Sacramento Regional Radio Communications System

[Sac916]

Without getting too technical - let me try to keep this simple using a computer as a metaphor of sorts.

We all know the radio system is computer controlled.
Think of it this way...

There are many pieces of phsyical equipment that create this system. It's not just a desktop PC that sitting there controlling the radios.

The situation your explaining could be due to a giant number of reasons. One common problem is that each frequency has it's own hardware component, like a PC sound card. These components age, malfunction and fail. This components also need to be tweeked, tuned and calibrated.

My personal experience is that soon as I hear some "certain types" of radio quality, I'll listen to the frequencies outside of trunked mode to determine if there is a failure of a frequency.

 

[gmclam]

I've noticed a few things.

1. The 800MHz channels I receive which are not trunked always come in GOOD.

2. The trunked channels are very "delicate" and may or may not be clear.


What needs to be done is to get out a field strength meter and compare the raw RF levels between the "good" and "bad" channels. This issue has nothing to do with the trunking logic.... It almost seems as though the frequencies are "focused" to different locations

Example. I was listening to a conversation on TG CH PD 1. Here at my house it was scratchy on some channels. I drove closer to Citrus Heights, which is 5 miles FARTHER from the county site than I am (I am line of sight), and the signals got CLEARER!!!! It is as if the RF is focused to that area and not purely omnidirectional (or I should say flat in all directions west of the tower).

 

[servo_fan]

So is this just a scanner only phenomenon, or is if effecting users with the real radios as well?

antfreq, (and any others), I know that when you use the real radio equipment it sounds better than it does on a scanner, but in your professional capacity, how do things sound? Can you tell one site from another when you're receiving, or do you always receive on your "home" site?

I think we have quite a few site 2 based users that participate here, are there any site 1 users that can comment?

I hope things improve, especially if/when some agencies go digital, because as it's been described to me, you need a pretty good signal to decode. The way some of these site 1 freqs are now, from certain areas, that may be difficult.

 

[RolnCode3]

When you're out and about, you have no idea what site your radios are affiliated to. It is truly seamless to the user.

Sometimes you have good reception, and can transmit no problems. Other times you can't.

IMO, there's no real rhyme or reason, especially since we can't see what site we're on, what freq we're using, etc.

 

[Sac916]

So is this just a scanner only phenomenon, or is if effecting users with the real radios as well?

antfreq, (and any others), I know that when you use the real radio equipment it sounds better than it does on a scanner, but in your professional capacity, how do things sound? Can you tell one site from another when you're receiving, or do you always receive on your "home" site?

I think we have quite a few site 2 based users that participate here, are there any site 1 users that can comment?

I hope things improve, especially if/when some agencies go digital, because as it's been described to me, you need a pretty good signal to decode. The way some of these site 1 freqs are now, from certain areas, that may be difficult.

For starters, I must have to say that a "scanner" does have considerable variance in radio quality/audio over a comercial radios specifically tuned for a specific radio system.

For Sac TRS, the CentraComm radio consoles get their signal from a microwave feed. So what a dispatcher hears can be quite different from what officers out in the field hear. For example, a portable radio turned on next to a radio console, on the same channel, there can be a difference in radio quality or even simply hearing the transmission at all.

Routinely I use radio TG affiliated with sites 1 and site 2. The eastern portion of the county ( excluding Folsom ) is known to have HORRIBLE radio recpetion. Especially Rancho Cordova, Murietta, O'Vale, Fair Oaks and Citrus Heights. Just like a scanner, there are dead spots. It all just depends on the area you happen to be located. Can I tell when I'm moving from site to site? Nope, not at all.

I can tell you that maintenance, tuning and trouble shooting is done everyday. (even off-duty) BUT the staffing is inadequate. If you want a well paying job, with job security... Go get certification for radio communications technician. That being said, these days, the quality/clarity issue is far beyond that of a tower or antenna issue. Computers, cables and interference my friend, is a big issue. Not only are these "radio techs" radio nerds, but quickly becoming computer nerds.

 

[556fmj]

antfreq, you hit the nail on the head. I can't tell you how frustrating it is for the field units when the MDT/CAD system go down or the radios(car and portables) are 10-1. I keep my fingers crossed when our system can get all the bugs worked out one of these days.

 

[servo_fan]

I still hear radio service techs coming up on various talkgroups from time to time, so maybe these issues are being worked on. Hopefully they go away almost as quickly as they seem to have popped up.

 

[califzeph]

Ah, I miss the days when you could monitor the SO on 453 Mhz, on a crystal controlled pocket scanner WITHOUT an antenna, and the signal was clear as a bell!

 

[gnm109]

I hope this is true also. While I could probably get by okay if the Sac City system were to go all digital, it would be more difficult for me if the county did. A new scanner is bad enough, but a digital one is a killer. Although, for what I just paid for new tires, I could have gotten a 396,

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I have a Uniden BC895XLT. I'm sure it would be considered a dinosaur by most folks. I don't know what they plan to do with Sacramento area trunking and by reading the forums here, it appears that almost no one else does either. (oh, sorry.........grin.)

All I know is I have the old City 8XX frequencies in my A bank and the County ones on my B bank and they are still going. The A bank is only on part time but the B County bank is going full blast. Both of them are working on the weekends, usually. I hear fire, light rail, waste collection, police, medical and so forth.

At any rate, they don't seem to have gone to full digital yet so I'll wait a while before buying a new digital unit and selling my Uniden to someone in Arkansas or Alabama on eBay. Ha.

 

[Sac916]

I have the old City 8XX frequencies in my A bank and the County
ones on my B bank

What do you mean by "old" frequencies?









.

 

[servo_fan]

All I know is I have the old City 8XX frequencies in my A bank and the County ones on my B bank and they are still going

Yeah, the frequencies haven't changed, but the talk groups have, so if you're listening to the frequencies without trunking turned on, you'd still hear everything, and I mean everything!

 

[servo_fan]

Going back to the whole site 1 scratchy sound thing, I was scanning the site 1 freqs without trunking today, and everything I heard on those notorious freqs sounded bad. I agree with the others that said this is not a trunking problem.

Ah, I miss the days when you could monitor the SO on 453 Mhz, on a crystal controlled pocket scanner WITHOUT an antenna, and the signal was clear as a bell!

I remember a few months ago when you could listen to trunked SPD and it was clear as a bell.