Outside of Salt Lake County ...

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522

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I am in Murray. SDS100 with REMTRONIX REM-820S rubber duck antenna.

Anyone one in the Salt Lake Valley able to hear outside of Salt Lake County with a rubber duck antenna?

***Before anyone says get an outside antenna... yeah obviously that is a better solution, but that isn't my question.

Kinda wondering if I'm in a hole, or is there a better rubber duck antenna available? (mostly listening to UCA)
 

522

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And to address the outside antenna... I am actually quite on top of that (hopefully... if it works)

Building a 1/4 wave drooping antenna for roughly 860 MHz.
 

mpcpsrego1

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Hey so I know as a end user of the system, my issued radios only work in the area's I am in currently. So say if I am working in Salt Lake County I cant really hear much on the Davis or Utah county simulcasts, if I am closer to Davis Co. I can hear it better and same with Utah Co. I live in South Davis close to the county line and my issued portable can pick up Salt Lake County depending on if I am outside or inside my house, so when I am home I monitor the Davis Co channels. So basically what I am getting at is if my issued radios are county simulcast based to my location I have a feeling no matter what antenna you put on your scanner I don't see it picking up much outside of SLCo unless your closer to the main simulcast control channel for say Davis or Utah Co and can get a good pick up on the control channel to follow the TG's assigned to that area. A better antenna will increase your reception for sure in the county your listening to but its not gonna improve much on the other counties as far as picking them up from Salt Lake County. I hope this helps you some. Let me know if you have any other questions, I'll try to help out as much as possible!
 

PJH

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Are you not getting signal, or not getting talkgroups?

If your not getting signal, then obvious antenna placement/replacement. If your not getting sites near you or talkgroups, adjust your range setting in the scanner so that it loads in the nearby sites/talkgroups.

If you click on site or talkgroup details in the database, you will see the assigned radius of them. If you are outside of those circles based on the location you gave the scanner, you will need to increase the range.

Increasing the range setting does not guarantee reception (if you cant hear it, its not going to fix it) but it will at least load in more sites and may be able to pick up a different one.
 

522

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As the crow flies...
I am 13 miles South of the Davis County/Salt Lake County Border.
I am 11 miles North of the Utah County/Salt Lake County Border.

My observation seems to coincide with what mpcpsrego1 had mentioned above. Reaching outside of Salt Lake County seems to be a stretch. Unfortunately, I am glad its not just me.

PJH: Played around with adjusting the "Range" settings today, and to no avail.

It is an interesting terrain layout here in the Salt Lake Valley, which I assume weighs heavily on the lack of reception.
 

N7YUO

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I can receive SL Simul, Davis Simul, Weber Simul from my home in Kearns
which I admit is near the top of the hill. I only use a rubber duckie antenna.
The Davis Simul transmitters are: Bountiful PD, Davis Co. SO, Layton PD, and Clearfield PD.
Line-of-site reception to these sites from Murray is blocked by Ensign Peak north of Salt Lake City.
I cannot receive Utah County Simul, so if I want to receive traffic from there,
I put the radio in a south facing window and tune in Lake Mtn.
Here is an option, Nelson Peak has some coverage of Davis, Weber, Summit, Tooele, Utah, and even some
channels from southern Utah. That is where I tune to listen to Tooele County.
Since I have a good line-of-sight, I can receive Cal Mountain north of Tremonton, which is 86 miles away, on rubber duckie.
I'm not bragging, but in my early years of scanning, I wasted money on antennas trying to receive stations that were
too distant or too weak. I even tried an outdoor antenna here in Kearns, year 2002. There was so much RF that my scanner
kept getting overloaded with RFI. Now, in 2020, even more users are crammed into the same amount of spectrum by narrowbanding.
In conclusion, what you can receive is limited by your location, and terrain, not the type of antenna you have.
 

N7YUO

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Reception of Davis Simul may be possible from Murray.

EXPERIMENT:
Today, I traveled to St. Marks Hospital from Kearns.
I tuned the Davis Control Channel, (CC) 852.8375 and opened the squelch.
Reception began to fade out near I-15 & 5400 South.
At 5400 S State St. reception was gone, but then IMC is a huge building that blocks signal.

Returning home, I traveled west on 4100 S.
I began to receive weak signal from Davis at 500 E. But lots of buildings to my north.
When I reached 2700 W, reception was solid.
I scan from my mobile, with scanner mounted on the dash, rubber duckie antenna unobstructed.

CONCLUSION:
The area Between 2700 W to 500 E is a weak signal area (fringe), and you may be able to receive Davis.

TRY YOUR OWN EXPERIMENT
If you have a portable, try it in a high, north-facing window, tuned to 852.8375 see if you get a CC.
Try going around your neighborhood to see if you get a CC.
If you can receive any CC on 852.8375, then an outdoor antenna might be beneficial to you.
Something else to consider, are there any large buildings to your north that would block the signal?
I hope this helps. If anyone has success, please post it for everyone's benefit.
 

522

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Somewhat copied your Experiment:

I turn on "Davis County Simulcast" on my SDS100
Which was loaded from Sentinel:
7202002 (2)Davis County SimulcastDavis, UT852.200852.225852.450852.475852.8125a852.8375c853.150
853.175853.600853.850854.4875

Squelch at 1

Starting at 900 E. heading WEST on Fort Union Blvd
Turn NORTH onto State Street

I made it to 2100 S. before I turned around. No luck. Didn't pick up anything from Davis County Simulcast.

Confused, I came home to look at the Davis County Simulcast Map to see how far it spread out:
82872

And you can see that it almost goes to 3900 S.

Confused why I couldn't pick anything up further North than that.

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome!
 

N7YUO

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You can receive some Davis from SL Simul.
It may not be complete coverage, but its better than nothing.
Looking at the hits in Trunker for SL Simul:
Bountiful PD1-9095 hits
S Davis Met Fire-265
N Davis Fire-108
Davis Fire 1-123
Davis Law1-8091 Patched
Clearfield PD1-61
Layton PD-703
Layton FD-62
ops1-47
ops2-304
ops3-13
ops5-1347
ops6-120
ops8-531
ops9-477
 

522

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First off... oops! Sorry, idk why that image came up full screen!

I'll have to plug those in tomorrow.

How I have my SDS100 programmed from Sentinel:

Salt Lake County:
Police
Fire
EMS

Davis County:
Police
Fire
EMS

Utah County:
Police
Fire
EMS

UHP is on its own
UDOT is on its own

MURRAY PD is on its own (yes I know its in the Salt Lake County, but since I live in Murray, sometimes I just single this one out)

I've got a handful of others but nothing to do with the above.
 

N7YUO

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Kearns, UT
Does anyone else notice that those coverage maps display nice perfect circles?
According to the map for Davis Simul, I should be able to receive it in Salt Lake City!
For a transmitter to have that kind of circular coverage, it would need to be located
in the middle of a desert or on an island.

Davis.PNG
Davis2.PNG
This map with a line drawn from Layton PD site, south past Ensign Peak shows line of sight.
But with Layton PD being farther away, and more obstructions in-between, the signal at ground-level will be weak.
 

N7YUO

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A new, more realistic experiment.
I added a wildcard TG to my bank for Davis.
I locked out anything in that bank that wasn't on Davis Simul.
With minimum squelch, I drove north on I-15 past 600 South.
Received nothing, not even an indication of a CC.
Went to I-215 and drove north. Reception came in at 1400 north.
Turned around and went south. Reception dropped at 1400 north.

Conclusion: Just because you can tune into and hear a CC,
does not mean the CC is strong enough to be decoded by the scanner.

Later, when driving north from Jordan Landing, I first got reception at 6100 S.
And at 5800 S, the S Meter began to show.
So, those of you that live farther east, may I suggest using Nelson Pk or SL Simul.
 

522

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Today I went West on Fort Union Blvd.
North on Redwood Rd.

Made it to 3300 South and still no Davis County Simulcast.
Turned West on 3300 South
Stopped at Valley Fair Mall (2700 West) for a few
Still no Davis County Simulcast
 

522

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Here is a cool website to see line of site between points.


Ensign Peak pretty much cuts me off in Murray to most anything North of Ensign Peak.
 
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