test frequencies for stl

rjvalenta

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i have been tinkering with some old scanners and antennas and while it's easy to test receive in uhf with an FRS radio, and there's periodic VHF ham or fire tone traffic, i'm not sure how well i'm doing with SLATER and MOSWIN. most of the systems being encrypted isn't helping, and my attempt to verify high frequency reception by loading the Ameren P25 system has proven empty as they're using that system less and less every day.

so i'm looking for suggestions on where i can find reliable traffic in various bands around central county. clayton is close, creve coeur, shrewsberrry - all places with lots of towers. if you had to test reception from 50Mhz to 900Mhz, what would you try to tune in? i realize that this isn't FM broadcast, and i may have to wait for an EMS call or or 220Mhz repeater to identify itself or who knows what that's not encrypted on SLATER, but i'd love some ideas in each band that i can add to programming for tests.

Thanks!

Richard
 

rjvalenta

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The NOAA radio transmissions have been my VHF receiver test freq for years!!!

ha, absolutely! i've been going straight to WX just to make sure that's working... Broadcastify has a city fire feed that's got to be part of MOSWIN or SLATER but I'm not getting anything on any antenna I try, even while I can pick up NOAA... hoping for something conventional in every band, or something with a lot of traffic that's not encrypted.
 

scanman1958

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You mentioned 'old scanners'. How old are you talking? Do you have the availability to program them? And are they up to date? The point to point channel is usually pretty busy.
 

rjvalenta

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You mentioned 'old scanners'. How old are you talking? Do you have the availability to program them? And are they up to date? The point to point channel is usually pretty busy.

they're old, but not that old... i moved a few years ago, as my 90 year old parents were considering moving into a retirement community, i boxed up all my scanning and radio equipment at the move... hadn't unpacked it or gone through it all... then covid set it and the parents (who didn't/couldn't move) became a job of their own. so now i'm finally going through things.

2 Uniden MR8100s (really just for VHF/UHF ham and fire/ems calls)
1 RS Pro-2066 'trunking' 800Mhz scanner (not computer programmable to my knowledge)
1 RS Pro-197 - very computer programmable, and I have loaded the latest info from here to it but i'm getting nothing
1 Uniden HomePatrol II - very computer programmable, and I have loaded the latest info from here via the Uniden app to it, but also getting nothing

VHF/UHF seems to work on everything, I get WX and FRS on everything.

I had an old discone at the old house, it's beat up, but i brought it in and tried it, and I tried the smaller multiband antenna a friend had given me years ago, and the 800Mhz bnc stub i had laying around - still nothing on the trunked systems i have loaded in the Pro-197; SLATER, MOSWIN, and Ameren.

I've seen the fire calls come up once on the HomePatrol II via SLATER - once (and I'm not 100% sure I read it right) - I loaded the 4 sites in St. Louis for MOSWIN, included the talkgroups for Region C, Troop C, StLCity Fire and PD... i loaded all of Ameren... the 3 sites for SLATER and the County fire and Muni Fire/PD talkgroups... and i'm getting nothing on the Pro-197.

so that's why I was hoping for some ideas on anything, a clear 800Mhz data stream, or part of the SLATER or MOSWIN system that gets a lot of traffic and people know isn't encrypted. something easy to enter that will be easy to hear, so that i know i'm at least working with viable hardware before i beat myself up over programming more.

ideas?
 

rjvalenta

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would you have any large radio towers near you ?

i don’t think so, i’m by the galleria now, downtown clayton is a few miles as the crow flies…. but i don’t see any towers nearby.
 

Mex

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There are 2 towers for MOSWIN site 2.6 in Clayton. SLATER has a north simulcast site has a site in NW Clayton. (This is all according to the licenses)
1662431562898.png
 

wtp

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it is where a local transmitter is close enough, or powerful enough to overpower the front and and the radio cuts down on reception to the point you hear nothing.
 

rjvalenta

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it is where a local transmitter is close enough, or powerful enough to overpower the front and and the radio cuts down on reception to the point you hear nothing.

i'm going to look in to this as it may be part of the problem - i will tell you all this:

i have this antenna by a window attached as high as possible to a bookcase, with two pieces of wire connected to bring it to my desk. at one point i had a splitter involved to test two units at once, but there are always adapters... and that made me wonder about the quality of the signal I'm getting, and if an antenna by the window is enough.

on the Home Patrol 2 and went into the system analyzer - no signal - then i put the stock antenna on it and went outside, and i'm only getting a signal on the MOSWIN/SLATER 'north' systems... quality is good and finally - activity! well, at least activity on the graph, it was encrypted.

i'm going to look into the desense aspect of this... but now i'm starting to wonder if i really just need an 800mhz antenna up near the top point of my roof and fed in through my attic. all the people running around with handheld radios have antennas made for their systems, maybe my old house is a faraday cage.

love to hear any other thoughts on antenna placement, and if anyone has a discone with great 800mhz reception.
 

scanman1958

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I feel your frustration. That many scanners with no reception. I will also assume you are familiar with the programming of all if them. The Himepatrol ll should be busy as can be. I just wonder if you have too many agency types turned off. The signals from the two main MOSWIN sites in the city and the SLATER sites in the county should keep your scanner(s) running all day and night. Good luck.
 

wtp

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you could just be on the fringe of reception it sounds like
also this...
many homes were/are built with insulation in the wall that is a more solid form of styrofoam, with aluminium foil on both sides.
and there is also solarply that has aluminium on one side (it should be the inside face).
and then windows have metal in them, the mirror effect on the light side.
so some homes are a Faraday cage, in other words it can't get much worse for radios and even cell phones.
 

rjvalenta

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ok.... so the home patrol 2 has a system analyzer, i have a few 800Mhz antennas from my last battle with this years ago, and there's definitely an improved reception out in the front yard or up in my attic when not using the wideband in the office... now to figure out a viable solution. i was hoping for an attic discone fed off a 20ft cable run down the wall... now i'm worried that still won't be enough of a signal, or there would be too much loss in the cable run.

thanks for the input everyone!
 

wtp

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for reception only (scanners) there are no antenna rules.
you can try the discone, which receives well for 360 degrees.
or if you want a TV antenna. i did that years ago and it was fine.
and with that you can 'aim' it for best reception.
and you can even try RG6 (regular cable like cable TV)
it is what works best for you.
 

rjvalenta

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for reception only (scanners) there are no antenna rules.
you can try the discone, which receives well for 360 degrees.
or if you want a TV antenna. i did that years ago and it was fine.
and with that you can 'aim' it for best reception.
and you can even try RG6 (regular cable like cable TV)
it is what works best for you.

so here i am, can't sleep at 5am and i read your reply...

in my attic in an Antennas Direct DB8e antenna - way overkill for where i am, but during the first days of DTV reception was such an issue, and i wanted to make sure i could always get OTA TV.

no idea what kind of cable was used to bring the wire down from the attic to the basement, across the basement, and up the outside wall to the tv in here... but lets see what will happen...

hook up a basic old splitter i've probably had since the analog TV days, connect one out to the TV... and the other to the Home Patrol 2 via UHF to PL259 adapter, then a PL259 to SMA cable.

i wasn't expecting much of a result.

and now i'm hearing SLATER FD traffic and the MOSWIN analysis is solid.

unbelievable. stubby stock antenna in the office - nothing... multiband antenna mounted to the side of the bookcase with 15ft of cable in the office - nothing... massive DTV antenna and 100ft of random cable - and i'm able to hear 800Mhz systems.

if only the antenna feed was over by my desk, ha. well, now i have motivation to do a discone and a drop from above.

thanks everyone for all the input!
 
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slate74

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With the Pro-197, You might be getting nothing if you are trying to listen to a Trunked P25 Phase II System. I am having the same issue, and I saw there was a post a long time ago about this. Can you confirm that?

I found this. APCO 25 phase II and PRO 197
 

rjvalenta

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With the Pro-197, You might be getting nothing if you are trying to listen to a Trunked P25 Phase II System. I am having the same issue, and I saw there was a post a long time ago about this. Can you confirm that?

I found this. APCO 25 phase II and PRO 197

i can't say the system is that... i'm loading things from this site's database and when i try to add anything like MotoTurbo or Phase 2, the Win500 software tells me that my machine won't accept that type of system. i am however hearing SLATER fire calls as i type this...

what i did was i only chose one site, then limited what i'm scanning... and i hate to say this, but i think the antennas i'm using are bad - and that's helping me.

(if you're in stlouis), the SLATER system uses Simulcast, and that's causing a lot of problems for people trying to scan them... from what i'm reading, the SDS100 or SDS200 are the only scanners that have managed to handle Simulcast well. people without those rigs are using directional Yagi's so they only get transmissions from one tower (with some success), but... yeah... it's a handful.

i'm no expert, but the MOSWIN system is NOT using Simulcast, and the fire dispatch for the city is on MOSWIN... you may want to add that system and see if you can pick some things up.
 

nick1427d

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There are 2 towers for MOSWIN site 2.6 in Clayton. SLATER has a north simulcast site has a site in NW Clayton. (This is all according to the licenses)
View attachment 127248
SLATER NORTH: rooftop of 41 S Central
MOSWIN Metro transit: University City at Big Bend and Forest Park near wash U
 
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