Ottawa county michigan

[rantask]

I live in Georgetown Township. I finally updated to a Whistler 1040 but only could gear very little digital and most all garbled. Contacted their help but really no solution and sending the scanner back. For my area what is the best but affordable scanner to pick up simulcast for Ottawa and all the other local going to digital ? Appreciate any ideas.

 

[Hit_Factor]

Uniden SDS series scanner, 100 or 200.

Unication G4 or G5 pager, important that you understand how it differs from a scanner.

 

[afera15]

I live in Georgetown Township. I finally updated to a Whistler 1040 but only could get very little digital traffic and most all garbled. Contacted their help but really no solution so sending the scanner back. For my area what is the best but affordable scanner to pick up simulcast for Ottawa and all the other local going to digital ? Appreciate any ideas.

I would go with either a Uniden SDS-100/200 or Unication G4/G5

The Uniden SDS are both scanners and will work with all traditional bands (VHF/UHF/7/800) This also easier to program right out of the box, you can program with Zip code, however, I still recommend programming favorites list to narrow down what you actually want to scan. These scanners start at $650+

The Unication G Series are Fire Pagers, made specifically for MPSCS, the system Ottawa is on. These program similar to a radio and are more in-depth. They are also limited to the number of TG in a knob to 64. The G4s are 7/800 only and start at $580 and the G5 are Dual Band, 7/800 and either VHF or UHF and start at $670 (pricing is supposed to be changing Jan 1). I personally use this one all the time here in Kent County.

It really depends on what you want to listen to and experience in programming, however unfortunately with simulcasts in our area the scanner is going to be around $600

Feel free to contact me for more info as I sell and program both here in West Michigan and do offer some discounts off the base price.

Fera Comm – Scanner and Pager Services

feracomm.com

 

[just1bob]

I’ve got both a ws1040 and ws 1065 and both work great. Perhaps you needed a better antenna or location in your place. Good luck

 

[afera15]

I would go with either a Uniden SDS-100/200 or Unication G4/G5

The Uniden SDS are both scanners and will work with all traditional bands (VHF/UHF/7/800) This also easier to program right out of the box, you can program with Zip code, however, I still recommend programming favorites list to narrow down what you actually want to scan. These scanners start at $650+

The Unication G Series are Fire Pagers, made specifically for MPSCS, the system Ottawa is on. These program similar to a radio and are more in-depth. They are also limited to the number of TG in a knob to 64. The G4s are 7/800 only and start at $580 and the G5 are Dual Band, 7/800 and either VHF or UHF and start at $670 (pricing is supposed to be changing Jan 1). I personally use this one all the time here in Kent County.

It really depends on what you want to listen to and experience in programming, however unfortunately with simulcasts in our area the scanner is going to be around $600

Feel free to contact me for more info as I sell and program both here in West Michigan and do offer some discounts off the base price.

Fera Comm – Scanner and Pager Services

feracomm.com

I’ve got both a ws1040 and ws 1065 and both work great. Perhaps you needed a better antenna or location in your place. Good luck

It really depends on your area, some areas Simulcast distortion is very minimal and easily correctable, other it's almost impossible to solve with out a new Scanner.

Feel free to look through here for some suggestions:

Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[Ronaldski]

Don't go for a better antenna, in simulcast..."less is more". You want to get at least one tower, but not more.
Location is key, if your say ~ 1 mile or so close to a tower they can overwhelm the towers out.
Turning on the attenuator may help, but seems to not really do much, but its an easy try.
Next try The Paper Clip Antenna

Here are the tower locations, I suspect just1bob is near a tower and it works better.
3760 84TH AVE
12220 FILLMORE
12791 68TH AVENUE
1415 14TH AVENUE
172 MANLEY
3084 HIGHLAND DR
3509 SEHLER ST
469 48TH AVE
4701 PIERCE RD.
SHELDON DRIVE
SW CORNER OF PERRY STREET AND 36TH AVENUE

Other thing is if your say a 1 mile or less from cell tower they can play havoc with reception.

Yes the SDS series would work near flawlessly, but are expensive and don't know your budget.
Any of the current Unidens would work much better with the latest firmware installed.
Portables 325P2, 436HP

 

[Hit_Factor]

I’ve got both a ws1040 and ws 1065 and both work great. Perhaps you needed a better antenna or location in your place. Good luck

Sorry Bob, but that's not needed here.

There are very few places in Michigan where the MPSCS signal is not more than adequate. A "special" or better antenna isn't necessary.

Simulcast is tricky. For you, obviously no problem and you are one of the lucky ones. There are only 5 devices, other than subscriber radios, designed to deal with simulcast issues. The Uniden SDS 100/200, Unication G4/G5, and BlueTail (new kid on the block).

The garbled reception he reported in his post, along with knowledge (MPSCS, Ottawa County, and Simulcast), confirmed the simulcast distortion diagnosis.

 

[kasparek]

Garbled transmissions could be that he was receiving encrypted GRPD and KCSD.

 

[Hit_Factor]

Garbled transmissions could be that he was receiving encrypted GRPD and KCSD.

Maybe, but the OP was pretty clear on this is what he's trying to monitor: Ottawa County Simulcast Site Details (Michigan's Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS)), it's simulcast. Kent is simulcast as well, double whammy with E. The receivers that can't handle simulcast have choked long before the encryption becomes an issue.

I don't know what the 1040 does when it encounters encryption, but it has all the simulcast symptons.

 

[bodnarp]

I would go with either a Uniden SDS-100/200 or Unication G4/G5

The Uniden SDS are both scanners and will work with all traditional bands (VHF/UHF/7/800) This also easier to program right out of the box, you can program with Zip code, however, I still recommend programming favorites list to narrow down what you actually want to scan. These scanners start at $650+

The Unication G Series are Fire Pagers, made specifically for MPSCS, the system Ottawa is on. These program similar to a radio and are more in-depth. They are also limited to the number of TG in a knob to 64. The G4s are 7/800 only and start at $580 and the G5 are Dual Band, 7/800 and either VHF or UHF and start at $670 (pricing is supposed to be changing Jan 1). I personally use this one all the time here in Kent County.

It really depends on what you want to listen to and experience in programming, however unfortunately with simulcasts in our area the scanner is going to be around $600

Feel free to contact me for more info as I sell and program both here in West Michigan and do offer some discounts off the base price.

Fera Comm – Scanner and Pager Services

feracomm.com

Do mnot buy a g4 as they are paging on vhf as the 800 paging is not working great. We had the same problem in Allegan county

 

[bobw4]

I live in G.T. Township as well; I purchased the SDS200 a few months ago. Overall it works well (without distortion) in this area with a couple of exceptions that I will mention below. I just use the provided telescoping antenna on the back of the scanner but keep it collapsed all the way down for the digital channels. The scanner is programmed to receive the Ottawa, Kent & Allegan simulcast systems. I receive not only the non-encrypted talkgroups from Ottawa & Kent counties but also the ones from the counties that border both Ottawa & Kent Counties; therefore the amount of received digital traffic is pretty much constant. I do have an issue where several of the digital transmissions can be hard to discern because the voice quality sounds like the microphones are stuck down their throats. And sometimes there is a very large volume difference between the dispatcher and the car. The SDS200 will let you enter a volume offset but the offset is applied to the entire talkgroup; that doesn’t help when you have a volume disparity within a given talkgroup. With the exception of these issues, a lot of the digital traffic is very clear sounding. As others have mentioned, the SDS200 is on the pricey side.

 

[just1bob]

All I know is what works for me in Allegan co.

 

[lakeboatnut]

I live in Georgetown Township. I finally updated to a Whistler 1040 but only could gear very little digital and most all garbled. Contacted their help but really no solution and sending the scanner back. For my area what is the best but affordable scanner to pick up simulcast for Ottawa and all the other local going to digital ? Appreciate any ideas.

Sometimes what is needed on a simulcast system is not a better antenna but a worse one. The cause of the distortion is receiving more than one tower at a time. In the past I have heard of people using a paperclip or small piece of wire as an antenna to reduce the signal being received to the nearest tower only.

 

[iMONITOR]

"DE" in the Mode column indicates full-time encryption which means you will not be able to listen to these talk-groups.

 

[bodnarp]

Garbled transmissions could be that he was receiving encrypted GRPD and KCSD.

GRPD is still using vhf. I work downtown and they are using vhf. GRFD is on 800

 

[afera15]

All Kent County and Grand Rapids Frequencies are simulcasted to 800, if you watch them on something like unitrunker, you can see them talk the same time on VHF. I also see RIDs for almost all traffic on 800 for GRPD, which means GRPD is on 800, even though it is simulcasted.