I have no idea what your monitoring setup is like, but I assume that you're in a fixed location trying to pull multiple sites in. If you're not using an outdoor antenna that excels on the bands you're trying to receive (which is unlikely given the Erie sites cover VHF, UHF, and 800), or good quality, low loss coax with quality, properly installed connectors (preferably N or BNC) between the antenna and scanner...well then you're probably not going to have much luck picking anything up other than one or two local sites that have a strong signal in your location. If it were that easy to receive so many sites, then they really wouldn't need to build so many sites to provide adequate coverage in the first place, would they?
The other day it was the airport now this system. When are you going to realize you need a GOOD ANTENNA? At the very least get a Diamond RH77CA. For use on the base units you will need a right angle BNC male/BNC female adapter.
Just trying to stay active on the forum and ask questions other people might also have. I do use the Diamond antenna, since an outside antenna isn't an option for me. Not sure what you mean about the airport - that comes in fine on the Erie County system.
It does seem that you have a tendency to ask repetitive questions that have been answered numerous times, both in this thread as well as the Erie County TRS thread. Most of your woes are due to an inadequate setup. You can't expect to reliably receive anything other than strong local signals if you're using a back-of-set antenna or multi-band antenna buried up in the attic.
Weak Air Band?
Is it normal for the 536 to have mediocre reception on the air band? I'm only a mile from the airport and I don't get a real strong signal using a telescoping antenna. In the basement it's worse of course. Older scanners do better. Anything I can do?
FWIW this afternoon I was able to receive both North East UHF (Erie 93) and Five Points VHF (Erie 82) from home using a small Yagi inside the attic. I can get Erie 800 (Erie 80) also if I move the antenna.
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Were you hearing the Game Commision and PennDOT?Weak Air Band?
Is it normal for the 536 to have mediocre reception on the air band? I'm only a mile from the airport and I don't get a real strong signal using a telescoping antenna. In the basement it's worse of course. Older scanners do better. Anything I can do?forums.radioreference.com
FWIW this afternoon I was able to receive both North East UHF (Erie 93) and Five Points VHF (Erie 82) from home using a small Yagi inside the attic. I can get Erie 800 (Erie 80) also if I move the antenna.
I was in the analyze mode so no traffic. I have Five Points VHF on record today so we will see if there is any PGC traffic. There is very little PGC activity at this time of the year, although I did hear a unit going off duty last night. I don't monitor PennDOT talk groups although in the past I have seen a lot of activity on Erie800.
- Joined
- May 19, 2017
- Messages
- 609
Any clue what the Northern Border patch talkgroups are? It is to my understanding that there are a couple talkgroups that are patched with MARCS, MPSCS, and possibly Canada as well. Are they still on Open Sky, or would they have been moved to STARNet yet?
racefan0020
Member
Hope for some help with talkgroup id's that aren't in the database yet. In the penndot talkgroups I have 11042, 11117, 11179, 11214, 11403, 11405, 11408, 11450, 11462, 11463, 11464, 11792, 11806 and 11884. In the pgc talkgroups I have 12038. Then I have the unknown association talkgroups 12554, 12566, 12597, 12598, 12612, 12622, 12727, 12728, 12748, 13535, 13539, 20000, 20002, 20004, 20015 and 20018. I didn't check all 149 pages of this thread to see if any of these have been identified before, so I'm sorry if they have and I didn't check. I am hopeful that someone out there knows any of these. Thanks in advance.
Probably ought to check the wiki..
Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network (PA-STARNet) Talkgroup Research - The RadioReference Wiki
Soooo...what tower(s) have you caught these on? Any voice? Indications of enc/clear? Radio affiliations? Do you have any other info you can provide?
racefan0020
Member
Thanks for the wiki info, so far it looks like I should be able to id a lot, if not all of the talkgroups. I am running a trx-2 and record all wildcard hits. All of the talkgroups listed have either been with voice a few have been encrypted. Right now I am scanning STARNet by setting it up in 5 separate systems, thus maximizing the towers in and around the area. I am located in western York Co and my 5 systems are 1. York vhf frequencies. 2. York 800 frequencies. 3. Adams/Cumberland vhf frequencies. 4. Dauphin/Perry vhf frequencies. And 5. Lancaster/Lebanon vhf frequencies. I have broken down all of the systems I scan similarly. It works out great for the local talkgroups that are site specific.
is the TRX-2 your only scanner? I am also running a TRX-2 in a similar fashion. At the moment I'm only able to receive one site(at home). But I am also monitoring that one site with a Radio Shack Pro-652 using PRO96COM. If there's a considerable amount of traffic I have a scanset dedicated to STARNet P25. Unitrunker will work as well.
For those interested in listening to/recording this system (or any other P25 system for that matter), I strongly recommend picking up at least one RTL dongle (NooElec, RTL-SDR.com, FlightAware Pro Stick (orange not blue), etc.) and downloading the latest release of SDRTrunk (runs on Windows, Linux, or OSX using Java).
The software has come a long way in recent months, and is a great way to capture all active talkgroups at a site simultaneously, often requiring only one or two dongles, depending on the site channel configuration.
If all frequencies at a site don't span more than 2.4 MHz (e.g. 155.445, 155.550, 156.1125 = 0.6675 MHz of bandwidth), one dongle will suffice. If the frequencies span more than 2.4 MHz, you'll need additional dongles to cover the other frequencies (e.g. 854.6375, 856.8375, 857.9375, 858.8375 = 4.2 MHz of bandwidth, requiring two dongles)
Unitrunker is my weapon of choice for pure logging of activity, in particular the latest v2.1 branch, however SDRTrunk is the new king for FDMA/TDMA voice decoding and recording. Coupled with Trunking Recorder, it's darn near an unbeatable combo.
The software has come a long way in recent months, and is a great way to capture all active talkgroups at a site simultaneously, often requiring only one or two dongles, depending on the site channel configuration.
If all frequencies at a site don't span more than 2.4 MHz (e.g. 155.445, 155.550, 156.1125 = 0.6675 MHz of bandwidth), one dongle will suffice. If the frequencies span more than 2.4 MHz, you'll need additional dongles to cover the other frequencies (e.g. 854.6375, 856.8375, 857.9375, 858.8375 = 4.2 MHz of bandwidth, requiring two dongles)
Unitrunker is my weapon of choice for pure logging of activity, in particular the latest v2.1 branch, however SDRTrunk is the new king for FDMA/TDMA voice decoding and recording. Coupled with Trunking Recorder, it's darn near an unbeatable combo.
racefan0020
Member
The trx-2 is the only phase 2 scanner I have. I do also run a pro 197 off the same antenna. The antenna is about 30 ft up on my chimney. Add to that I live on top of a hill(500ft) so I'm in a good receive spot. I use the pro 197 for my conventional frequencies and phase 1 systems so that I can hear what's going on when the trx is on something else. I am a retired vol firefighter so scanning is deep in the blood. Lol
The Pro-652 is a clone of the Pro-197. Neither are phase II capable, but you can use either one with Unitrunker or Pro96COM. They won't decode the sound but they will display the DATA. They both provide a wealth of information.
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- May 19, 2017
- Messages
- 609
While traveling yesterday, I got a signal but no voice on TG20013 on the BEAV01 site
racefan0020
Member
According to the Wiki page, it says that 20013 is Warren County radio testing. So I guess that it will. Be part of the Warren County system, when it comes online. This is also the case with tgid's 20000 through 20018.
Please refer to this thread for specifics of the Warren County STARNet sites/talkgroups (it's not a separate system).
Warren County P25
Warren County begins transition onto the P25 statewide VHF STARNet system... https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/41261530/warren-county-launches-new-radio-system --- Anyone in the area familiar if county law enforcement communications will be encrypted? I'm already aware PSP is full encryption on...
WQUV758 -- PENDING
- adding an additional site (BLAI02) to this license
BLAI02 - Martinsburg, PA (Blair) -- the license submission says Bedford Co but it's Blair Co
OFF ROUTE 164 3 MILES E OF MARTINSBURG
www.google.com
151.2275
155.52
156.21
- adding an additional site (BLAI02) to this license
BLAI02 - Martinsburg, PA (Blair) -- the license submission says Bedford Co but it's Blair Co
OFF ROUTE 164 3 MILES E OF MARTINSBURG
40°17'34.8"N 78°15'38.0"W · 40.293000, -78.260556
www.google.com
151.2275
155.52
156.21