Newbie Needs Serious Help

[WX0BPR]

I think gway17 has reception problems, there is something between the repeater and the location of the scanner, or to far from the repeater, but from looking at the maps and where gway17 says he is located it looked like he is not that far away.

I pick up sites in Alabama about 35 miles away and Cobb County Ga about 60 miles away, BUT, the conditions has to be right, the other night I was picking up Alabama like the repeater was across the street from me and nothing from Cobb county, Tonight I am getting 3 to 4 bars no T showing and not a word from Cobb county or Alabama until I go out on the front porch and it will pick up something every now and then. my best time is early morning or around 9 oclock after the sun has set and it cools down.

Could be his issue, take a trip somewhere else 5-10 miles away and see what he sees, the basement is not a good thing with a stock antenna. I pick up regular conventionals ok in mine but screws with 800 mhz in mine.
ARMER seems to have strong towers, we have some dead spots up near where I live for ham repeaters, I have not noticed it so much with ARMER, I think in his location he should have no issues. If anything he might have the simulcast issue of picking up more than one tower.
I use my 106 mobile [legal with ham licence in MN]. I just drove through his area yesterday and there is usually a good amount of activity on Dak Co counties, the low 4300, 4302, and 4304 TG's anyway. Might have to go there again for work this week so I will sniff around and see what the sites are offering up for signal strength.
I cannot pick up downtown Minneapolis about 40 miles away from me consistently, other sites as you describe... propagation.

 

[gway17]

Well, the radio is working.
I used the Search feature and can pick up what sounds like it could be MN Hwy Patrol, EMS and East Empire and others on 851.48750

Great signal strength and clarity.

Stull stumped as to why uploads won't work, but working on it.

Did anyone have a change to look at/try the file I attached earlier?

Thanks,
gw

 

[WX0BPR]

I took your file and added the control and alt control channels for Dakota Co, other than that I did nothing to the file. call it rev 1.

 

[RomeRon]

I took your file and added the control and alt control channels for Dakota Co, other than that I did nothing to the file. call it rev 1.

I was looking here Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) Trunking System, Various, Minnesota - Scanner Frequencies And I noticed Washington Co. it covers Hastings, Dakota East and Washington Co. The Primary Control Channel 853.73750c and Alts 85278750a, 853.18750

Dakota Simulcast the Primmary Control Channel is 853.31250c and Alts are 851.16250a, 853.06250a, 853.56250a. Simulcast, could this be why gway 17 is not picking any thing up?

I made up a file for Washington County if gway 17 wants to try it

 

[gway17]

I took your file and added the control and alt control channels for Dakota Co, other than that I did nothing to the file. call it rev 1.

I uploaded it, had great signal strength, no att, but nothing............
But, thank you for trying.

 

[gway17]

I was looking here Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) Trunking System, Various, Minnesota - Scanner Frequencies And I noticed Washington Co. it covers Hastings, Dakota East and Washington Co. The Primary Control Channel 853.73750c and Alts 85278750a, 853.18750

Dakota Simulcast the Primmary Control Channel is 853.31250c and Alts are 851.16250a, 853.06250a, 853.56250a. Simulcast, could this be why gway 17 is not picking any thing up?

I made up a file for Washington County if gway 17 wants to try it

I'll try anything at this point.

 

[RomeRon]

I'll try anything at this point.

I took the zip file down because when I tested it, it didn't work, I clicked the zip file saved it and unzipped it to my desktop then brought up ARC500 and opened it and there was nothing there.
I guess I need learning in Export csv or WinZip 101, I did it once but Winzip has me scratching my head now, I will try again in a little while.

 

[RomeRon]

Well here goes again.

Deleted again, I give up on this file

 

[RomeRon]

Hi gway17, any luck yet.
I think I fugered out what I was doing wrong with WinZip. so I am going to try the zipfile for Washington again.

 

[RomeRon]

Private Messages

Check your Private Messages.

 

[gway17]

More info:
Using the "Search" function and selecting Pub Safety, I'm getting very strong signals and coverage over 30 miles.
If I can figure out why the uploaded files don't work, I'll be in great shape.

 

[WX0BPR]

Whilst you are trying things try this too, this has several sites CC's and Alts.

Just to avoid the obvious and since you are getting something with Pub Saf Search make sure your squelch is not all the way up, or all the way down to nothing, low to mid range.

Another thing again I think you should try just for fun. Hit the TUNE button and punch in with the keys 853.3125 (The CC for Dakota site), then ENT. It should come up paused on that freq. It should start displaying info such as P25 and the Hex stuff for the Dakota site, hard to describe but this might help:
Easier to Read Pro-106/197/PSR500/600 Digital Scanner Manual search
This will show the decode quality % (kinda needs to be in the 90%'s) If you do not see this, hit PSE key and the up/down arrows to poke around between 850 and 865 ish freqs. you SHOULD find some P25 control channel it will stop on, write it down and look at the ARMER database for the sites and see where it is. You will also get Voice Channels write them down too and check and post them.
A control Channel will sound like a motorboat sort of, you will here something, a voice will just pop up with audio.
But you will also get any other 800 mhz trunk or other in that area too, so you might get other buzzes, pops and whhistles, which is why you need to take note of freqs, you are looking for something like:
P25 851.6125
95% N40E W:BEE007
SYS:40F R002 S002 (this line flashes off and on and alternates with the one above)

Dakota should yield R001 S003

That"s from a site near me, Hennepin west. It tells you system site number etc.
We need to get the one with the best decode rate properly loaded in as a P25 AUTO trunk CC. And make sure you are receiving something P25 trunked (or you need to move out of your lead lined house )

I am going to load the attached rev2 file into my scanner and when I am in your area (I might have a job soon in Lakeville) and test it out.

Or maybe we can meet somewhere and I can load it, or check to see if what you have loaded is what we think you have loaded. Problem with that is I never know when I will be in the area as I travel a 5 state area LOL.
2 scanners although one is a handheld right next to each other with the same thing loaded should have similar results...

 

[WX0BPR]

When you view the link above, find "Tune Search/Analyze Mode" that is what I was referring too.

 

[RomeRon]

Whilst you are trying things try this too, this has several sites CC's and Alts.

Just to avoid the obvious and since you are getting something with Pub Saf Search make sure your squelch is not all the way up, or all the way down to nothing, low to mid range.

Another thing again I think you should try just for fun. Hit the TUNE button and punch in with the keys 853.3125 (The CC for Dakota site), then ENT. It should come up paused on that freq. It should start displaying info such as P25 and the Hex stuff for the Dakota site, hard to describe but this might help:
Easier to Read Pro-106/197/PSR500/600 Digital Scanner Manual search
This will show the decode quality % (kinda needs to be in the 90%'s) If you do not see this, hit PSE key and the up/down arrows to poke around between 850 and 865 ish freqs. you SHOULD find some P25 control channel it will stop on, write it down and look at the ARMER database for the sites and see where it is. You will also get Voice Channels write them down too and check and post them.
A control Channel will sound like a motorboat sort of, you will here something, a voice will just pop up with audio.
But you will also get any other 800 mhz trunk or other in that area too, so you might get other buzzes, pops and whhistles, which is why you need to take note of freqs, you are looking for something like:
P25 851.6125
95% N40E W:BEE007
SYS:40F R002 S002 (this line flashes off and on and alternates with the one above)

Dakota should yield R001 S003

That"s from a site near me, Hennepin west. It tells you system site number etc.
We need to get the one with the best decode rate properly loaded in as a P25 AUTO trunk CC. And make sure you are receiving something P25 trunked (or you need to move out of your lead lined house )

I am going to load the attached rev2 file into my scanner and when I am in your area (I might have a job soon in Lakeville) and test it out.

Or maybe we can meet somewhere and I can load it, or check to see if what you have loaded is what we think you have loaded. Problem with that is I never know when I will be in the area as I travel a 5 state area LOL.
2 scanners although one is a handheld right next to each other with the same thing loaded should have similar results...

"(or you need to move out of your lead lined house )"

LOL, that is what I am beginning to think
Thanks for letting me know about the file I posted.

 

[WX0BPR]

"(or you need to move out of your lead lined house )"

LOL, that is what I am beginning to think
Thanks for letting me know about the file I posted.

Great for the Nuclear Fallout event... not so much for scanning

 

[gway17]

I guess all of that lead didn't work like I thought it would. Back to the drawing board.................

 

[gway17]

Factory reset AGAIN. Installed 1.9 AGAIN. Took down all of the lead.

min.gr5 is working !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't tried any other files, but this is a huge step. I’ll be trying the other files next and will let you know what happens.

You guys have all been incredibly helpful.
Thank you for your support and hanging in there with a newbie. I hope I can pass it forward.

 

[gway17]

The DakCty Lst 3 rev 1 works.

None of the files I downloaded work, but the ones you guys sent ie: min.gr5 and this DakCty Lst 3 rev 1 do work.
Do you remember what was changed/added to the DakCty Lst 3 rev 1 ?

 

[WX0BPR]

The DakCty Lst 3 rev 1 works.

None of the files I downloaded work, but the ones you guys sent ie: min.gr5 and this DakCty Lst 3 rev 1 do work.
Do you remember what was changed/added to the DakCty Lst 3 rev 1 ?

The one you posted DakCty Lst did not have any Channels in the trunk file.
For Rev 1 I added JUST Dakota Site
For Rev 2 I added Dakota, City Center, Carver/Scott and Henn East.

When you are downloading from RR thingy in ARC-500 you ARE selecting Dakota on the left side of the data tab right? also and I do not think it matters in the same thingy under the trunk options tab have something checked in here?

 

[RomeRon]

The one you posted DakCty Lst did not have any Channels in the trunk file.
For Rev 1 I added JUST Dakota Site
For Rev 2 I added Dakota, City Center, Carver/Scott and Henn East.

When you are downloading from RR thingy in ARC-500 you ARE selecting Dakota on the left side of the data tab right? also and I do not think it matters in the same thingy under the trunk options tab have something checked in here?

"you ARE selecting Dakota on the left side of the data tab right?"