Two CHP Related Questions

Status
Not open for further replies.

CityNewsSupport

City News Support
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
70
Location
West, Sacramento, California, USA
Hello All

Question One: Relates to CHP Gold North Sacramento Office! The signal seems to suck in the Natomas area bad on I-80 West El Camino to Northgate Blvd Also expirencing static on Gold in lots of other Locations. Scanner is a Uniden BC15X Antenna Laird C-40 This setup works great in all other Counties Gold is my only issue!

Question Two: For each CHP Area I have programmed, The Area Base, Mobile & Blue. Today on the Grape Napa Area Office I witnessed a Golden Gate Dispatcher unable to raise an officer on a car stop in a back canyon area of the county! It is agonizing as I know the officer. At last Dispatched asked another unit to try her on car to car! Does The CHP use Frequencies not listed in RR? Or would Blue be car to car and I am just not picking much up?

Thanks Guys as always you all are the Best
 

gmclam

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 15, 2006
Messages
6,333
Location
Fair Oaks, CA
You should be using an antenna designed for the job at hand. CHP is typically in low-band, and antennas for that portion of the spectrum are larger than for other public safety services. Ideally your receive antenna should have line-of-sight to the transmitting antenna. While some CHP broadcasts are now re-transmitted (mobile frequency re-transmitted on base frequency), not all are. Effective radiated power from a base channel is usually much higher than from a mobile (and then there's location).

VHF low-band can often sound like the 11 meter CB band with "skip" and atmospheric noise. It will amaze me (not really) that I am hearing a distant CHP channel much more clearly than CHP Gold, which is literally in my back yard. The exact receiver is no where as significant in the puzzle as is the antenna.

At last Dispatched asked another unit to try her on car to car!
Because the dispatcher's receiver (antenna) does not have "line-of-sight" to the expected location of the officer. Someone closer, even though using much less power, may be able to communicate with them.

Or would Blue be car to car and I am just not picking much up?
Any/all of the above. Is your receive location and antenna system at least as great as that of the dispatcher?
 

norcalscan

Interoperating Spurious Emissions
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
505
Location
The real northern california
Car-to-car is when the officer talks over the base channel instead of the mobile channel. I'm not sure if the setup is the same with the latest Viking/EV20 system, but the earlier radio packages had a mic with two PTT's on the side, one for normal transmitting over the Mobile channel, and the other for Car-to-Car, simplex over the Base channel to other cars listening on the Base.

gmclam's suggestion of using better antennas is usually the right answer 9 out of 10 times with CHP. I have landed in the 1 out of 10 exception, where I get CHP just fine on a rubber duck, triband mobile NMO mount, and a large commercial 152-162 base antenna at home. However my mobile Whistler is absolute deaf on CHP Brown3 for the Chico/Yuba/Glenn/Colusa area. A rubber duck on a BCT125 sings on CHP while the Whistler is mute. It does pick up other CHP though, including Red, a little better. So it could be the radio and not antenna, 1 out of 10 times. ;)
 

kg6nlw

Railroad & Ham Radio Extrodinare
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 1, 2007
Messages
1,060
Location
Sonoma Co., California
I agree with what has been said so far. Also, isn't Natomas area on the Black? Last I checked it was right on the edge of Black/Gold. I know I was told not to switch to Gold until after Watt Ave Light Rail.

Car to Car is exactly as NorCal has said, it's transmitting on the BASE frequency.

Regards,

-Frank C.
 

GlobalNorth

Active Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 2, 2020
Messages
2,032
Location
Fort Misery
.. Does The CHP use Frequencies not listed in RR?...

Keep in mind that the RR database is only what listeners compile and send in for review and inclusion.

Some frequencies aren't included into the DB, ex. the local Planet Fitness uses FRS radios and while the comments on it can be hilarious, they aren't in the DB because it is FRS.

A nearby PD isn't even listed because no one [including myself] has bothered to capture the info and submit it. A mountain blocks reception from my residence and I just haven't had the inclination to drive over and sit at a local coffeehouse while monitoring their signals.

Other freqs aren't included, such as the local State Trooper car to car, because they are simply the base frequency that doesn't trigger the repeater.
 

mcjones2013

Radio Communications Enthusiast
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
722
Location
Sacramento, CA
I agree with what has been said so far. Also, isn't Natomas area on the Black? Last I checked it was right on the edge of Black/Gold. I know I was told not to switch to Gold until after Watt Ave Light Rail.

Anything North of the American River now is on the Gold channel (North Sacramento-exclusive channel), except for Sunrise Blvd and East of which falls under the Black channel (East Sacramento).The Black channel includes East Sacramento, South Sacramento and Woodland area offices.
 

stingray327

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2008
Messages
1,798
Location
San Francisco, California bay area
Keep in mind that the RR database is only what listeners compile and send in for review and inclusion.

Some frequencies aren't included into the DB, ex. the local Planet Fitness uses FRS radios and while the comments on it can be hilarious, they aren't in the DB because it is FRS.

A nearby PD isn't even listed because no one [including myself] has bothered to capture the info and submit it. A mountain blocks reception from my residence and I just haven't had the inclination to drive over and sit at a local coffeehouse while monitoring their signals.

Other freqs aren't included, such as the local State Trooper car to car, because they are simply the base frequency that doesn't trigger the repeater.

The freqs in RR aren't up to date? What about the Sentinel programs for the Home Patrol II and BCD 436. Aren't the Sentinel programs current?
 

GlobalNorth

Active Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 2, 2020
Messages
2,032
Location
Fort Misery
An agency such as CHP has listeners statewide and will likely be as current as possible. A business that uses a contract radio service provider may go unnoticed because of fewer people interested in listening to business frequencies, the near anonymity of a talkgroup in a contract radio service entry, time needed to capture and confirm relevant information, and someone taking the time to submit information to the database.

Businesses merge, they start up, they close, they may use radios and then switch technologies, and some never bother to get licensed. A local PD may have access to and use radio frequencies that belong to other city services in order to provide anonymity for detectives/investigators/special response units/etc.

Sentinel is as current as people choose to make it.
 

stingray327

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2008
Messages
1,798
Location
San Francisco, California bay area
An agency such as CHP has listeners statewide and will likely be as current as possible. A business that uses a contract radio service provider may go unnoticed because of fewer people interested in listening to business frequencies, the near anonymity of a talkgroup in a contract radio service entry, time needed to capture and confirm relevant information, and someone taking the time to submit information to the database.

Businesses merge, they start up, they close, they may use radios and then switch technologies, and some never bother to get licensed. A local PD may have access to and use radio frequencies that belong to other city services in order to provide anonymity for detectives/investigators/special response units/etc.

Sentinel is as current as people choose to make it.
CHP frequencies are easier to monitor as far as distance goes with the lower old freqs. they use. I know they have new ones in the 700 mhz and are starting to use those freqs. more but I don't think those signals travel as far as low band does.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top