VA Stars Radio system

[anelson5004]

I am trying to receive Division 6 on the Stars Radio system for the VA State Police on my whistler TRX2 connected by an outdoor antenna. I can hear them on the live audio feed for Tazewell county VA and was wanting to know how to receive them on my scanner. I can hear Wythe 1 and 2 without any issues. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I tried to attach a picture of programmed sites for you but it says it's too large.

 

[TJX400]

What site are you monitoring? Traffic is not carried across all sites.

 

[anelson5004]

New item by Andrew Nelson

photos.app.goo.gl

I just added division 6 sites this a few days ago with no success so far

 

[tglendye]

I would limit the number of sites for STARS and pick the closest site to you in Division 6 that you think would be the busiest, carrying the most traffic. If you can find one site that works for you, that’s the only one I would use.

I’m not familiar how Whistler scans TRS systems. I remember GRE would scan the site it received first, as long as it was above a certain threshold and then look for another programmed site when the signal strength dropped below the programmed threshold. It was actually pretty cool. But, if you have all of those sites in the same scan list, you wouldn’t have “control” over what site you were actually scanning- and it may not include any Div 6 traffic. But, I’m not sure Whistler scans like GRE’s did. And if you put the sites into separate scan lists, they may take too long to scan all the way through.

If my thought process is wrong about how Whistler scans a TRS, please correct me!

 

[TJX400]

I agree with the above. No experience with Whistler stuff, but that's where I would start as well.

 

[reconrider8]

I was never a fan of my whistler trx 1 on trunking. It never really tracked the site like I wanted

 

[n4jri]

As a veteran TRX-1 user, my advice is as follows:
1 - Don't try to trunk track immediately--instead, search for or scan known STARS control channels in conventional mode and see what the radio actually picks up.
2 - Once you've identified what control channels you're actually receiving, check the listing to see just how many Div.4 and Div.6 sites use that frequency. Div.4 covers a lot of ground, and some western sites might not carry Div.6 traffic.
3 - Know that you can 'lock out' a given site--but that you will still receive that site if the choices in the radio include another site with the same CC freqs as the 'locked-out' site. Whistler doesn't recognize Site ID's and I suspect that Uniden doesn't, either. You could be receiving Poor Mountain and your radio could think its a site in Fairfax or Virginia Beach.
3A - The problem in #3 is exacerbated if you load ALL the channels in a given site. A voice channel at one site might be a CC at another site and vise versa. You might try downloading control channels only.
4 - You may not solve everything at one time. If you find a good site, but it switches control channels, you may encounter a new set of the circumstances described in #2 & 3.
5 - Depending on your desires, and what else you're listening to, a directional antenna might help. It just depends on what level of priority you have on picking up Div.6, and what sites you can receive from your location.
Let us know how it turns out.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[n4jri]

As a veteran TRX-1 user, my advice is as follows:
1 - Don't try to trunk track immediately--instead, search for or scan known STARS control channels in conventional mode and see what the radio actually picks up.
2 - Once you've identified what control channels you're actually receiving, check the listing to see just how many Div.4 and Div.6 sites use that frequency. Div.4 covers a lot of ground, and some western sites might not carry Div.6 traffic.
3 - Know that you can 'lock out' a given site--but that you will still receive that site if the choices in the radio include another site with the same CC freqs as the 'locked-out' site. Whistler doesn't recognize Site ID's and I suspect that Uniden doesn't, either. You could be receiving Poor Mountain and your radio could think its a site in Fairfax or Virginia Beach.
3A - The problem in #3 is exacerbated if you load ALL the channels in a given site. A voice channel at one site might be a CC at another site and vise versa. You might try downloading control channels only.
4 - You may not solve everything at one time. If you find a good site, but it switches control channels, you may encounter a new set of the circumstances described in #2 & 3.
5 - Depending on your desires, and what else you're listening to, a directional antenna might help. It just depends on what level of priority you have on picking up Div.6, and what sites you can receive from your location.
Let us know how it turns out.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[vavolff]

I also concur with @tglendye and @TJX400 and do the same with STARS. I usually program the three closest sites to me, and maybe one or two more for areas I travel to. It works well for me, and I'll admit I hardly monitor law enforcement. Fire/EMS is what blows my skirt up. I never got the invite to the GRE/Whistler party, I was considering it at one point. Uniden is pretty much my old lady!

 

[HikerGuy]

Division 6 traffic is sometimes carried on the Big Walker Mountain (Bland County) and Dismal Mountain (Giles County) sites. You may not be able to pick those up from your location, or there may be overlapping traffic from other sites that share the same frequencies which would interfere with your attempts.

 

[N4VKF]

Listening to VDOT tac 8 for the first time off the Thornburg site.

 

[mocofeed]

This system can take a bit of trial and error. I live in Blacksburg and monitor Potts Mountain, Dismal Mountain, and Fort Lewis Mountain sites. I have an antenna outside my window and that has done the trick. FWIW, my Whistler 1065 works extremely well on this system. More so than even the new, expensive Unidens. Good luck!

 

[Abqactive]

For me in Richmond, I program in the Glen Allen and Richmond sites separately and that seems to work best. As in having one bank/system/favorite list for each site on my 325p2 and 436hp.