Scugog Area Scanning

[h4waii]

Hi.

I'm in the Scugog / Port Perry area with a BCD396T. I can't seem to pick up any OPP, I've got it all programmed in with ARC396 - I know some of the analogs work, I have a wideband dipole about 30 feet up and can pick up Toronto delivery drivers in the downtown core and Pickering Works. I can't seem to get anything digital or trunked anymore. I'm got King City, Whitby and the PonyPool towers programmed in. Any idea's?

My BC246T worked fine on Durham EMS/Fire. What gives?

 

[EJB]

Hi.

I'm in the Scugog / Port Perry area with a BCD396T. I can't seem to pick up any OPP, I've got it all programmed in with ARC396 - I know some of the analogs work, I have a wideband dipole about 30 feet up and can pick up Toronto delivery drivers in the downtown core and Pickering Works. I can't seem to get anything digital or trunked anymore. I'm got King City, Whitby and the PonyPool towers programmed in. Any idea's?

My BC246T worked fine on Durham EMS/Fire. What gives?

A few things to look at.
Check your status bit. All of the talkgroups off the towers you mentioned are either patched or multiselected. The proper setting for status bit is ignore.

Which talkgroups do you have there right now? If you want to hear Toronto & Whitby put in both, they switch the patch and use either one.

If you do not hear anything on fleetnet check your settings band plans, etc and make sure they are set properly.

 

[h4waii]

I checked the band plans manually, they are set proper. Status bit is not set.

I let ARC396 pull Zone 1, picked 05DURH, 37WHIT and 38PONT. Selected the OPP and CISO TG's and let it feed.

If I manually enter the control channels and sit on them I can hear machine gunning every so often, I think I'm just too far out of any towers.

 

[VA3DBJ]

Mke sure you have the band plan programmed... If the band plan is in, you should be able to see the system/tower info and the TG's flash on the screen, while sitting on the cc frequency

 

[h4waii]

...I have the proper band plans?

Again, I can sit on the C/C and sometimes hear machine gunning. No TG's show up. If I clean the radio and only input C/C w/ proper band plan and set ID to SEARCH, I still get nothing.

I see you're in Bowmanville, do you have a 396 and could possibly clone me a Zone 1 system for testing purposes?

EDIT: HM. No more noise when camping on the control channel. Something is up.

 

[VA3DBJ]

I didn't see the first part of your reply..

Send me your ARC file to davebate@rogers.com and I'll load it up and see what's wrong. Right now my 396 is setup with all the CC frequencies in the one group with Whitby set as primary for when I am at home and when I am on the road, it just hits the first strongest cc frequency. Same for Zone 2, but with Cobourg as the top freq..

 

[h4waii]

Camping on 142.1400MHz yields 2 signal bars and what I can only describe as a wave spanning past static.

Do you want a clone or what?

 

[h4waii]

ARGH. My external dipole must have swung off the mount.

I put the stock ducky on and can pull 2 bars on 142.3800MHz and still hold 2 on 142.1400

I will need to get outside tomorrow and see WTF is up.

 

[VA3DBJ]

Is that the Whitby or Pontypool tower?

Just send you're *.396 file and I'll load it up and see what happens. Should only take a quick few minutes..

 

[VA3DBJ]

Try the Pontypool tower on 142.59000. You should get a good signal on that one..

 

[h4waii]

Crap. I don't have any banks saved from aRC396.

I'm sitting on 142.5900 right now. Nothing coming in.

 

[h4waii]

While I'm 99% sure it's my external dipole. I am pulling the imports for bcTool off your site and feeding them.

 

[VA3DBJ]

Just do a download from the scanner and save as default.396. It is strange you are not picking up Pontypool... What about 143.100, the Sunderland tower?

 

[h4waii]

Pulling it from the scanner now. Warning, I have like 50 systems. 1/2 of them not working.

I really should go back to doing it by hand instead of using ARC. I'll email it in a few seconds.

Sunderland tower throws up TG's properly now.

 

[VA3DBJ]

Ok, it looks like it is just signal strength then.. If you are getting TG's off of Sunderland, then you have it set ok. Just not enough signal coming it for decoding.. Up your way, once you get your external set right, you should be able to pull Pontypool, Sunderland and Whitby. Maybe even King City on a good day..

 

[h4waii]

Yeah. Excellent. I am pulling Sunderland perfectly fine now. I never thought to see what other patched towers were here. Thanks dude.

I'll have to dust off my mountain climbing gear to get to the top of my tower. I'm hitting full 5 bars on of Sunderland.

BTW. Some of the bctool imports on your site are gone, the run to 404's

 

[VA3DBJ]

Good... Sunderland will be your main tower... with Pontypool as the secondary, in a sense.. Between those two, you should be on top of all the EMS and OPP traffic for you neck of the woods..

 

[h4waii]

I owes ya a beer.

Thanks.