Simulcast. are they just hard to follow?

[W4hlk]

I'm pretty new to astro25. I have been pounding my head over the fact I am trying to monitor the big simulcast in Birmingham Alabama. I'm about 50 miles away but have a strong signal with a preamp and long periodic beam.

My issue is that I hear talk groups fast and strong on some channels of the SC but others nothing. I know this because I'm watching on unitrunker-2 as the TG come up and move around the system I have tinkered with the band plan till I'm blue in the face. I'm am just at a total loss. When listening to other sites that are not simulcast, the radio tracks them flawlessly. It's just when I try to listen to that behemoth in Birmingham the radio misses 50% of the traffic.

 

[ka3aaa]

take out the pre amp and see what happens

 

[jeepsandradios]

Is the radio a valid unit on the system ?

 

[KevinC]

Is your digital modulator set to CQPSK or C4FM?

Or maybe the TG's are TDMA or encrypted.

 

[W4hlk]

take out the pre amp and see what happens

Can't hear it at all then.

 

[W4hlk]

Can't hear it at all then.

No, just NAS. At that distance, I don't think it could any way.

 

[W4hlk]

Is your digital modulator set to CQPSK or C4FM?

Or maybe the TG's are TDMA or encrypted.

C4FM. They are not encrypted as I can hear them on the SDR and show up in that software as P not P4 which is encrypted. It could be, and I think it is a time slot problem. As sometimes the Radio will show a talk group but no audio and other times it's just not showing. There are certain channels of the site system I hear and others I don't. It's also why I keep looking at the band plan as the issue but may be wrong. That's the problem with NAS I don't think it can load the band plan without affiliation so it has to be put in manually. But like I say. I'm just learning and have come a long way in just 4 weeks.

 

[KevinC]

C4FM. They are not encrypted as I can hear them on the SDR and show up in that software as P not P4 which is encrypted. It could be, and I think it is a time slot problem. As sometimes the Radio will show a talk group but no audio and other times it's just not showing. There are certain channels of the site system I hear and others I don't. It's also why I keep looking at the band plan as the issue but may be wrong. That's the problem with NAS I don't think it can load the band plan without affiliation so it has to be put in manually. But like I say. I'm just learning and have come a long way in just 4 weeks.

May not be all your problems, but for simulcast the digital modulator needs to be CQPSK. For non simulcast either C4FM or CQPSK will work, but not the other way around, it will be hit or miss that way.

 

[W4hlk]

May not be all your problems, but for simulcast the digital modulator needs to be CQPSK. For non simulcast either C4FM or CQPSK will work, but not the other way around, it will be hit or miss that way.

Ah. Ok. I'll try that then. Like I said. I'm learning. Little today bits at a time. But it adds up. Thanks!

 

[jeepsandradios]

If your using NAS you may still miss some stuff as you have no priority in scan. Not saying you will miss a ton but it can happen.

 

[Outerdog]

 

[W4hlk]

May not be all your problems, but for simulcast the digital modulator needs to be CQPSK.

I think that got it. What I am missing now is from marginal fringe reception. Thanks. At first I thought it was in C-personality then I remembered seeing it in trunking and changed it there and the system came alive.