STARS and the PSR-500

[LEH]

Frank and Allen,

I'll agree to that. I am totally confused right now. The only threshold or noise settng I find in for the ROAM mode.

The "Super Expert Global System Menu"??? :roll:

I am getting better results right now with my STARS set to ROAM and the thresholds set to 75 and 30. I did this because I was getting contorl channel info on both Hampton frequencies (152.5775 and 152.7575). The lower with no decode rate the higher with 70% and the atten turned off.

 

[fmon]

Yes Allen, Craig's suggestion was the reason. Think I mentioned that in the firmware thread. 50 went to far so tried 35 and worked back up to 45. This am, STARS is working real well with STAT and 45 noise threshold. We went out yesterday towards I-664 (Suffolk side) and ROAM with Hi 76 Lo 55 worked well with the stock ducky.

 

[tuttleje]

Frank/LEH

Frank-What percentage of STARS transmission are you receiving with the PSR-500?

LEH- Is there a difference in reception between the Williamsburg and Hampton towers using the PSR-500?

 

[fmon]

Frank/LEH

Frank-What percentage of STARS transmission are you receiving with the PSR-500?

Jim,

On either Chesapeake or Hampton tower, my 2096 and 500 are hooked to a Scantenna via Electroline Cable TV amp. Both scanners are attenuated and equally flickering between 68 and 78. Most of the readings are 74 and 76.

The 500 is embarrassing the 2096 and 96. The 96 is scanning with 800 ducky. Can't lock on the Chesapeake tower on 96 w/ or w/o Att, but on Hampton it decodes at 66-76. It picks up similar to the 2096, except sometimes the traffic on Chesapeake tower is not on the Hampton tower...don't know why.

Another strange phenomena...disconnect 500 during this decode test and connect either stock or 800 ducky. I lose the "T" and the scanner display changes between 72-74 decode, similar to the 96 with the ducky. Return to the Scantenna, the "T" returns and back to mostly 74-76 decode.

 

[LEH]

Jim,

I am getting betwen 70 and 80% decode on the Hampton tower. I am too far away (near the airport off of 17) to get Williamsburg. I'll try it next time I'm out in the car with an external antenna. Need to go there this weekend anyway.

I did finally find Craigs Super Glob Expert Menu. Took a while to find his post. Just made the change, so I don't know if it is helping or not just yet.

As to percent of signals, I am guessing overall around 50%. There are times, I am getting nearly everything and then, like now, not getting anything. But I have the scanner next to my laptop and it may be causing some interference.

 

[rvawatch]

are you all using the cpu and or dsp upgrades??

cpu upgrade seems to fix many stars problems for me (richmond and petersburg towers)

dsp upgrade killed my reception...acting as if i had att on or something.

 

[LEH]

I've got the two 0.1 mods installed. My overall reception has improved. STARS and my real problem child York County.

Because I've had some weird occurrences on the Hampton (closest) tower, I have gone to the ROAM mode rather than STAT. That really helped.

 

[fmon]

I'm using both CPU and DSP upgrades. I returned to CPU F1.0 thinking the T was more prominent, but the real need for me was to manage noise. Thus returned to U0.1. DSP U0.2 corrected the V-Folder problem generated by U0.1

BTW, I drove to Smithfield today and never acquired Williamsburg tower, but it's 25 miles from Smithfield, off I-64 near NW corner of Camp Peary.

 

[n4jri]

Thresholds here and thresholds there

That's what I wanted to clarify, guys. The noise threshold vs. the hi/lo thresholds. Now I can see a lot more of what you're experiencing down there.

Those are very good decode rates you're getting. My test radio didn't like settings that high. As for the absent "T" there's a new article on the GRE support page concerning multisite mode. The article seems to indicate that too high a "hi" threshold will make the scanner not find the CC at all. This may be a bit of an overstatement, and I'm going to check into it--but it does serve as a reminder that multisite is not an optimal situation (in terms of staying on the CC) for someone who remains in the coverage area of one strong site. Much of what I've been trying to emphasize in earlier posts.

My previous understanding was that lo threshold would force the radio to search, and that high threshold would be a little more tolerant--and that above the hi threshold, the radio would be satisfied with what it's getting and stay put. The article implies that the zone between lo and hi settings might not be so tolerant, and that the high threshold should be kept as low as possible without imparing performance. This article makes both thresholds appear to have the same function.

I'd love to have a control application that would let us measure how and when the radio breaks with the active CC to look for a better deal.

Looks like the Wiki on this radio is going to get pretty extensive.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[rvawatch]

That's what I wanted to clarify, guys. The noise threshold vs. the hi/lo thresholds. Now I can see a lot more of what you're experiencing down there.

Those are very good decode rates you're getting. My test radio didn't like settings that high. As for the absent "T" there's a new article on the GRE support page concerning multisite mode. The article seems to indicate that too high a "hi" threshold will make the scanner not find the CC at all. This may be a bit of an overstatement, and I'm going to check into it--but it does serve as a reminder that multisite is not an optimal situation (in terms of staying on the CC) for someone who remains in the coverage area of one strong site. Much of what I've been trying to emphasize in earlier posts.

My previous understanding was that lo threshold would force the radio to search, and that high threshold would be a little more tolerant--and that above the hi threshold, the radio would be satisfied with what it's getting and stay put. The article implies that the zone between lo and hi settings might not be so tolerant, and that the high threshold should be kept as low as possible without imparing performance. This article makes both thresholds appear to have the same function.

I'd love to have a control application that would let us measure how and when the radio breaks with the active CC to look for a better deal.

Looks like the Wiki on this radio is going to get pretty extensive.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

yea the article on the gre site doesnt make much sense. it says that the lo value should exceed the hi value. are they meaning the lo should be higher than the hi? that doesnt make sense, but that sounds like what they are saying.




also for STARS, are all talkgroups simulcasted on all sites? I thought at one point they were, but now I'm barely picking up any chesapeake hits, and the ones i get are only on the psr500 and not the pro96. Then the pro96 picks up a RIC 2 hit (from the Richmond tower), while the psr-500 does not (set to roam - i think locked onto the petersburg tower). Setting the psr-500 to stat seems to pick up RIC 2, but its hard to tell which tower its picking it up from since we cant name the control channels (nor see which one the transmission is from).

 

[fmon]

but its hard to tell which tower its picking it up from since we cant name the control channels (nor see which one the transmission is from).

Print a cheat sheet with tower freqs. Then observe voice freq during transmission. However, either CC or VC name would be much easier.

 

[n4jri]

also for STARS, are all talkgroups simulcasted on all sites? I thought at one point they were, but now I'm barely picking up any chesapeake hits, and the ones i get are only on the psr500 and not the pro96. Then the pro96 picks up a RIC 2 hit (from the Richmond tower), while the psr-500 does not (set to roam - i think locked onto the petersburg tower). Setting the psr-500 to stat seems to pick up RIC 2, but its hard to tell which tower its picking it up from since we cant name the control channels (nor see which one the transmission is from).

On knowing what tower you're hearing: I believe that if you press MAN during a transmission, the radio will display the CC channel # from your TSYS object. That could be an alternative to a frequency cheatsheet.

On simulcasting: Generally speaking, you will only hear most TG's on tower sites where there are actually units affiliated on that TG. As well as I can tell, all the dispatch TG's operate in the normal SmartZone way. We could've been getting extra Tidwater traffic when Div.5 troopers were coming all the time to the STARS install shop. Now that that's slowed down, it's only logical that we would hear less tidewater stuff.

As for RIC-2, I would expect to hear more of that on the Rumford and Williamsburg sites than on Petersburg. Probably more of the eastern VSP units are on I-64 than SR5. Maybe some of our resident troopers could clarify the situation.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[rvawatch]

yea...and with the newest cpu .2, it now flashes the cc channel with the voice channel (but they got rid of the percentage when you press MAN. why couldnt they just keep that?)

I'm definitally keeping the cpu upgrade(s), bc they fix flaws in the actual scanner software and add more features and such.

as far as the dsp upgrade(s), im not so sure about. with the original one, stars seemed alright...but was skipping some TGs that the 96 got. Then dsp .1 and .2 killed my reception of stars here in the suburbs of chesterfield. Now, dsp .3 doesn't kill the reception as much, but it sounds like the beginning of alot of transmissions are cut off. The original dsp may have done something similar.

It appears that our tidewater stars friends really liked dsp .2. im interested as to what you (n4jri) will think of the upgrades since you are right around my area.
im moving out to the williamsburg area in a couple months transferring colleges, so driving back and forth from chesterfield to there might have me doing alot of dsp changes

It appears that lowering dg int time might help some, if thats even possible? i know people have talked about it for analog, but i dunno.

i dont really notice a difference with the dsp threshold. im still not sure what that even does.

 

[LEH]

Well I loaded both the DSP and CPU upgrades last night. I haven't tested it out on STARS yet.

One thing that Frank mentioned and that I've been playing with is the noise threshold in the 'super expert glob menu' (PGM/FUNC/GLOB then scroll down). Right now I have it set to 40 and STARS seems to be working better than with 20. I had to near 50 and it dropped down again.

It seems that each radio and location may need to be tweaked for reception.

I was in Williamsburg yesterday and stopped by another RR members house. We compared reception of STARS on his 996 and my 500. Both were pretty shoddy in my opinion. I'd pick up things he wasn't and he'd hear converstations that I missed.

I know some of my clipped conversations were caused by me having turned on the WX PRI.

STARS on the 500 seems to have a difficult time keeping the previous channel when it does a PRI check.

 

[fmon]

yea...and with the newest cpu .2, it now flashes the cc channel with the voice channel (but they got rid of the percentage when you press MAN. why couldnt they just keep that?)

I have the latest of both upgrades and percentage is still avilable via MAN>F2>F1.

I know some of my clipped conversations were caused by me having turned on the WX PRI. STARS on the 500 seems to have a difficult time keeping the previous channel when it does a PRI check.

Yup, WX Pri will surely ditch the control lock on.

Speaking of WX Pri, I had it set on Monday morning and it lit off at 1155 during coms on STARS advising cnx of the freeze warning in our area. Unlike the 20(96) which will only lite off during no coms and if coms are present during the 1020 tone, you are out of luck.

 

[LEH]

Well, I drove over to Norfolk Naval Base exchange today, took 664/164 to give the 500 a run on the road.

STARS reception basically stinks. Just into Portsmouth, I was able to check the CC's. Using my RS-800 antenna in the car, I had both Chesapeak and Hampton decoding at the 70+% mark.

Reception was practically nil. I heard lots of traffic on the conventional VSP channels, but nothing on STARS.

Reception of Newport News, Suffolk, Portsmouth and Norfolk seemed to be good. I didn't think to try Chesapeak's P25 system (sorry Frank), I was really more interested in STARS.

I am playing with the multi-site settings and the noise threshold. Maybe something will break it loose. So far, I doubt it.

 

[LEH]

Well, I was out playing around for a bit today. Went through the HRBT and natrually lost everything except the tunnel freq and (surprise, surprise), STARS.

It came in loud and clear on the 500 while I was going through the tunnel. Actually seemed to be doing better in the tunnel.

 

[W4UVV]

in tunnel repeaters

Well, I was out playing around for a bit today. Went through the HRBT and natrually lost everything except the tunnel freq and (surprise, surprise), STARS.

It came in loud and clear on the 500 while I was going through the tunnel. Actually seemed to be doing better in the tunnel.

The reason you heard STARS so well is because of 1 watt in tunnel repeaters either already installed or planned for future installation in most if not all Tidewater area tunnels.

 

[LEH]

Figured as much, considering that when VSP had to go in the tunnels in the past, they told the dispatcher they could be reached on through the tunnel ops.

Regardless, best STARS reception I've had yet. Not sure what that is saying.

 

[Stick0413]

It should be the best. It is a low power repeater and you are basically right next to it. So you are extremely close to the repeater and the lower power doesn't over power it.