Sac. Repeater Location ?

[SCPD]

Hello, I live near Rocklin, Ca. I can pick up Sac SO and Sac PD on the
800mhz, little scratchy, unless using antenex beam. Anyhow, I drove to
Sacramento today and brought my radio/antenna set-up. I couldn't hardly
hear them at all, this baffled me. When I came back home, I decided to
take Highway 50, through Folsom. They were crystal clear then, are they
using Cameron Park Hills, as a repeater site/location ? I really dislike
this 800mhz. stuff, back in the days of 453. and 460. they'd both blow
your roof off, even in Yuba City, Colfax, Jackson, didn't matter where you
were. They must have amplifiers or something, for them to hear as well
as they do, or I have junk.. Laughing... Probably the latter.

 

[gmclam]

Sacramento TRS

First of all, there are two "sites"; one for the city and one for the county. While the dispatch channels appear on both sites, many of the non-dispatch channels can only be heard on the appropriate site. I have the city and county sites programmed in separate banks of my scanners. When I am in the city, I activate the city bank.

Now on to locations, not to be confused with sites. The location I pick up Sacramento City from most often is near 65th street and hwy 50. The locations I pick up the county from are Carpenter Peak and a new location in Citrus Heights at Greenback and Mariposa.

Here's more info for ya.

 

[SCPD]

Repeater

Thank You Sir, I appreciate your reply. Does 800mhz get transmitted
at low wattage' ? Why is it more difficult to pick up, than the city/county
old's analog system ? Wattage or Frequency.?

 

[Sac916]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; ADR6300 Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

Check this link out... However the Citrus Heights, Galt and Murieta sites are not listed. http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?cs=wnyr751

 

[avtarsingh]

800 has tons of interference from cell phones

you didnt mention which scanner you had.. lots of older trunk tracker scanners are pretty deaf on 800

the xmit sites are simulcasting - which means multiple sites broadcasting the same info you can cross thru areas where the coverage is poor etc

800 requires lots of sites (humm almost like cellular sites) to be usable
salesmen sold ppl on the idea of 800 to sell radios
agencies who use VHF trunking find their stuff works a LOT better and doesnt have the problems 800 has
sac county would be good using this if they had a site about 4-5 miles all over the county to be handheld usable

 

[gmclam]

Does 800mhz get transmitted at low wattage' ?

No. For example, this link, shows that these repeaters are transmitting with 150 watts.

Why is it more difficult to pick up, than the city's/county's old analog system ? Wattage or Frequency.?

One could argue both, but the simple answer here is frequency. Some people like the higher frequencies (such as 800 MHz) because they more easily penetrate buildings. I personally like the VHF high band the best for public service uses.

There are a lot of different forces here that have put us where we are. Someone mentioned the need to sell new radios. Agencies want more channels. Back in the days of VHF hi, there was little room to expand to even a dozen channels, so they went to UHF. Once on UHF with those dozen channels they wanted more, and got them by going to a trunked system on 800 MHz. Now there is a push to 700 MHz by some agencies, not because it is better, but because it is the newest. Oh and the push to digital ... well, don't get me started.

There will always be trade-offs. Digital TV gives many of us 'clearer' pictures, but now we have compression artifacts, blocking, and other errors when things are not perfect. 800 MHz gave Sacramento more channels for each of their radio users, with the ability to receive inside buildings, but now requires far more towers than were previously needed. It never ends.

 

[WayneH]

No. For example, this link, shows that these repeaters are transmitting with 150 watts.

That's power out of the transmitter before any combining, coax loss, ant gain etc. I think you want to refer to ERP which seems to vary depending on location around 200W.

 

[SCPD]

Well, I bought a new GRE-PSR 600 and it does terrible on trunking,
I mean really bad. The old handheld Uniden BC 220, you can't follow
the conversations, because it's not a trunk tracker, but it's always
squawkin' something, never silent on 866/867/868mhz. The new GRE was Professionally
Programmed and it still can't a hold a candle, to the old Uniden.
I don't get it. Another odd thing about the GRE, it acts like it's on priority
all the time. I was listening to CHP and suddenly it's quiet, then back
to squawking. I did notice, when it went quiet, AU appeared, where FM was/had been
previously displayed. Then the AU disappeared and FM re-appeared and I could
hear them again. Guess I should've bought a Uniden. I checked greamerica.com
and found a 1.8 update, downloaded it, went to update my new scanner and it
said 1.8 was already in it. ??? The signal strength bar is constantly jumping up
and down, yet it never stops scanning. ??? Another thing that really bothers me,
the serial number is 002834 How can that be ? With as many of these that
have been sold, how can I have such a low serial number ? Is it old stock maybe ?
If so, why is 1.8 cpu update, already in it ? A refurbish ? Grrrr~!!! I guess I'm going
to give up scanning, put it on ebay and forget it. I guess I need to get a life, laughing.
Ah the days of massive wattage analog, they rocked. Oh, RollnCode3, please don't
respond to my post, thank you. Everyone else is welcome.

 

[Sac916]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; ADR6300 Build/ERE27) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17)

Define squawkin.

 

[SCPD]

Define Squawkin'

Laughing, Sorry about that, I meant that you
can always hear somebody talking on the
866/867/868mhz. channels. Whereas, the new
GRE, just sits there quietly. I checked the ATT.
and it's NOT on. WX works fine, analog VHF works
fine, with the exception of it displaying AU then going
silent, then FM re-appears and you hear the last half
of the conversation, missing the middle of it.
Maybe, it's time to go back to shootin' my guns,
they always work just great, never missfire, just
a bit expensive, fifty cents to a dollar a shell.
I bought the scanner for relaxation, yet it's causing
me frustration. I guess I'll have to go get a Phd. in Physics
to operate this new scanner.

 

[trooperdude]

Sounds more like an antenna issue, rather than a scanner issue.

 

[gmclam]

Sounds like operator error

The old handheld Uniden BC 220, you can't follow the conversations, because it's not a trunk tracker, but it's always squawkin' something, never silent on 866/867/868mhz.

Ok, so let's compare apples to apples. Program those specific frequencies into your PSR-600 and set them to FM. Now scan and compare.

Well, I bought a new GRE-PSR 600 and it does terrible on trunking, I mean really bad.

One key issue for trunk tracking is how well you are receiving the control channel. What kind of decode rate do you get on the control channel?

The new GRE was Professionally Programmed and it still can't a hold a candle, to the old Uniden.

All that means is that you PAID someone to program it. Quite frankly there are a lot of people out there who charge for work and have no clue as to what they are doing. Additionally, GRE is not in the Sacramento area, and can only "guess" as to what your needs are.

It sounds to me like they may have programmed the city site and you are closer to a county site (or visa versa).

Another odd thing about the GRE, it acts like it's on priority all the time.

Is it? Then turn it OFF!

Guess I should've bought a Uniden.

The other day I bought a no name cola and it was not cold. I kept telling myself I should have bought a Coke. At least it would have been cold.

Oh, RollnCode3, please don't respond to my post, thank you. Everyone else is welcome.

Sounds rude. If there is one person out there with the answer to your issue, why would you tell that person not to reply? Now perhaps you just don't like people who work in LE. If that's true, you are on the wrong site!

 

[SCPD]

Psr 600

Well, it's not programmer error, I know that. Antenna, you're getting
warmer. I did hook it up to my yagi, could pick up a little more,
started to hear some trunking, only the real strong channels though.

The Uniden non trunking hand held, it picks up and sqauwks,
meaning, radio traffic, on any one of the two dozen different
antenna's I have.