I'm in Rochester NY, Monroe County and the public safety went to the P-25 phases 2 system. Since then and with much downloading and tinkering with my radio, TRX-1, I am at a brick wall. I can receive all the conventional channels with out any problem. But nothing on the P-25. I also noticed that when I am running the "Whistler Control" program, the P-25 frequencies show that they are "muted". Not locked out but muted. I had tried to find what would do that in the radio and the program but to no avail. If anyone has any idea what could help me out, I would be forever in your debt. Thank you.
Not Able to Receive P-25 Phase 2 transmissions.
- Thread starter daveo89
- Start date
I don't know the system, but if it's simulcast the TRX will have less than stellar results. Something to check though is that the "Trunking Tables" are set to "Auto Fill".
I understand the simulcast issues all too well. I can't even get the P-25 channels to come in. Tables are set to auto-fill.
tvengr
Well Known Member
Please attach your TRX-1 archive file so we can take a look at it. Click on Attach files and open the file.
When they upgraded to P25 Phase 2 did the turn on Encryption?
You beat me to it. As soon as I heard the word "muted", I thought the same thing.
There are some Te & TE in the Monroe/Ontario Counties TRS, if that's what he's listening to.
I'm mostly interested in the Fire depts. in the area. I know that the sheriff's dept. has some encrypted frequencies. Mostly Tac channels. The FD's don't have any. On the "mute" thing. Someone reached out to me from another board and told me the mute will stay on until a signal is heard and then become un-muted when the channel is broadcasting. What it doesn't look like is that my radio is not receiving the signal for some reason. I'm going to get my TRX-1 file together so the wise people on here can look it over and see what I missed.
Here's my current setup.
Swipesy
Member
I looked at your configuration and the following are what may be causing the problem.
1. On General Settings screen under Trunking Options you have ID Mode Set to Decimal. Mine is set to Normal.
2. On General Settings screen under Trunking Options you have ID Alarm Set to On. Mine is set to Off
3. On General Settings screen under Flex Step you have Enabled I have Off
The other thing I noted, but do not know if it impacts reception is I would set the "Set Location to "OFF". This changes ScanList 151 - 200 from "reserved" to "ScanList" . Then you need to rename the Scanlsts that you have used in that range.
You can try these suggested changes and then upload to scanner to see if it fixes issues.
1. On General Settings screen under Trunking Options you have ID Mode Set to Decimal. Mine is set to Normal.
2. On General Settings screen under Trunking Options you have ID Alarm Set to On. Mine is set to Off
3. On General Settings screen under Flex Step you have Enabled I have Off
The other thing I noted, but do not know if it impacts reception is I would set the "Set Location to "OFF". This changes ScanList 151 - 200 from "reserved" to "ScanList" . Then you need to rename the Scanlsts that you have used in that range.
You can try these suggested changes and then upload to scanner to see if it fixes issues.
Thanks for the note. Changed the settings as you mentioned. NaDa. Thanks, though.
Swipesy
Member
A friend of mine had the same issue you are having with his Trx-1. I took his radio from him and loaded my config on it and it still did not work either. He sent it back to Whistler and they replaced a board and it has been fine since. It is looking like your unit may have the same hardware issue.
It's looking more and more that it is a radio hardware issue. I've tried a bunch of things from different antennas to locations around my area and nothing comes in on trunked channels. I sent a message to the new Whistler people to see if they are taking in radios for repair.
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No.
It's not locking onto the control channel due to simulcast distortion. I don't think there is a "hardware issue" with your scanner; it's just not designed to handle simulcast, and the Monroe County system is very much simulcast. If it cannot decode the control channel it will look as if there is no signal.
You might try monitoring one of the sites that is further away from you, or you can try the various "tricks" to deal with simulcast (less antenna, directional antenna pointed at one tower, play with settings) but based on experience I doubt you will have any luck.
Your scanner and money so feel free to send it in (assuming Whistler is doing repairs; last I knew they were not yet) but I doubt they will find anything broken.
I had a WS-1095 (that I sold) and a Pro-668 with the Whistler upgrade (on long-term loan to my dad). Neither of them could EVER pick up anything on the Monroe County system.
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tvengr
Well Known Member
I didn't see anything in the programming to prevent the scanner from receiving the Monroe County trunked system. I believe you are a victim of simulcast distortion. One thing to note about the 3 sites in Monroe County is that your scanner will find a site with a usable signal and stay there. It will not scan all 3 sites even though they are programmed. The only way around that is to set up 3 systems for Monroe County with each system using a different site. Include all of the talkgroups on all 3 systems. Assign the talkgroups in each system to a separate scan list. You will then be able to scan a single site or any combination of sites by selecting scan lists.
It's not the scanner it's a Harris system and the simulcast distortion can be horrible for some receivers.
The only solution is a SDS scanner, they handle it with no problem.
The only solution is a SDS scanner, they handle it with no problem.
If it is true simulcast then you have no control over sites as they all use the same exact frequencies at the same exact time.
If that's in response to my suggestion, I was talking about sites in the P25 simulcast sense, not about individual towers.
The Monroe/Ontario County system (it is shared) has a total of five simulcast sites and one fill-in single-tower site. While it is true that you cannot pick a TOWER from a simulcast site, you certainly CAN try to monitor a site other than the closest one. This is another "trick" to try like using a paper clip or turning on the attenuator. The hope is that since you are outside the designed coverage area for that site you might be close enough to ONE tower so the scanner can lock onto the control channel, as opposed to trying to monitor the site that's designed to cover that area where you may be equidistant from two or more towers so the scanner is seeing multiple out-of-phase signals with the same strength.
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I was making the point that all sites are the same you cannot pick sites you can try to kill signals with beams less antenna ect the old school tricks.
And your point is wrong.
Here's the system under discussion:
Monroe/Ontario Counties Trunking System, Regional, New York
Monroe/Ontario Counties Trunking System Profile
www.radioreference.com
Six SITES, all using DIFFERENT frequencies. All but the sixth are simulcast. If you click on the site you can pull up the map that shows all the towers.
I never said "you can pick a tower you want to listen to". I fully understand how a simulcast system works. What I said is you can pick a SITE other than the one designed to cover your area.
