Troop B on 700 and 800

[W2IRT]

Hi all,
Now that I have both a 396xt and a 996xt I tried a little experiment. I loaded up all the Troop B patrol talkgroups (2-COMM through 5-COMM, Meadowlands and Channel 7) in both radios, on both the NJICS system in P25 Phase I and the 800 MHz analog system. I put the portable on the 700 MHz system and the mobile on the 800 analog system.

For the NJICS system, I am using the West Orange Simulcast site (closest to me) and I used the North Simulcast site for the 800 analog. What I found was that 5-COMM comes through fine on both, about half the calls on 4-COMM come through on the NJICS simulcast and nothing from 2- or 3-COMM passes through to the 700 MHz side. I didn't hear anything on the Meadowlands talkgroup nor on "Channel 7."

Are the 2-COMM and 3-COMM talkgroups patched into the 700 system or am I doing something obviously wrong? The most surprising thing was only some of the 4-COMM calls were coming through.

I'm still not 100% comfortable with 700 MHz/P25 so I'm thinking maybe if I miss the beginning of the transmission it won't lock in properly? But even so, when I held on the 4-COMM group nothing came through for several minutes whereas I was getting quite a bit of activity on the 800 system. Thoughts?

 

[RocketNJ]

If there are no 2 Com or 4 Com units affiliated to the West Orange 700 MHz site then the system will not assign a channel for that conversation. Why use a channel resource if there are no subscribers affiliated to that site to hear it?

 

[W2IRT]

How can I determine which site a unit's affiliated to? Likewise, the 2 and 3COMM dispatchers themselves aren't on the West Orange site on the 700 system.

 

[FireBuff44]

To see the affiliations you would need to use one of the software programs to monitor and decode the control channel.

If you want to hear SP stuff, listening to the 800 system is probably best because there is no guarantee when and if someone will be affiliated to the talkgroup you want to hear on the 700 side.

 

[Essexscan]

I use the 800 system when I need to hear everything and like you I can tell the 700 system doesn't pass all the traffic

 

[W2IRT]

I guess I'm stuck on the 800 system then. The problem for me is that I don't get a full-quieting signal most of the time from inside my house. But I receive the PSIC signal with 100% copy in my basement, with 20dB of attenuation kicked in. Plus the audio is so much better on that system as well, which is a plus.

 

[Sybex7254]

Strangely enough you hardly hear (at least I don't hear) Troop B 4-Comm units on NJPISC off the Netcong and Randolph sites, which I think would have the Netcong Barracks units affiliated due to proximity. I guess they may not have the 700MHz radios turned on??

I can receive both sites mentioned above as well as the Washington Twp. (Morris Co.) site and mostly just hear DOT & Somerset County and occasionally, NJSP & Fairfield PD transmissions.

 

[W2IRT]

4-COMM is strange. I get about half the stuff on 700 that I do on 800, mostly for units east of 287. I don't think anything west of it is connected or affiliated.

 

[nosoup4u]

What you may want to do is setup your scan lists so the scanner scans the 700 system before the 800 system. If a talkgroup is active on 700, you will then be more likely to hit it first on 700.

 

[W2IRT]

I have them set up as two separate systems. I actually have the NJSP 800 MHz network in a total of 8 systems, depending on where I'm going and what I want to listen to, plus 4-COMM on the NJICS system along with Fairfield PD. At this point I'm just listening to the 800 system through the noise as best I can since only a small percentage of the things I want to hear come in on 700. It would seem to me that if I put 4-COMM/700 and 4-COMM/800 in the same system, and the activity wasn't on 700, I'd miss the call completely.