shocker81
Member
Well after meeting with a fellow radio reference member at the Braum's on Sunday afternoon I started my road trip around the different counties. I first headed to Butler County and my whole objective was to find out how well I could pick up the new Sedgwick County Digital system. I was shocked to say the least by some of my findings. I will break it down by county and city. #1. BUTLER COUNTY. As I headed East into Butler County the system was easily picked by the 106 as I went through Andover. As I got closer to Augusta it started getting really choppy and by the time I got into Augusta I could not pick up anything at all. As I started North out of Augusta on Ohio street heading toward El Dorado I started picking up the system pretty good. When I was in downtown El Dorado I did not hear much at all. It was choppy and hard to understand. As I started West through El Dorado and then headed North on K-196 it started getting better. The farther West I went the better it was. I got off of the beaten path and made my way into Potwin and into whitewater. As I slowly cruised through these towns I was picking up the Sedgwick County system really clear with minimum dropouts and broken conversations. As I got back onto K-196 and headed West from Whitewater It started fading out real bad. #2. HARVEY COUNTY. As I got into Harvey County I was not picking up anything at all. I went up K-15 into the middle of Newton and came back to K-50 without hearing anything at all. Now as I headed West out of Newton on K-50 I started picking up the Sedgwick County system really good. As I went by Halstead and then through Burrton it was really really good. #3. RENO COUNTY. As I entered Reno County I started losing the signals pretty quick. I spent two hours in Hutchinson driving around the city and outside of the city and eating at the Sirloin Stockade and I heard absolutely nothing at all in the city of Hutchinson. So after I ate I started the last leg of my journey and headed toward Kingman County as it was already getting dark outside and the windstorm was headed my way. I headed South on Main St. until it turned into K-14. As I was entering South Hutchinson on K-14 I started picking up the system pretty good. As I was headed South and I was 21 miles North of K-54/400 the system was as clear as a bell, no dropouts, no broken conversations, no choppiness at all. That was the way it was all the way to K-54/-400. I could not believe this but there it was it was really clear. I headed West toward Kingman and it was staying really good. #4. KINGMAN COUNTY. As I cruised through Kingman on K-54/400 and then South on Main Street in Kingman it was still coming in exceptionally loud and clear. I started heading East out of Kingman at 7:25 P.M. and by then we were receiving the 50 mph wind gusts from the North across k-54/400. All the way back into Sedwgick county the system worked flawlessly. So I believe if anybody who lives in Butler County, Reno County and Kingman County and they have a discone antenna on a pole about 10 feet above the roof of their house they would not have any problem picking up the signal especially if they were using a RS Pro 197 base unit. As far as Harvey County I think you could do pretty good with that setup in Eastern and Western Harvey County but in Newton itself I think you would be hard pressed to hear anything at all. What was interesting in Harvey County I was hearing Butler County loud and clear and that includes inside the city of Newton. It seems they have their towers pointed to the North and Northwest. When I was heading West toward Reno County I almost had to be at K-50 and Yoder road to hear Reno County and Hutchinson P.D. Reno County came in loud and clear while I was in Reno County but Hutchinson P.D. dispatch was clear but a lot of the officers transmissions were encrypted. So in summation the Sedgwick system can be picked up in the outlying areas pretty good for the most part but I think you will need a good base unit and a good outside antenna some distance above the roof of your home in those counties I was in today. It was a fun day, I hope I answered some unanswered questions and I hope I helped anybody that needed any help with this system. I think to improve the system with the radio's we now have on hand I think we will need to tweak the threshold settings for each system we have programmed into our radio's. There has to be a sweet spot of settings for each system but it will take some work on our part to find it for each individual system. But that is what is fun about monitoring. Facing a challenge up front and head on to make our hobby more enjoyable for ourselves and our fellow scanner friends. And if you find something interesting or find something that makes your system work better today than it did yesterday or last week be sure to share it with everybody so we can try it out and see if it works for us. That is why I made the trip today, just to see what the system is all about and to see what can and what can not be done with it. I hope it helped somebody. I know it did me. Talk to you later.
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