Monterey County P25 Trunked Range

[UnHumanReactions]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew how far Monterey County's P25 Trunked system reaches? Can it be monitored in the Santa Cruz County or San Benito County areas or is it limited to within Monterey County?

 

[mmckenna]

Depending on where you are located in Santa Cruz County, it should have some coverage, at least for monitoring.

San Benito County would be really iffy, too many mountains, maybe in Hollister and San Juan Bautista, but unlikely in most of the rural parts of the county.

 

[UnHumanReactions]

Depending on where you are located in Santa Cruz County, it should have some coverage, at least for monitoring.

San Benito County would be really iffy, too many mountains, maybe in Hollister and San Juan Bautista, but unlikely in most of the rural parts of the county.

I see. right now I'm in the northern part of San Benito County, closer to Santa Cruz County and I've been trying to pick up Monterey County P25 on my TRX-1 and not getting anything. Although I have only been trying out this scanner for a few days so maybe I didn't program it right. The software is kinda complicated.

 

[UnHumanReactions]

Maybe the wrong site even. I'm currently trying Northern Simulcast and it's not coming through.

 

[kearthfan101]

Might want to try Lewis. I believe its in the hills between Watsonville and Salinas.

 

[mmckenna]

I agree, Lewis should shoot down along 129 towards you. I can usually pick up stuff out of Hollister really easy from out this way.

 

[flux4201]

You would have better luck with an external antenna on your scanner.

 

[UnHumanReactions]

I am using a roof mounted antenna tuned for VHF High band and monitoring the Lewis North site and still not receiving anything. I have a feeling I'm missing something in programming. I have the 3 control channels programmed in with a wildcard talkgroup so I can pick anything that come on those frequencies but still nothing.

 

[flux4201]

Maybe there is a chance that none of the channels you have set as a control channel are actually a control channel, which could be why your not hearing anything? Did you scan through the channels to figure out what channel is currently control?

 

[UnHumanReactions]

I did not. I've just been going by what the database has listed as the control channels.

 

[flux4201]

Don't believe everything you see on the internet... Verify yourself first. You should scan through the listed channels and make sure your hearing a control channel first.. If you can hear a control channel then you should be able to get some traffic (if there is traffic on the site), with p25 any channel could be control... if the system is setup that way anyway.

 

[UnHumanReactions]

I think I've actually got it working now. The only site I can receive is Lewis (North) as previously mention, however, the only traffic I am receiving from that site is the northern peninsula agencies. I'm not getting anything from the ones I want to listen to which is county SO, Fire, and EMS.

 

[mmckenna]

Right, the site is only going to provide traffic to radios that are affiliated with it. It's not going to carry traffic from agencies farther south unless they connect to that specific site.

 

[UnHumanReactions]

Oh, I see, I was thinking it was similar to their county analog system, where every repeater is linked and broadcast the same audio on different output frequencies. I didn't know they were just standalone repeater sites, not connected to each other.

 

[mmckenna]

Oh, I see, I was thinking it was similar to their county analog system, where every repeater is linked and broadcast the same audio on different output frequencies. I didn't know they were just standalone repeater sites, not connected to each other.

The analog system was a simulcast, in that each channel had the same traffic transmitted from each site.

The trunked system has much more control. There's no point to send traffic for King City up to a trunked site in North County if there are no King City units up there to hear it. It's a waste of resources. Trunked radio sites have a limited number of RF channels at each site, so they have to be carefully managed by not tying them up with traffic that doesn't need to be there.

When a trunked system subscriber radio roams to a new site, the radio affiliates and tells the controller: Radio 1234 is now on Lewis Site, and I'm listening to King City PD talk group. The controller would then route radio traffic for King City PD talk group to that site. If radio 1234 left the area and affiliated with another site, the controller would stop sending that traffic there.

 

[ScannerDude244]

Yup the sites are low power! And like mmckenna the system is local traffic to the nearest site you won't here much other than CMD 31 and SO on the sites plus all PD's are encrypted, well till more departments jump on the system. The best sites are 10 and 20 they have the most traffic because they cover the peninsula and Salinas.

 

[UnHumanReactions]

Ok, that makes sense. The best bet would probably be site 10 for SO and County Fire but, unfortunately it's on Mt. Toro and that does not reach to where I am at. Mainly cause it's blocked by Fremont Peak. :/

 

[W6BAR]

Semi related, are they still simulcasting on VHF? I was near Carmel this week and heard PD units on their traditional primary. Have they not moved over or have they moved over and are linked somehow?

 

[ScannerDude244]

Semi related, are they still simulcasting on VHF? I was near Carmel this week and heard PD units on their traditional primary. Have they not moved over or have they moved over and are linked somehow?

Carmel is still on VHF due to not being part of the county 911 system. But I still see their TG pop up every once and while

 

[kearthfan101]

What are the other site locations for Site 10 Northern Simulcast? I've tried to check before but none of the freqs come up as licensed.