SYSTEMS ON I-90

[bcourt10]

HELLO:
I will be traveling thru SD west to east on I90 any one know which sites to program in to cover the state on I90??? Also when programing my
796-d with the bearcat software it wont let me use control channel only when using a vhf trunk system is this normal??
thanks so much for any help
bill

 

[jimlawrence]

Coincidentally, I'm planning on doing the same thing this summer.

I'm figuring I'll have to get a map out and figure out where each of the tower sites are located that are listed in the RR database. Then, I'll only program those freqs for the tower sites that are along my route. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'd love to hear it.

If your 296 is like my 250, there appears to be no control channel option for VHF systems. So I'm planning on entering all the freqs for the sites along my route.

I believe mobile scanning is illegal in SD so you may want to bring along a receiver that you can afford to lose. You can read about it here:

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/esnr/radar.htm

or here

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtlaws_dec03.html

 

[greenthumb]

Also when programing my
796-d with the bearcat software it wont let me use control channel only when using a vhf trunk system is this normal??
bill

Yep - control channel only mode is available only on 800, and I believe 900 MHz systems too.

RACOM has good coverage here on the eastern part of SD, see their coverage map at:

http://www.racom.com/The_RACOM_Network.htm

and the RACOM system page on RR.com at:

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=1006

There is a decent amount of public safety on the RACOM system, so you'll have some to monitor in the eastern 1/3 of SD on EDACS, anyway.

Enjoy the trip!

 

[GlacierClipper]

RACOM covers parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota. When I lived in Rochester, MN; it was easy listening to RACOM network and sometimes hearing radio traffic from the entire network.

 

[greenthumb]

Yeah - RACOM is a unique system and I enjoy it. I would fathom to say that whomever invested the money in building the system is a rich person

 

[Thunderbolt]

Yeah - RACOM is a unique system and I enjoy it. I would fathom to say that whomever invested the money in building the system is a rich person

They certainly have done a marvelous job of providing communications for many public safety agencies across the state of Iowa and elsewhere. I have never heard any complaints about the level of service or coverage, which is good news to me.


73's

Ron

 

[greenthumb]

Sometimes I can't help but think that when issues are brought up about trunked communications systems going down or having problems is because it is a new communications system and it was expensive. I can think of countless times that I have heard of conventional systems going down for various reasons. I admit that there are occasions when the system going down is due to equipment failure that should not have taken place, but to champion the discussion with "lives were at risk" doesn't cut it for me. The same issues existed when conventional systems go down, but it wasn't such a big hype then.

Oh well...but you're right - I haven't seen any negative publicity with the RACOM system. It's a great interoperability tool for agencies using it. Kudos to them!