STARS in Hampton Roads

[Eugene]

I have a PRO-96 and have STARS programmed in. Richmond works fine, Hampton Roads will not, even though I have the scanner programmed the same as I do for Richmond. A friend of mine who works for the State says he has talked to a radio tech in this area who says they are "tweaking" the system to make it un-monitorable. Is this true? Is anyone else having this problem and if not, how have they solved it? Thanks in advance.
Eugene

 

[dhmann1811]

I have a PRO-96 and have STARS programmed in. Richmond works fine, Hampton Roads will not, even though I have the scanner programmed the same as I do for Richmond. A friend of mine who works for the State says he has talked to a radio tech in this area who says they are "tweaking" the system to make it un-monitorable. Is this true? Is anyone else having this problem and if not, how have they solved it? Thanks in advance.
Eugene

Eugene,
I have a PSR-500 and I travel between DC and the Tideawater area frequently. I was just down last week and I was able to monitor Richmond and the Chesapeake State Police site with no problems at all on STARS. The radio traffic was crystal clear in the NN and Hampton area. For the PRO-96, you might want to make sure you have the latest firmware loaded and I am not sure what that would be since I do not own a PRO-96. You can get that info from the Radio Shack Web site. I have heard other people say that they had issues with monitoring STARS on the PRO-96 but I am not sure how credible that info is.

As far as the friend talking to the radio tech and making it unable to monitor, I'm not sure about that. Maybe our friend Motorhead can give us some insight into that comment. However, I do not believe there is too much merit to that. However, I will leave that up to Motorhead who is clearly our state expert.
David

 

[Eugene]

STARS in Hampton roads.

Thanks for the reply. I'll check for new firmware. It would be interesting to know if what the radio tech said is true. Supposedly they are going around with digital scanners to see how much they can monitor then go back and make adjustments. Hope it's just hot air.
Eugene

 

[dhmann1811]

Thanks for the reply. I'll check for new firmware. It would be interesting to know if what the radio tech said is true. Supposedly they are going around with digital scanners to see how much they can monitor then go back and make adjustments. Hope it's just hot air.
Eugene

Thats very interesting and hopefully thats not true. Unless they go to encryption I'm not sure how they would make it so scanners could not monitor it. Hopefully, Motorhead will read this and respond with his insight.
David

 

[MOTORHEAD3902]

No tweaks are being done to it to make it unmonitorable...tweaks ARE being done to make it USEABLE BY ITS' USERS. Still have a long way to go before they can call it succesful.

 

[N4FTN]

I agree with Motorhead... there is no motivation to do anything at present but get the system to work as specified, designed and intended........

 

[tglendye]

I understand the need for encryption of sensitive information, but feel the majority of communications (non-sensitive) should be in the open. I do appreciate the Commonwealth keeping things free and clear to hear. My home area is in the open too... open Provoice

 

[Eugene]

STARS in Hampton roads.

Thanks all for the replies. I figured that the problems were with the system. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out. In the meantime, thank goodness for simulcasting.
Eugene

 

[kc4jgc]

My source at Div 5 says that due to technical problems and cost overruns, rollout of STARS has stopped.

We will be able to hear VSP on 159.135 & 159.165 for quite some time to come!