the problem.

Thanks again

 

[jmsanders83]

You can see a map of BRICS sites here:
http://butlersheriff.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/coverage-portable-talkin15db.jpg

This is downloadable from the Butler County Sheriff's Office - Sheriff Richard K. Jones website. If you haven't checked this site out yet, I highly suggest it.

Another map is loacted here (courtesy of MONIX):
Butler County P-25 Tower Sites - Google Maps

 

[MBECKNELL]

also try the butler county sheriff radio site out

BRICS - Butler Regional Interoperable Communications System

 

[swstow]

i have the butler system in my 96 and it works great / sometimes better then hamilton

 

[KD8MLK]

That's really good to hear! Where's your general location (if you don't mind me asking)?

i have the butler system in my 96 and it works great / sometimes better then hamilton

 

[RadioDaze]

KD8MLK (Andrew) is considering the purchase of my Pro-96. If someone could send me a Win96 ".p96" file that includes Butler, and perhaps Hamilton, I could load it into the scanner to get him started. Presumably, the file would include any custom rebanding tables.

Otherwise Andrew will have to tough it out himself