t1mberman91
Member
I need some help getting my scanner going for Johnson County, Indiana. I have done it through freescan with RR and I’m just not hearing much but when I turn on the scanner app on my phone its all day long.
Programming In Johnson County, Indiana
- Thread starter t1mberman91
- Start date
Welcome to the RR forums. What make & model scanner are you using? You may be facing a well documented issue known as simulcast distortion. There are a few sites on Hoosier Safe-T listed for Johnson County that are simulcast so there's a chance you're within monitoring range of two or more simulcasting cells. You may be better off monitoring with a Uniden SDS100 or SDS200
t1mberman91
Member
Thank you. It’s been a learning curve. The last scanners I played with were probably 15 years ago. I have a Uniden BCD396T.
Do you have the right sites programmed in? In Greenwood, I waiver between Greenwood and Franklin being the strongest signal.
But sometimes my 396T misses transmissions compared to my Unication G4.
I can send you my Butel Arc396 mem file for Johnson Co if you want to take a look at it in Freescan.
But sometimes my 396T misses transmissions compared to my Unication G4.
I can send you my Butel Arc396 mem file for Johnson Co if you want to take a look at it in Freescan.
wtp
Member
| 1 (1) | 077 (4D) | Greenwood | Johnson, IN | 851.475 | 851.875 | 852.475 | 852.900 | 853.375 | 854.1625 | 854.4875c |
| 859.7375c | ||||||||||
| 1 (1) | 078 (4E) | Franklin | Johnson, IN | 851.475 | 852.0375 | 852.375 | 852.475 | 852.900 | 853.275 | 853.3875 |
| 853.450 | 853.900c | 853.975c | ||||||||
| 1 (1) | 079 (4F) | Edinburgh | Johnson, IN | 852.2625 | 852.650 | 852.9875 | 853.250 | 853.625 | 853.9875 | 854.2125 |
| 854.4125c |
and squelch set to 2.
t1mberman91
Member
That would be great. I just uploaded the RR programs through free scan so I’m not sure about the sites.
t1mberman91
Member
t1mberman91
Member
I think I know what I did. When I went to upload I picked Johnson County and I did Franklin and Greenwood and then uploaded so I was pulling from both the Greenwood and the Franklin sites. I realize now I pick the one closest to me. Which would be greenwood
Last edited:
I would just compare the two site's control channels and see which one is stronger at your location.
Greenwood site is quite strong by US31 and westward. Oddly out east of I-65 I was getting the Franklin site better.
Greenwood site is quite strong by US31 and westward. Oddly out east of I-65 I was getting the Franklin site better.
t1mberman91
Member
Would pulling from multiple sites cause me to not get much traffic?
The 396T will only listen to one site at a time for a given system. So if you have control channels for multiple actual sites in one system in your radio, it will lock on to the first one it receives a control channel on (whether that is the one that you intend or not).
I have noticed that I don't hear State Police on the Greenwood site. It has been mentioned on these forums that that channel is prohibited from transmitting on the Greenwood site so if you want to listen to State Police you have to listen to the Franklin site.
Did you put in all the correct talk groups like law control north, law control central and sheriff? For fire: Dispatch, Fire North and South, and the fire ground channels?
I'd be interested if you can tell what you are missing from the online stream? Like if it is police, fire or just certain transmissions you're not picking up.
I have noticed that I don't hear State Police on the Greenwood site. It has been mentioned on these forums that that channel is prohibited from transmitting on the Greenwood site so if you want to listen to State Police you have to listen to the Franklin site.
Did you put in all the correct talk groups like law control north, law control central and sheriff? For fire: Dispatch, Fire North and South, and the fire ground channels?
I'd be interested if you can tell what you are missing from the online stream? Like if it is police, fire or just certain transmissions you're not picking up.
This is how I have Greenwood programmed for the 396T (see attached Butel .mem).
Note: I don't have all the firegrounds or other Law Enforcement talkgroups programmed.
Note: I don't have all the firegrounds or other Law Enforcement talkgroups programmed.
t1mberman91
Member
Thank You Very much. I will be programing it this evening and see what happens. Now just to figure out Marion County.
Unless you are in a sweet spot area where you are not experiencing simulcast issues, the 396T struggles on the Marion County system.
t1mberman91
Member
Okay good to know. Thank You.
t1mberman91
Member
What does it mean when it says "No APCO Band Plan"
wtp
Member
| 1 (1) | 036 (24) | Indianapolis IGC North | Marion, IN | 856.2375 | 857.2375 | 858.2375c | 859.2375c | 859.5375c | ||
| 1 (1) | 037 (25) | Indianapolis ISP Post | Marion, IN | 851.975 | 851.9875 | 852.8625 | 855.2375 | 855.9625 | 856.6625 | 856.9625 |
| 857.9625 | 858.5125c | 858.7125 | 858.9625c | 859.9625c | ||||||
| 1 (1) | 087 (57) | INDOC IJCF | Marion, IN | 851.2125 | 851.6875c | 852.0875c |
VASCAR2
Member
The FCC rebanded the 800 MHz spectrum several years ago and certain scanners needed a modified band plan to follow the traffic on some trunked systems. When Safe-T switched from Motorola Type II system to P25 trunking the modified band plan was no longer needed.
If you have your scanner configured to P25 for the Safe-T system type on a BCD996T you should not need to do anything in regards to the band plan. The frequencies for the band plan is captured from the data stream by the scanner. If you have your Indiana Safe-T system configured for Motorola trunking Type II or hybrid you might get the notification for “No APCO Band Plan”.
If you don’t have Safe-T configured as a P25 system this would explain why your not receiving the traffic. Last time I was in Johnson County the public safety dispatching was on safe-T with some VHF traffic on NXDN and analog VHF.
Here is a link to information on the rebanding and modified band plan.
Software Support for Uniden Rebanding - The RadioReference Wiki
GTO_04
Member
I am not familiar with Johnson County reception, but it might be a good idea to add the District 52 site for Indiana State Police. It is not simulast and the tower is very tall. I can pick it up from Hamilton County on my 396T. It might be helpful for monitoring ISP in northern Johnson County.
GTO_04
t1mberman91
Member
Okay so I got Johnson County done last night. Set the site that was closest to me and it was a little better. Still not as much radio traffic as I would have expected but maybe it’s just a quiet area. I compared to my scanner app and it was pretty quiet as well. Programmed IMPD and had very little luck as was mentioned but I did get some. It’s even worse at my work on the west side of Indy. Don’t even get signal over there.
Similar threads
BCD325P2/BCD996P2:
BCD325P2 help with FreeScan