Out of range often

[WeBeCinYa]

I have 3 sites for my P25 system and when I travel my town the radio won’t move to another site for signal. Always wants to stay in the far northern site. I thought when one site was out of range the others work that are closer?

There must be some simple fix in programming??

 

[CFP387]

Is your P25 system a simulcast system? If so, your radio should roam to find the closest (or strongest) signal.

 

[cmjonesinc]

Could be the control channel(s) on the other sites have changed. Can you manually select a site and see if you can receive it that way?

 

[WeBeCinYa]

I did find that some of the control channels did change, so I have updated that. But I swear the radio doesn't receive as well and hunts for a signal. The signal bar is always going from one bar to zero to 3 even when stationary.

 

[CFP387]

Sounds like you may have a multicast system and each site's control channel is on a different frequency. If you know that you are close enough to a site to be receiving full signal bars, then it's likely you don't have all the control channel frequencies correct and it's finding a signal from a tower farther away but on the same system.

 

[cmjonesinc]

What system and sites are you monitoring?

 

[WeBeCinYa]

What system and sites are you monitoring?

VIPER in NC, specifically lincoln county off of the Anderson mountain site. I live near anderson mtn but when I start to travel south away from site, it wants to stay on this site and not flip over to Gaston site.

I did update the sites control channels, that may help but even still in my home, this radio loses Anderson Mountain site where my other G5 never did that.

 

[RF-Burns]

VIPER in NC, specifically lincoln county off of the Anderson mountain site. I live near anderson mtn but when I start to travel south away from site, it wants to stay on this site and not flip over to Gaston site.

I did update the sites control channels, that may help but even still in my home, this radio loses Anderson Mountain site where my other G5 never did that.

Viper is a Multicast System. Program each county as a separate system. Use only Lincoln towers for Lincoln County and only use Gaston towers for Gaston County.

Unfortunately Viper is pretty hard to monitor without an affiliating radio. You never know what towers actual radios on the system are affiliating to. For example I'm in Iredell County, radios regularly affiliate on the Anderson Mountain Site. If someone is using a Unication or scanner and only listening to the Iredell County Sites then transmission won't be heard by the Unication because it's not affiliated on the system.

You then say to yourself, "well if that's the case I should program in all the towers around Lincoln County". The answer is you can but if you pager is picking up the Gaston County site and your dispatch tones out a call and no other radios are affiliating on your dispatch talkgroup on the Gaston County site you aren't going to hear it.

Viper is one big mess when it comes to scanners and Unications.

 

[WeBeCinYa]

I have lincoln only programmed, not gaston...

I live where the star is so Anderson Mtn is close. When I travel down to southern part of county I thought the Gaston tower would flip and I’d hear Lincoln via that tower?

 

[RF-Burns]

I have lincoln only programmed, not gaston...

I live where the star is so Anderson Mtn is close. When I travel down to southern part of county I thought the Gaston tower would flip and I’d hear Lincoln via that tower?

Read my above post, I edited it as you were posting your last message, it explains why it's not that way.

 

[WeBeCinYa]

Thanks for the reply, so basically the Gaston site is useless, I should just keep Anderson Mtn and Lincolnton site only. I got that.

Still doesn't explain why this G5 is constantly out of range though, even at home sometimes when my uniden is getting full signal from anderson mtn and never drops. My previous G5 hardly ever had an out of range message within the entire lincoln county.

 

[RBMTS]

Question for you. Are you dumping all of the control channels into a single site or making different sites? If you dump them into a single site, that will not work. Let's say your primary site is Lincolnton (RFSS 2 Site 095). Now if you dumped a bunch of other site control channels into that profile that won't work. The other CC's will be showing a different RFSS and Site #. Thus the Gx will reject it.

There is a way to create a system profile with multiple sites (see snip). The Gx should then move to new sites automatically if one CC fades for one site and another CC has a stronger signal.

 

[WeBeCinYa]

Question for you. Are you dumping all of the control channels into a single site or making different sites? If you dump them into a single site, that will not work. Let's say your primary site is Lincolnton (RFSS 2 Site 095). Now if you dumped a bunch of other site control channels into that profile that won't work. The other CC's will be showing a different RFSS and Site #. Thus the Gx will reject it.

There is a way to create a system profile with multiple sites (see snip). The Gx should then move to new sites automatically if one CC fades for one site and another CC has a stronger signal.

View attachment 94832

View attachment 94831

Nope I have them separated as shown.

 

[WeBeCinYa]

I guess my largest frustration is that logically, the G5 shouldn't say "out of range" with both Anderson Mountain and Lincolnton sites programmed in, if I am traveling within Lincoln county...right? OR the pager should switch and stop trying to stay on Anderson Mtn...


The link below shows what the Anderson Mountain tower should cover...

North Carolina VIPER Site: Anderson Mountain

North Carolina VIPER Site: Anderson Mountain Details

www.radioreference.com

Maybe my entire issue is Anderson Mountain...should I only have Lincolnton site only, as it looks like it should cover entire county per this link...

North Carolina VIPER Site: Lincolnton

North Carolina VIPER Site: Lincolnton Details

www.radioreference.com

 

[RBMTS]

I would take the coverage maps with a grain of salt. As DB admins, we don't truly know the coverage of sites. The representation is not an official heat coverage map. We have no idea if maybe the site has lobes of coverage. So sometimes the coverage is nothing more than speculation.
Your actual mileage may vary.

 

[CFP387]

...You never know what towers actual radios on the system are affiliating to...If someone is using a Unication or scanner and only listening to the Iredell County Sites then transmission won't be heard by the Unication because it's not affiliated on the system...

Very true, and let me add to that by saying that some county's towers always carry a neighboring county's traffic whether a radio is affiliated on that particular tower or not. There are just some sites that are programmed that way per prior agreements between counties. For example, here in Rowan, I can always monitor Davie, Davidson and Iredell Fire off Site 78 but not always off Site 37. There are two VIPER towers in Rowan within a few miles apart. (Actually there are three but the other is 'technically' in Zone 1).

However, if someone in Murphy and someone in Manteo are on the same TG, all the towers between will not affiliate on that one TG to carry traffic. It will be carried via microwave instead.

But in any case, a tower will always carry local / regional traffic if there is a radio affiliated with it regardless of any agreements between counties.

 

[pro106import]

The only way this would work is to have the Beta scanning firmware and put the 3 zones as separate sites inside the same zone and it will scan all 3 as separate systems. Hopefully Unication will release new firmware soon that allows everyone to take advantage of what was in the Beta version 1.4

 

[APX8000]

Are you entering the RFSS and Site as HEX values, not decimal ?

 

[WeBeCinYa]

Are you entering the RFSS and Site as HEX values, not decimal ?

Yes

 

[Uni1]

Have you gently tried a different antenna? If it has more than a couple dB gain then your pin is most likely pushed in from the prior owner. If the programming is the same on your old and new pager, they both should have the same reception.