Simulcast J, Festival Ranch/Sun City Festival

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KB7MIB

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This (Thursday) afternoon, I drove out Sun Valley Parkway to the Festival Ranch/Sun City Festival area, in an attempt to monitor Simulcast J.
Although the CC was full scale, the "T" on my PSR-500 was not active. I have the RS 800 MHz antenna on the scanner.

I did not see a radio tower in the area, but it seems that the CC saturates the community to the point of overloading the scanner. I've seen this in the area of the Peoria Greenway water treatment plant, where a Simulcast G tower is located, and overloads my scanner. Turning on the attenuation did nothing to alleviate the problem.

I didn't see a cell tower, either, so I don't think there was any interference issue from that, like I have experienced elsewhere.

I did see TG 4998 pop up once, but without any decoded audio at all. This would be Goodyear PD's channel 2. Leaving the area, TG 4202, Buckeye PD's channel 2, came active, but without any audio as well.

I would have thought that there wouldn't be any LSM issues in the area with just one tower, which is why I decided to take a drive out there in the first place.

Does anyone live in that community, or has anyone visited, and what is/was your experience trying to listen to Simulcast J there?

John
Peoria
 

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I have been there a couple of times visiting, and I had to have a resident tell me where the tower is. You cannot see it from the community unless you are on the West side. The tower is only about 80-100' tall and is about 2 miles west of the community on Sun Valley Parkway. It is on a cell tower that hosts one cell site, a 700mhz Omni and a VHF omni, with a small microwave dish. The tower does not have lights.

I didn't have much time to listen when I have been there, and site was not that busy. The only talkgroups I was hearing was fire dispatch and K Deck 9.
 
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N9JIG

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I live in SCF and can see the tower from my back yard. Like Joe said it it just west of the community. When you go west on Sun Valley Parkway the tower is just past the high-tension lines north of the road in the desert.

It is active and I see lots of talkgroups popping up on Unitrunker on it.
 

KB7MIB

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I wonder what the issue is with my scanner, then? I know Buckeye PD is encrypted, but I should have heard the encryption. I don't recall off-hand whether Goodyear PD's channel 2 is encrypted or not. And I didn't hear any FD dispatches or tactical comms on the K-decks.

John
Peoria
 

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Goodyear PD Ch 2 4998 is encrypted. 4202 is also encrypted. You will hear the encryption garble on some GRE scanners. This also might be dependent on firmware versions on how they act with encrypted talkgroups. Unidens with briefly show the talkgroup with no audio before continuing to scan.

Unlock an encrypted talkgroup and test on Simulcast G. You should have the same behavior on Simulcast J.

You should have at least heard Fire Dispatch on Simulcast J. Every time I have monitored J, the Fire Dispatch talkgroup has been active.
 

KB7MIB

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I normally do hear encrypted TG's (LSM issues notwithstanding, but there are encrypted TG's on the IR sites, such as White Tanks).

I'm leaning towards an LSM/multi-path issue, or just plain overloading of the front end that prevented sufficient decoding to produce any audio.
Maybe I'll take another drive out in the next week or two and try again.

John
Peoria
 

KB7MIB

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I'll pm you when I know when I plan on driving out and see if you'll be available that day. Thanks.

John
Peoria
 
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