The reason why you may not always be receiving all MSP Centerville traffic *could* be that there are no Centerville barracks units in the areas covered by Matapeake or Talbot sites at the time you are listening. If their radios have not affiliated with either of those two sites, you won't hear them at your home location (assuming that you only can receive Matapeake and Talbot sites.) So when listening from home, only enable those two sites - there is not technical reason to have any other site enabled based on what you have said.
Concur. This goes back to the original question about "sporadic" reception of MSP Centreville. It's likely that he was hearing what little Centreville he was hearing on either Matapeake and/or Talbot during those times when a Centreville unit was affiliated with one of those sites/towers.
Since Centreville is responsbile for Queen Anne and Kent, I expect them to only sometimes appear on the Talbot site. However, they should be on the Queen Anne's and Kent sites almost 100% of the time. That's why he was looking so hard at the Queen Anne's site.
Keep in mind that the upper shore folks are transitioning from a system that carried both Centreville and Easton MSP on the entire 3 county system (Queen Anne, Caroline, Talbot) and could be heard (probably) well into counties adjacent to those 3. That's just not going to be the case on FiRST.
MSP Centreville on the Matapeake site is also a "maybe". MdTA and the QA Sheriff probably have pretty good coverage in that area so units from MSP Centreville are less likely to be over in that area such that they will affiliate with that site.
On occasion, I can hear MSP Easton, Centreville, Glen Burnie, Golden Ring, and "Highway" on the Anne Arundel site - but none (except Glen Burnie) full time. The same goes for MdTA Tunnel and Port - sometimes.
A few days ago, I heard MSP Glen Burnie on the Scaggsville ASR. Why? Idunno. There have been alot of things coming across the Howard sites that don't make alot of sense. My guess there is it's for demo and testing purposes and eventually, once the system is stable and more widely used, alot of this "extended" coverage will go away (someday).
The RRDB does not indicate whether a site is a simulcast cell or a standalone ASR. It *could* if contributors described it that way in their submission, and the editors allow it. Personally, I think they should. Otherwise, you have to deduce the site type by looking at FCC and CAPRAD data, and FiRST program documents.
Most of the information regarding simulcast and ASR sites comes from this document:
https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsEntry/...tachmentKey=19367652&attachmentInd=applAttach
Keep in mind that some frequencies have been changed since this report was issued. Also note that for the most part, the ASR sites have their own licenses while typical simulcast site frequencies are covered by the state license - which are also sometimes augmented by local (county) jurisdiction licenses (some state, some county).
For the most part, the ASRs are appearing along bodies of water and near the edges of the state (I believe to control the signal bleed into adjacent states, etc.). There are a few ASRs that don't seem to fit this concept so there may be other reasons.
Matapeake also may work better for him because of a minimum of attenuating structures and vegetation/trees between the tower and his location - there is some significant water in the signal path.
Possibly. It's probably just his location (think he mentioned he is near Wye Island which puts him in tne middle between Matapeake ASR and the Rt50/404 tower of the Talbot simulcast). That puts him closer to the Talbot tower at Rt 50 and 404. It also puts him closer to the Matapeake site. I can pick up Matapeake a good long way on the drive along Rt 50 into Talbot County partly because of location and partly because it is an ASR (no simulcast issues to deal with).
FWIW - I can pick up the Greenbury Point ASR from just south of BWI airport better than I can pick up the Anne Arundel simulcast site. This is likely because it's an ASR and not a simulcast site. The Howard and Baltimore sites tend to come in better here also - mostly because I'm out of the simulcast coverage area and likely picking up one tower on those sites much better than others thus reducing the affects of the simulcast problem.
Given his location, he should also be in a good position to hear the St. Michael's/Bozman site when it comes up in a few weeks....
