Poplar Bluff PD/FD New System

[dgholson]

What are you using for an antenna?

Since I do not normally listen to EMS I cannot help you with that question. I think PB has two EMS services.

I have a discone mounted on the side of my house, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Medic One uses cells for their dispatching, so there is no hearing them at all.

 

[dgholson]

You mentioned you are using ProScan, to get a more detailed record you might try while viewing the log grid, checking the very first box in the upper right corner that reads "Each transmission new row".

That is what I'm using.

 

[AC0RV]

I use the same thing. Can you send me a screen shot of the UID Logging section.

 

[dgholson]

I use the same thing. Can you send me a screen shot of the UID Logging section.

Mine is blank:

 

[dgholson]

Since last Saturday, this is what I show: The only frequencies I've been getting hits on are 859.2375, 857.2375, and 854.2375... All from the "Water Tower" site.

Still hearing gaps in transmissions on occasion. So, there is still some setting that must not be right.

 

[RF23]

Until you can pickup Site 2 (VA Center), which I am pciking up with the same setting as you, you will be missing half the traffic.

The ICOM Discone antenna I had needed a moderatly strong signal, cables do go bad especially if out doors and radio frontends can get weaker over time for various reasons.

Tuesday several PBPD mobile units asked for Radio Checks, a few hours later Radio Service was testing the system. I do not know if it had any thing to do with the VA signal strentgh problem.

Also, Tusday night during the rain i noticed that Site 2 was only 2 bars of signal strength. The RSSI showed it was 24db weaker than Site 1, which means way over 100X weaker. I was still able to read everything clearly but I am in town.

I am going to get my BC 436HP & SDS100 portables to see if they can even pick up VA Site 2.

 

[RF23]

Big News!

I used my BCD436HP with a 800 MHz Uniden stubby portiable antenna, (7 " long) and it Worked!

I used the same Favorites List I posted but I did have to find a "hot spot" by moving it a bit. The first Site 2 broadcast was only 1 or 2 bars and ProScan reported an RSSI of 89 but when I moved it a few inches and held it there it was between 200 & 315 RSSI. Site 1 was 435 RSSI, 5 bars and steady in both positions.

If you have a portable antenna good for 800 MHz (or a phsical antenna that you can collaspe to the right length), put it on your scanner and move it aroud to try and find a hot spot. Don't forget most coaxial cables will eat 850 MHz signals like candy.

Thanks for the info on EMS! What little I listened to it I knew I seemed to be missing some traffic. I have heard a lot of snow plow operators are using Cell Phones because thier plow radios over load thier radios if they get to close to each other.

 

[sseawright]

Butler County EMS and PB Fire are both simulcast.

 

[dgholson]

There was a couple of times in the past week that I picked up something from the VA tower, but it was while I was away and I only noticed it on the log for ProScan. Also, I'm still only show hits on the same three frequencies from the Water Tower. Those being 854.2375, 857. 2373, and 859.2375... No hits on the other 2 frequencies.

I don't have the option of moving my antenna unfortunately.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

[RF23]

Butler County EMS and PB Fire are both simulcast.

I Thought I heard some multi-path distortion with the BCD436HP & some slight distortion with my SDS200.
Peoople with hardware discriminators in thier radios are not going to like this much. Hopfully, they are still making adjustments as the first day of broadcasting several EMS broadcasts were almost unreadable and that was with the SDS200 which has a software discriminator which is suppose to be able to handle simulcasts. However, after five or six broadcasts it got a lot better.

 

[RF23]

There was a couple of times in the past week that I picked up something from the VA tower, but it was while I was away and I only noticed it on the log for ProScan. Also, I'm still only show hits on the same three frequencies from the Water Tower. Those being 854.2375, 857. 2373, and 859.2375... No hits on the other 2 frequencies.

I don't have the option of moving my antenna unfortunately.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Something you can try is to program the control channel on the VA site as an ordinary conventional freq., this way any settings or adjustments are eliminated. Aslo, you will not have to wait for anyone to talk as the control channel is constantly broadcasting.

 

[semo]

DSD+ shows the Water Tower site neighbors are sites 2 and 3. Both neighbors show a control channel of 1 being 855.9875. I cant receive either one from my location.

 

[sseawright]

The Industrial Park site just now went live today. Can someone scan that system and get the LCNs and RAN numbers? Also for more actuate updated info, the FCC location information is incorrect. The mid town site IS NOT the VA, it is located on the Harper Street water Tower.

 

[RF23]

Here you go.

Unfortunately, it is only about 2 to 4 dbs stronger, from my location, than the weak Site 2 (VA Center).

I have received all the channels but the ones with a question mark after the LCN, as they are just guesses as to their value.. However, I am montoring them as conventional channels as well so if any broadcast occurs ProScan will record it.

You might need to find your portable antenna that your mobile/base scanner came with and hook it up. This will allow you to move the radio around to find a “hot spot or two”. One person gained almost two full bars of signal strength this way. I will soon be replacing my 10-year-old coaxial cable as in the attic it gets over 125 degrees in the summer time and this no doublt has degraded the dilelectri foam in the cable.

Below are my findings so far.

Don’t forget to remove the .zip extension from the .hpe file name as this is not a Zip file.

Site 1, Ran 1​ LCN​ Site 2, Ran 2​ LCN​ Site 3, Ran 3​ LCN​ Loc 1​ Loc 3​ Loc 5​ 854.2375​ 1​ 855.2125c​ 5​ 855.9875c​ 9​ 856.2375c​ 2​ 856.2125​ 6​ 856.9875​ 10​ 857.2375​ 3​ 857.2125​ 7​ 857.9875​ 11​ 858.2375​ 5 ?​ 858.2125​ 9 ?​ 858.9875​ 12​ 859.2375​ 4​ 859.2125​ 8​ 859.9875​ 13?​

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[RF23]

DSD+ shows the Water Tower site neighbors are sites 2 and 3. Both neighbors show a control channel of 1 being 855.9875. I cant receive either one from my location.

Hi Semo

Thanks for the DSD+ info, it was spot on! This gave me a headstart on programming before Site 3 came online.

I still have my two dongles that i used for DSD+ when it was about the only game around.

It is an outstanding program and WAY cheaper than an SDS scanner.

 

[RF23]

Also for more actuate updated info, the FCC location information is incorrect. The mid town site IS NOT the VA, it is located on the Harper Street water Tower.

I missed this yesterday because I was in such a hurry to get the info out.

This certainly could make a difference, in both height and distance from a reception standpoint.

The "hpe" file i posted, i left the LCN off for the unknown LCN frequency hoping it might make a difference but it didn't.

So, today I removed ALL filters (put evrything into SEARCH mode) from my conventional scan of these three channels with unknown LCNs (sites 1, 2, & 3) and in less than 10 minutes all three channels had data bursts of about 2 to 3 sconds (some longer).

They were a bit weak but I continued to get them all day at ransom times. I think they may be MDTs (Mobile Display Terminals, looks like a lap top computer in the squad car).

However, I still have not heard any P25 traffic but all three sites had P25 testing that I could see on my scanner and ProScan logged it too. How is the PD going to contact other counties & the state (MOSWIN) since they are mostly on P25?

P25 does not require LCNs and can transmit data too.

I guess it will be more fun finding out!

 

[wb0wao]

Can only hear the southernmost site reliably (Industrial Park) from this location using an indoor Yagi. RSSI shows around 400. Have monitored 3 TG's - 100 (PD Main?), and 108 and 110 so far.

 

[wb0wao]

Got some hits on TG 107 this afternoon while I was out and gone. Looks to be dispatched by the same UID that is on TG 108. UID's 1051 and 1053

 

[RF23]

Can only hear the southernmost site reliably (Industrial Park) from this location using an indoor Yagi. RSSI shows around 400. Have monitored 3 TG's - 100 (PD Main?), and 108 and 110 so far.

Your beam is doing a good job 400 is a strong signal. I suppose you have noticed how the time of day and weather really changes the reception of 850 MHz signals.
Some other TGIDs are 101 is PBPD TAC 1 and TGID 102 is PBPD TAC 2.
I noticed today that EMS is now dispatching from the new PB NXDN Trunking system, and in my opinon the dispatcher needs to turn the mic gain down and not talk so loud. The mobile units seem to be easy to hear.
The PBFD's dispatch has not yet migrated to the new system but you cah hears the fire trucks.

Today I was trying to use three different radios and three different antennas to see which combo worked the best on all three sites. At about 11AM site 3 the most southern site dropped in signal from 4 bars to 2 to 3 bars (which should not have been a problem) and for the next 6 hours site 3 was never used by the system again, according to ProScan logs. Yet, I never in all that time heard a single sided conversation, I always heard both sides just by receiving Sites 1 & 2. I thought that if you have two sites you needed to receive both to hear everything and with three sites you needed to get all three sites to receive everything. I am not so sure about that now.
Do you hear a lot of one sided conversations getting only one site most of the time?

Tomorrow I am going to monitor only one site and see how much I miss. I will probably use site 1, the northern site as it is the strongest for me.

 

[RF23]

Got some hits on TG 107 this afternoon while I was out and gone. Looks to be dispatched by the same UID that is on TG 108. UID's 1051 and 1053

Yes, I saw that too, it was unit 222 talking to 223 about signal strength in each room he went into. I think one had blue printes of the building and was marking down how many signal strength bars out of 4 each room allowed. They were getting 3 to 4 out of 4.