monitoring KHP

[mustang108]

Before KHP went digital i could hear most of the traffic in Troop H, SE Kansas with out any problems., cars and dispatch....my question is this, when I get a digital scanner will reception be about the same or possibly More stations comming in ,hearing troopers farther away ????
I just don't know what to expect, talked to a trooper yesterday and he said that reception is crystal clear with dispatcher in Salina.
thanks for any reply
Mustang108

 

[KAA951]

I will try to describe the operation of a wide area trunked P-25 system as it was described to me- feel free to correct me if I am wrong. This gets a little in depth and is a big change from normal conventional and trunked radio systems- takes awhile to get your mind around it.

The wide area system functions in many ways like a cellular phone system- each of the trunked tower sites acting as a cell. As a radio travels, it will automatically select the strongest "cell" and monitor it. As the same time the system controller (computer) tracks which tower each radio in the fleet is using. The radio user simply sets their radio to KHP H-1 and goes to work- without having to change channels as they work throughout Troop H. (In the old conventional system the radio user had to select the nearest tower on the radio and dispatchers usually "mashed" the button talking over every tower in southeast Kansas instead of selecting the single site the Trooper was on. This is why some of you have complained that they can hear dispatch radio traffic but not car to dispatch traffic. Using the cellular phone example- on the old conventional system you would have had to tell your phone which tower you wanted to use and manually change towers as you traveled around).

When a KHP Troop H car on Talkgroup 1 radios in on the Waverly tower to dispatch the controller commands all tower sites with radios using Troop H Talkgroup 1 to key up and repeat the traffic (with a short delay). E.G. The trooper on Waverly tells dispatch on H Talkgroup 1 that he is on a car stop on I-35 near BETO- another Trooper near Chanute who also has his radio on H Talkgroup 1 will hear his traffic but it will be transmitted on the Buffalo Tower (all this is seamless- the users do not know what site the traffic is coming from- just that it is clear and the radio is on H Talkgroup 1).

What this means to the scanner listener- in order for a tower site to key up and transmit radio traffic from a talkgroup there must be an active mobile or portable radio that the controller knows is using that talkgroup on that tower site. For example- if you are monitoring the Miami tower site but there are no KHP Troop H troopers working near that tower- the tower will not transmit KHP radio traffic if the computer detects that there are no KHP radios there to listen. However, if there is a KHP radio (or radios) active on the tower- you will hear all KHP radio traffic for that talkgroup- regardless of which tower the KHP transmitting unit is using. This is why the tower sites only need a few radio transmitters to handle hundreds of users over the wide area.

I hope that made sense.

 

[mancow]

Now it makes sense why I always heard traffic from BFE god knows where middle of the State with nobody replying. The dispatchers were just simulcasting on everything. I always thought it was something that was automatic or maybe a few towers were ganged together at times for some reason.

Thank god for trunking. I rarely listened to KHP stuff in the past due to the annoying static and confusing 1/2 sided conversations from dispatch.

Now it all makes sense and the traffic can be followed in a logical manner.

 

[mustang108]

To TTFD238

Ok, that helps alot and thank you very much for the info., I can't wait till i get A DIGITAL
scanner now.
Mustang108

 

[datainmotion]

Hello from Colorado!
If you are not doing so already, you may want to visit the Colorado Forum. Monitoring the Digital Trunked Radio System (DTRS) in our state creates alot of discussion on that forum and with KHP shifting over to their DTRS as well as Wichita PD (and others I'm sure), you may find alot of useful tips, tricks and other useful info for those of you purchasing your first digital scanner.

Good listening!