Uniden HomePatrol-1 Proprietary Channels

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ketchuphed

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Feb 14, 2012
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Shiawassee Cnty, MI
Hi, I am using the Uniden HomePatrol-1. I am using a favorites list to pick up just the channels in my city. The problem that I am having is that my radio isn't picking up any of the channels that list "proprietary" in the channel description. The channels are in the Shiawassee County Law Enforcement Talkgroups. From my understanding, proprietary means that the talkgroup name is used for just that department. Please shed any light on my situation.

Attached is a txt file with the list of the Shia. Cnty. Law Enforcement Talkgroups.

Thank you

Ketchuphed
 

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townsend911

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May 31, 2013
Messages
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Location
Owosso, MI
Thanks for posting this for me...

I will follow this thread as I am having this problem with the proprietary channels not coming thru. It shows the TGID's and the frequencies that they should be using, but none of these channels are coming thru. The ones listed that do not show proprietary are coming thru. Is there something extra that needs to be configured on the HomePatrol to listen to these TG talk groups. Or does proprietary mean they are encrypted ?????

Thanks Again.......>>>>>>
 

townsend911

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May 31, 2013
Messages
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Location
Owosso, MI
Proprietary Channels

Thanks for replying...Yes the service type for Owosso was LAW TALK and I have it selected. It has been very frustrating. I have tried just running off the main database and also off my own Favorites and it will not pick up on any of the channels listed as PROPRIETARY....it does pick up all of the others. Maybe there is something that I did not setup correctly. I downloaded the Extreme upgrade and monitored the MPSCS all night and did not get one hit on any of the (proprietary TGID's) listed in sentinel. It shows TGID's next to the proprietary listings and they have frequencies associated with them, but I am unable to pick up on any of the transmissions.

Sorry for the long ramble. Is it possible that the location data for Shiawassee County is Off. I looked at the LONG/LAT listing for the county and it was showing up North of Escanaba.....200+ miles away. If the location data is incorrect would that keep me from picking up the channels here in Owosso????

Any Help would be greatly appreciated....Just spent $$$$$ ouch....and can't pick up the local channels....I thought that if the channels were encrypted that it would not even download ????
 

Jay911

Silent Key (April 15th, 2023)
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What state is Shiawassee County in?
Can anyone else in that state/county pick those talkgroups up?
Do you have another scanner that you can see if they work on?
Are you certain they haven't gone encrypted and the RR database just hasn't been updated?
Does the RR database have a weird location setting for that group of talkgroups and thus they're excluded from your scan list?

That will get us started on knowing how to proceed.

EDIT: I took a stab in the dark and found Shiawassee County Michigan and a list of talkgroups on the MPSCS trunked system. The location data for that talkgroup group looks OK (actually a little too big, but that's beside the point). However, the site "Owosso"'s range is fairly narrow in comparison. Click on this link: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=12254 - on the Google map on the right, do you live within the red circle? If not, your HP may not be picking up the transmissions off the Owosso site. On a trunking system, comms are generally only broadcast on sites where there are radios configured to listen to those talkgroups. So if you're trying to listen to Shiawassee County from another tower, and nobody with a radio on the system is using that tower AND the talkgroups you're trying to listen to, you won't hear anything.

If you ARE listening to the Owosso tower, and you still aren't hearing anything, I'd wonder if they are encrypted. The HP, nor any other scanner, will not stop on encrypted signals. If you get that far and can't come up with anything, check in the Michigan forum to see if anyone has any further ideas. Odds are good that someone else may be able to confirm whether or not they can hear those groups.
 
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townsend911

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Owosso, MI
Thanks for the link

Yeah, I googled and am about 10 miles from the tower. I am North of Owosso and it is South. I have uploaded my HPE file...had to change the extension to txt. I am new to posting so not sure if these are getting through yet. Is that pressing the distance to much with the stock antenna??? I installed the Extreme update and the signal does not come thru the strongest. If I go upstairs near the window it seems to come in a little better. I run analyze and it seems to be picking up LUN activity on the control channel, etc. I'm still learning all of the terminology so bear with me.

I did notice something strange though. When I check on the location for Shiawassee County (78) in the Favorites editor it shows the following LAT/LONG 44 25'43.72 -86 06'39.02 with 250 mile range. Is this correct ??? This would be North of Manistee and more than 200 miles from my location in Owosso..
 

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townsend911

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Owosso, MI
Hey I can post now

The initial thread was started by someone else for me. I have looked a lot of information up since this thread started and cannot see where the TGID's are anything other than digital P25 transmissions. I have tried running Favorites just with the primary and alternate control channels listed for my site here in Owosso, but it did not change anything. I noticed that just about all of the police TGID's in the MPSCS are listed as proprietary for Law Enforcement and Fire Operations, etc. But they also just show (D) digital signal in the database. Nothing relating to encryption that I can find. I have the Extreme update. Is there something that I can pull out of Analyze or Discovery mode that would help? Or is there something else that needs to be setup for these TGID's to come thru?
How strong does the signal need to be from the tower? I noticed with the supplied antenna that it seems really weak, quite often only around 2 on the scale right by the window. The antenna for Owosso says 15 miles range...and I am about 10 miles North of it. I can hear the other TGID's that are listed with the proprietary channels just fine.
I'm knew to these digital scanners....just hoping that I am overlooking something.

THanks !!!
 

rdale

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
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If you don't scan on the Shiawassee County tower, you won't hear them. In any case, they are very rarely used so you may get them but just aren't listening.
 

phask

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Turn ID search ON - as is it's limited to just the TG's in the list, that way - if you can receive it, it will get all.

Is the Owosso tower the closest/correct one? I see it's the only one in the county, but as adjoining one might be better.

It looks Ok to me.

BTW - pretty country - went thru there last year.
 

Ronaldski

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Accordingly the private talkgroups generally aren't used as much. Just throwing this out there, as a 'possible' scenario, here in Bay county since the tower is in the southern portion of the county, the northern fire depts., admin talkgroups they apparently get picked up by the tower in Standish and are microwaved to the Bombay rd tower. Of course I can get Arenac county that way by using the Bombay tower frequency. I don't get the northern fire admin talkgroups at all on the bay county tower.
 

townsend911

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Messages
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Location
Owosso, MI
Thanks for Replying

Have been gone for most of the day and just got online. Thanks for the reply...I went in and changed it to ID on.....The Owosso tower is the closest one to my location. I actually live in Owosso but the tower is quite a way South of our location....probably 10 miles. I looked at our signal strength with the extreme update and on the scale of 10 we are lucky to get 3 bars if I place it near the South window. Looks like an antenna upgrade might help a little?
I have been concerned because I have not been getting any traffic over the proprietary channels. But just this morning I finally did on the Fire frequencies(one TGID). So maybe the other Proprietary channels are just not getting used much?

I did make that change though and will listen tonight. Thanks Again !!!!!
 

phask

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Have been gone for most of the day and just got online. Thanks for the reply...I went in and changed it to ID on.....The Owosso tower is the closest one to my location. I actually live in Owosso but the tower is quite a way South of our location....probably 10 miles. I looked at our signal strength with the extreme update and on the scale of 10 we are lucky to get 3 bars if I place it near the South window. Looks like an antenna upgrade might help a little?
I have been concerned because I have not been getting any traffic over the proprietary channels. But just this morning I finally did on the Fire frequencies(one TGID). So maybe the other Proprietary channels are just not getting used much?

I did make that change though and will listen tonight. Thanks Again !!!!!


10 miles might be pushing it. I can get Ohio's system with NO antenna - but just a few miles from it. A 10 mile one is semi OK on the stock antenna. It depends on xmitter site, antenna, height, power, etc.

I saw the post on the location data - if incorrect that needs submitted to RR. I have not checked it. That will make no difference with your situation in a favorite, but would with the entire DB.

You can use the one of analyze screens to see. You load just the active freq. and you can move around and watch the graph. Try taking it outside FWIW with that running.
 

rdale

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
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I reiterate... Those channels are very rarely used if at all.
 

townsend911

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May 31, 2013
Messages
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Location
Owosso, MI
Thanks Rdale

Thanks for the info...I tried searching the forum for proprietary channel information and didn't find much info on the topic. Just read the back of the Uniden box and it says it will pull in unencrypted non-proprietary channels....Very confusing since the database just shows them as digital...not showing encrypted.
We had some bad storms come through tonight just to to East of us in the Flint region....knocked down a bunch of trees and power lines. I was picking up the Genessee traffic (think they use the Owosso tower, not sure though)...and they kept repeating to go to the proprietary channels.. So maybe they are only used for emergency situations, etc. I was just using the full database at the time and wasn't watching the screen to see where all the traffic was coming from....but at least I heard reference to the proprietary channels. Probably trying to keep all of the excessive traffic off from the main frequencies that they normally use.
 

burner50

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I've merged two threads together from two different places. Don't post the same topic in more than one thread in the future.
 
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