Are you referring to their conventional/P25 voice VHF frequencies or the new 800MHz trunked system? This discussion is about the trunked system that has been under construction for a year.
Sherman is Alive
- Thread starter riverradio68
- Start date
I am wondering how far out this system will be able picked up. The new Gainesville System does not reach very far. I can hear them fine in Cooke Co and can hardly pick them up in Whitesboro area. I can hear Denton Co and Collin Co system fine in the Whitesboro area
Good question. Probably still the conventional channels.
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The answer is "it depends" - and we won't know for certain until the system is on the air, as antenna radiation pattern, power output and many other factors will drive the range. Keeping in mind this is tuned for the users of the system, in this case the City of Sherman. They will tune the simulcast sites to provide strong coverage within the city limits, and some expected coverage outside the city limits (for example if in a pursuit), but we as idle listeners are at the mercy of that coverage area.
For example, from my listening post in Van Alstyne with a very poor antenna arrangement, I can pick up the Collin County PAWMCo site (mainly because the simulcast antenna is only a few miles away on the Anna water tower), but I can also pick up McKinney. When the conditions are right, I can pick up the TPI P25 system from Downtown Dallas.
What we do know is that their license shows a coverage area where the licensed frequencies will not overlap with another license - this is listed as 40km radius (just shy of 25 miles) from each tower, if operating at maximum licensed power - essentially covering all of Grayson County and beyond. Here's how the FCC graphs it:
This is obviously the "maximum", so I suspect it will be less than this (particularly with this being simulcast), and even then, terrain and other factors have to be taken into account.
To prove that point, I drove up to the South Side of Sherman near the TI plant (one of the new sites is on the Water Tower by TI), and still no control channel detected there, so the lack of me picking up a signal in Van Alstyne is not a coverage issue, but a "not yet on the air" issue.
I was in Sherman Saturday Night at the Old Iron Post (down town) and was unable to receive any control channel. I verified the freqs in the DB are what I've programmed and NADA.
I can confirm the same with my testing today, parked across the street from the antenna by the poilice department, and nothing across the entire 800MHz band, not just their frequencies. Driving past the water tower by TI, there's only one antenna on top, and it looks like it's leaning worse than the tower at Piza, so I'd say it's not new.
But yet a RRDB admin marked it as active again (it had been marked in staging), and according to the FCC, a city employee notified them on August 27th that construction was complete.
Confusing at best, since it doesn't appear anywhere close to complete in my book, let alone operational. Wonder if the city had a deadline for completion with Stolz and if it is still on that schedule (you'd think after more than a year it would be fully operational and in service, it's not that complicated of a system)
Mechanical down tilt.
It's been a while since we last brought this up, and still nothing that I've picked up (I need to drive into Sherman again just to prove my monitoring site in Van Alstyne is not an issue).
But a curious thing happened Sunday morning - I was driving FM121 West of Van Alstyne heading towards Tioga and Sherman came to life on the SDS100 I keep in the vehicle (with a 16 inch mag-mount on the roof of the SUV, not the rubber duck - but still not a "miracle" antenna). Curious, I switched over to Analyze to get the SysID and Site Number since I didn't have the full mobile rig with me, and realized I was picking up NTIRN's Arlington Site, which shares four frequencies with Sherman. Signal was coming in strong despite the distance (more than 50 miles).
This might explain what @Gopher has been picking up previously.
But a curious thing happened Sunday morning - I was driving FM121 West of Van Alstyne heading towards Tioga and Sherman came to life on the SDS100 I keep in the vehicle (with a 16 inch mag-mount on the roof of the SUV, not the rubber duck - but still not a "miracle" antenna). Curious, I switched over to Analyze to get the SysID and Site Number since I didn't have the full mobile rig with me, and realized I was picking up NTIRN's Arlington Site, which shares four frequencies with Sherman. Signal was coming in strong despite the distance (more than 50 miles).
This might explain what @Gopher has been picking up previously.
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