Monitoring KSP

[pitcockm]

I see that KSP operates Multicast for each Post. As I listen to the various repeaters, do I hear all transmissions in the Post area?As an example, I reside in Murray, KY and can receive several of the repeaters. I do not receive the tower in Paducah. Do I hear the base and mobile on the Mayfield tower when they are communicating via the Paducah tower?

thanks...

 

[BigEd1314]

Yes

 

[Remington12G]

I see that KSP operates Multicast for each Post. As I listen to the various repeaters, do I hear all transmissions in the Post area?As an example, I reside in Murray, KY and can receive several of the repeaters. I do not receive the tower in Paducah. Do I hear the base and mobile on the Mayfield tower when they are communicating via the Paducah tower?

thanks...

For example, all post 12 repeaters in Frankfort carry all the same traffic, if I monitor Lex 1 I will also hear it on the Frankfort tower. As the page mentions, it's multicast. All repeaters for that post will only carry that post traffic.

 

[ofd8001]

A little more on this. . .

From time to time, transmitters go off line for some reason or another. So here at home, I'll scan both the Fairgrounds and Shepherdsville towers, just so I don't miss something. The Fairgrounds tower has gone off line a few times over the years.

When I'm mobile, all the towers are being scanned, but with location control going so I'm listening to just the local post, more or less.

The database is a little "peculiar" to me, though I'm sure there is a reason for it. The location and ranges are for a Post's coverage area. So if I'm in Shepherdsville near Bernheim forest, the database has my scanner trying to receive the Morgantown/Butler County tower, which way too far away. However, I can be looking at the Bernheim KSP tower which also has Post 12 on it, but because I'm not in the Post 12 area, my scanner won't attempt to receive that Post 12 frequency.

 

[wa8pyr]

A little more on this. . .

From time to time, transmitters go off line for some reason or another. So here at home, I'll scan both the Fairgrounds and Shepherdsville towers, just so I don't miss something. The Fairgrounds tower has gone off line a few times over the years.

When I'm mobile, all the towers are being scanned, but with location control going so I'm listening to just the local post, more or less.

The database is a little "peculiar" to me, though I'm sure there is a reason for it. The location and ranges are for a Post's coverage area. So if I'm in Shepherdsville near Bernheim forest, the database has my scanner trying to receive the Morgantown/Butler County tower, which way too far away. However, I can be looking at the Bernheim KSP tower which also has Post 12 on it, but because I'm not in the Post 12 area, my scanner won't attempt to receive that Post 12 frequency.

Locations and ranges for state agencies in the database are set up for coverage of a typical radio tower (in trunked systems) or to district, post or precinct boundaries in a case where specific conventional frequencies are designated for a specific district.

We have no way to customize based on multicast usage, especially when frequency usage crosses district boundaries.

Increasing your range setting a bit should help. Alternatively, create a custom favorite list without GPS and scan everything.

 

[ofd8001]

Locations and ranges for state agencies in the database are set up for coverage of a typical radio tower (in trunked systems) or to district, post or precinct boundaries in a case where specific conventional frequencies are designated for a specific district.

We have no way to customize based on multicast usage, especially when frequency usage crosses district boundaries.

Increasing your range setting a bit should help. Alternatively, create a custom favorite list without GPS and scan everything.

I know RR had to set some parameters so that there is sense to the database layout. KSP's radio system is a little unusual. For Locations and Ranges, it appears a location in the approximate center of a Post's area was selected and the Range adjusted so that the circle covers the post area.

One thing I started to do before discovering the work involved, was to put each transmitter in its own Department and establish the location of where the transmitter is (sort of like a site on a trunked system) along with the transmitter's range. Then as I traveled around, my GPS would turn on the appropriate Department (or transmitter) and I would hear what I could regardless of what post area I was in.

The task was more than it was worth, so I understand why RR would not want to tackle that either.

 

[wa8pyr]

I know RR had to set some parameters so that there is sense to the database layout. KSP's radio system is a little unusual. For Locations and Ranges, it appears a location in the approximate center of a Post's area was selected and the Range adjusted so that the circle covers the post area.

One thing I started to do before discovering the work involved, was to put each transmitter in its own Department and establish the location of where the transmitter is (sort of like a site on a trunked system) along with the transmitter's range. Then as I traveled around, my GPS would turn on the appropriate Department (or transmitter) and I would hear what I could regardless of what post area I was in.

The task was more than it was worth, so I understand why RR would not want to tackle that either.

It's not so much an issue of the time involved; our policy is that the database is not customized for any particular make or model of scanner. In addition, setting up each tower as a separate category (or Department, in Uniden-ese) would make the database very hard to read on web browsers.

Your solution is a lot of work, but if you want to use GPS following on your radio it's pretty much the only option given the way KSP has their system set up.