The Pinellas system seems to be a bit of an odd duck. Previously, I had been listening to Pinellas site 5 for years using a HomePatrol 2 without issue, as I live VERY close to one of the Pinellas tower locations. Beginning about six months ago, however, reception of the site 5 control channel (CC) became very spotty with the HP2 and virtually nothing I tried improved the reception. Just recently, I bit the bullet and purchased an SDS-200 and - while reception of the Pinellas system has improved somewhat - I still have reception issues.
Currently, I am using a tiny stub of a stripped-coax "antenna" since anything larger will not allow the SDS-200 to capture the site 5 CC. When a channel grant occurs, the signal of the voice channel is always strong and the audio is loud and clear... only the CC is difficult to receive. My working theory is that another CC is interfering with the site 5 CC. Most Pinellas tower locations have additional CC's supporting other related "sites", but the interfering signal might also be coming from some other nearby but unrelated location.
If anyone has any thoughts on this issue, I'm happy to listen.