police scanners

suelee

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
16
That is totally untrue! The Elkhart County site on SAFE-T shows 5 subsites. The scanner may or may not suffer from simulcast distortion depending upon the OP's location in relation to the towers. Suelee, do you have the programming cable for the scanner?
no
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
9,864
Location
Baltimore County, MD
I still use the Radio Shack 20-546 cable with my PRO-197. You will need a programming cable to program your scanner using software.
 

ind224

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2004
Messages
789
Location
Indianapolis
Attenuating an offending or competing signal(s) is what is required. To be fair 5 different 197s (or 600's) could be less or more sensitive out of alignment etc. Moving the radio itself or turning it on its side may well matter. Audio matters for decode quality.
Do you have one of the "normal" scratchy or dead spot volume pots? Across my fleet squelch at about 1030 to 11 o' clock seems to work best. Tried the 3.5 inches of exposed center coax as an antenna? Foil makes a great shield or attenuator and is easy to manipulate for real time results. A home made three element POS yagi is what I use for Marion County.
Try this. Program the CC's you need or want. Check alternates, who knows what happened in the last 24 hours. You can add up to 32 per system and this is easily done w/o a computer.
Once they are in scan and SEE what you get; when hearing or not even if garbled choppy or nothing at all as long as you see TSYS flash on the screen even briefly immediately push F2 then F3 to analyze. Trying to get 5 bars, decode % is what I focus on 99% being the display limit. You will also see what site you are hearing so you know what direction is dominant. Marion County has two sites and it shows the same site # no matter what, SAFE T does not do that to me no matter where in the state I was.
You can hear "white noise" trying to mix with the CC signal and hear fading in and outs. A sweep might be 84 percent then jump to 96 and back down to 54 depending on wind weather and trees.
I succeeded by trial and error. The automated fire dispatch would always drop just the address numbers but the rest was always there. Now I have it all.
 

Attachments

  • 20221120_014026.jpg
    20221120_014026.jpg
    40.5 KB · Views: 32

west-pac

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
1,609
Attenuating an offending or competing signal(s) is what is required. To be fair 5 different 197s (or 600's) could be less or more sensitive out of alignment etc. Moving the radio itself or turning it on its side may well matter. Audio matters for decode quality.
Do you have one of the "normal" scratchy or dead spot volume pots? Across my fleet squelch at about 1030 to 11 o' clock seems to work best. Tried the 3.5 inches of exposed center coax as an antenna? Foil makes a great shield or attenuator and is easy to manipulate for real time results. A home made three element POS yagi is what I use for Marion County.
Try this. Program the CC's you need or want. Check alternates, who knows what happened in the last 24 hours. You can add up to 32 per system and this is easily done w/o a computer.
Once they are in scan and SEE what you get; when hearing or not even if garbled choppy or nothing at all as long as you see TSYS flash on the screen even briefly immediately push F2 then F3 to analyze. Trying to get 5 bars, decode % is what I focus on 99% being the display limit. You will also see what site you are hearing so you know what direction is dominant. Marion County has two sites and it shows the same site # no matter what, SAFE T does not do that to me no matter where in the state I was.
You can hear "white noise" trying to mix with the CC signal and hear fading in and outs. A sweep might be 84 percent then jump to 96 and back down to 54 depending on wind weather and trees.
I succeeded by trial and error. The automated fire dispatch would always drop just the address numbers but the rest was always there. Now I have it all.
All of that is way too excessive for trying to learn how to program a few 770Mhz freqs into a scanner. Smh.
 

suelee

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
16
All of that is way too excessive for trying to learn how to program a few 770Mhz freqs into a scanner. Smh.
I have been trying to delete the old frequencies out but I'm not getting anywhere they keep coming back. I have programmed a few SAF T frequencies in there but it seems to stick on just one. I'm still working on it. I have received good signal also.
 

west-pac

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
1,609
I have been trying to delete the old frequencies out but I'm not getting anywhere they keep coming back. I have programmed a few SAF T frequencies in there but it seems to stick on just one. I'm still working on it. I have received good signal also.
Yea, you're probably programming them in as an analog channel (like your other channels) and it's getting hung up on the P25 control channel. You need to program those red 770Mhz frequencies as P25 channels.
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
9,864
Location
Baltimore County, MD
You need to create a P25 Auto trunked system. Program these 2 frequencies into the site: 772.55625, 772.93125. I would set Digital AGC to Off. The AGC action can increase garbled audio problems when dealing with simulcast systems. I have had better luck setting SuperTrack to On with simulcast. Multi-Site should be set to Off. You don't need to worry about trunking tables with a P25 system. You also don't need to worry about Check all Control Channels. That setting is active only when Multi-Site is set to Stationary. It has been ages since I programmed a PRO-197 manually. I did it once for a large system and I wish I hadn't. It is so much faster and easier using software. Doing alpha tags manually, you must press a 2-button code for each character. It is just too time consuming. Using software, all of the programming information is available at a glance. It is not buried in menus. That greatly reduces the chance of programming errors. If you had programming software and a cable, I could provide a file for you to program your scanner.
 

suelee

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
16
You need to create a P25 Auto trunked system. Program these 2 frequencies into the site: 772.55625, 772.93125. I would set Digital AGC to Off. The AGC action can increase garbled audio problems when dealing with simulcast systems. I have had better luck setting SuperTrack to On with simulcast. Multi-Site should be set to Off. You don't need to worry about trunking tables with a P25 system. You also don't need to worry about Check all Control Channels. That setting is active only when Multi-Site is set to Stationary. It has been ages since I programmed a PRO-197 manually. I did it once for a large system and I wish I hadn't. It is so much faster and easier using software. Doing alpha tags manually, you must press a 2-button code for each character. It is just too time consuming. Using software, all of the programming information is available at a glance. It is not buried in menus. That greatly reduces the chance of programming errors. If you had programming software and a cable, I could provide a file for you to program your scanner.
That 772.93125 is the frequency that sticks. Is the P25 Auto trunked system a system that you communicate with someone? I just want to listen, not talk. Are you listening on a computer, or an actual scanner?
 

JethrowJohnson

Active Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2022
Messages
900
Location
Marietta OH
That 772.93125 is the frequency that sticks. Is the P25 Auto trunked system a system that you communicate with someone? I just want to listen, not talk. Are you listening on a computer, or an actual scanner?
The scanner can only receive, not transmit. A P25 Trunk system is just a specialized radio system that is designed for interoperability between agencies and it has other features that make it safer for officers and firefighters in emergencies and it gives them the ability to have more channels using less frequencies.
 

suelee

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
16
The scanner can only receive, not transmit. A P25 Trunk system is just a specialized radio system that is designed for interoperability between agencies and it has other features that make it safer for officers and firefighters in emergencies and it gives them the ability to have more channels using less frequencies.
So I can just keep putting the frequencies into the scanner and see what I can hear, and what I'm interested in listening to, and learn more along the way.
 

JethrowJohnson

Active Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2022
Messages
900
Location
Marietta OH
So I can just keep putting the frequencies into the scanner and see what I can hear, and what I'm interested in listening to, and learn more along the way.
That's right. Ya learn as ya go. I've been using scanners for about 5 years now and I'm still learning.
 

west-pac

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
1,609
So I can just keep putting the frequencies into the scanner and see what I can hear, and what I'm interested in listening to, and learn more along the way.

Watching this video. It will show you step-by-step how to program the Elkhart site into your scanner, in the first 5 minutes of that video. Where he enters 855.125, you will enter 772.93125, then scroll down to the second frequency and enter 772.55625. After that, select the Wildcard, and then click save, and you should be good to start scanning.

 

suelee

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
16
Watching this video. It will show you step-by-step how to program the Elkhart site into your scanner, in the first 5 minutes of that video. Where he enters 855.125, you will enter 772.93125, then scroll down to the second frequency and enter 772.55625. After that, select the Wildcard, and then click save, and you should be good to start scanning.

That is some very valuable information, it answered some of my questions. I will work with this tomorrow. Thank You. I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks again
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
9,864
Location
Baltimore County, MD
The control channel and wildcard will get you scanning but you will need to guess what you are listening to without alpha tags. All you will see is a talkgroup ID number. You can cross reference the TGID with the database to find out what it is and enter the alpha tag into the scanner.
 

suelee

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
16
The control channel and wildcard will get you scanning but you will need to guess what you are listening to without alpha tags. All you will see is a talkgroup ID number. You can cross reference the TGID with the database to find out what it is and enter the alpha tag into the scanner.
Yea when I figu
The control channel and wildcard will get you scanning but you will need to guess what you are listening to without alpha tags. All you will see is a talkgroup ID number. You can cross reference the TGID with the database to find out what it is and enter the alpha tag into the scanner.
I programmed some more frequencies in there tonight. I'm just happy to be listening again.
 

west-pac

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
1,609
Yea when I figu

I programmed some more frequencies in there tonight. I'm just happy to be listening again.

Are you able to scan the digital system, and hear police, fire, ems, and snow plows again?
 

suelee

Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
16
I've been busy lately so I haven't listened. Will let you know when I get to listen again.
I have been listening again, I just don't hear the 5 digit codes, maybe they aren't doing anything either. I have managed to figure out who some of the codes belong to and get rid of them.
 

tvengr

Well Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
9,864
Location
Baltimore County, MD
Is the P25 Auto trunked system a system that you communicate with someone? I just want to listen, not talk. Are you listening on a computer, or an actual scanner?
If you set the system type to P25 Auto, the trunking tables will automatically be loaded from the control table with the correct band plan. If set to P25 Manual, you need to enter the correct values into the tables for the system to function correctly.
 
Top