St. Francis County SO Help

[jyams]

I'm jumping back into this hobby after being away for a few years. I live in Memphis and in the past regularly monitored St. Francis County / Forrest City conventional frequencies. Now, my scanner is stopping showing a strong signal but I'm getting no voice modulation. Scanner is a Pro-18 and the frequencies and settings are straight from the RR database. Attenuation is OFF. Anyone have any suggestions? Last night there was alot of chatter about I-40 and the ice issues and my scanner was getting frequent hits (2-3 bars) on the St. Francis County SO frequencies but no voice ever broke through. I know that the SFSO IS using the AWIN system for dispatch, but their conventional frequencies seem to be very active also. I can't pick up the control channels for the AWIN system, so my problem is the conventional freqs which I can receive but not modulate, which I am positive are being used. Are they scrambling these freqs?

Thanks in advance for any assistance. Oh, and BTW, I'm picking up Crittenden County SO just fine.

 

[INDY72]

Try leaving the tone open/tone searching. It could be they switched tones. Other option is they are encrypted on conventional, which would not be passing audio thru on the PRO-18. Or they may be switching to NXDN or DMR and the FCC license changes have not shown up yet?

 

[mikebennett]

I drive through there at least once a year and it seems like they do switch PL tones around for some reason. I figured this out year before last when I got a close call hit but couldn't pick them up on the channel I had the incorrect PL tone programmed with. I ended up just programming the tone in SEARCH mode so that wouldn't happen again.

 

[jyams]

Trying the search tone with no luck, but not giving up. Is anyone hearing St. Francis SO or Forrest City PD transmissions. Scanner still stops on both but no voice breakthrough. I'm now thinking they are using the frequencies but are either encrypting or digitizing. Anyone hearing anything on these freqs?

 

[mikebennett]

Trying the search tone with no luck, but not giving up. Is anyone hearing St. Francis SO or Forrest City PD transmissions. Scanner still stops on both but no voice breakthrough. I'm now thinking they are using the frequencies but are either encrypting or digitizing. Anyone hearing anything on these freqs?

I was there in October and heard them then. You don't happen to have the modulation set to "AM" do you? I've done that before.

 

[jyams]

Good question, but no, trying FM and FMN, Search (both search only and CT search), no attenuation, AGC on (and off). Scanner still stops on the freq but no modulation. I'll keep experimenting.

 

[jyams]

Problem solved. It was the scanner and not the frequencies. Once I changed to another scanner on same antenna they started to come in. Been there done that many times, but I thought this scanner was sensitive enough, but not so. Thanks for replies.