SLATER locations

[W0TLP]

Looking for input from a St. Louis Area Trunked Emergency Radio (SLATER) expert:

Is it correct that the system frequencies at the tower at the St. Louis ****y Health Department, 4580 S Lindbergh Blvd. (I think it's listed as Site 102 St. Louis Area Trunked Emergency Radio (SLATER) Site: StL Co - Urban South) and the frequencies at Affton House 2, at 8124 Valcour, are the same?

If so, I'll point a Yagi antenna toward the tower at the St. Louis Police Department's South Patrol Division to resolve my reception challenge of that site.

 

[scanman1958]

Yes to your question. All of the towers located "south" on the SLATER share the same frequencies. That's what gives it a simulcast designation. The "north" towers share another group of frequencies. The system yransmits both sites (101 & 102) together simultaneously.

 

[bdzig]

What kind of scanner are you using to pick up SLATER?

 

[W0TLP]

An older bearcat 996. It works fine. My location is n a shallow depression and distance + Line Of Sight make reception of STLFD inconsistent.

I'll run a Yagi antenna pointed to south patrol. The Affton SLATER tower lines up along the same path.

 

[scanman1958]

If you live in the south county area and will be using a yagi, you could point it toward the antenna next to the old state hospital complex. That is a tower for site 201 and is at the highest elevation in the city. That could help you receive city fire.

 

[W0TLP]

Yes. Thank you. That's the tower I'm referring to by the STLMPD South Patrol.

 

[bdzig]

If you live in the south county area and will be using a yagi, you could point it toward the antenna next to the old state hospital complex. That is a tower for site 201 and is at the highest elevation in the city. That could help you receive city fire.

This issue that you will have with trying to pick up both SLATER and the city site 201 is that both are setup as simulcast sites (LSM). The 996 scanners do a poor job of picking this sites up. Surprisingly, you may have better luck not placing an antenna outside. If its the 996T, don't count on receiving it, if at all. The 996XT are better, but still have the same issues.

The other thing to try is to adjusting P25 decode level. See the following discussion:

BCD996XT P25 Decode Adjustment

I'm trying to adjust the decode setting on a P25 system in Connecticut - specifically the CT State Police. I followed the instruction on RR to view the setting but when I try to adjust the decode settings, I can't do it even when following the instructions from this site. Does anyone have the...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[W0TLP]

This issue that you will have with trying to pick up both SLATER and the city site 201 is that both are setup as simulcast sites (LSM). The 996 scanners do a poor job of picking this sites up. Surprisingly, you may have better luck not placing an antenna outside. If its the 996T, don't count on receiving it, if at all. The 996XT are better, but still have the same issues.

The other thing to try is to adjusting P25 decode level. See the following discussion:

BCD996XT P25 Decode Adjustment

I'm trying to adjust the decode setting on a P25 system in Connecticut - specifically the CT State Police. I followed the instruction on RR to view the setting but when I try to adjust the decode settings, I can't do it even when following the instructions from this site. Does anyone have the...

forums.radioreference.com

Interesting. Why difficulty picking up a simulcast site?

Mine is the 996T and it picks both SLATER and MOSWIN in the city but not great. I'm running a groundplane antenna in the attic and have too much coax. So I'll make a shorter run of better coax and swap the antenna to a yagi.

 

[scanman1958]

Your yagi can help with the simulcast distortion. Not sure what coax you have but a shorter length is good and a low loss coax even better.

 

[W0TLP]

I'll run rg8.