Question About Scanning Surrounding Counties on Ohio MARCS-IP

[JethrowJohnson]

Hi everyone. I live in Washington County and I programmed the Noble County MARCS channels into my BCD436HP so that I could scan them during mutual aid incidents, but when I was letting it scan to test it I noticed that when it scanned the Noble C.I. (Caldwell) site it wasn't getting any data signal from the control channel. So I was wondering if maybe I should've programmed it to use the Washington County site's frequencies and it would receive it from our towers? Or is it just not possible to receive signals from other sites unless one of their units enters my county? Thank you. 🙂

 

[JethrowJohnson]

And how close do you have to be to a site in order to receive it?

 

[wa8pyr]

Hi everyone. I live in Washington County and I programmed the Noble County MARCS channels into my BCD436HP so that I could scan them during mutual aid incidents, but when I was letting it scan to test it I noticed that when it scanned the Noble C.I. (Caldwell) site it wasn't getting any data signal from the control channel. So I was wondering if maybe I should've programmed it to use the Washington County site's frequencies and it would receive it from our towers? Or is it just not possible to receive signals from other sites unless one of their units enters my county? Thank you. 🙂

It's worth a try, but you'll only hear Noble County talkgroups if a radio actually on one of those talkgroups is using the Washington County site.

And how close do you have to be to a site in order to receive it?

In that neck of the woods? You'll have to be pretty close, especially with a handheld scanner. You might have a bit better luck with an outside antenna, but that would probably mess up your reception of the Washington County site.

Washington County uses a simulcast site, which is going to be troublesome for a BCD436HP; in that situation, more signal is a bad thing.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

It's worth a try, but you'll only hear Noble County talkgroups if a radio actually on one of those talkgroups is using the Washington County site.



In that neck of the woods? You'll have to be pretty close, especially with a handheld scanner. You might have a bit better luck with an outside antenna, but that would probably mess up your reception of the Washington County site.

Washington County uses a simulcast site, which is going to be troublesome for a BCD436HP; in that situation, more signal is a bad thing.

Okay, so I can only hear Noble County if one of them is using Washington County towers. I guess that explains it then, but actually it's not having any trouble at all with the simulcast, it's clear as day. 🙂 But thank you for the answer.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

It's worth a try, but you'll only hear Noble County talkgroups if a radio actually on one of those talkgroups is using the Washington County site

Well, I wondered why I wasn't getting any signal because I received the Noble County channels just fine when I had it scanning the database and also when I was leaving it in Discovery Mode and I thought maybe what I said about the sites and frequencies was the problem so I deleted Noble C.I. (Caldwell) and put Washington County in and it was only maybe a minute or two and I heard SO61DISP just as clear as my county, and in fact I was getting a transmission from them again just as I was writing this. It works. Thank you. 👍

 

[Hit_Factor]

Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Actually I'm not having much trouble with the simulcast problem. Although I have to make sure it's in just the right place in the house where it has a good path straight through the window. But when I have it outside or in the car it does just fine. I got some transmissions from POST84 and FD84DISP and it was a good solid signal without breaking up.