MPSCS: Not pickin' 'em up!

[whacker]

Over here in Berrien County I usually listen to the MPSCS via the Sumnerville tower, primary being 868.9125. On my end of town (Buchanan) I never get what you might call an S-9 signal, but I always get a solid receiveable control signal.

Today I sat working on my computer with my scanner on, and by late afternoon I noticed I wasn't hearing anything other than what shows up on the conventional frequency side. I checked it out more closely and see that there is nothing showing where normally I'd see the control frequency displayed. I've just put the scanner into a search mode in the 861-869 area, and it's not picking up anything. Plus I checked to see what the secondaries for Sumnerville are.

Has the MPSCS taken the day off, or is there some sort of summertime atmospheric condition playing with my ability to receive them? Crazy...

 

[rdale]

Put in all the tower frequencies in conventional mode and see what you hear.

 

[datainmotion]

External antenna or rubber duck?

 

[whacker]

Well, not a rubber duck, but one of those center-loaded telescoping Radio Shack antennas from long ago, (only partially extended - has always worked well inside the house for all my uses).

Wouldn't doing a search in the expected range accomplish the same thing, rdale?

 

[whacker]

Wait. All of a sudden things started popping up on the normal control channel. I think it must just be poor reception, which I haven't run into to this level before. I've had this radio (Uniden BCD396T) and been doing things pretty much unchanged since early '06. Hot summer days; whaddya gonna do? I'll bet if I just drove a mile east it would have improved right away.

Thanks for the input and suggestions, all. I was in a partial panic to post a thread so soon.