Official Bucks County 700Mhz Phase II Radio System Thread

[phillydjdan]

Guys, I have a better idea. Instead of repeating ourselves, let's instruct those with questions to go back and read the thread from the beginning, since all these answers are already here.

 

[n3ouc]

Guys, I have a better idea. Instead of repeating ourselves, let's instruct those with questions to go back and read the thread from the beginning, since all these answers are already here.

I was thinking that the entire time I was writing the message Dan. Figured in the spirit of the season, I would go through it one more time..:wink:

Mike

 

[radio3353]

Guys, I have a better idea. Instead of repeating ourselves, let's instruct those with questions to go back and read the thread from the beginning, since all these answers are already here.

I have mentioned that to at least one poster, but I think some (many) people want instant answers today without doing all the work. This thread is now 24 pages long. That is probably intimidating to many people. Others love to learn and will take the time to read through the thread. You know...give a fish or teach to fish.

 

[Diehard1212]

Hey guys. New to the scanner world... been using the awesome feeds provided on RR for years now. Been a FF/EMT in bucks since 2010.

Just bought a Pro-688 and seem to be having some problems with it or at least I think so. Sorry in advance if these questions have already been answered.

I first updated the SD card to get the P25 system on there. I set up bucks as my area, then select the categories to listen to. I then went through and made some of them "priorities". For awhile I heard nothing, only dispatch. Then I moved the scanner till I saw the, I guess connection bars show up and the letter "T". Now I will hear random things being said, mostly on the police zones. It will sound clear as could be. I am also listening to the scanners on RR to compare and am missing a lot of transmissions. I have it on "play" mode at this time, which I think scans all the frequencies in there.

Is this usually the case now with the new system? Bear in mind, this is inside, not outside. Did I do anything wrong or need to do something else?

I am looking to monitor mostly all the fire bands, EMS N, EMS S and zones 4 and 6.

Thanks for your help and happy holidays!

 

[trap5858]

I am not familiar with the operation of the 688. I am wondering if having it in the play mode is replaying a recorded reception and not picking up live transmissions.

I am using a BCD436 for my mobile scanning and have noticed since the change over that there do not seem to be as many police transmissions as with the old 500mhz system. I know that the data channel is encrypted so we won't be hearing that. Fire and EMS seem to dominate my reception so far.

You may want to try placing the scanner in different areas and see if that improves reception.

What part of the county are you located in?

Good luck, we will try to help you.

 

[trap5858]

Are you using the pro-668? This appears to be the same as the PSR-800 and the WS- 1080. Are you sure you loaded the correct Bucks County system through the RR database? Not much traffic so far today.

 

[Diehard1212]

Trap5858,

Thanks for the reply. I live in central bucks.

I was picking up some random transmissions today, even on the south band, when I place it near a window.

Yes, I loaded the correct database on it.

Looking into buying the RS800.

 

[pete7919]

Trap5858,

Thanks for the reply. I live in central bucks.

I was picking up some random transmissions today, even on the south band, when I place it near a window.

Yes, I loaded the correct database on it.

Looking into buying the RS800.

I have both the Radio Shack 668 and the Uniden 436. The 668 barely picks up the system while the 436 works fairly well for me. I did have to adjust the decode threshold before it would work reliably. Both have the stock antenna.

 

[Diehard1212]

I tweaked the threshold, and found some good spots, seems to working much better.

 

[Diehard1212]

So, we returned the scanner. Dad did not seem to like it. It was missing a lot of transmissions and was slow while scanning/play mode. Only seemed to work when you "locked" in a channel.

I think we are getting the BCD536HP or another scanner.

Any tips on this scanner? Should it just work perfectly if we run a line outside to an antenna facing doylestown?

Also, what is LSM?

Thanks!

 

[radio3353]

...

Also, what is LSM?

Thanks!

Have you read through this entire thread? Should answer your question.

 

[Diehard1212]

Have you read through this entire thread? Should answer your question.

It seems to me, its an issue with simulcast, just did not know what the letters actually stood for but do now.

 

[bettlewood]

New Bucks System and Unitrunker

Hello all,

Has anyone had any luck monitoring the new Bucks system with Unitrunker and any SDR?

My setup is two R820T2 based RTL-SDR sticks and the latest preview version of Unitrunker 1.0.33.4 (also tried last stable)

The VCO for my Signal is set to 772.98125. When I turn on the Signal receiver it successfully seems to figure out the system channel mappings as seen in this image:

Channel Mappings

I even get call history, active traffic, and frequency hits as seen here:

Calls

My issue is the Voice-assigned SDR stick never seems to follow or lock onto any Voice call and attempt to decode it. The Voice-assigned stick sits there, never trying to lock a signal. The Scope for the Voice shows no activity as it just sits there and never tracks a call. Even if I listen to the raw audio nothing ever locks on.

The one interesting thing is "Svc" used to show "Voice" for the call type, but now shows "4"

Is anyone having similar difficulties or successes?

 

[n3ouc]

I don't think that Unitrunker is able to decode phase II signals which the new Bucks system is.

Mike

 

[bettlewood]

I don't think that Unitrunker is able to decode phase II signals which the new Bucks system is.

Mike

The Audio decoding side is done by piping the signal into DSDPlus via a virtual audio cable.

APCO Project 25 - The RadioReference Wiki also makes me think it has no problem necessarily decoding the Phase II signals. Wouldn't I get no call history/call display at all if that was the case?

This forum post http://forums.radioreference.com/vo...-software/247489-unitrunker-p25-phase-ii.html also show X2/P2 support back in 2012.

 

[wa3ysu]

I can't speak to the SDR portion of the question, but I have had Unitrunker and PRO96Com running for months on the Bucks Phase-2 system with 100% decoding and logging.

 

[bettlewood]

I can't speak to the SDR portion of the question, but I have had Unitrunker and PRO96Com running for months on the Bucks Phase-2 system with 100% decoding and logging.

Ok thanks, that does help me a to know Unitrunker can track the system correctly.

 

[bettlewood]

So like many others I've reached the conclusion my issue here is multipath signal distortion. I didn't notice earlier that the Unitrunker screenshot is actually showing reception from one frequency multiple times. SDRsharp shows blowtorch signals coming in on the voice channels, and if I take Unitrunker out of the equation DSDPlus can't even decode a signal when parked on a simplex channel due to too many decoding errors.

Ah well, this one's too complex for my cheap setup to handle! Thanks for all those who took a look at my posts / replied.

 

[bearcatman56]

thank you for your help n30uc with bucks pa,i live 9 blocks from bucks aross the river in nj I cant get bucks on my hp536 but I get in my car with my hp436 and just start to cross the bridge and I pick bucks up with no problem, this is a tough system !!!!!

 

[radicalbill]

Does each tower use the same freq for control ?

I was wondering if all the towers use the same freq control channel ?

Not sure how that would work. I was thinking they would "bleed" over each other.

I don't know how a system like this works exactly, so if I sound like an idiot, I am sorry.

It seems that it would make sense to have the neighboring towers use an alternate control channel, so the towers in the north would each use the 4 control freqs, and the towers in the south would do the same, so they would not bleed over each other, and the radios would lock onto the strongest tower.

Is this how it works ?

The reason I ask, I am trying to use a yagi at the house and there are only 2 towers that I might be able to receive, and I have a hill in the way to both of them.

If the two towers are using separate control channels, that would make my life a lot easier to figure out which tower to point at.

Right now I am only picking up 773.23125

Thanks

Bill
KC2OVX