Pro-2096 and Pro-96 Reception Issues on Colorado DTRS

[markstanwood]

Hey everyone,

I'm reaching out because I'm having some frustrating issues with my Radio Shack Pro-2096 and recently acquired Pro-96 scanners. I use these to monitor the Colorado DTRS, specifically for El Paso County Fire, El Paso County Law, and Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD).

Here’s what’s happening: sometimes the scanners work great, picking up signals as clear as day. Other times, it’s like the main county law enforcement channel is right next to me, but I’ll struggle to receive other channels consistently. For example, I might only get the county fire command channel or just the CSFD dispatch, but not their command channels.

I’ve tried everything I can think of—different programming, settings tweaks, you name it. Some days it works well, and other days it’s hit-or-miss. Could this be a programming error on my part, or is it possible my equipment has issues? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for the help, and I hope you’re all having a great day!

 

[wtp]

are you listening to the simulcast tower ?

4 (4)	011 (B)	Fountain Valley	El Paso, CO	852.1125	854.7125	855.0875	856.0125	856.7625	856.9875c	857.9875c
				858.9875c	859.9875c
4 (4)	014 (E)	Calhan	El Paso, CO	851.125	851.2875	851.700c	852.2125c	853.125c	853.825c	854.2125
				857.9125
4 (4)	018 (12)	Mount Pittsburg	El Paso, CO	851.2875	852.050	852.550	852.6375	853.1875	853.6625	853.7375c
				854.0375	854.2125	855.2375	856.2375	856.4625	857.2375	858.2375c
4 (4)	019 (13)	Truckton	El Paso, CO	853.800	854.3875	855.7125	857.4875c	858.4875c	859.4875c	859.7375
4 (4)	028 (1C)	Colorado Springs Simulcast	El Paso, CO	851.875	851.900	852.075	852.3375	852.400	852.6125	852.7625
				852.800	853.3625	853.3875	853.6375	853.7125c	853.7625c	853.8875c
				854.1125	857.0125	858.6125	859.0125c
6 (6)	039 (27)	Quail Loop	El Paso, CO	856.3875	856.8375	857.3875	857.8375	858.3875c	858.8375c	859.3875c
				859.8375c
6 (6)	048 (30)	Cheyenne Mountain	El Paso, CO	851.050	851.200	851.3875c	851.725c	851.9625	852.7875c	853.050c
				853.475	854.3625	854.6625	856.0625	856.6625	858.0875

 

[tvengr]

Are you programming each site in a separate system in different banks? The PRO-96 and PRO-2096 allow only a single site per system. If the Colorado Springs site is the only one giving problems, it is probably due to simulcast distortion. The PRO-96 and PRO-2096 are very old scanners. They are known to have the frequency drift on 800 MHz frequencies. Frequency accuracy is critical for decoding P25 systems. If the problem occurs on all sites, adjusting VR4 in the PRO-96 and VR3 in the PRO-2096 may help. If you are using ARC96 software, please attach your programming file so I can take a look at it. You will need to zip the file to be able to attach it. Click on Attach files and open the zipped file.

 

[Ronaldski]

Colorado Springs does have a simulcast site, State of Colorado DTRS Trunking System, Statewide, Multi-State
Also I do see encryption in use, MODE column with DE, then D is in the clear. So dont program in the DE's.

I see your a premium subscriber and may have downloaded with software to program.
Just a few items, be sure the tower frequencies are set to MOT.
Just program in the control red color frequencies, you'll find the scanner will be more responsive.
Be sure to have set the system itself to Trunked.

Always can attach your programming file on here so we can check it out.

If I recall right, when no one is talking press MAN on the digital system tower nearest to you ideally and should hear some digital noise coming from one of the control channel frequencies. Signal % will show up, ideally should be ~90% or better or if that jumps around to very low and even 0% likely is an indication that the vr3, 4 drifted.

I suppose both could have the vr4, vr3 drift. I have fixed ~a dozen of them with that, not scientific with a small screwdriver, usually about 5% turn counterclockwise tends to work.

 

[Spitfire8520]

El Paso County and Colorado Springs are site specific and require careful programming to be able to receive what you want consistently. I think the issue you are most likely running into is that the vast majority of communications in the county will be on Colorado Springs Simulcast, especially for Colorado Springs, which means you will have to deal with simulcast distortion. Simulcast distortion is an issue with most scanner hardware struggling with receiving simulcast sites, which is a site that has multiple towers broadcasting the same signal. You can see the locations of the individual towers by visiting the linked site.

Scanners often fail to decode the signal depending on local conditions and will try to listen to other sites that you have programmed. The problem is that the other sites carry less variety of traffic as they are intended for more rural coverage. You will probably consistently hear county on it, but you are less likely to hear Colorado Springs on it due to a trunking concept called affiliation. The system administrators also deny Colorado Springs talkgroups from affiliating on some of the rural sites because they are meant to be used by the county agencies. The linked wiki article on simulcast distortion has a list of suggestions you can try to reduce the effects of simulcast distortion, but they are not guaranteed to work. I think of all the suggestions, a Yagi antenna isolating a single tower is probably the most consistent, but it may not work depending on your location in relation to the towers.

The only real solution in a scanner form factor is getting a Uniden SDS100 or SDS200.

The other issue you could be running into is that El Paso County is largely restricted to Zone/RFSS 4 sites only. Some specific talkgroups might be allowed on the other zones, but trying to listen to a site in a different zone will lead to a significantly reduced coverage of agencies in El Paso County. This means that Cheyenne Mountain is a bad choice unless you specifically want to listen to everything else that is not an El Paso County agency. I suggest treating El Paso County/Colorado Springs as a separate system from the rest of DTRS when it comes to programming your scanner.