VA Stars Radio System Programming and scanner settings

[anelson5004]

I am trying to program the VA Stars Radio System talk groups Salem Division (Salem 1 etc.) on my TRX2. On my RadioShack Pro 106 I have them programmed and all that is picking up are VC Channels with no DG audio coming through. Can't hear them at all on my TRX 1 and 2. All I can get is the Wytheville division (Wythe 1, etc.) I am using Beamer, white top, Honaker Abingdon, Oakwood, Elkins branch, Dismal, buck mountain, east river, Norton, Jonesville, site 29, and big walker for Wytheville division. I have tweaked my settings and still can't receive Salem division on my TRX2 using and outdoor antenna. I have all Salem division sites programmed (apple orchard, Fort Lewis, potts mountain, peters mountain, bull mountain, white oak, north mountain Duncan knob, and sounding knob) and those sites are transmitting on Wythe 1 and Wythe 2 but not on Salem 1 and Salem 2. I have my threshold Lo at 55 and Threshold high at 85, ADC and DAC Gain are -2 and -6, and DSP is set to 56. Any help would greatly be appreciated.
anelson5004

 

[tvengr]

Under Site Options, Trunking Tables should be set to Auto Fill.

 

[anelson5004]

trunking tables are set to autofill

 

[fredva]

My guess is that you aren't actually picking up the towers that carry Salem talkgroups. I don't have a TRX, but if the Whistler TRX scanners function like my Whistler WS-1080, the trunking site displayed on the screen won't always be accurate when you have a lot of sites programmed. In a statewide trunking system, different sites will share the same frequencies, and my scanner picks the first site it finds with the frequency of the current transmission as the site to show on the screen. It will tell me I'm receiving a site halfway across the state when in reality, I'm receiving the site that's only 10 miles away with the same frequency.

In your case, your scanner may tell you that you are receiving a Wythe talkgroup on Potts Mountain but you might really be hearing that transmission from the closer Abingdon site, which shares a frequency with Potts Mountain. That's an example of what might be happening.

The bottom line is that you may be out of range to receive the Salem towers but your scanner could be fooling you into thinking that you are receiving those towers.

Hopefully somebody else with a TRX can chime in and confirm or refute that the sites being displayed aren't always accurate.

 

[Experiment626]

You won't pick up Salem division on any of the sites around your area unless a Salem unit is in the area and registered to one of those sites. You might hear Wythe 1 on east river mountain but that's as far east as you're gonna hear.

It looks like you're scanning too many sites as well. If you live around Richlands your best bet would be to only scan East River Mtn, Big A Mtn, Elkins branch and Keen Mtn, and maybe Brumley. You won't be hearing any Salem area sites, you're simply too far away.

And like fredva said, many of the STARS sites across the state use the same frequencies, just because your scanner says you're hearing a Salem area site doesn't mean you are, it means a more local site is using the same control channel frequency and that your scanner is simply picking it up instead.