PHOENIX_SCANNER
Member
After a few years of frustration TRYING to monitor the PRWN TRS, with its half dozen simulcast sites, I had resigned myself to simply scanning other things for the most part. It was that bad. When I picked up my latest PSR scanners, they did a better with the system at first, or so it seemed, but after a few days I realized it wasn't as much better as I had thought, and at times (especially during times of high activity - weekend nights), half of every transmission was cutting out and choppy, still. So back to scanning other things for the most part. At times on Friday night it seemed, I was only hearing a quarter of everything, with most all transmissions cutting out BADLY. I heard about 25% of what was said on "bad days". Ugly. And enough to turn my ears elsewhere.
After years of speculation of what effect a yagi would have on the situation I purchased a wilson 14db yagi with a center frequency of 855 off ebay for $60.
Ok first does it work? A resounding YES!! YES!!! Monitoring the phoenix system is now as pleasurable as any other p25 system in the valley!
Now like any other p25 system I know, there is the occasional garbled word or "digital" sounding voice, but those things are far and few between overall. So reception is not absolutely perfect, but I don't consider any p25 system around here to be totally perfect, they all digitize the voice occasionaly.
But up until now the Phoenix system was FAR FAR FAR worse than any other system around, and now it is the same.
So I am going to call this a RESOUNDING 100% SUCCESS!! I went from hearing 25%, to around 95% or better, which is as good as any other p25 system I listen to.
For about $100 total you too can actually monitor the PRWN for the first time. This of course unless you are one of those lucky few who live in a sweet spot already where reception is good.
But this is for all of you like myself who are SICK OF THE CUTTING OUT and want to listen normally again!
Now you need to understand a few things if you want to do this, so read on. It takes some thinking and planning as to HOW TO AIM YOUR YAGI. This is the key to making the most out of this method. Read on.
After first aiming it directly at the nearest transmitter with good but not perfect results, I determined something.
Unlike the typical use of a yagi, where you would point it directly at the antenna you are trying to receive from, this is a different situation.
I didn't need more gain from the transmitter on the mountain four miles away, I needed ATTENUATION of the other nearby towers, first and foremost.
Two others were fairly close, and the other ones were much farther, so I decided to focus on eliminating the signals from the closer two.
After looking at the radiation / reception pattern for the antenna, and seeing that the maximum attenuation occured at 90 degrees, I positioned it so that the 90 degree point was right in between the two nearby offending towers. A compromise if you will. Neither got the absolute maximum attenuation, but both got equally strong attenuation. By my calculation, with the 20db attenuation of my scanner, plus loss from the cable / connectors, this gave a total of about 61db attenuation to these two towers.
Now it may seem strange, but the antenna was not pointed directly at the tower I wanted, but 6 degrees off that mark, so that the other two WOULD GET MAXIMUM ATTENUATION. I am still getting 12db of boost for the site I want (didn't even need that really), but MORE IMPORTANTLY, I am ATTENUATING the offending towers TO THE MAXIMUM DEGREE, which is the REAL GOAL, not getting gain from the tower I am trying to listen to.
Trying to aim the yagi directly at the tower you want, very well MAY NOT give the best result, depending on your situation if you try this method. HOW you aim is important. Plot out all nearby towers and look at what their attenuation / gain with be with the antenna pointed various ways, with the end goal of attenuating the offenders as much as possible, while still pointed enough towards what you want TO NOT ATTENUATE IT.
I wanted to share this with everyone, and for the skeptics, I am planning a live feed of Phoenix PD in the near future. As far as I know it will be the first successful feed of this agency since the switch to p25 simulcast. My personal belief is that nobody has tried for the reasons listed above. It wasn't listenable, and worth the effort, until now.
The least I can do is share good listening with those who can't for whatever reason install a yagi and dedicate a scanner.
After years of speculation of what effect a yagi would have on the situation I purchased a wilson 14db yagi with a center frequency of 855 off ebay for $60.
Ok first does it work? A resounding YES!! YES!!! Monitoring the phoenix system is now as pleasurable as any other p25 system in the valley!
Now like any other p25 system I know, there is the occasional garbled word or "digital" sounding voice, but those things are far and few between overall. So reception is not absolutely perfect, but I don't consider any p25 system around here to be totally perfect, they all digitize the voice occasionaly.
But up until now the Phoenix system was FAR FAR FAR worse than any other system around, and now it is the same.
So I am going to call this a RESOUNDING 100% SUCCESS!! I went from hearing 25%, to around 95% or better, which is as good as any other p25 system I listen to.
For about $100 total you too can actually monitor the PRWN for the first time. This of course unless you are one of those lucky few who live in a sweet spot already where reception is good.
But this is for all of you like myself who are SICK OF THE CUTTING OUT and want to listen normally again!
Now you need to understand a few things if you want to do this, so read on. It takes some thinking and planning as to HOW TO AIM YOUR YAGI. This is the key to making the most out of this method. Read on.
After first aiming it directly at the nearest transmitter with good but not perfect results, I determined something.
Unlike the typical use of a yagi, where you would point it directly at the antenna you are trying to receive from, this is a different situation.
I didn't need more gain from the transmitter on the mountain four miles away, I needed ATTENUATION of the other nearby towers, first and foremost.
Two others were fairly close, and the other ones were much farther, so I decided to focus on eliminating the signals from the closer two.
After looking at the radiation / reception pattern for the antenna, and seeing that the maximum attenuation occured at 90 degrees, I positioned it so that the 90 degree point was right in between the two nearby offending towers. A compromise if you will. Neither got the absolute maximum attenuation, but both got equally strong attenuation. By my calculation, with the 20db attenuation of my scanner, plus loss from the cable / connectors, this gave a total of about 61db attenuation to these two towers.
Now it may seem strange, but the antenna was not pointed directly at the tower I wanted, but 6 degrees off that mark, so that the other two WOULD GET MAXIMUM ATTENUATION. I am still getting 12db of boost for the site I want (didn't even need that really), but MORE IMPORTANTLY, I am ATTENUATING the offending towers TO THE MAXIMUM DEGREE, which is the REAL GOAL, not getting gain from the tower I am trying to listen to.
Trying to aim the yagi directly at the tower you want, very well MAY NOT give the best result, depending on your situation if you try this method. HOW you aim is important. Plot out all nearby towers and look at what their attenuation / gain with be with the antenna pointed various ways, with the end goal of attenuating the offenders as much as possible, while still pointed enough towards what you want TO NOT ATTENUATE IT.
I wanted to share this with everyone, and for the skeptics, I am planning a live feed of Phoenix PD in the near future. As far as I know it will be the first successful feed of this agency since the switch to p25 simulcast. My personal belief is that nobody has tried for the reasons listed above. It wasn't listenable, and worth the effort, until now.
The least I can do is share good listening with those who can't for whatever reason install a yagi and dedicate a scanner.
