I think I kinda get it, at least from the standpoint of hearing a trooper in his car (local to me). But if dispatch transmits first, why wouldn't I hear that? For ex., they broadcast a Silver Alert. Until some trooper nearer the sites I pick up affiliates with those sites, I won't hear anything? The periods of silence were just so long that it seemed unreasonable to not hear the barrack at all, or at least only the barrack's side of the transmissions.
Sorry, you can tell I'm not as technically up to speed as I should be. My experience with repeaters (on Motorola radios) was just that; they repeated. It sometimes lead to cut off transmissions once a mike was keyed, if speaking began to quickly. That may explain why the MSP's conversation from Queen Anne's site (an ASR if I have it right) yesterday on one radio seemed a fraction of a second behind the same conversation received from Matapeake (a simulcast site) on another radio.
Bit, I refer to this earlier comment: "partly because it is an ASR (no simulcast issues to deal with)." I'm trying to decipher that. I think of "simulcast" much like watching the Super Bowl on NBC, but also being able to tune in to ESPN, because it is being simulcast there. I get that I have the control over which channel I want to use on TV, but might not have that control while fully scanning. So, my assumption over which would be better must be backward. Intuitively to me, simulcast would seem to be more immediate; repeaters have a bit of lag. But, perhaps the issues are tied to affiliation.
The reason it's confusing to me is that the hours of silence aren't merely broken by more "local" units transmitting near me. When activity begins again, it's more like business as usual, hearing stuff going on in Millington, on the opposite end of my county.
Thank you all for trying to help me understand this. If this topic has become too labored, I get it. We can drop it. Someday I hope to catch on....just as newer systems are being adopted. =-)
