Sibilant unit numbers and other sounds

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Halfpint

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I am wondering if I am the only one who is having problems with units with sibilant numbers like 676 ETC. and especially sibilant background sounds on the DTRS? Just using, lessay, Dacono 676 as an example whenever this unit calls/signs in/answers a `call', and sometimes just about anything he says, is almost completely unintelligble the majority of the time. (And this isn't, at least here at my `listening post?', just 676. I've been hearing similar problems with others, too. The only reason I'm using 676 as an example is that this morning this call/number is the one I am catching the most frequently.) Could this be a problem with the DTRS or my reception? (I've managed only a couple times to catch the call where I was hearing this `effect?' even when leaving a second scanner going the same `bank'/`scanlist' for a while as a call will come through on one and be gone before the other scanner catches up.)
 

dracer777

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What scanner are you using and what tower?
 

Halfpint

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What scanner are you using and what tower?

Primarily I use a PSR-600, and in this case, secondarily a PRO-2096 though the PRO-2096 normally handles Weld R&B or CDOT. The PSR-600 has 35th Ave, 14th Ave, Mead, Bald Mtn., Buckhorn, Ft. Lupton, and Sunset in the TSYS. The PRO-2096 has the same sites minus the 700MHz sites of Ft. Lupton and Sunset programmed in.

In this case the majority of the `hits' have been on the Mead site which is my strongest and most `used'/`hit' site. In decending order the other sites are 35th Ave, and Fort Lupton (700MHz)/Buckhorn with the remaining sites only occasionally. (I've found that the sites I've got programmed in, while possibly a bit of `overkill' for `base' use, work quite well when I am `out-n-about' with either a PSR-500 or PRO-96. It's also easier to just use pretty much the same programming between the bases and handhelds so that I can keep track of what `bank'/`scanlist' is what.)
 

dracer777

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And you are having the same problem with both scanners? I mainly listen to the Lupton tower since it always carries my local pd(local law south). Are you on roam or stat? Try roam, just so it stays on one CC. I'm thinking the delay is due to it scanning the CCs. Try sitting on one CC to see if that helps.
 

Halfpint

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And you are having the same problem with both scanners? I mainly listen to the Lupton tower since it always carries my local pd(local law south). Are you on roam or stat? Try roam, just so it stays on one CC. I'm thinking the delay is due to it scanning the CCs. Try sitting on one CC to see if that helps.

It's *about* the same with either scanner, though, with no really discernable rhyme or reason, one or the other will sometimes be more intelligeable than the other with maybe the very next transmission flipping to the other. Since, currently for various reasons, I am mainly experiencing this in a `base' situation I have the PSR series radios set to stat. *If* I do get to go mobile, and I am going to be traveling around more than just my immediate local area I do sometimes switch over to roam though even then it tends to sit set to stat a fair amount due to how I've got things programmed for various scanlists. (When I first got my PSRs I spent some time in the `second seat' `playing' with the radio and settings to try and figure out the best reception for various areas and destinations.)

As for `speed of scanning'... Whilst there are some times it might be nice to have a lot of sites programmed in ever since the earliest days of my scanning trunked systems I've tried to keep things `lean-n-mean'. It was bad enough before trunking dealing with scanning delays with all the agencies scattered all over the place frequency-wise to keep up. At times I found myself with multiple radios going whether on base or mobile / portable. (That's one part of why I tend to collect a lot of radios.) With the DTRS I *do* sometimes `sit', and in this case I actually have `sat', upon just one CC / site. (The PSR is kinda interesting in how `pause' and `manual' work and, even now, I have to remember just which I choose to use.)

However, after taking a lot more `care?' to `listen', I am starting to think that what I am dealing with just may be an artifact of digital `modulation' and `demodulation'. Unfortunately, since there is only digital `modulation' in use now, I don't think that I'll really be able to really confirm that is what I am dealing with. While we have always had occasional `mush mouths', `mike eaters', ETC. `on the air' digital `modulation' accentuates these `characteristics'. Oh, well...

I'm still waiting for the `experts' to `chime in' to `set us straight' or `save us from ourselves'. {CHORTLE!}

Thanks, dracer777, for taking the time and being helpful. I'll try and get back to you on that other thing we were discussing once things finally quiet down a bit around here.
 

scanlist

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It's not your imagination.

I've been noting that some Dacono radios sound choppy and pretty much unreadable on the GRE scanners lately yet dispatch hears them fine.

The old Uniden 296 and 796 radios haven't exhibited this.
 

Halfpint

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It's not your imagination.

I've been noting that some Dacono radios sound choppy and pretty much unreadable on the GRE scanners lately yet dispatch hears them fine.

Thanks! (Cheryl also says thanks!)

What site(s) are you getting most of your `hits' on? Down here I'm mainly getting the Mead site. (Gee... {VB GRIN!} I wonder why!? {SNICKER!})

It's also kinda funny that it seems that it is pretty much only the Dacono radios. Though I have *occasionally* heard a bit with some of the other radios, too. (Though not *anywhere* as much or as regularly as with the Dacono units.)
 

Halfpint

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Roaming with 35th, Bald Mountain (Loveland), Mead and Lupton 700.

Pretty much similar though I've got Sunset in both scanners, too. Also, the 600 stays set for STAT and the 500 switches between STAT & ROAM depending whether I'm home or on the road. (Mead still appears to be where I'm getting the majority of the sibilance, 6s and 7s *really* show it up, hits, though.) Yesterday, 4 March, I started getting a lot of `break up' with the Ft. Lupton units though it was more `You've gone digital' than the sibilance like I get from the Dacono units. What I caught from Ft. Lupton was a *lot* worse than I've previously had in the past which is why I mention it. (Question: Is *some* of this, the sibilance & breakup, `artifacts' of the problems with `simulcasting'? ) I'll admit that I didn't manage to see if it was coming off the Ft. Lupton 700 site or not because I wasn't able to get my glasses on in time to see the display on the 500.
 

dracer777

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Simulcasting? The only simulcast sites I know of are the Adams County Tri-site system.

Are you referring to multi-path?

As for the delay, I'm not quite sure, I used to have a pro-106(lived in greeley at the time) and never noticed this issue with those units. Now I have a 396XT and have noticed alot of this "delayed response" both in conventional and P25. I don't think it is bad enough to complain however. I removed my CT tones from my conventional channels and that seemed to increase reaction time. WIth the digital, it was fairly noticable, until I played around with the "uber advanced settings" for P25 decoding, after several days of playing wwith these settings, I got reaction time down to a bearable speed. I can't tell you what to do with your 500/600 because I never had this issue with them.
 

nathancarlson

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Simulcasting is what I was thinking, too! Is it possible there is a patch from that channel to a conventional channel? If you listen to Boulder County Red or Green on their conv. system, you hear all kinds of annoying feedback and there is delay in those as well. I had one scanner locked on Green North during an incident, and my other scanner (that I was scanning with) stopped on one of the repeaters. It was kind of funny, and make much more sense to me why these radios sound so choppy on that conv. system. Another note, with CT codes that I figured out, is that if you are scanning conventional channels, you need to have the squelch turned up. this will speed up the scanning dramatically. This will speed up the scanning if you are using the CT codes or not. You will get a lot less undesired channels popping up with the CT codes.
 
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