NW Utah UCAN Coverage

[pmstewart]

Ok fellow hobbyists....

I spent the day driving NW Utah yesterday .....I spend the entire afternoon driving I-84 / I-15 in Box Elder and Weber Counties.

I took my netbook hooked to a PRO-95 with all the control channels programmed into it - connected to the netbook through the discriminator port and the sound card. The second scanner (PRO-197) connected with a cable and set to Weber Simulcast CC.....third scanner (PRO-197) connected by cable and set to Cal Mountain CC and alternately switched to the Promintory Point CC. All setup to monitor with the windows version of UniTrunker.....

My results floored me!!!! ......I went clear to exit 24 (24 miles from the Idaho border) ....it claims Hansel Mountain is right around exit 7 by Snowville....and the site extends for 25 miles....I could not find any signs of Hansel Mountain. I set my Pro-39 up to scan frequencies between 851.000 and 868.000 while driving. It didn't pick up anything but the vc's and cc's for the already identified stuff.

The thing which really floored me was Weber Simulcast.....it was still going STRONG at exit 24 with no change in signal strength the entire trip. Cal Mountain had some challenges especially when going between or around some mountains in the area. That is to be expected....but Weber Simulcast never waivered.....so on the way home I set one of the PRO-197's to use only Weber Simulcast and all 760 tgid's on the ucan (just for ease) and I could hear all of Northern Utah stuff all the way back to Ogden ....some 70 miles.....

The reengineered site Reservoir Hill cannot provide that kind of coverage in the terrain. There has absolutely got to be other xmitter sites setup along that route....

I did not have time to go up I-15 from the fork towards Malad but trust me when I think the outcome will be the same.....It appears Box Elder has been wired to be handled on Weber Simulcast for the majority of the Eastern side of the County. I think they are still using some of the old VHF stuff in other remote parts of the county but the main part is on Weber Simulcast.

Now it's time to hear from the experts on this stuff......

Paul

 

[gregfab]

Interesting results on that trip. I don't know if this will answer any questions or be much help at all, but my observations from monitoring UCAN in my travels (Cache Valley) with my scanners and using UCAN on Fire Department mobile and handhelds (Cache Valley):

When I monitor UCAN on a scanner I listen to Logan Peak; Cache Simulcast (Pisgah, Downtown Logan and Newton Hill); Cal Mountain and sometimes I include Mount Ogden. When I hear any traffic from Box Elder it seems to reach me in Cache Valley via Cal Mountain, or sometimes on Cache Simulcast, probaby accessed through the tower on Newton Hill. Just west of Newton the mountains are lower elevations and signals may reach Newton Hill becasuse of that, but Cal Mountain is in Riverside and as the crow flies not that distant from Newton Hill so maybe it is hitting both of those towers?

When I use UCAN via mobile or handheld from Newton area we are usually connecting to Cache Simulcast from Newton Hill, but in the west edge of our zone we border with Box Elder and I have noticed our connection to Cal Mountain sometimes when we are over that way on calls. We did go to Downey Idaho in our engine for a live fire training and strangely enough we were communicating back to dispatch in Logan via Hansel Mountain while we were in Downey. Then on the way home we were on Mount Logan for a time then back on Cache Simulcast when we were closer to Newton Hill.

I don't know why Hansel was not coming up on your travels right past its tower, but up north into Idaho it had a pretty good signal that day in July 2011.

 

[Junior1970]

Pilot (Peak) Range and Lynn

Pilot and Lynn are supposedly active and cover the western most portion of Box Elder. Any info on these sites?

 

[pmstewart]

Never even heard of "Lynn".....where did this info come from so I can take a peek at it....

Paul

 

[Spadinator]

I have been able to pick up Lynn and Pilot Mountain with my yagi but I have not heard any traffic on them yet. Others may have.

 

[pmstewart]

So you can pick up the cc for Pilot Mountain in West Point??

If so how far west do you live??

 

[Spadinator]

Sorry I guess I should have clarified. I can go out by GSL in the parking lot of the bird refuge and get pilot and Lynn with my hand held yagi. The last time I checked which was about 6 months ago I did not hear any traffic. That may have changed by now.

 

[Junior1970]

I was wondering if anyone has any cc/acc info for Lynn and Pilot. It's cool that it's possible to pick them up near GSL but what about without a yagi???

I'm getting my Win96 load for Utah up to date between all the additions to Southern Utah as well as changes along the Wasatch Front up to and including Box Elder, Cache and Rich so any additions, subtractions and all I will gladly take it all in. Yes there have been many!!!

 

[Spadinator]

I cannot get Pilot on a normal antenna from GSL. It is just too far out. I plan on going to the west desert area this spring and I was going to run trucker then.