Somerset County Trunk SYS.

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eastrocks400

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Hello all.

I am going to Somerset today where i have family and love to monitor their police, fire, etc. BUT-- their trunk system always comes in very staticy. Yes, i have the correct frequencies. It does not matter what antenna i use or where i am. (outside, inside, belle mead, manville, etc.)

I am using a pro-106. Anyone shed light on this?
 

eastrocks400

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Well where i live in nassau county, new york, everything is basically UHF conventional. Everything comes in crystal clear but this trunk system is far from it. Often barely understandable, something must be wrong.

Ill switch my scanner feed for the day to Somerset since i will be away from my home anyway. (bringing computer with me.)

I'll probably start it around 12pm. If you'd be willing to listen i'd appreciate it.
 

robbinsj2

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I'll try to listen in at some point but you'll need to provide a link. Or is it only missing from your post header right now because your feed is down? I think I read that they take that away immediately if/when feeds go down...

Single transmitter systems may sound different from multi-site simulcast. I don't know what Nassau County uses but Somerset is a simulcast of half a dozen or so sites.
 

robbinsj2

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That's about what I usually get from my home outside the county, but not as good as I get from within the county. All I can suggest is checking your connections, making sure the squelch is as low as possible, and doing whatever you can to improve reception. If you're scanning 470.1375 with the PL, try it with carrier squelch.

The system doesn't have perfect coverage, which is supposedly why North Plainfield PD uses an analog talkgroup for dispatch instead of a digital one (digital came in garbled too often for them), but I think you should be receiving it better than that.

Some trunked transmissions seemed to be coming in okay. Can you correlate poor quality with specific frequencies on the system? Some conventional stuff was also coming in rather poorly, I don't know what it was so I don't know whether it indicates a real problem or just remoteness from that repeater.
 

eastrocks400

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Not sure either as i dont have access to get all around the county. The reception really goes on and off...

thanks anyway!
 

eastrocks400

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The UHF frequency always came in bad on my cousin's pager so i am thinking it could be where i am.

But also EVERY trunking ID comes in poorly.
 

robbinsj2

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That's the nature of trunking -- all talkgroups share the same pool of frequencies. If there's one frequency which you're receiving poorly on then *every* talkgroup transmission on that frequency will come in poorly regardless of whether it's the sheriff or fire/EMS or the county recycling crews. The only possible exception to this is digital talkgroups, the carrier may be at just such a level that analog comes in okay and digital doesn't, or vice-versa.

While "EVERY trunking ID" comes in poorly, during my monitoring of your feed not every transmission came in poorly. That's why I suggested you try to look for a pattern to help isolate the problem -- maybe calls on 502.6125 come in pretty well but 502.5625 don't. Then see if 502.5625 is a birdie for you, or if a nearby computer is causing interference, or something like that.

What decoding % are you getting for the control channel?
 

eastrocks400

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Ah i left jersey, but i think it was somewhere around 70% or 90%... i didn't know what that number was so i really dont remember it now but if that sounds right, it could be.
 
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