St Charles SLATER

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scanman1958

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It may be a dumb question but I wanted to double check before I start some spring cleaning on my scanner.

St Charles city, St Peters and O'ffallon used to have their own trunked systems before SLATER.

Have all of those cities migrated over to SLATER? And are any portions of their old systems still in use by anyone such as city utilities?

Again, just double checking.

Thanks.
 

AD0JA

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Yes, they have completely migrated to SLATER.

I have not heard anything on their old systems.
 

scanman1958

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Thanks. I do not get to hear St Charles Co and Jeff Co from the city any more with the new system. Radio systems might be 'progressing' but our listening geographic area is 'regressing'.
 

AD0JA

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Exactly.

I used to be able to easily hear Wentzville PD from my home QTH when they were on their VHF old analog system. Now I have to use an 800mhz yagi and XTS3000 to be able to even to hear them clearly.
 
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kruser

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I hear you guys.

I also must use a 12 element Maxrad Yagi to get anything of any distance on these new systems.

One of my aims for the two STL County systems does allow me to get one of the Jeffco sites but I must re-aim for St. Charles.

Same goes for STL City, I must aim more east from my QTH for them.

Moswin is no problem not being a simulcast system. I can still receive Moswin sites like I used to receive the smaller towns and cities west of St. Charles.

They sure narrow down the coverage pattern on todays simulcast sites.
 

AD0JA

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Yes MOSWIN can be heard fine. It's the 800MHz SLATER sites that are heard to hear in certain places.
 

kruser

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Yes MOSWIN can be heard fine. It's the 800MHz SLATER sites that are heard to hear in certain places.

Possibly due to the fact that most Moswin sites are not Simulcast plus most are good old VHF frequencies.
Some Moswin sites are simulcast like the STL City 800 site for example.
I can't speak for some of the Moswin only 700 MHz sites that have been turned on lately as they are all out of range for me but it would be very easy for those sites to also use directional antennas more to keep the signals within the intended area.

I find that almost all Moswin sites are regular sites and those that are simulcast are those that existed before Moswin's VHF part of the system went live.

Slater's sites are all simulcast and often give many users reception problems. I had a hard time finding a sweet spot for the North and South Stl County Slater sites plus I live on the imaginary line that separates the South from the North Slater systems here in this county.
Many consider Page Ave. or 364 (I think) the dividing line between North & South for the two Stl County systems of Slater. Some agencies are always heard on both North & South systems but I find that to be true mainly for actual Stl County users. All the muni's within the county seem to follow the imaginary dividing line rule but all users within the county do seem to be allowed on the North or South site in most cases.

If you follow some of the users in the county something like Pro96com, you will see some south users denied access to the north site and vice versa. Same rule applies to most Jeffco and St Charles users in that they are denied access to the Stl counties north and south sites but you will see a lot of radios trying to affiliate with sites not intended for their area.
Every so often, you will see a Moswin radio try and affiliate with a Slater site but usually denied. Those users usually show up on one of the VHF Moswin sites or on the Stl City 800 MHz site.
Most federal users seem to affiliate on one or more Moswin sites and possibly some Slater sites although I've stopped watching Pro96com since most of Slater in Stl County has went encrypted.

I can hear several Moswin VHF sites and even very weak signal sites decode perfectly at my end. When the VHF band opens up, it is not uncommon to hear and decode Moswin VHF sites from halfway or more across the state in all directions except Illinois of course.

Many 800 MHz sites on many systems across the country are tuned for just the intended area using several different types of directional antennas.
Once you get out of the area they are intended for, reception can drop off like a rock. You will see this on simulcast and regular non-simulcast 700 MHz and up sites. I can barely hear Starcom for this very reason.
I can sure hear what is left of VHF signals very well from Illinois though!
 

AD0JA

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kruser,
Very good insight on the MOSWIN and SLATER systems. This confirms a couple of my theories. Thanks.

I can definitely agree SLATER coverage drops off like a rock when you get outside of the intended coverage range.

MOSWIN however, I can clearly hear the Warrenton, Americus, New Hope, and Weldon Spring sites from here in Wright City. When there's tropospheric ducting, I can usually here even more distant sites​, same as you reported.
 
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