yagi for home I agree. for driving around oaktown what's the best solution? I invested in some elevated feed high gain antennas with 2 coils for the car/pro197 setup. works awesome for pulling in distant p25 trunked systems but the receive-ability of oak p25 went way down in oak for my pro197. have to run ATT to get decent results. in fact the pro106 inside the car with rubber ducky factory antenna was picking up stuff the 197 could not. trying to think of a happy place.
New Oakland system
- Thread starter stingray327
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Ben96cal
Member
You could look like the "google" car and have rotating yagi's on top of your vehicle so you'd never loose signal! (Smirk)
Your elevated feed high gain antenna has a very narrow (vertically) 'prime signal' angle which is looking straight out at the horizon (think of a 360 degree focused flashlight beam). This is why it "works awesome for pulling in distant p25 trunked systems." When in Oakland, the angle is looking into the base of the ridge (and the transmit site is on top of that ridge). The signal from the transmit site is going over the head of your antenna.
Your pro106 with the low-gain ducky is more like a candle - the radio beam is not focused, so the receiver 'sees' transmitters located at a higher angle, picking up the signal from the sites.
Take a look at when OPD and OFD have for antennas on their vehicles; I suspect they are low- to medium-gain antennas.
Ben96cal
Member
new firmware 1.11.01 Supposed to fix LSM issues
Any thought who have tried it?
BCD396XTFirmwareUpdate < UnidenMan4 < TWiki
Any thought who have tried it?
BCD396XTFirmwareUpdate < UnidenMan4 < TWiki
no ones tried it, its not released yet.
Ben96cal
Member
996XT firmware is available. Going to update my Oakland, COCO and ALco scanners tonight once I can access the servers that are overloaded currently.
System Update
Site 303 (Fire Station 28) is now online. I was up on Mt. Tam last week and picked up the control channel on 852.1125. This CC has been announced as a site neighbor for quite some time, but as of last summer was not yet active. I will bring my laptop and run Unitrunker next time I'm on the mountain.
Site 303 (Fire Station 28) is now online. I was up on Mt. Tam last week and picked up the control channel on 852.1125. This CC has been announced as a site neighbor for quite some time, but as of last summer was not yet active. I will bring my laptop and run Unitrunker next time I'm on the mountain.
korpseofdeath
Member
Where did you get the BCD996XT firmware update? All I can find is the 1.06.00, which my scanner already has.
I think he meant 396. nothings available yet for the 996.
naparish
Member
Help?
A little over a year ago, I bought a Radio Shack Pro-106 and a Radio Shack antenna designed for 800MHz systems so I'd be ready for Oakland's new P25 system. The scanner seemed to work OK, although I was mostly picking up the rebroadcasts on the EDACS system -- but now the EDACS system is dead.
I took my scanner home (on the Berkeley/Oakland border) the other day to import some updated talkgroup info from the RR database, and it seemed to be working fine. However, back in my office -- at 1111 Broadway! -- it is nearly useless. Most of the audio that I do pick up is garbled and mostly unintelligible. It's like there's feedback because I'm too CLOSE to the antennas.
Any suggestions on what I can/should do to improve my reception?
A little over a year ago, I bought a Radio Shack Pro-106 and a Radio Shack antenna designed for 800MHz systems so I'd be ready for Oakland's new P25 system. The scanner seemed to work OK, although I was mostly picking up the rebroadcasts on the EDACS system -- but now the EDACS system is dead.
I took my scanner home (on the Berkeley/Oakland border) the other day to import some updated talkgroup info from the RR database, and it seemed to be working fine. However, back in my office -- at 1111 Broadway! -- it is nearly useless. Most of the audio that I do pick up is garbled and mostly unintelligible. It's like there's feedback because I'm too CLOSE to the antennas.
Any suggestions on what I can/should do to improve my reception?
Can someone explain why the RR database now shows all 10 frequencies as control channels?
Also, can someone kindly post their Unitrucker information for this system that shows the bandplan (e.g., base frequency, channel spacing, etc.).
Thanks!
Also, can someone kindly post their Unitrucker information for this system that shows the bandplan (e.g., base frequency, channel spacing, etc.).
Thanks!
because all 10 have the possibility of being control channels. its not a Motorola system which typically only uses four.
and for this system you should need any bandplan info. just program it as a regular p25 system.
kma371 beat me to it, but unlike Motorola P25 systems which usually have 1 primary control channel and 3 alternates, Oakland's Harris P25 system rotates its control channel through every frequency on the system. This was causing considerable problems for people who were downloading the RR database directly into their programming software (they were only receiving the system 1/3 of the time), so I made the change.
Thank you kma371 and inigo88; I appreciate the information.
Leave it to Harris to use an odd configuration for control channels. I'm still interested in seeing the Unitracker information if anyone has it available.
Thanks again guys.
Leave it to Harris to use an odd configuration for control channels. I'm still interested in seeing the Unitracker information if anyone has it available.
Thanks again guys.
John,
Here is the bandplan info from a pro96com log taken in Sept 2011. It should still be current, but no guarantees.
Code:
-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,851.01250,0.01250,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1Just to clarify, most of the time the system alternates between 2 or 3 control channels. People using the RR database programming will track the system fine for months, then suddenly a new frequency will pop up that hasn't been used as a CC before. That's when those folks will lose the system until the database is updated and they import the new programming.
After a couple years of thinking that the system was limited to 4 control channels (like Motorola Smartnet, SmartZone and P25 systems) and trying to keep the database updated with the constant changes, it was brought to my attention that Harris P25 systems are able to use any channel as a control channel. So I submitted the info and all frequencies were marked as control channels. Like Inigo said, that way people using the RR database programming won't lose the system every time a new control channel appears.
Here's what I find odd about that bandplan. The base frequency and channel spacing make sense, but not the bandwidth. The pro96com information shows a bandwidth of 6.25 KHz but P25 Phase I systems use FDMA which has a bandwidth of 12.5KHz. TDMA in Phase II will have a bandwidth of 6.25 KHz.
Also, if all of the channels are used as control channels, has anyone extracted the bandplan for each control channel that you have found to be active? The frequencies listed in the database appear to have a mix of channel spacings, and the bandplans might be different among the control channels. That could affect programming.
Phase 2 is two conversations on a P25 carrier (12.5 kHz) to provide 6.25 kHz efficiency (in complicance with the FCC rules).
Correct, and that's exactly the point of my question. In Phase II, a pair of 6.25 KHz voice channels are fit into the 12.5 KHz channel bandwidth now used for Phase I. That's why I questioned the pro96com information that indicates a 6.25 KHz channel bandwidth.
korpseofdeath
Member
I'm running PRO96COM with my Uniden 996XT on the Oakland P25. Surprising after re-uploading the database with all the control channels, I can receive Oakland. I get excellent signal as always, except this time I can pick up some voices! Very choppy and sometimes unreadable, but it's a major improvement then hearing nothing at all. lol
What data does everyone need from PRO96? I can post them up if still needed.
So far what's coming up is 8 frequencies. 1 CC and 7 VC.
851.1750 VC
852.8875 VC
853.3375 VC
853.4625 CC
853.7000 VC
853.8375 VC
854.1875 VC
854.2625 VC
BASE : 851.0125
SPACING : 0.01250
TX Offset : -45.00
Bandwidth : .00625
What data does everyone need from PRO96? I can post them up if still needed.
So far what's coming up is 8 frequencies. 1 CC and 7 VC.
851.1750 VC
852.8875 VC
853.3375 VC
853.4625 CC
853.7000 VC
853.8375 VC
854.1875 VC
854.2625 VC
BASE : 851.0125
SPACING : 0.01250
TX Offset : -45.00
Bandwidth : .00625
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