Wasatch/Summit Simulcast
KT7L,
If you track this area daily, it sounds like you are a good candidate to make the final ruling. Do you live near Park City, or do you drive through each day? Do you drive north/south or east/west? And will you please review this thread before you make a final decision?
UCAN Road Trip Reports
I would also like to clarify some of my observations regarding the area and some previous posts.
Quarry Mtn, the main, simul. site, ...
I suppose the 'main' site would depend on one's perspective. If you work for Wasatch County SO or Heber PD, for example, you might consider the 'main' site to be the Wasatch County SO in Heber. For UHP it might be Jordanelle.
The 024 area is "summit county" -- the actual mountain top is Quarry Mtn. They are one in the same site.... So, which should RRef Use? Most sites are listed by actual location, so I suggest the DB be changed to Quarry Mtn only....
I agree that other UCAN sites are named according to location (mostly as per the name on FCC records), EXCEPT the other simulcast sites. The other simulcast sites are 1, 2, 3, &4. They are instead all named according to the area that they serve.
It IS already called "Wasatch Simo." Visit
www.ucan800.org and read the meeting minutes from last year regarding this upgrade. ...
...I have picked up the control channel past the Oldstead Dam at the mouth of Provo Canyon, all the way to Heber, north-east on US 40 past Jordanelle and west on I-80 to just past Parleys Summit over on the Salt Lake County side and it's strong the whole way.
I did read those minutes, and I did drive a similar route. I concur with JR on all points.
As far as locations... I programmed the coordinates into my GPS for every UCAN transmitter site in the FCC database. Then I drove up Provo Canyon to Heber, past Jordanelle, north-east on I-80 to Echo Res, and west to Ogden. I stopped periodically to take signal strength and direction measurements.
I stopped at Vivian Park, where I could see what appeared to be the Sundance Site up on the peak just to my West. Being in the bottom of the canyon, this was the only signal that I could recieve, it was full strength, and it said site #24. There was no other control channel, and specifically no ID #17.
Shall we delete Sundance#17 from the DB???
I stopped in Heber just across the street from a new building that appeared to be a new Wasatch County SO. FCC/GPS says this is a UCAN Tx site. It did have a tower full of antennas (antennae?). Again full strength (overwhelming), and site #24.
I stopped along the highway near the summit between Heber and Park City, just to the West and North of the Jordanelle Dam. Using a very directional antenna I detected peak signal strengths towards Heber, again to the north-west toward what the FCC calls 'Jordanelle', and toward the west-south-west with a much smaller strength. All of these said site #24. I could detect other CC frequencies, and they all had ID's other than 24.
Near the north end of Jordanelle I passed a small tower immediately on the west side of the highway, right where the GPS said it would be. I pulled off the next exit. It looked like there was a small new UHP office to the east of the exit. The readings here were pretty much the same as the previous stop, except I was losing Heber. I expected to pick up a signal to the north, from what the FCC calls 'Summit County SO', but still didnt get much to speak of.
Using the GPS I found and drove through the roundabout at the Summit County SO. I parked on the hill on the north side of Home Depot, <1/4 mile from the SO. I scanned every direction at least 2 times. I got pretty frustrated because I expected to be overwhelmed with a signal from the SO (same freq or maybe different), but wasn't. The peak SS seemed to be coming from the direction of Quarry Mtn, still with ID #24. Knowing that a yagi antenna also recieves quite a bit from straight behind and I was inline with the SO on one side and QM (in the distance) on the other, I didnt know what to think.
The CC signal strength for 'site #24' became weaker and weaker from that point on. I never drove to or actually saw Quarry Mtn, just it's signal.
After reading your posts, KT7L, my Summit SO readings and frustrations now make some sense!!!
As I understand it they took these four sites and made a Simulcast system out of them.
Sundance-Jordanelle-Wasatch Justice-Quarry
My info agrees w/ Gadgetmikey, and it looks like the name probably should be 'Wasatch Simo', as per JR.
Tim will delete the Summit SO site, and perhaps Sundance #17.
Do you agree? Anyone else have final comments? I think we can put this thing to bed real soon.
