hundeesport412
Member
Is it a setting to get a better decode?
To be honest, it'll be tough to increase the decode rate in Pro96Com without first improving the decoding of whatever scanner you have interfaced with the software. I'm not a fan of using a scanner as a receiver like that, especially when LSM is involved. You would actually be better off with a $25 RTL dongle and Unitrunker 2.1
hundeesport412
Member
Thanks
@firemantom26 was your submission meant to be site 3.6 or an update to the neighbor list of site 1.28, or that site 1.28 is now site 3.6? I think the admin assumed the latter. In which case we need to delete 1.28.
1.28 has been switched to 3.6. It has been for a while but I was not able to get it to decode until the other morning
hundeesport412
Member
thanks Frank
That's unusual considering the neighbors are still at their 1.2x numbers. Can you hear any of the neighbors to verify 3.6 is in their adjacent site broadcast as well? Just want to make extra sure is all. Thanks.
Yes, the peers are showing 3.6 also.
This is interesting, it seems they are going to finally utilize the vhf frequencies again except using the P25 protocol , I know when open sky (Harris) was originally installed there were a lot of coverage problems in various areas throughout PA.
Several State Troopers I personally know indicated that they frequently had to use their vhf or low band system to communicate because of terrain problems, mountains or hills blocking signals I would surmise.
The trunked systems do make good use of the spectrum of which they serve, the thing that never made any sense to me is why would anyone just jump on 800 mhz band wagon when you already have a tried and time proven in many cases Vhf system, especially in very rural areas that worked fine?
Just upgrade it to p25 and trunk it problem solved
And with the narrow banding requirements a few years back you actually just doubled your channels, this would have made for several groups on trunked system😄
Several State Troopers I personally know indicated that they frequently had to use their vhf or low band system to communicate because of terrain problems, mountains or hills blocking signals I would surmise.
The trunked systems do make good use of the spectrum of which they serve, the thing that never made any sense to me is why would anyone just jump on 800 mhz band wagon when you already have a tried and time proven in many cases Vhf system, especially in very rural areas that worked fine?
Just upgrade it to p25 and trunk it problem solved
And with the narrow banding requirements a few years back you actually just doubled your channels, this would have made for several groups on trunked system😄
Umm. They already are doing all this.
Welcome to 2017 where they started building it and 2022 when they shut off the old OpenSky system. They are still adding sites but this is in full use now. PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Trunking System, Statewide, Pennsylvania
agreed!
I have not followed its progress for quite some time, but yes after a 286 million dollar failure from the first build out maybe this will finally work.
Again I'm not sure why anyone would buy a bill of goods like the original build out without some type of guarantee.
if you looked at the drastic frequency change and the rush to the failed 800 band, from the beginning you could look at cellular service from various carriers and see the number of towers and infrastructure needed to reliably provide service and thats not always 100%
The thing that bogles the mind is the fact as I stated before, you already know what frequencies are Dependable and work, I think the whole thing was to have connectivity between agencies, It could have simply been done by adding trunking if that is what they wanted and crossband switching, amateur radio has been doing reliable crossband switching for years.
I have not followed its progress for quite some time, but yes after a 286 million dollar failure from the first build out maybe this will finally work.
Again I'm not sure why anyone would buy a bill of goods like the original build out without some type of guarantee.
if you looked at the drastic frequency change and the rush to the failed 800 band, from the beginning you could look at cellular service from various carriers and see the number of towers and infrastructure needed to reliably provide service and thats not always 100%
The thing that bogles the mind is the fact as I stated before, you already know what frequencies are Dependable and work, I think the whole thing was to have connectivity between agencies, It could have simply been done by adding trunking if that is what they wanted and crossband switching, amateur radio has been doing reliable crossband switching for years.
Why are we going back in time to criticize the 800 MHz OpenSky system, when that has been shut down for some time now? The current P25 STARNet system is overwhelmingly VHF, supplemented by some 800 MHz sites primarily in the urban areas.
PS - Narrowbanding didn't "double" channels; it's a bit more nuanced than that. P25 Phase II (TDMA) did double voice traffic channel capacity on P25 trunking, however that's unrelated to VHF narrowbanding.
The P25 system has been on the air since 2016, and is being utilized fully throughout the state at this point. "Going to" is "have gone to".
PS - Narrowbanding didn't "double" channels; it's a bit more nuanced than that. P25 Phase II (TDMA) did double voice traffic channel capacity on P25 trunking, however that's unrelated to VHF narrowbanding.
talviar
Member
A couple of bullet holes in your theory-
The original PSP VHF system in my county was a 2 site VHF Conventional system using Motorola Micor Base stations and Syntor X 9000 VHF Mobiles (110 Watt) and used vehicular repeaters for portable coverage back to the barracks but in many cases the portable worked direct thru the 2 sites.
This was replaced with the Opensky System in the late 90's with an 800 system that was SPEC'ed as a MOBILE ONLY COVERAGE SYSTEM.
Officers and other users continually complained and moaned because their PORTABLE RADIOS did not work reliably on the system. (coverage required many sites to handle 4 slot TDMA voice coverage to provide the level of mobile coverage requested and demanded by users)
Fast forward to late 2020's when a spec was released to install a VHF MOBILE ONLY COVERAGE P25 TDMA trunking system. Yes its a VHF system and yes it works if you have a 110 W P25 TDMA Trunking mobile in the patrol car. It doesn't work on handhelds reliably. Officers b*tch daily cause the coverage sucks.
While the officers used VHF to communicate they did not compare apples to apples and such and many really did not utilize the VHF system to its fullest to understand and realize the limitations of the old VHF Conventional system. We can beat this to death (I think it already has)-
Issues with P25 and VHF Trunking, ask anyone involved how hard it is to get VHF frequencies that aren't slammed out of service on a frequent basis by on channel interference or what the required ERP is now to be able to be licensed by the FCC.
Same applies for UHF. 700 and 800 are very easy to get licenses on by comparison. And before you say 800 doesn't cover in mountainous terrain, can you explain why PA-ICORRS covers Fayette, Somerset, Cambria, Indiana, Westmoreland, Armstrong, and Butler counties on 800 MHz and have very minor coverage issues? The answer is the system works because we worked with the RF engineers and placed RF sites where they provided the best coverage rather than using sites that already existed...
The fact remains users want a PORTABLE COVERAGE system and the powers to be installed a MOBILE COVERAGE system. Until both sides are on the same page, there will be coverage issues.
Yes👍
Very correctly stated!
Firstly nobody is bashing the old 800 system, it was not right to begin with, period!!
Secondly, I’m sorry but you are incorrect
The narrow banding most certainly did create additional channels
The typical 25 khz spacing was required to be split
1 previous channel ( 25 khz) would now yield 2 12.5 khz channels, Harris did something long ago, they split the 25khz channel into (4) 6.25 khz channels on their original trunked system design , so at the time a license for a 25khz channel actually yielded the user more talk path for 1 license fee because your still operating within that 25 khz channel spectrum.
Yes many things have changed since then!
smorris
WX3PMC/WQWZ815/MOPA-27
Ive always wondered the same thing. Why 800 of all bands? It’s dreadful in rural areas and PA is very large. Oh well, I’m glad they learned their lessen, albeit, an expensive one.