Niagara County (New York) Public Safety Trunked System P25 Standard

[XJM721]

I discovered today that I am no longer hearing any voice traffic on the Niagara County (New York) Public Safety Trunked System P25 Standard. I used to have no problem receiving this system. Does anyone know if something was changed on the system? I am receiving the control channels at 4 out of 5 bars signal strength on my Uniden Homepartrol II but no voice traffic.

Paul

 

[dave3825]

When did it last work?

 

[bunangst]

Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[dave3825]

Might be something else since he said no longer receiving voice.


He also said,

I am receiving the control channels at 4 out of 5 bars signal strength

There should only be one active cc at a time. You mention receiving control channels. Are they rotating or do you mean voice channels?

If it were me, I would check that all the cc's are programmed in.

 

[lkas]

I have no issues picking this system up. Control channel is 424.3625 which is what is always is. Just heard Niagara falls pd and county fire. System has not changed

 

[mciupa]

I agree. I am sitting here in NW Toronto, Canada listening to it on DSDPlus Fastlane. For what it is worth, my BCD 536HP is useless using the same antenna for reception. (I made up my own talkgroup descriptions) Also can trunktrack SaiaNet and FM/Bush from up here.

 

[XJM721]

I last heard voice traffic a couple of weeks ago.

 

[dave3825]

So what changed a few weeks ago? Scanner moved to different room, any programming at that time? Different antenna?

 

[DaveNF2G]

I last heard voice traffic a couple of weeks ago.

A Windows update probably mucked up your audio settings.

 

[dave3825]

A Windows update probably mucked up your audio settings.

OP is scanner

I am receiving the control channels at 4 out of 5 bars signal strength on my Uniden Homepartrol II but no voice traffic.

 

[XJM721]

I have not changed anything. No power outage that I am aware of. I was able receive the system up until a couple of weeks ago on two different Uniden Homepartrol IIs. One Homepatrol connected to a DPD Productions Omni X mounted on my roof at 35 feet. The other Homepatrol connected to an old Archer 20-018 with a home built ground plane mounted in the attic at about 20 feet.

 

[dave3825]

Do you receive anything else on either antenna besides the trunked system? Can you receive the weather freq for your area?How old is the coax? And lightning 3 weeks ago?

 

[GTR8000]

A Windows update probably mucked up your audio settings.

A Windows update affected a Uniden scanner?!? Wow, Dave, that's a new one! Tell us all how that happens, please! 💩

 

[mciupa]

There are other options rather than expensive scanners out there. Unitrunker 2.2.0.22 also does a fine job of monitoring the system as well.

 

[XJM721]

In the last 40 minutes I was able to monitor traffic on the Buffalo Fire Dispatch channel on 424.2250, Buffalo Police Ch 2 Downtown/West Side B,D 460.3500, Niagara County Fire Dispatch 425.4625, Niagara Falls City Fire Dispatch 460.5750, Cattaraugus County Fire Dispatch 154.3250, Chautauqua County Fire/EMS Dispatch 156.2100, Amherst Fire CH 1 424.1250, Hamburg Fire 1 Dispatch 454.0875, Cheektowaga Police 1 Dispatch 453.8000,
Locally receiving Toronto Emergency Services Trunked P25 EMS Zone A A3 Southwest Standby TG1605, Toronto EMS Zone B B1 NW District Destination TG1615, Toronto Fire West Tac 3 TG1317, Ontario Ministry of Health Provincial Common EMS Dispatch 150.1000, Ornge Air Ambulance Base 413.6875.
Still no luck receiving any voice traffic on the Niagara County (New York) Public Safety Trunked System.

Thanks to all for your feedback.

Paul

 

[Saint]

Picking up the Niagara County (New York) Public Safety Trunked System in Fort Erie Ont.. not the greatest audio seeing it a Simulcast system and I am using a UNIDEN 436 SCANNER.
Steve

 

[dave3825]

Since the scanner works elsewhere, maybe its time to try reprograming the system.

 

[DaveNF2G]

OP is scanner

Ooops. Got thrown off the scent by the DSDPlus posting afterward.

 

[W1KNE]

Are you using the Homepatrol II's "out of the box" programming, or using Senitnel to program it?

Either there is a service type issue or due to some changes, you're getting some bad simulcast distortion there.

When I was out there last, which was recently, I noticed that the 436 had difficulties with it that the SDS 100 did not.

 

[XJM721]

No programming on the scanners was changed. I tried reprogramming the system but no joy same issue no voice traffic. I am using Sentinel.
I realize that the Homepatrol does not handle simulcast reliably. I think they changed something on their simulcast system? I used to receive this system with very little distortion on both scanners and when I compared the voice traffic to what I heard on the Niagara County Public Safety Broadcastify Feed I received about 90 percent of the traffic on the Homepatrol.
A similar scenario happened to me on the Toronto Emergency Services Trunked P25 EMS and Fire. That is also a simulcast system. For years I was able to receive the system with very little distortion or missed calls compared to the Broadcastify feed then in October 2024 all of a sudden very little voice traffic and lots of distortion. I believe they also changed something to do with simulcast which now makes it impossible to monitor.