Portland 700 P25 Sites Question

[ScottPDX]

Hello all,
I picked up an RS PRO-668 used off Ebay and spent the weekend getting familiar with SD card Phase II P25 scanner programming. This new scanner sits alongside an old trusty RS PRO-95.

1st thing learned: Trunking: You just need the control channels, and it works best that way.

So I programmed in PPB Dispatch and related TAC TG's only to start. This on the Digital 700 Portland P25.

My question is this: Is it correct to have both the East and West sites being scanned together for the same talk groups, being that west site is indicated to be Council Crest as active at this time, and Lookout Mtn. the east site active at this time. Or just one site for it's associated talk groups is best?

I am at the direct east side base of Mt. Tabor, and wonder about if the occasional slight, and sometimes extreme, voice audio digital artifacts are based on my programming multiple sites for the same talk groups?

Most of the digital audio sounds great though. Some of it perfect.

Any tips for a person with a new P25 unit for tweaks and resolving audio digital artifacts?

Thanks,
ScottPDX

 

[sparklehorse]

I would try programming only West Simulcast. I think you'll get all the traffic there, at least I seem to, and one of the towers is Mt Scott, so it should work well for your location. I'm not sure that East Simulcast carries all the system traffic. It may serve as more of a fill-in site for east county. I don't know that for sure, I'm just basing it on the fact that it currently has half as many frequencies assigned to it as West Simulcast. Perhaps someone with more info will chime in. I don't get a good signal from East Simulcast, so I've never scanned it for very long. You could also set up a second system that uses only East Simulcast and see if that works any better for you. Like I say, I suspect you wouldn't hear all traffic though.

One thing I've found very helpful is to use an 800MHz yagi mounted outside, and try pointing it in various directions until you get an optimal signal. I'm using this one, it's working well:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L3ZRF9A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Keep in mind you'll need some coax and an adapter or two to make it work.

Still experimenting, but so far I've also found that my Whistler 1065 sounds better than my Uniden 536 on this system, but there are three of the frequencies that are problematic for the Whistler: 853.6375, 856.8875 and 857.0625. When the system is using one of those I get very broken audio. I'd be curious if anyone else is having trouble with those particular frequencies. It could just be my location. So far my Unication G5 has had no problem with any of the West Simulcast frequencies.

.

 

[ScottPDX]

Thank you.
ScottPDX