Moved to Georgetown and can't pick up Austin PD

[ohgaryoh]

I have a pro668 that I programed years ago, while the RadioShack software was still working. I set up my sites up to Simulcast 1 and 2, which always worked even until this past week when I moved from Pflugerville to Georgetown, just 8 miles north. I tried on the scanner itself to use the Williamson site, but still can't get any traffic. I do see the "T" light up when I scan on sim 1 and 2. However, I looked at the page for the sites and frequencies and I don't even see sim 1 and 2 anymore, what happened? Greater Austin/Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS) Trunking System, Austin, Texas


Any ideas so that I can listen to traffic once again?
Thank you.

 

[Russell]

Austin/Travis is now on Site 7.

 

[W5ATX]

^^^ What he said

control channel is 851.3875 for now......

if you have receive issues it's because most of the old IR sites are now full simulcast, so there's more sites now using the main CC which may cause simulcast distortion with radioshack / whistler / GRE scanners.

 

[ohgaryoh]

^^^ What he said

control channel is 851.3875 for now......

if you have receive issues it's because most of the old IR sites are now full simulcast, so there's more sites now using the main CC which may cause simulcast distortion with radioshack / whistler / GRE scanners.

Austin/Travis is now on Site 7.

OK thanks for that information. Since I have a pro 668, is there any way to update it besides sending it away for the Whistler firmware?

 

[ohgaryoh]

Ok, so I was able to update the library using the Whistler software.

Downloaded the software, updated the library on the WS software, copied the lib files into my RS software directory, pulled the config from scanner to computer using RS software, updated the library and selected site 7, updated the databases/lib, sent it to the scanner.
I selected only to import control channels in the import options.

Now, I am still not able to get anything while scanning, however if I go to the control site manually (851.3875) I can see it flip to DG from FM and then I can see the NAC of 137. It looks like I get 2 to 3 bars of reception, should be enough right?

Not sure what else could be wrong here, but it's very sad.

 

[W5ATX]

sorry i'm not as familiar with how those scanners are programmed anymore. I have a pro96 but only use it for decoding control channels. maybe someone else can chime in, or search to see if your question has been asked/answered in a different part of the forums.

 

[ohgaryoh]

sorry i'm not as familiar with how those scanners are programmed anymore. I have a pro96 but only use it for decoding control channels. maybe someone else can chime in, or search to see if your question has been asked/answered in a different part of the forums.

No problem. Thank you for your help

I'm just wondering, perhaps if I'm out of range of sim7, even though the coverage map shows well withing Williamson County. I tried a few more things, with just site sim 7, I do not get the T when I scan the playlist, I then added Central and Williamson sites and I now see the T while scanning the playlists.. I'll have to drive down to Austin this weekend and see if I can pick traffic up with just sim7. If I'm out of range, that would suck!

 

[ohgaryoh]

Well I drove down to Pflugerville today and was able to pick up sim 7. I guess I'm too far away from the tower, which really sucks. Even monitoring WILCO fire/ems, I barely pick it up using the Williamson site, and when I do pick something up it's very digital and unreadable in most cases I really don't know why the reception is so bad, is there any other site I can try or other suggestions? Thanks all.

 

[W5ATX]

have you tried some of these? Greater Austin/Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS) Trunking System, Austin, Texas

keep in mind if you program a different system and you want to listen to apd david radio you may not hear david sector unless someone on your tower has their radio on david, or a david unit comes up north.

you could also try a better antenna (yagi) and point it at one site but may not be beneficial with that particular scanner. i bet anything the signal is strong enough and it's overloading that scanner with simulcast distortion. i could be wrong, but my hunch is that an sds100/200 with a remtronix antenna would receive site 7 just fine, as long as you don't live in a faraday cage find someone that has one, or amazon it (so you can return it) and stick it on the desk in the same spot as that pro-668

 

[ohgaryoh]

have you tried some of these? Greater Austin/Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS) Trunking System, Austin, Texas

keep in mind if you program a different system and you want to listen to apd david radio you may not hear david sector unless someone on your tower has their radio on david, or a david unit comes up north.

you could also try a better antenna (yagi) and point it at one site but may not be beneficial with that particular scanner. i bet anything the signal is strong enough and it's overloading that scanner with simulcast distortion. i could be wrong, but my hunch is that an sds100/200 with a remtronix antenna would receive site 7 just fine, as long as you don't live in a faraday cage find someone that has one, or amazon it (so you can return it) and stick it on the desk in the same spot as that pro-668

That's kind of strange because I thought all ID's are broadcast on the simulcast. I never had any problem monitoring any sector, when I lived in South Austin I could listen to Lakeway and other sectors not even that close to me. Same with when I lived in Pflugerville, I could easily follow David sector without any problems. This was of course using simulcast 1 and 2 that I had programmed, which now are gone. I just have simulcast 7. I tried the Williamson site as well, and I can hear the unencrypted traffic on it, it is very distorted.

I decided to order the SDS 100, let's see how it does. If I'm able to receive what I want then I'll sell the 688.

 

[W5ATX]

I was just giving an example. it used to not be like that, but maybe it is now. I believe each site has around 24-28 frequencies, it's been a while. on a busy night sometimes you can see over 20 channels talking, i wonder if austin has priority subsribers? i'd love to get a tour of a site from a radio tech. the last site i visited was decker about 20 years ago.

most of the old IR repeaters, (davis lane for example) would only broadcast baker sector if a baker unit was making a transport near the davis tower. since they are most all simulcast towers now you should be hearing traffic, however it also means that the old IR sites control channels are now broadasting on the site7 control channel, so if you have a non SDS/SDR receiver, the chance of getting simulcast distortion is increased because there's another transmitter on the same freq. that's the best advantage of the SDS (despite it's other flaws) is that it can handle simulcast distortion rather well. I have a hunch you'll be able to pick up GATRRS when that sds arrives. keep us posted and good luck!

 

[ohgaryoh]

I was just giving an example. it used to not be like that, but maybe it is now. I believe each site has around 24-28 frequencies, it's been a while. on a busy night sometimes you can see over 20 channels talking, i wonder if austin has priority subsribers? i'd love to get a tour of a site from a radio tech. the last site i visited was decker about 20 years ago.

most of the old IR repeaters, (davis lane for example) would only broadcast baker sector if a baker unit was making a transport near the davis tower. since they are most all simulcast towers now you should be hearing traffic, however it also means that the old IR sites control channels are now broadasting on the site7 control channel, so if you have a non SDS/SDR receiver, the chance of getting simulcast distortion is increased because there's another transmitter on the same freq. that's the best advantage of the SDS (despite it's other flaws) is that it can handle simulcast distortion rather well. I have a hunch you'll be able to pick up GATRRS when that sds arrives. keep us posted and good luck!

Yeah they must have changed it so that everything is broadcasted on the sites now. I used to live really close to the Davis tower but could never pick up APD on it, they probably never routed it to that tower I suppose.

Last night I was messing around and programmed the Wilco tower in and set APD TGIDS on it. I also programmed Pflugerville, and I was able to pick up Pflugerville on the Wilco site, but still had a lot of distortion. I really liked the 668, and when I lived in south Austin I never had issues with distortion. Moved to Pflugerville in 2022 and had some but not much. Now I can't hear anything and get tons of distortion on the Wilco site monitoring Wilco EMS/Fire. Very sad.

Really hoping spending that kind of money on the SDS it will be able to pick up everything clearly. And that I can recoup some from selling the 668. Thanks for your help!

 

[W5ATX]

yeah keep us posted, i'm curious now. i used to live real close to the davis site also, in fact one day in the early 90's i was looking out the kitchen window during a storm and watched the top side of that tower get nailed by what i call a super bolt, of course it didn't have the big black P25 antenna sticks on it then, but whatever was on that tower took a direct hit. I dont remember exactly who else was on that tower back then, but it was the home of apd david sector transmitter on 460.275, MDTs, and some other COA stuff as well as some cell, pagers, etc. the old analog cell carriers were cellular one and GTE mobile net. i miss the ole analog days

 

[ohgaryoh]

yeah keep us posted, i'm curious now. i used to live real close to the davis site also, in fact one day in the early 90's i was looking out the kitchen window during a storm and watched the top side of that tower get nailed by what i call a super bolt, of course it didn't have the big black P25 antenna sticks on it then, but whatever was on that tower took a direct hit. I dont remember exactly who else was on that tower back then, but it was the home of apd david sector transmitter on 460.275, MDTs, and some other COA stuff as well as some cell, pagers, etc. the old analog cell carriers were cellular one and GTE mobile net. i miss the ole analog days

Well, the good news is that I received the SDS today. Bad news, it really doesn't seem to have solved my issue. I programmed it from Sentinel, and only left Simulcast 7 as the site in the database. I did hear some traffic, but not much and it wasn't consistent. Not enough for me to justify $650 for. I guess what is left now is to try some sort of antenna which maybe will pick up the tower better. This is really disappointing..

Any recommendations for an indoor antenna?

 

[W5ATX]

Well, the good news is that I received the SDS today. Bad news, it really doesn't seem to have solved my issue. I programmed it from Sentinel, and only left Simulcast 7 as the site in the database. I did hear some traffic, but not much and it wasn't consistent. Not enough for me to justify $650 for. I guess what is left now is to try some sort of antenna which maybe will pick up the tower better. This is really disappointing..

Any recommendations for an indoor antenna?

Darn, you using the stock antenna or did you get a remtronix 820s? I may have an extra one (i'll have to check) I have about 100 rubber ducks, I had every remtronix antenna made but sold a bunch at the last swapfest. you're on the other side of the planet from me if you make a favorites list and include apd main channels they are pretty much non stop at all hours. i'd compare the sds to the 436 on different sites. 99% of the people that switch form a 436 or HP2 to sds are happy. it can really tackle the simulcast better than any scanner out.

 

[W5ATX]

I have a remtronix REM-810S like new, only taken out of the package to test. its an SMA 800 MHZ antenna but does not have the little rubber o-ring on the bottom, it fits the SDS100 but since it doesn't have the o-ring, it doesn't have a complete weather-resistant seal, so if a magic raindrop falls and makes it into that tiny gap and damages the radio don't hold me responsible haha. if you're ever in southwest austin send me a message and you can have it for $10, i think they are almost $30 ($40+ w/shipping). what if you go outside and compare the 436 to the sds? if going indoors kills your signal that bad i'm wondering if you have some interference, maybe some LED lighting somewhere that's killing the signal.

 

[W5ATX]

sorry i dont know why i thought you had a 436, i meant 668.

 

[ohgaryoh]

I have a remtronix REM-810S like new, only taken out of the package to test. its an SMA 800 MHZ antenna but does not have the little rubber o-ring on the bottom, it fits the SDS100 but since it doesn't have the o-ring, it doesn't have a complete weather-resistant seal, so if a magic raindrop falls and makes it into that tiny gap and damages the radio don't hold me responsible haha. if you're ever in southwest austin send me a message and you can have it for $10, i think they are almost $30 ($40+ w/shipping). what if you go outside and compare the 436 to the sds? if going indoors kills your signal that bad i'm wondering if you have some interference, maybe some LED lighting somewhere that's killing the signal.

Hi. I just tried reprogramming it this morning, only with sim 7 and only the control channels. I do hear some traffic, some times it is clear others it still is a bit distorted but not nearly as bad as the 668. It just does not seem to be consistent. I can leave it on scan mode and not hear a thing for several minutes, I know there is traffic happening all of the time. I tried outside, same thing. I don't think I could be too far away from the tower? I'm off of I35 and exit 260, it looks well within the coverage area. I even have the 800mhz RS antenna that I tried, still not that great.


Is the Radio Shack 800mhz the same antenna as the 810?

 

[willdanl]

Agree that you should be within range - I pick up Sim 7 when traveling I-35 well north of there with the radio just sitting in the cup holder in the truck. Be sure to play with the filter settings - they can make a difference if you have some cell site interference nearby. And don’t have the squelch too high - it can be at zero if you’re only scanning that one trunked system - I do that all the time.

 

[ohgaryoh]

Agree that you should be within range - I pick up Sim 7 when traveling I-35 well north of there with the radio just sitting in the cup holder in the truck. Be sure to play with the filter settings - they can make a difference if you have some cell site interference nearby. And don’t have the squelch too high - it can be at zero if you’re only scanning that one trunked system - I do that all the time.

I just dropped it off to get returned to Amazon so I can't mess with it anymore. I had the played with the squelch a bit, from 0-3 and it didn't seem to help. Maybe I'll just move back down to Austin, it's cheaper than buying new scanners, right?