Rubber Duckie Antenna For MARC'S

[xusmarine1979]

Is anybody using a rubber duckie particularly listening to OHIO MARC'S, if so is the gain any higher than 2.5db?

 

[FPO703]

I'm using the stock duck antenna on my PRO-96 right now and nailing 3-4 MARCS sites with no problem

 

[xusmarine1979]

I think it's just my terrain or something, I cannot pickup Canton City that well either, but for some reason I can hear Summit Co/Akron when I'm home in Massillon.

 

[FPO703]

Are you in a low elevation area? That might be part of it.

 

[xusmarine1979]

Actually I'm in a very open area, and it seems to be quite level, I'm at one of the Hoover Company's warehouses, it's right beside I-77 and just south of the Stark/Summit borders. But what surprises me, is that while at home (Massillon), I can pick up Summit/Akron fairly well. But While we are on the topic, Stark has 2 sites,Canton and Massillon, along w/ Summit's Nimisila and Richfield, do I need to monitor all of the cc's in order to hear the traffic, or do they all transmit the same traffice, because I was sittin at home last nite and noticed that sometimes it would and sometimes it wouldn't. Any thoughts?

 

[dizwiz]

xusmarine,

I have a BC296D and had all kinds of problems with MARCS (garbled audio, especially when mobile), but I could pick up other APCO25 systems fine.

Turns out it was a sound quality issue. A simple adjustment solved it (although it messed up my sound on the other APCO25 systems).

the pro 96 auto adjusts and doesnt have this issue

 

[xusmarine1979]

Actually, I'm glad ya brought this up, I don't believe it was my audio. I live in Stark, and listen to both Stark and Summit because they are joined. At first I had all of the CC's in the same bank, then I read Joe's forum about puttin a conventional freq in between them. But for some reason I was picking up the CC's that were farther away, so I wasn't gettin a good signal(duh). So I lock out all but the best signal and it sounds MUCH better. I work at one of Hoover's warehouses which is near the Stark/Summit line, for some reason I pick up Canton's CC better than Nimisila's. Anybody know why, or where Nimisila's exactly located?

Also on another note, I started another forum about Canton/Stark's TRS, RR's Database stated that it is set up simular to Akron/Summit's TRS, now like Akron/Summit's, Canton and Stark have the same CC id's, but for some reason I can't hear the SO on Canton, and Canton FD on Stark's CC. Anybody know why?

 

[xusmarine1979]

And I am using RadioShack's 800mhz rubber antenna, and so far it has worked better than any other antenna I've tried as of yet including the $30 antenna from scannermaster.com.

 

[FPO703]

Canton PD/FD will only be heard on the Canton site. Stark County SO will be heard only on the Stark County site. It says similar because of how the sites are set up, not because the radios will hop back & forth btwn the sites.

On both Summit & Stark County systems, Site 1 is used by the primary city (Akron or Canton), and the other site is used by the County (Summit or Stark).

There is/was talk a while ago about making one large TRS for Summit County by combining all the smaller TRS's and the current Akron/Summit County system into one. But, that's either a rumor or it won't be happening for a while.

I'm still trying to figure out what is so important to Canton PD that they feel they need full-time encryption for day to day ops. I can see encryption for sensitive ops (SWAT, NARCS, VICE, Auto Theft, etc...). But, NOT for day-to day ops. That's a waste of tax-payers monies.

 

[xusmarine1979]

Ok, that clears it then, but kinda sux because Stark's repeaters are in the southern part of the county. And I agree with you on Canton's encryption, I have several friends on the department and don't hear them anymore. Are there any other departments besides ODNR that are full-time enctypted? Kinda sux cuz Canton really isn't that big, but I'm not really sure what the crime level is compared to other towns.