VIPER and Brunswick County questions

[troymail]

This may be out here in the forum(s) somewhere but I just returned from a trip to Brunswick County (I get down 2-3 times a year) and have a few questions:

1. the VHF fire dispatch frequency always sounds to me like it's transmitting off frequency a bit -- any idea why it sounds this way ?

2. I programmed in all of the VIPER sites including the mobile trailer site for this trip and I was picking up alot of TGIDs that sounded like they were digital encoded where my PSR800 wasn't decoding properly. Anyone have any idea what this activity is?

 

[SENCland]

Hey Troymail,

1 The county page out system in in the dumps, no one I talk to knows why, but if it is any consultation, it
sounds the same on the FD pagers.

2 Depending on which section of the county you are in, you will get what I am assuming is a motorboat
sound. The best I can tell, the county is not covered well. You get around the beaches, and Southport
area, the signal is weak. As far as I know, the powers that be feel that is good enough. I hear
Southport and some of the beaches complaining about not being able to get out on their portables,
and sometimes their mobiles.

That's what I know with my limited knowledge. If there is anyone else that can shed some light, it would be appreciated.

 

[troymail]

Hey Troymail,

1 The county page out system in in the dumps, no one I talk to knows why, but if it is any consultation, it
sounds the same on the FD pagers.

2 Depending on which section of the county you are in, you will get what I am assuming is a motorboat
sound. The best I can tell, the county is not covered well. You get around the beaches, and Southport
area, the signal is weak. As far as I know, the powers that be feel that is good enough. I hear
Southport and some of the beaches complaining about not being able to get out on their portables,
and sometimes their mobiles.

That's what I know with my limited knowledge. If there is anyone else that can shed some light, it would be appreciated.

I was mostly in the Sunset Beach area and my home programming included all sites for the system which resulted in less than acceptable reception/performance for listening to Brunswick County activity. While there, I reprogrammed using only the Pea Landing site which improved things a bit... but now looking at the RR listings, I should have also included the Supply and Bolivia sites as well. It's surprising there are 3 sites in central and western Brunswick but nothing on the Southport side.... I guess the coverage on the east side comes from New Hanover (Wilmington and Carolina Beach) sites.

As for the digital noise/reception -- this all "appeared" to be tied to the Mobile Trailer system (VIPER Mobile Trailer System Trunking System, Statewide, North Carolina - Scanner Frequencies) - or at least that's where all the TGIDs I stored placed themselves in my PSR800. I was picking these TGs up during the entire drive from Halifax to Brunswick (and again on the return trip).

 

[52to12]

There was a 4th site planned at the Brunswick Nuclear Plant in Southport. These plans were scrapped due to security issues that would cause access problems.No alternate site has been proposed.
For the last few days BC radio maintainence has been checking and tweaking pager tones for the FDs throughout the county.

 

[troymail]

If I'm not mistaken, the dispatches were also being transmitted over a VIPER TG -- BWICK TAC3 (TGID 17168) but it was just as fuzzy

 

[mentalreligion]

I am a complete noob to all this and i bought a Uniden BCT15X. I have it programmed for an LTR system but can not for the life of me pick anything up. Do I have the wrong radio? Does Brunswick county operate on a different system? Please help my bald spot is growing because of this.

 

[troymail]

I believe Brunswick is pretty much off of the LTR system(s). You'll want to load this system (at least, you want the Pea Landing, Supply, and Bolivia sites loaded):

Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders (VIPER) Trunking System, Various, North Carolina - Scanner Frequencies

 

[jeffmulter]

I am a complete noob to all this and i bought a Uniden BCT15X. I have it programmed for an LTR system but can not for the life of me pick anything up. Do I have the wrong radio? Does Brunswick county operate on a different system? Please help my bald spot is growing because of this.

Although the Viper sites in the Brunswick County area are not P25, the modulation used for the talkgroups listed on RR for the county are using P25 digital modulation.

Unfortunately, the BCT15X will not decode P25 modulation.

 

[troymail]

Doh! I looked up the BCT15X too and didn't even look/notice it was analog....so, to answer you original question - yes, you have the wrong radio.... you need a P25 digital capable radio

 

[mentalreligion]

Yeah, it looks like I am gonna go ahead and lay down the cash for a digital radio. Any suggestions?

 

[troymail]

Wait for Uniden's next scanner release? (I'd rather have a yet unreleased GRE but that's really starting to fade as a possibility). On the other hand, Uniden seems to have died as far as releasing new radios also....... (come on guys! Release something!)

There are several radios out there now but they're all getting kinda old...

GRE: PSR500, PSR600, PSR800
Uniden: BCT396XT, BCT996T, Home Patrol-1

Probably others but these are all already getting a bit outdated....

Category:Radio Models - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[KM4WLV]

I've used both Uniden and Radio Shack digital scanners and I like the 396XT better. It's my daily "driver". I use it to monitor VIPER everyday and where there is sufficient coverage it's works like a charm.

Of course you're going to get those that are partial to Uniden, Radio Shack, GRE, etc. Might want to slow down this part of the discussion before it run's to far off the rails. I'd hate to see it get shut down for getting off topic or turning into a brand war.