And of course STARS works fine with your TRX because it’s not simulcast. Unless the counties already have VHF channel resources to leverage - and they were not having interference problems with them - then they have little choice but to move to 800 or 700 MHz channels. The VSP had to repurpose paging and marine channels to make their VHF system work, and there are a bunch of restrictions with those, including quiet zone regulations. Finally, the VSP has to use VRS to enable portables and still uses cell phones when their VHF mobiles go out of range. At some point I expect the VSP to upgrade subscribers that can use LTE cellular to fill in when the radios lose contact with VHF tower sites. Not sure if any multiband mobiles can do that yet.
TRX-1 Quit receiving Albemarle Co
- Thread starter ka3nxn
- Start date
ka3nxn
Member
I'm not trying to monitor Louisa, I'm trying to monitor Albemarle/Charlottesville 800MHz system
Noted. I'm just responding to your observation re: the Louisa system. The Albermarle / CHO system is simulcast and the TRX sux on simulcast. It has nothing to do with VHF or 800; it's you radio.
TJX400
Member
Your TRX is incapable of properly receiving the Albemarle/Charlottesville P25 system. You require a Uniden SDS100 or SDS200 to decode the system properly. SDRs may also be something you want to look into.
ka3nxn
Member
I have all 22 frequencies that are listed in RR, in my scanner. Still nothing.
Did you download the system via EZ Scan? If so, your frequencies should be organized into 3 separate sites. As an experiment, try locking out the sites 'East Simulcast' and 'West Simulcast' and just monitor the 'Scottsville' site. If it's a single location, you may get better reception. Not sure how much traffic it would carry compared to the others, but you could at least test your reception.
Although you currently have its frequencies programmed in, the simulcast sites could be locking up your radio with little or no audio or screen indication that it's taking place. The radio will simply seem to receive nothing. Try isolating the Scottsville freqs and see if there's an improvement.
73/Allen (N4JRI)
Simply, it all comes down to the simulcast system now in use by Albemarle/CHO. As has been said, your TRX-1 is not capable of handling the simulcast properties of their new P25 system. It worked fine on the old P16 system they had, but it did not operate in the same manner as the new P25. I drive through that area on a semi-regular basis and have a Uniden SDS200 in my truck. I have zero issues with the P25 system in use there because the SDS200 is designed to work better with the simulcast architecture. It may not be what one wants to hear, but its an unfortunate reality for a good number of localities in our region.
wthclt
Member
I have a TRX-1 and I can pick up Alb/Cville. True, it does work better in some locations over others, but it is certainly capable to receive simulcast.
ka3nxn
Member
Latest update. I was traveling over the holidays and went to NC, and I noticed that I was picking up transmissions just fine in Albemarle Co system using the wild card. I was picking up a different system in NC that uses the same control channels as Albemarle Co. and it worked fine. This tells me it's NOT my scanner it's something in the Albemarle system that my scanner does not like.
Where did you go in NC? If you were picking up the VIPER system, your reception should've been pretty good, because it's only simulcast in certain areas. I've found reception to be very good in eastern NC. You should have similar reception quality to STARS, except possibly in more urban areas.
73/Allen (N4JRI)
Yes, it doesn't like the fact that Albermarle is a simulcast P25 system. We've been trying to tell you that.
There is nothing "wrong" with your scanner. It just does not have the hardware necessary to reliably monitor a P25 simulcast system.
An analog scanner cannot decode P25 or DMR or NDXN. That doesn't mean it's broken, it just means it doesn't have the functionality to do so.
Similar is true with the TRX-1. If you are lucky enough to win the simulcast lottery and are in a location where the signal from one of the towers in a simulcast site "drowns out" the others, it will work OK. If you aren't, and the scanner is getting two or more signals out of phase from each other, it just cannot pick out the data stream and decode the audio. It wasn't designed to do so.
The Uniden SDS100 and SDS200 are the only currently-available consumer scanners that were designed to handle P25 simulcast systems. None of the other Uniden scanners were, and Whistler doesn't have a scanner that was designed to do so either. At one time Whistler announced that they were working on a model that would decode simulcast systems (the TRX100/200) but that was either an effort that was abandoned or a bluff to keep people from buying the SDS100/200 when they came out. Either way, they announced in 2019 that there wouldn't be any TRX100/200.
I'm very sorry if you don't like the answer that several people have given you. The TRX-1 isn't a cheap piece of equipment, and I'm sure it works well on analog, DMR, NDXN, and P25 conventional. But if it's not working for you when you try to monitor the Albermarle County system from your location, it is never going to do so. Changing settings and updating firmware cannot change hardware.
ka3nxn
Member
I was in Greenville, NC. East Carolina University (ECU) territory.
Yep, they use VIPER there and the Greenville VIPER site is NOT simulcast. So while it may have common frequencies with Albemarle, it is a completely different type of system. In Greenville, your TRX would have been receiving a clean signal from one tower on a given frequency. In Albemarle, you get signals from multiple towers using the same frequency.
I don't see any indication of VIPER being simulcast there. Pitt County is 700 MHz simulcast, but nearby Tarboro appears to still be SmartZone, which you should also hear with no problem. I was through there a year ago. Can't remember if I monitored the Pitt County system, but know that I had no issues with VIPER, Tarboro or Rocky Mount. What you're encountering with Albemarle is the same issue that listeners around Williamsburg, Petersburg, Fredericksburg and others have been dealing with for a long time. And it's on its way to us in Richmond, as well.
73/Allen (N4JRI)
I didn't notice the county had its own system when I first checked. I did some searching through the NC forum and learned that agencies within the county are using a mixture of VIPER and the county system. Greenville city is apparently in the process of migrating from VIPER to the county system, or recently completed that process. But it appears the sheriff's department prefers VIPER. And ECU is on VIPER.
ka3nxn
Member
It depends more on location for quality of reception, I still use default settings and pickup our county simulcast P25 system great at home, but go a half mile in any direction it becomes hard to impossible to pick it up.
ka3nxn
Member
At this point, I'll take any reception. Something is better than nothing which is what I currently had.
