Which Site for Ft Collins / Loveland?

[ecanderson]

Decided I'd work a site or two north of Mead for a change, and looked at PVH on 3-060. Signal was too weak to do anything reliable with it from Longmont (heck, Adams comes booming in here).

3-061 on Bald N looked to be the most promising second choice, due to higher channel count if nothing else, but I'm not seeing anywhere near the Ft. Collins PD or Loveland PD traffic as I would have expected - especially Ft. Collins on 4029. Ft. Collins' bus system on 4026 has 15X the traffic as Ft. Collins PD1 on 4029 and 9X the traffic as Loveland PD1 on 4045.

There are several other sites in the Larimer County area. Was 3-061 a good choice? If not, what would be my best 2nd bet? With which sites do Ft. Collins and Loveland PD systems most commonly affiliate?

 

[aprswatcher]

Ft. Collins/Loveland?

You could try Horsetooth 3-062 or Buckhorn 3-013.
I get most of my traffic for my area (stationary) off of Bald Mtn, Buckhorn and Greeley 35th, when mobile I have
the other sites programmed in also. Located in Severance, just NE of Windsor.
Hope this helps out.
73, Rex

 

[GrayJeep]

Horsetooth for Ft. Collins.

PVH is a short-range site.

Not sure about Loveland- some on Horsetooth, maybe Buckhorn or N. Bald Mtn? I don't listen enough to Loveland to be sure.

 

[ecanderson]

Tried Horsetooth on 3-062, and although I'm reasonably far east, can't get a decent signal off that site. Clean audio is there only about half of the time. Oddly jumpy given my stationary location. Lots of decoded TG numbers, but without the audio... Funny, back in the Nextel LTR days, we got a pretty decent signal here off Horsetooth.

Buckhorn on 3-013 comes booming in, so I guess I'll park there for a while and see what shows up.

 

[ecanderson]

Horsetooth for Ft. Collins.

PVH is a short-range site.

Not sure about Loveland- some on Horsetooth, maybe Buckhorn or N. Bald Mtn? I don't listen enough to Loveland to be sure.

Yeah - no go on either Horsetooth or PVH (see above). Like I say, it's N Bald I've been monitoring that has almost no PD traffic for Ft. Collins or Loveland. Strange as I would have thought that at least Loveland units would have affiliated with that site regularly given its location.

Working Buckhorn now. So far, it looks like there's NO traffic for either of the two municipalities' PDs there - but again - a lot of Ft. Collins bus ("TRANSFORT") traffic! I'm more likely to hear the Northglenn PD off Buckhorn - like that makes any sense... Where the heck are these guys hiding?

Major mystery. Am wondering if there's any chance here. Heck, I'm clear out east almost at County Line Road in NE Boulder CO. You'd have thought Horsetooth would have been a slam dunk.

 

[MikeyB]

Have you tried the Loveland tower?

I live in Centennial so I cannot get any of the short range sites (Poudre, Loveland, Greeley South, Greeley North or even Mead). But I can get the Buckhorn and Bald sites at 100% decode and the Horsetooth site pretty good (up to 100% decode if I have the scanner sitting right). I log Fort Collins and Loveland PD on them quite a bit. I know that Fort Collins tends to be a quieter department based on radio traffic so that could be why.

I've often wondered how I can hear Buckhorn which is much further away from me than a lot of the sites I can't hear (especially the El Paso sites in the mountains).

 

[ecanderson]

Have you tried the Loveland tower?

It's pretty short on channels, but yeah, 3-063 looks like my next best bet. I swear, Ft. Collins must either be using some VHF gear they forgot to turn in, or tin cans... 3-061 (Bald N) netted me a whopping 19 hits on Ft. Collins TG 4029 in a 24 hour period. Been there. It ain't Mayberry. They must be lurking elsewhere.

 

[MikeyB]

It's pretty short on channels, but yeah, 3-063 looks like my next best bet. I swear, Ft. Collins must either be using some VHF gear they forgot to turn in, or tin cans... 3-061 (Bald N) netted me a whopping 19 hits on Ft. Collins TG 4029 in a 24 hour period. Been there. It ain't Mayberry. They must be lurking elsewhere.

Loveland site would be good for Loveland I'd guess but doubtful for Fort Collins. 19 Hits in a 24 hour period means there's a lot missing. I rarely listen to Fort Collins so I cna't speak to how much you'd hear. A department I have trouble hearing is Greeley PD. I log them (affiliated radios) being on Buckhorn almost all of the time but I rarely hear any voice for them.

The short range in-town sites are frustrating because I can hear the big sites on the mountains booming down signal on the main channels but if they go to channel 2 or something (especially frustrating for Loveland and Poudre FD) I can't hear them at all once they go enroute.

 

[jimmnn]

FCPD uses MDT's for most of there traffic, radios are normally pretty quiet.

JimM

 

[rickak]

Buckhorn is shadowed from a lot of fort collins (it is unusable here in the middle of ft collins where I live), but it sounds like it is your best bet if you cannot get Horsetooth.

The Loveland site's coverage area could probably be measured in square feet, it has a very small footprint.

Also remember FCPD is dispatched mostly by MDT, so there is no routine traffic on the main dispatch talkgroup... it is a relatively quiet channel, and they prefer it that way. They even chase radio techs off the main talkgroup when they dare try a radio test.

Rick

 

[ecanderson]

Buckhorn is shadowed from a lot of fort collins (it is unusable here in the middle of ft collins where I live), but it sounds like it is your best bet if you cannot get Horsetooth.

The Loveland site's coverage area could probably be measured in square feet, it has a very small footprint.

So I just discovered. 3-063 is a bust from here.

Also remember FCPD is dispatched mostly by MDT, so there is no routine traffic on the main dispatch talkgroup...

Hate to be dense, but what the devil is MDT (apart from Mountain Daylight Time). Or is that the problem? All of the transmissions happened an hour ago? <g>

 

[rickak]

but what the devil is MDT (apart from Mountain Daylight Time). <g>

mobile data terminal, ie computer

 

[jimmnn]

Chris, time to try as 800MHz yagi, I get Horsetooth (for Ft Collins agencies) and Buckhorn (for Loveland agencies loud and clear even from most South Denver metro locations.

Jim<

 

[MikeyB]

Chris, time to try as 800MHz yagi, I get Horsetooth (for Ft Collins agencies) and Buckhorn (for Loveland agencies loud and clear even from most South Denver metro locations.

Jim<

Yep, those have a very, very large footprint. Add Bald Mtn North to the sites that come in great in South Denver metro. They allow me to hear a lot of what I couldn't hear back when they were on UHF/VHF.

 

[ecanderson]

Chris, time to try as 800MHz yagi, I get Horsetooth (for Ft Collins agencies) and Buckhorn (for Loveland agencies loud and clear even from most South Denver metro locations.

Jim<

Might still have enough stock to do that, although I'm going to be short a feed from up above. Only two RG213U feeds available and both in use. Shudder to think about adding a 3rd! The first two were quite the project and the runs got pretty long (hence the high $ cable) - ugly. One runs a VHF/UHF omni, and the has an HF directional attached.

I think I must be being shadowed somehow from Horsetooth. Like I say, Buckhorn and Bald North both come booming in here. However, there's enough signal now (about 50% of the time, I can get more or less clean audio) that I'm sure something more directional would probably clean it up. Then again, if the boys in Ft. Collins are going to dispatch everything by computer, it won't much matter. I'd bet that they're not using anything one could interpret without a key.

So discounting Ft. Collins due to my ignorance, and assuming that 3-063 is pretty useless unless you're right in the center of town, sounds like I should stick with Bald North for whatever that buys me. At least it brings in some of the Loveland traffic.

 

[jeffreyinberthoud]

Anyone ever tryed 35th greeley for Larimer county ?? Just thinking backwards I guess?


PS almost done with three 12's Yippie ,,,sleeping soon

 

[scanlist]

Greeley 35th is not reliable for Larimer Agencies period.

Bald Mountain 853.6375 CC is the best bet for everything Loveland as far as wide coverage goes, Northern Weld, Berthoud and Larimer as well.

Horsetooth for Fort Collins, Larimer, PFA, and Ed's favorite Wellington,

Buckhorn for Northern Larimer and a good portion of Weld County.


All do well for CSP 3A 3C.

 

[tyytor]

hi, i use buckhorn mtn. up here in cheyenne with a 10 EL. 800mhz yagi and RS in line amp and get 96%
i get greeley ft.collins ...ect off that tower as said before get a yagi they are cheep or make one and you will get a lot more distence best of luck,

 

[18D]

I use PVH tower Bescuse all cops live in the area

 

[GlacierClipper]

Horsetooth is my primary provider. I get better coverage from Horsetooth than PVH. I am just up the street a few blocks from PVH located near Lemay and Swallow Rd.