trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
That's it Herb, good memory, never did a thing for me but the marketing was so good I kept trying it LOL! Thanks hahaha.
Simulcasts?
- Thread starter joeyperillo
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jonwienke
More Info Coming Soon!
That's bad advice for conventional scanners, and completely useless and unnecessary for SDS models. All that will do is attenuate the signal, it won't make a directional antenna.
trentbob - so sorry to be off the air last night - brutal day working in the sun, another about to start! Some answers to your questions and some other info about my muddy SDS 200......the radio has no rubber feet nor do I see any in the packaging, I don't have the mounting bracket on - when I have the radio on I have it elevated on the desk so I can see the display and also so the speaker is not flush with the table - it can breathe.....I have also used it with a high quality Altec portable speaker....no appreciable difference.....I have not moved it around the room but today I am going to take it with me in the car - that ought to show it some different terrain! I am now using a 6" coiled rubber antenna that I dug up from a cobwebbed analog dustbin in the basement......(was probably for a BC200XLT) - signal strength is excellent. I will also switch to the stock stick which as you say, un-extended is a quarter wave antenna......hitting the bricks soon, will report - thanks again for your help
whooey
Member
This video helped me tremendously, manual threshold of 7 and my before garbling 536HP scanner runs like a champ.
trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
Yep no doubt about it going to manual threshold 7 can help in Bucks County for 536. Although the o p started with the 536 he has upgraded to an SDS 200 which of course would not use threshold level secondary to the SDR chip.
Wish I had seen this before I returned my 536 for simulcast distortion - do you think this monkeying about might help my SDS 200 which is unfortunately still muddy? I have a couple worthy gentlemen helping me with other suggestions as well........can't hurt to try, yes? Thanks for this. Stay safe.
trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
Okay Joey I know exactly what antenna you are talking about as I owned that radio. Performance on 700 will not be optimal with that antenna but it should work. Again, your best bet is the telescopic antenna and no, going to a manual threshold of 7 was not the answer for you not to upgrade to the SDS.
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trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
You cannot adjust the threshold level on the 200 as it is an SDR Radio. See how you do today. Again that rubber duck is not an optimal antenna but the telescopic antenna is. Good luck talk later.
The Bucks County system was designed for portable in building coverage, thus will have a very strong signal indoors. No gain antenna required - the stock antenna is more than sufficient for receiving this system. I hope to be in the Doylestown area tomorrow, and hopefully I can make a sidetrip to Yardley. It is possible that the OP is getting some interference from a nearby cell tower; hard to tell. The Bucks County system co-locates on a number of towers that host cellular providers (we really need better receivers in all our devices moving forward.)
I've noticed during preplanning tomorrow's trip that the Bucks County system listing in RRDB needs some cleaning up / editing. As far as FCC licensing goes, only 12 frequency pairs are currently used in the TRS, yet the database shows 26. The extra frequency pairs - now unlicensed - were to have been used in the original system design that used two simulcast cells: north and south (or A and B.) That design was changed to a single simulcast cell before the system went live. I hope to verify what freqs are actually in use tomorrow, and I'll submit the changes subsequently unless someone else can verify the data.
Also, can somebody verify the 700 direct channels in the RRDB? They are essentially 700 interop channels, mapped thusly:
I would think that the EMS channels would be assigned to 7MED21 and 7MED22, and the police channels assigned to 7LAWxx or 7TACxx.
Also, can somebody verify the 700 direct channels in the RRDB? They are essentially 700 interop channels, mapped thusly:
| 7TAC21 | EMS North | 769.00625 | |||||
| 7TAC22 | EMS South | 769.01875 | |||||
| 7FIRE21 | Fire Police | 769.03125 | |||||
| 7FIRE22 | North Fire | 769.04375 | |||||
| Natl Itinerant | East Fire | 769.05625 | |||||
| Natl Itinerant | South Fire | 769.06875 |
| 7MED21 | Central Fire | 774.93125 | |||||
| 7MED22 | Police 1 | 774.94375 | |||||
| 7LAW21 | Police 2 | 774.95625 | |||||
| 7LAW22 | Police 3 | 774.96875 | |||||
| 7TAC23 | Police 4 | 774.98125 | |||||
| Natl INT | 774.99375 |
I would think that the EMS channels would be assigned to 7MED21 and 7MED22, and the police channels assigned to 7LAWxx or 7TACxx.
trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
I got a little busy today but I am going to check out the database this morning as it was updated yesterday. As far as the Simplex direct channels go I really only see them used by the fire department.
The database seems to be pretty good. The Ops talk groups that has one talk group assigned to each Zone and are permanently encrypted are there even though they don't need to use them anymore because they are set up to go encrypted anytime they want on the dispatch channels now as long as they return to the clear when they are through with the sensitive information.
Last week's database update did include all of the new talk groups in the 60s and 70s that dealt with EMS notification to specific hospitals. There are also some new talk groups with regard to Emergency Management that were not in the database last week. I'll take a look at the database in a while... honestly, I am not an Insider when it comes to the changes in the system, I depend on the kindness of a few very knowledgeable people here in the Pennsylvania forum.
Thanks for your input!
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trentbob - re SDS 200 better than x36 but not great - sorry for the sporadic responses when you are doing so much to help me - I think I mentioned, working Census in the brutal heat all day, every day - while the money lasts......so.....took the SDS 200 around with me all day in the car so as to introduce it to different environments. There are still times when cars (seldom dispatchers) are muffled or seemingly maybe over modulated but generally good.....perhaps digital will never sound as uniformly clean as the old days? More: I used just the stock telescope stick collapsed to 6 or 7" - the quarter wave you indicated....it is amazing the reception sitting in the car with no external antenna (not trying to reach Philadelphia or anything - that's for much later).....signal strength is excellent.....you had spoken previously about filtering, effecting delays or some arcane magic you know......you had asked me to download from Sentinel all of Bucks County and we'd cherry pick from there....I mentioned the county was loaded by Bearcat Warehouse per my request (and $). The names of the two directories on the card they put there are:
183145-Bucks PA and 183145-Regional
Is that six digit number what you're referring to when you ask what number my Favorites is/are?
You had mentioned from this list I should create individual favorites with specific filters....I think......
BTW, I think the radio sounded better in the car than where it was on the desk but the shortened stock antenna you suggested made a difference.....will I ever get consistently clean transmissions from this simulcast system? If so I suspect you are the magician I need........grazie......
trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
Yep, well a Magician I'm not... honestly, I have never encountered a situation where the radio wasn't loud, clear, crisp and dependable in a mobile or fixed application and I own two sds200s and one sds100 so something is definitely wrong here. If you're getting a good signal and reception is good then altering filters is not going to change actual modulation or clarity.
Your part of the county is well covered and should work well with the stock antenna sitting on your car seat, but it sounds like you're just not satisfied with the results you're getting.
Difficulties with the 536 are understandable, there are parts of the county where a non SDR radio will work with muffled inconsistent performance... but the sds100 + 200 have been stellar throughout the county and tests up against Motorola subscriber radios, other than the lack of volume punch, have been very good.
Without having the radio in my hands and fiddling with it and actually watching and listening to the results that you're getting I don't know what else to say other than... It's a very expensive radio and if you're not satisfied and something is definitely wrong for you... you should certainly take advantage of the return policy and get your money back.
Having a 536 again with all the gimmicks and attempts to make it work are not the answer either.
My daughter lives in the Newtown area near the National Cemetery and the SDS radios work great there, I also travel through Yardley and down Route 32 along the river into Morrisville and the SDS radios always work well there also, they keep right up with my Motorola gear.
Don't know what else to say, take advantage of the return policy and get your money back.
Your part of the county is well covered and should work well with the stock antenna sitting on your car seat, but it sounds like you're just not satisfied with the results you're getting.
Difficulties with the 536 are understandable, there are parts of the county where a non SDR radio will work with muffled inconsistent performance... but the sds100 + 200 have been stellar throughout the county and tests up against Motorola subscriber radios, other than the lack of volume punch, have been very good.
Without having the radio in my hands and fiddling with it and actually watching and listening to the results that you're getting I don't know what else to say other than... It's a very expensive radio and if you're not satisfied and something is definitely wrong for you... you should certainly take advantage of the return policy and get your money back.
Having a 536 again with all the gimmicks and attempts to make it work are not the answer either.
My daughter lives in the Newtown area near the National Cemetery and the SDS radios work great there, I also travel through Yardley and down Route 32 along the river into Morrisville and the SDS radios always work well there also, they keep right up with my Motorola gear.
Don't know what else to say, take advantage of the return policy and get your money back.
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I was hoping that tvengr would read this thread and make a simple Sentinel file for the county for the op. I would not trust a vendor-produced file: it may have a lot of junk in it. These radios are sophisticated devices and require a bit of knowledge and experience to configure properly. It is interesting that the op says the radio performed better when moving to another location outside his home, which suggests some localized interference. Let's see if he tests using the stock antenna at home also improves reception.
I will report back on my findings from my excursion to Doylestown today. I'm bringing along a cch logger, an SDS 200 and a Unication G5 to baseline the system.
I will report back on my findings from my excursion to Doylestown today. I'm bringing along a cch logger, an SDS 200 and a Unication G5 to baseline the system.
trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
Actually this has been quite a protracted project because the o p has been very busy with work, Jim was on the thread on Sunday night but may not have wanted to step on any toes at that point, his help would be welcome as I really don't know where to go from here without getting a lot more information from the poster and have them take the time to fiddle with the radio at my direction. We never really did that. Of course that's what it would take. Poster has not really been available at night and works all day.
I have never seen a radio that was programmed by the vendor before, I would imagine they just take the system from Sentinel. I just don't know, it's something none of us would ever pay for.
The problem here does not seem to be signal and I got the impression the signal was strong, the complaint is muffled or unclear transmissions which is not a characteristic of the 200 or the system.
I look forward to your results today. Maybe I will drop a PM to Jim and see if he will come back and maybe help Joey out.
I'm curious what the op considers "muffled" audio or unclear transmissions. There is a lot of variation in audio quality caused by how the user interacts with the equipment, specifically speaker mics. Also, P25 audio can sound "muffled" to those who are more used to analog radio.
You guys are great and I appreciate you so very much - trentbob - I don't really want to send this back and have nothing especially if it is just my ignorance of the beast that is the problem - I would gladly compensate you were you of a mind to having me drop it off to you and having you analyze and or "fix" it.....my email: joey@joeyperillo.com - lemme know! (thanks for your understanding of my heavy work schedule - it all goes to "zero" on September 30).....
trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
Interesting, very good points, I agree.
maybe that's the answer - it's the nature of the P25 system that I will occasionally get "muffled" (I liken it to "over modulated") messages, mostly from road units but sometimes from dispatch......
trentbob
Silent Key W3BUX
I personally never would charge anyone for something like that, it's fun, I have certainly done it before.
On September 1st I'm moving to a new house in Bristol borough. I'm keeping my place for a few months before it will be sold. I'm going to be doing a lot of repair work, painting and such to the new house so unfortunately I won't be that available.
Anything is Possible. I just wanted to make sure that your radio was not overtly defective and that you would miss the 30-day return window the warehouse provides. If you're available we can talk about it some more but it would take time on your part to work on the radio so we may have to wait a bit.
I will definitely be back on tonight.
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