Not picking up State Troopers

[willvabch]

I have been getting great traffic on evevrything except State Police. I live in VABCH. Any help would be great.

 

[morrisr3nd]

Have. You entered the cc for your area. Looks like they are on P25 phase I. Also make sure you have their talk groups entered in correctly.

Virginia Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS) Trunking System, Statewide, Virginia - Scanner Frequencies

 

[willvabch]

Ronnie, I posted because of frustration. I will download STARS database again and try. I need to clean up the systems I have anyway. I have had great sucess with "Virginia Beach P25"

 

[morrisr3nd]

Sorry man. I was just trying to help. I know they have done some rebanding of some of the P25 systems in my part of the world so I've been having to redo some of mine as well.

 

[willvabch]

No problem. I'll let you know how it works out.

 

[WA4HHG]

State Police

I have been getting great traffic on everything except State Police. I live in VABCH. Any help would be great.

Will,

Took my 996XT to the office today as I was not picking up VA Beach Fire, EMS, etc..

I also heard State Police VIA STARS just fine from the office (near Lynnhaven Mall). We're you also hearing the Prison System? If you want my file, send me an PM with your E-mail in it and will send it to you.

I modified my original 996XT file. Before doing that, I was able to hear the State Police from the house, in Chesapeake and was also picking up the prison systems. Now, I can only hear them if the radio is at the Beach.

You have any luck with Norfolk? I can see their skyline from the top of my tower but I cannot hear them. Also, cannot hear the control channel published in RR using my R7000. Ideas ?

 

[willvabch]

State Police

I live in Landstown Lakes. I am getting great Fire, EMS, and VABCH Police all four dispatches. I programmed (uploaded) and on my way to the office from VABCH to Norfolk, I am getting CC inmate, and others. I used the Virginia Beach P25. Its the Orion System.
I am picking up Norfolk Police on my way to work, and when I turn on the scanner in Norfolk. Get the bases too.
Sounds like you don’t have the Chesapeake tower freqs anymore.
I am sure I have to redownload STARS. I'll try to use Chesapeake and Hampton freqs.
You have any luck with Norfolk? I can see their skyline from the top of my tower but I cannot hear them. Also, cannot hear the control channel published in RR using my R7000. Ideas ?
I downloaded the Norfolk police groups and they work if I am in range.
We may have to swap files this weekend.

 

[tglendye]

Any luck, yet? I don't have a Uniden, so my help is limited. Are you downloading STARS from RR's site to your software or are you manually inputting into your software? Also, I am assuming you are picking up the CC. What kind of signal/ decode rate are you getting from that?

 

[WA4HHG]

Stars

Any luck, yet? I don't have a Uniden, so my help is limited. Are you downloading STARS from RR's site to your software or are you manually inputting into your software? Also, I am assuming you are picking up the CC. What kind of signal/ decode rate are you getting from that?

Todd,

I can receive the state police talk groups as long as I'm in VA Beach. However. the Chesapeake tower is only 10 miles away from the house and a clear shot, at that. Tuned my Icom 7000 to the cc listed for Chesapeake last night and faintly heard the data. Makes no sense. More work needs doing here.

 

[tglendye]

It looks like Chesapeake has 2 CC's plus an alternate. Have you tried all three? If you are receiving TG's good at one location and not another it does sound like it is an issue with decoding the CC. Have you tried other antenna's? My experience with digital trunked systems is basically all or nothing and that it is not hard to interfere with the digital signal to the CC.

 

[WA4HHG]

VA State Police - STARS

It looks like Chesapeake has 2 CC's plus an alternate. Have you tried all three? If you are receiving TG's good at one location and not another it does sound like it is an issue with decoding the CC. Have you tried other antenna's? My experience with digital trunked systems is basically all or nothing and that it is not hard to interfere with the digital signal to the CC.

I don't remember trying the alternates but will do so tonight. What is strange is, I can bring my scanner to VA Beach, some 25 miles from the (reported) tower and it decodes fine. Bring the same scanner and same antenna back to Chesapeake, MUCH closer to the tower and I cannot hear the cc.

When I say "hear" the cc, I'm physically listening to it to get an idea of the link quality. There are some unanswered questions here such as maybe they are not using the Chesapeake tower at all.

 

[morrisr3nd]

Have you tried setting the attenuator to something different. It might help.

 

[reconrider8]

try searching in the fcc db and see what the exact frequencies are for the tower in chesapeake cause you could be hearing bleed over from another site on the freq you listened to last night and search the area in the fcc database something in the rr db could be wrong. i can relate to that last thing for the odom site in northampton the fc db had it as like jackson site and i programmed the jackson site in and it was decoding as odom so someone screwed up somewhere maybe the same here?

 

[WA4HHG]

Here is the Coverage

try searching in the fcc db and see what the exact frequencies are for the tower in chesapeake cause you could be hearing bleed over from another site on the freq you listened to last night and search the area in the fcc database something in the rr db could be wrong. i can relate to that last thing for the odom site in northampton the fc db had it as like jackson site and i programmed the jackson site in and it was decoding as odom so someone screwed up somewhere maybe the same here?

This is supposed to be good:

Chesapeake Site Details (Virginia Statewide Agencies Radio System (STARS))

 

[homeinva]

only way i could get it is i just put in chesapeake and franklin towers and stars works fine

 

[WA4HHG]

Am getting State Police Just Fine

I have been getting great traffic on everything except State Police. I live in VABCH. Any help would be great.

I believe the File I have will provide the data you need. Interesting, I'm getting the State Police but thus far, nothing else. Between us, we'll beat the STARS thing and hopefully, Norfolk.

 

[tglendye]

You may want to also try to search between 150-162 mhz and see if you can find an active STARS control channel that is better than what you are getting.

 

[WA4HHG]

You may want to also try to search between 150-162 mhz and see if you can find an active STARS control channel that is better than what you are getting.

There are 2 STARS cc's however the scanner will not stop on the 2nd.

 

[garyjf]

Winradio APCO 25 Trunking Problem

I too am experiencing trunking problems with the Virgijnia State Police. I am picking up about 7 towers with strong to moderate control chanel signals. On ocassion some will work, but most of the time none work.
When it works the voice is clean and intelligable.

In the 380 and 460 Mhx band it works all the time.

 

[tglendye]

What type of scanner are you using? STARS is the only digital trunked system that I monitor regularly, but my experience is if you are using a portable, that it needs to be setting in just the right place to decode the control channel. My portable scanner is a PSR500, and the only way to tell if the scanner is picking the CC up is by the number of bars on the display.

Also, being in D.C., you are subject to a lot of RF interference. If you are using a GRE or Radio Shack scanner, try the ATT button and see if that helps.