Hello this may be a silly question but it has had me pulling my hair out for several days, I recently purchased an SDS 200 I did all of the downloads except Waterfall and Proscan. And I cannot receive Fairfield, Vacaville and Suisun city fire depts. These towns are located in the North Bay area of California about 30 miles South of Sacramento These depts share a dispatch frequency, and I cannot receive FF, VV, Suisun city police also, I have redownloaded Sentinel, and added a couple other frequencies in case I messed up somehow, I live 25 miles from the cities, and have set my zip code location etc. Is this an antenna issue or are the depts. difficult to monitor ? Or is it something else ? I currently have a Remtronix 830 antenna on the back of my Sds 200.until I can figure out what roof top antenna I should get. Any help would be be great thank you.
Need a little help !
- Thread starter Lawed
- Start date
You don’t say where in Sacramento you are, but your problem is most likely attributed to your lack of proximity to Fairfield, Vacaville and Suisun City.
It sounds like you have an SDS-200, new to you, and trying to get it up and running for the very first time. Correct?
I have the SDS-100, which is essentially the same radio. I am picking up those channels from Sacramento county (Fair Oaks) with no issues. But I am using a discone antenna mounted about 30' in the air at my location which also has good altitude. If you are in the western part of Sacramento county, you shouldn't have any issues; but I can't speak for other places.
You say they are on the same "dispatch frequency" and that bothers me. These channels are actually virtual (called talkgroups) and are on a couple of P25 trunked systems. What you should be monitoring is either the Solano P25 or East Bay systems. I think we need more details to help you further.
Please forgive my use of improper radio terminology, Solano county is on 2 different p25 systems, Benicia and Vallejo are on EBRC (East Bay Regional Communications) and I receive those really well, Fairfield, VV, and Suisun city are on SCRC , I have downloaded the sentinel software and I added the EBRC and SCRC talk groups, I live in Walnut Creek which is 25-30 miles away from FF, and I assumed I didn't have enough antenna, I know radio reception varies based on several factors, but I can receive Sacramento and Sonoma counties clear as a bell and thought I would be able to hear something from FF. I have a Remtonix 830 rubber duck antenna on the back of the SDS 200 , so as said earlier I'm trying figure if the antenna is issue or if I'm doing something wrong. Any help you could give would be great Thank You.
wtp
Member
put the radio near a window.
that might help.
many windows now have metal in the to be energy efficient.
if they have a mirror look to them, that is the metal.
that might help.
many windows now have metal in the to be energy efficient.
if they have a mirror look to them, that is the metal.
No problem on the terminology. I'm just trying to understand your issue. Sacramento P25 booms in all over the place for me.
- Are you picking up anything at all from the Solano P25 system? You might try going to each of the 4 control channel frequencies, with the mode set to FM or NFM and see what signal level you get. Only one will be active at a time.
- Are you picking up anything at all from the EB system? This system has several "sites", which means you'll find more than one active control channel. Try using the one with the best signal quality/level.
If you get any of the above control channels, try parking your scanner on the control channel (you'll press the first soft key to hold on that system) with the system in ID SCAN mode. This will determine that it is not an issue with TG programming, selection or system type being enabled. These systems are on high band UHF and should require much of an antenna (as long are you are not down in a gully or have something blocking the signal to you). While I can see one signal being blocked, we're talking about 2 systems from different directions and one has several sites. Keep us updated.
I am not receiving anything from the SCRC , but the EBRC comes in clear as a bell, I though about trying to program in just the Simulcast and see if I can hear something, I've had an analog scanner for years, a Uniden BC355n and a Realistic pro 94, but this Digital is a totally different machine, I used to be able to pick almost all of Solano county with the exception of Vallejo when they were all Analog , but I cannot get even static on the FF,VV. Suisun talk group. I will try what you have suggested and let you know. Thank You
Static? On a TalkGroup? It doesn't work that way. Your radio needs to receive the active control channel. Data from that channel is used to determine which (and when) TGs are active. Just try scanning all the frequencies of the system in NFM mode. What do you get?
I've 'always' had Solano working. While it is programmed into my SDS-100 radios, I typically monitor on a PSR-600. Since I am some distance from them, I can use that radio (not tying up an SDS) w/o Simulcast distortion. If traveling, or some incident, I can enable on an SDS so I can hear multiple channels at once.
Hello there, yes I did start receiving the SCRC, as far as I can tell it was an antenna issue ! I installed a D-3000 Discone antenna on my roof top and that made a big difference. Back in the day I used to have a Realistic PRO-36 handheld scanner and I received almost everything I programmed into that radio, it was a really simple process, over the years I updated to newer and so called "better" scanners a PRO-94 and a BC355, but when I upgraded to the SDS 200 I had no Idea of how technical and complicated (it is to me ) things have gotten, with all these P25 systems etc. I think my biggest issue is antenna height, my antenna is about 20ft high on my roof top I would like to go up another 10ft, for a total height of 30ft. I'm hoping that will fix a lot of my reception issues, I can receive all of my local FD's no problem I live about 5-7 miles North of Mt. Diablo so I think the good reception I have is due to my proximity to the repeater, I'm told that Solano county is upgrading their P25 system in South county so that Benicia, and Vallejo will both be on the SCRC and not on the P25 system their currently on the EBRSC , so they will be adding new towers in South county so that should help I'm hoping. I worked in EMS in Solano County from 1993- 2001, and still like to hear what's happening up there.
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