Visiting St Clair Co.

[FrankieD210]

I will be visiting St Clair County next month and will bring my 396xt. I looked at the database for Starcomm 21 and noticed "Some talkgroups on this system are using Project 25 Phase II TDMA modulation which can ONLY be monitored using a P25 Phase II compatible scanner."
Can anyone tell me if the talk groups for Belleville, O'Fallon and St Clair SO are Phase 1 or 2?
Any advice for scanning the StClair Simulcast tower?

 

[WD9GHG]

Starcom21 in St.Clair Co. is operating phase 1. We visit there often. The wife shops and I take my PRO-106 and have a ball. The simulcast can make things a bit tricky. I made an antenna using a bnc connector with about a 1 inch antenna. Seems to help a bit along with using the attenuator. I usually listen to the groups you mentioned. Have fun!
Alan

 

[nick1427d]

Any advice for scanning the StClair Simulcast tower?

With my 396XT I actually found it better to turn squelch to 2 or 3, sometimes 1, but even then I have issues and I'm less than 5 miles from a tower. I mainly use an older BCD796D for St. Clair County with stock antenna. It blows the 396 out of the water with this system, at least at my home. Not to get too technical but there are multiple tower locations, hence simulcast. If you're in reception of more than one then you will get issues.

You'll find that different areas of county work with certain settings and then you move and have to change something else.

Also, depending on how long you're in area or how much you're into it; if you have some analog scanners, there are still quite a few interesting channels that are patched into the old VHF or UHF analog channels. I wouldn't rely on the database here as to what is patched cause the patches actually do change sometimes. Some of the departments kept the patches going until they completely switched over and now since everyones pretty much online they are turning them off.

 

[N9JIG]

I will be visiting St Clair County next month and will bring my 396xt. I looked at the database for Starcomm 21 and noticed "Some talkgroups on this system are using Project 25 Phase II TDMA modulation which can ONLY be monitored using a P25 Phase II compatible scanner."
Can anyone tell me if the talk groups for Belleville, O'Fallon and St Clair SO are Phase 1 or 2?
Any advice for scanning the StClair Simulcast tower?

All the Phase 2 stuff so far is located in the Chicago suburban area. The Metro East area is all Phase 1 and should be receivable on the 396XT.

 

[FrankieD210]

Thanks for everyone's input. 20+ years ago, I lived in Belleville and listen on a analog, non trucked scanner. Will be interesting to listen again.