Talkgroups associated with sites?

[Mlbruehlly]

Newbie alert! I'm new to this site...

I'm also new to the P25 trunked system, and live in Northern Colorado, but would like to monitor radio traffic on the DTRS system. I'm confused about the site/talkgroup assignment for the sites in northern colorado. There are several antennas around Fort Collins and Lovelend, but how do I know which talkgroups are associated with which sites? Should I program all the sites into different banks on my BCD396 or just pick one site from each area and hope I can get all the relevant local talkgroups? I live closest to the downtown Loveland site (WPXC683), but if I use that site, will I still receive Fort Collins PD or Greeley PD talkgroups? Thanks for the help!

 

[jimmnn]

Newbie alert! I'm new to this site...

I'm also new to the P25 trunked system, and live in Northern Colorado, but would like to monitor radio traffic on the DTRS system. I'm confused about the site/talkgroup assignment for the sites in northern colorado. There are several antennas around Fort Collins and Lovelend, but how do I know which talkgroups are associated with which sites? Should I program all the sites into different banks on my BCD396 or just pick one site from each area and hope I can get all the relevant local talkgroups? I live closest to the downtown Loveland site (WPXC683), but if I use that site, will I still receive Fort Collins PD or Greeley PD talkgroups? Thanks for the help!

The agencies you are trying to hear will normally associate with the site closest to them with many exceptions so I would start off my tracking the downtown Loveland site and see what you get but then also try monitoring the other sites in your area to see what you can get as well. Hopefully this makes sense but a little expiramentation is always good.

What about outside of the area agencies on "your" control channels that will only happen when a Douglas County radio is visiting your area and associated with your control channel.

Putting in just the control channels for the areas you want to listen too would be a mistake like just now I heard Littleton Fire Dispatch on Glendale so if I only had Littleton and Greenwood Village in then I would have possibly missed them.

Welcome aboard, turn that radio on and play and more importantly realize there is never a dumb question here and I have found the other members extremely helpful.

Jim<

 

[luke-1]

If Ft Collins and Greeley are associated (actually "Affiliated") with the Loveland site, then yes you will hear them. It is my understanding that every TG is affiliated with certain sites and every time a TG keys the mike, it will be heard on all the sites it is affiliated with, even if it has to be repeated from one site to another.

There is not any information, that I know of, about which TG's are affiliated with which sites. That could be a good project for Jim and Kurt to start on in the morning!!

As Jim stated, turn that radio on and have fun. Trying to figure these questions out is one of the things that makes this hobby so much fun.

Luke

 

[jeffreyinberthoud]

tower tags

"Putting in just the control channels for the areas you want to listen too would be a mistake like just now I heard Littleton Fire Dispatch on Glendale so if I only had Littleton and Greenwood Village in then I would have possibly missed them. "

Jim so just how much is this true that a didstant tower might pick up a unit or visa versa......................

 

[Todd-NG]

Re: tower tags

"Putting in just the control channels for the areas you want to listen too would be a mistake like just now I heard Littleton Fire Dispatch on Glendale so if I only had Littleton and Greenwood Village in then I would have possibly missed them. "

Jim so just how much is this true that a didstant tower might pick up a unit or visa versa......................

Even though you heard Littleton Fire on the repeater located in Glendale doesn't mean that you would have missed the transmission on the Littleton repeater. More than likely the broadcast was sent out in simulcast over both sites. I have heard Thornton PD on a site in Aurora (with one scanner) and the Thorodin Mtn. site (on a second scanner) transmitting at the same time (simulcast). The reason for this is that at least one of their units was associating with the Aurora site and the other units were associating with Thorodin, so the signal was simulcast over the two different sites allowing all the units to hear it.

 

[rfburns]

Re: tower tags

There's one mountaintop site that regularly hears units from 160 to 190 miles away out on the plains. And it is not because someone on that TG is travelling in the vicinity of the site. That same site heard the same distant units when they were on VHF. There's just good enhanced propagation between the two areas. As the system has gotten built out more on the eastern plains it doesn't happen as often, as the units now have a better chance of finding a "local" site to affliate with. Most sites won't hear a unit anywhere near this far away, but I wanted to point out that it can happen.