Ws1040 signal

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EddieZM96

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Jan 9, 2021
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Middletown, Ohio
I purchased a Ws1040 from Walmart and also a Comet BNC-W100RX antenna from Amazon. I live in Middletown Ohio and my scanner either isn't programmed correctly or something. I can only get good signal and decent audio from certain spots in town. I have to almost leave town to get a signal to listen to my own towns police. I get fire and EMS perfectly no matter where I'm at. I only have trouble with the butler county law and fire and EMS on trunked system. Please help, is there anything I can do in my settings or in my programming. I us PSREdit500 to program my scanner.
 

Nasby

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Apr 4, 2004
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Ohio
Simulcast distortion describes the issues you are having.

The Butler Co. MARCS setup is simulcast. The WS1040 doesn't do well with simulcast systems.

If you're unfamiliar with simulcast distortion, check the Wiki and you will see lots of info along with possible fixes.
 

tvengr

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Feb 10, 2019
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9,175
Location
Baltimore County, MD
I can only get good signal and decent audio from certain spots in town.
Butler and Warren Counties are both simulcast sites. You most likely are suffering from simulcast distortion. You have numerous towers all transmitting the same control channel on the same frequency at the same time. The signals arrive at your scanner at slightly different times and degrade the ability of your scanner to properly decode the control channel. If you are close to one tower, the signal can override the interference from the other towers. That explains why the scanner works only at certain locations. You probably want the sites for Butler and Warren Counties since Middletown is in both. The only radios designed to receive simulcast systems (other than commercial 2-ways) are the Uniden SDS100 and SDS200 scanners and the Unication G4 and G5 pagers. Try turning on the attenuator. Sometimes, that will reduce the number of towers you receive and improve the control channel decoding.
 
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EddieZM96

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Premium Subscriber
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Jan 9, 2021
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Location
Middletown, Ohio
Butler and Warren Counties are both simulcast sites. You most likely are suffering from simulcast distortion. You have numerous towers all transmitting the same control channel on the same frequency at the same time. The signals arrive at your scanner at slightly different times and degrade the ability of your scanner to properly decode the control channel. If you are close to one tower, the signal can override the interference from the other towers. That explains why the scanner works only at certain locations. You probably want the sites for Butler and Warren Counties since Middletown is in both. The only radios designed to receive simulcast systems (other than commercial 2-ways) are the Uniden SDS100 and SDS200 scanners and the Unication G4 and G5 pagers. Try turning on the attenuator. Sometimes, that will reduce the number of towers you receive and improve the control channel decoding.
I will try that. I set my lo threshold to 0 and my hi threshold to 99 and it seemed to fix some of the problem. I'll be looking to buy new scanners here soon
 

fourwd1

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Jun 24, 2002
Messages
380
Location
Socialist state of MD
I have both the RS and GRE versions of your radio and live in a county with a simulcast system and they work surprisingly well. Much better than the Uniden fanboys know/admit.
Try with the stock antenna.
 
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