Some basic questions about how radio waves work

[biffspagnuts]

Hi

I use radio at my job and want to better understand how radio waves in practice work. My first question, does distance effect speed of radio waves. For example if I am 5 miles away from the dispatch tower is there a difference in signal speed from 100 feet from the tower, even if fractions of a second? I understand that in a vacuum changes things or could but I want to know about radio signal speed around a city.

Also is there a way to improve my broadcast to the dispatch tower even if only in clarity of my signal to the dispatch tower? Different radio or better something?

I am basically fighting for my dispatcher to hear me over others also calling in at the same time, and in different places through out the city. My radio seems to not be as well heard as others and I make my living by getting as many calls as possible so I want to improve my ability to be heard.

Also is there a way to record and playback who my dispatcher is hearing first? There tends to be a few dispatchers on the take.

Thanks

 

[popnokick]

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"Dispatcher"? "Making a living"? Monetary compensation using radio ("on the take")?
Is it possible this has nothing to do with the FCC-licensed service known as Amateur Radio, and perhaps should not be in an Amateur Radio Forum on RR?

 

[n5ims]

I use radio at my job and want to better understand how radio waves in practice work. My first question, does distance effect speed of radio waves. For example if I am 5 miles away from the dispatch tower is there a difference in signal speed from 100 feet from the tower, even if fractions of a second? I understand that in a vacuum changes things or could but I want to know about radio signal speed around a city.

Technically yes, it would take a signal longer to travel 5 miles vs one traveling 100 feet, but you would need some very sensitive equipment to measure the difference. You wouldn't notice it by just hearing it.

Also is there a way to improve my broadcast to the dispatch tower even if only in clarity of my signal to the dispatch tower? Different radio or better something?

Yes, improve your location relative to the dispatch receiver's antenna. This may be by moving up to the top of a hill or away from large buildings, ground cover, or whatever may be absorbing your signal. Note that your dispatch may have more than one receiver feeding their system so you may need to ask if they have remote receivers and if so where they're located to properly move to a better location. Using a handheld radio indoors is probably a worst-case situation for getting your signal out to dispatch. You may have a better signal near a window or on a rooftop, if possible. It could be that your radio is bad so you may want to have it checked out as well.

I am basically fighting for my dispatcher to hear me over others also calling in at the same time, and in different places through out the city. My radio seems to not be as well heard as others and I make my living by getting as many calls as possible so I want to improve my ability to be heard.

Also is there a way to record and playback who my dispatcher is hearing first? There tends to be a few dispatchers on the take.

Critical systems often record their transmissions so you may be able to request a copy of their recordings. You could also set up a scanner or better yet another radio on that system where it gets good signals from both your dispatch and the other units (easy if you have a repeater based system, not so easy if not) so you can record the system's communications.

If your job is dependent on your dispatcher sending you calls and you're always at the bottom of the list, you may want to start with befriending the disaptchers and establishing a good relationship with them (perhaps by sending them a nice holiday gift). It also may be good to do what you can to make their job easier by being friendly, professional, and communicating in ways that make their jobs easier (e.g. giving addresses in a format that they have to enter the data, not necessarily how you have it listed). This may move you up the list and give you more of the better jobs. Failing this, you may need to find a new place to work or accept the fact that you may not get the best assignments and move on.

 

[LtDoc]

You are dealing with a 'method' of dispatching, someone is always going to be a looser. It's a lot like an auction. There's no 'sure' way of getting a 'bid'. Good luck.
- 'Doc

 

[zz0468]

Sounds like taxi or tow truck dispatching.

Get thee to a radio shop and make sure that the radio is operating properly. Then make friends with the dispatchers.

 

[biffspagnuts]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10A523 Safari/8536.25)

"Dispatcher"? "Making a living"? Monetary compensation using radio ("on the take")?
Is it possible this has nothing to do with the FCC-licensed service known as Amateur Radio, and perhaps should not be in an Amateur Radio Forum on RR?

I rent the car with the radio and hold no license so I don't know. What are you getting at exactly, I don't understand, did I post in the wrong section or something?

 

[biffspagnuts]

Sounds like taxi or tow truck dispatching.

Get thee to a radio shop and make sure that the radio is operating properly. Then make friends with the dispatchers.

Good guess taxi, the problem is there are so many dispatchers and each has there own speed at which they toggle and it's hard to get it all timed right for each one. The company dispatch has archaic radios that still have vacuum tubes and they won't ever fix anything when it breaks. I get along pretty well with the dispatchers but when there are six other drivers calling in at almost the same time I have heard it all goes to static on the dispatch end.

 

[biffspagnuts]

You are dealing with a 'method' of dispatching, someone is always going to be a looser. It's a lot like an auction. There's no 'sure' way of getting a 'bid'. Good luck.
- 'Doc

"There's no 'sure' way of getting a 'bid'
That is something I am curious about also, I have heard that at one point the radio from each cab could light up one of many lights in the dispatch office. Each cab would have it's own light so the dispatcher wouldn't have to "hear" the first person to call in, a light would just light up by a certain cab number. How would something like that work? How could whatever electronic device tell the difference between 70 different radios ?

 

[biffspagnuts]

Technically yes, it would take a signal longer to travel 5 miles vs one traveling 100 feet, but you would need some very sensitive equipment to measure the difference. You wouldn't notice it by just hearing it.



Yes, improve your location relative to the dispatch receiver's antenna. This may be by moving up to the top of a hill or away from large buildings, ground cover, or whatever may be absorbing your signal. Note that your dispatch may have more than one receiver feeding their system so you may need to ask if they have remote receivers and if so where they're located to properly move to a better location. Using a handheld radio indoors is probably a worst-case situation for getting your signal out to dispatch. You may have a better signal near a window or on a rooftop, if possible. It could be that your radio is bad so you may want to have it checked out as well.



Critical systems often record their transmissions so you may be able to request a copy of their recordings. You could also set up a scanner or better yet another radio on that system where it gets good signals from both your dispatch and the other units (easy if you have a repeater based system, not so easy if not) so you can record the system's communications.

If your job is dependent on your dispatcher sending you calls and you're always at the bottom of the list, you may want to start with befriending the disaptchers and establishing a good relationship with them (perhaps by sending them a nice holiday gift). It also may be good to do what you can to make their job easier by being friendly, professional, and communicating in ways that make their jobs easier (e.g. giving addresses in a format that they have to enter the data, not necessarily how you have it listed). This may move you up the list and give you more of the better jobs. Failing this, you may need to find a new place to work or accept the fact that you may not get the best assignments and move on.

Thanks that explain a lot! I am pretty sure they just have one tower and no repeaters. I do have a handheld scanner but in the cab when I hit the mic all that comes in is me, or so it seems. It makes me wonder what the dispatch is getting. Is there a radio you could suggest that might do a better job? I am just looking for any advantage I can get even if there is a way to just come in more clear or louder, would that be possible? I don't know much about radios so I really appreciate all of this

 

[kc4jgc]

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If your company's comms are on vhf, it's likely that it's a full duplex system (dispatch on one frequency, cabs on another frequency). As far as monitoring comms on both sides you'll need 2 recievers.
Another thing, when 2 or more stations are transmitting simultaneously, the strongest FM signal at the reciever (the dispatch desk) will capture that reciever. With that in mind, proximity to your company's tower as well as signal strength and terrain all affect how well your transmissions reach the base.
As far as this bank of lights you're speaking about, I have no idea how that would work unless the radio in each cab has a distinct data burst or a tone that could activate a light at the dispatch desk. Never heard of anything like that before. A visit to the dispatch office to see how things work might be enlightening.