Williamson County Digital coming soon

[W5TWX]

Has anyone heard anything on the Round Rock PD talkgroups in the last 2 days. Seems like it's been quiet.

Gary, are they having problems?

 

[garyva]

No, they're having no problems. It was an eerily quiet weekend all around the county. I kept checking my portable to make sure it was on and the volume was up.

 

[W5TWX]

Thanks Gary. Very quiet for sure!

 

[W5TWX]

Hey guys, i'm not receiving anything on the RRPD or RRFD talkgroups yesterday or today. My scanner is not picking up the control channel either. Is anybody else having this problem? I can receive everyone else in the county, but not Round Rock for some reason.

Thanks,
Roy

 

[W5TWX]

Gary are you sure nothing is wrong with RRPD and RRFD talkgroups? Did talkgroups or control channels change? I haven't heard a SINGLE call ALL DAY for either, but I can pick up everyone else in the county.
I know the FD has had some calls because I can still hear them tone out on the old system.

 

[KC5ALI]

I am able to pickup and listen to the RRPD and RRFD. It has been active this whole weekend. They even had a robbery of a jewelry store.

I just heard a fire call on dispatch 4739 and a responce on Tac 1 (4741).

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Round Rock PD, Fire, and EMS are about all I listen to, I had a fair amount of activity last night, but not as much as I would expect for a Sunday. I've gotten 7 hits on the RR North dispatch talk group 4758 in the past half hour. RR Fire talk group 4741 has been active with a call to investigate some trees causing a transformer to spark.

What freq are you using for the control channel. I have 0857.96250, 0858.96250 and 0860.96250. I got them from the database under the site name Williamson county simulcast.

Hopefully they aren't encrypting their transmissions. If they were we would we hear anything at all, or just the silence we seem to have in spades?

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I am able to pickup and listen to the RRPD and RRFD. It has been active this whole weekend. They even had a robbery of a jewelry store.

I just heard a fire call on dispatch 4739 and a responce on Tac 1 (4741).

I followed the jewelry store heist last night too, apparently they hit two stores in the "I-35 corridor". I think I heard mention that one of them was up in the outlet malls close to Ikea. Never heard if they found the guys or not.

 

[KC5ALI]

Same here. I was curious is to if they caught the suspects, but I was at work. So I could not keep up with it all the time.

 

[W5TWX]

Well I don't understand how this happened, but I didn't have 858.96250 programed in. I've had no problems with the scanner receiving RRPD and RRFD until yesterday. Do you know if this was a change in the CC recently. Anyway, it's back to working just fine again.

Next question. Have any of you had to change the P-25 optimization levels with Round Rock to stop some of the warbling sound? I'm hearing a lot of warbling on the dispatchers for RRPD north and south.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Well I don't understand how this happened, but I didn't have 858.96250 programed in. I've had no problems with the scanner receiving RRPD and RRFD until yesterday. Do you know if this was a change in the CC recently. Anyway, it's back to working just fine again.

Next question. Have any of you had to change the P-25 optimization levels with Round Rock to stop some of the warbling sound? I'm hearing a lot of warbling on the dispatchers for RRPD north and south.

I looked into changing the optimization levels, but really couldn't see a difference setting it higher and lower. The manual says to watch the levels change while receiving a transmission and try to set the default level closer to those settings, I was unable to receive long enough transmissions to make a good guesstimate as to what the optimal decode threshold is. This lead me to just crank it way up or down and I didn't really notice a difference. I may just not know what I'm looking for to make an objective observation.

I was getting allot of warbling and the transmission cutting in and out on the RR South Dispatch but not the North, which is odd because I live in South Round Rock. Figured it may be antenna related, so I ordered http://www.scannermaster.com/Austin_Condor_Antenna_p/04-540709.htm an Austin Condor multi band antenna to replace the factory one on my Bcd396t. It helped a bit, but didn't clear it up entirely. Hoping it wasn't overloading the scanner because it was having trouble picking up what I think is the closer talk group, I picked up a Radio Shack 800mhz antenna on Sunday and most if not all the loss and distortion have cleared up.

 

[W5TWX]

I have a variety of antennas. Being a ham, you kinda do things like that. I didn't care much for the Condor when I had one a few years back. I have a 4" tuned for 860.000 that I custom ordered from antenex.com. It works pretty good and is small,. I also use the Rat Shack 800 sometimes. They are about equal.

Where are you on the south side? I'm at Gattis School and AW Grimes.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Right down the road from you, in the Gattis/Greenlawn area.

I was planning a trip to the Austin Amateur Radio Supply shop sometime this week. Looking for some literature on getting started in ham radio and to price out the damage for a decent setup. I've had my scanner for about 6 months now and am interested in expanding my horizons, I've spent many hours trying to figure this hobby out and enjoyed every one of them. That's not something I can say for several of my other hobbies. If you have any suggestions or can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[KC5ALI]

I am a current ham radio operator. I currently hold the technician class license, but I'm about to upgrade my license when I get some time to study for the advancement.

 

[W5TWX]

It;'s a great hobby to be in. It's also expensive if your looking to work HF. I have Yaesu equipment and if I could afford to switch, I would go with ICOM radios. In my opinion, they are the top of the line. I've had too many problems with my Yaesu radios. I mentioned earluier that I had a variety of antennas. I decided to take a count after making that post. I've got 16 and that's after i've sold off some.

The upgrade to General is pretty easy if that's what your thinking about doing. Extra is a tough one. Here is a great site to use for practice test online. I used it and I liked it better than some of the others out there.

http://www.hamtestonline.com/

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Thanks for the link that is exactly what I was looking for. I just completed the 45 practice questions and am impressed with the functionality of the website and delivery of information.

I've been debating between a buying motorcycle and really investing in HAM radio. Of the two I think HAM radio will teach me more practical skills and be a safer hobby. While the high end ICOM radios are expensive their price is on par with the entry level cruisers I have been eying.

 

[FlashSWT]

Since the Williamson County "site" is a Simulcast system, every talkgroup is broadcast across every tower in the county. The way RRPD uses North and South is just logistical to keep units separated between dispatchers at the station.

Pay attention to what actual frequency (not talkgroup) is in use when you hear warbling. This is easy to do on the Uniden scanners since they display it during each call and even easier if you are running Unitrunker. I've noticed down here that I get "bad" reception on certain frequencies no matter what talkgroup is active on it.

And while we're talking about towers and antennas, is there a map available that shows where in Williamson County all the towers are located? Similar to the one on this page: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=2

.

 

[W5TWX]

I haven't seen a map anywhere. That's good info to know. Thanks for sharing. I've seen the frequency show up, but I haven't paid any attention to them in the past. I'll keep an eye on that and see what I can find out.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

That explains why North and South have no bearing as to my actual location relative to their physical location.

http://k5ehx.net/repeaters/qrepeater.php?coverage=0&clat=30.500628&clong=-97.630248
Is all I could find for a map of repeaters, these are amateur radio repeaters I don't know if the Williamson county simulcast would use the same towers. The map does look jumbled together but you can zoom in and see the crosses that indicate the towers easier.

 

[Russell]

If you click on the site name, then click on the call sign, you get the tower locations according to the FCC database.

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?action=fcc&cs=WPIR949