UCAN Davis County Simulcast

[kc5sws]

I have some questions regarding the UCAN Davis County Simulcast. When I look at the LCN lists for 852.8375 using Unitrunker I see that is has the longest list of frequencies, but often times I'm not picking up on Davis County related stuff. I have a properly programmed pro-97 from the RR database and an external antenna 30ft in the air monoband gain for 856mhz so receiving is not a problem over 4 to 5 counties.

Ive tried Prominitory Point, Mt Ogden, Francis Peak, Davis Simulcast, Weber Simulcast, but I can't seem to figure out how to hear everyone properly with the right control frequency.

I did hear a dispatcher this morning say that there was a repeater down (Bountiful) - is this part of the problems i'm getting?

Which Site should I be decoding to get Davis County properly?

 

[bcoray]

kc5sws

I am on the west bench of the Salt Lake valley and am able to pickup the control channels for both the Davis Simo and Francis Pk sites. I pickup traffic on both sites. The volume of radio traffic in Davis County is less than in the Salt Lake area but I assume I am hearing everything. Can you verify that you are hearing the control frequency for each site?

Let me know if I can be of more help. I'm still learning but am eager to help.

 

[ww7y]

According to the Wiki, the Pro-97 doesn't support rebanding. I haven't kept up with that, so I can't say if it does or not. Davis Simo contains almost all rebanded frequencies, and a scanner that doesn't support rebanding will hear very little there. Salt Lake Simo on the other hand has many pre-rebanding frequencies and that scanner will do well on it. There is a long thread about this issue on this forum.

http://forums.radioreference.com/utah-radio-discussion-forum/127466-rebanded-800-mhz-bandplans.html

Where are you located? The Salt Lake Valley east of I-15, doesn't get Davis Simo well due to the repeaters being on the valley floor at Bountiful PD, Layton PD, Clearfield PD and DCSO in Farmington. The mountains block line of site. reception. The west side of the valley has no problems. If you can hear the control channel on 852.8375, you should have no problem with Davis Simo. If not there is some Davis County traffic on Francis Peak, Nelson Peak, Promontory Peak and Salt Lake Simo but it comes and goes as Davis units affiliate with those sites.

I have noticed when our ambulances go to U of U, our radios switch over to Salt Lake Simo but when going to IMC, we stay on Davis.

Steve - WW7Y

 

[bcoray]

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I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question about affiliation. Last night when the medical helicopters went to summit county on the 10-50 with fatalities, I was able to pick up summit SO and fire TGs on Lewis peak, Nelson and salt lake simo all from my home in west Jordan. Today all I could catch was an occasional PC city bus on Lewis, nothing else. Could the salt lake helicopters have caused the summit county sites to affiliate while they were there? How long does that last? I was able to pick up comms on 48000 for the rest of the night.

Is there a better site besides Lewis that carries the summit county traffic. Obviously I'm not able to pick up Wasatch simo or quarry mtn.

Thanks,
B

 

[kc5sws]

Well I figured out I had typoed one control freq for prominitory point. The remainder of the "rebanded" freqs I follow on a different scanner. It's complicated but works for me very well. I noticed this morning everything looks to be fine again. I feel bad for posting something I didn't seriously research to completion!

I'm located in Clinton,UT and the antenna is about 25ft off the ground so I can usually hear the entire northern control freqs which I slice with Unitrunker.

 

[kf7yn]

Your Pro-97 is not hearing all the frequencies, hence you are missing radio traffic. The reason is because the Pro-97's lookup table is not capable of being updated with the new rebanding tables. You are hearing all the freqs ending with 5 but not those ending in 0.

The frequency lookup table for freqs ending in 5 are numbered 1 thru 439. Your Pro-97 work on those freqs. The new rebanded frequencies ending in 0 are numbered 440 thru 559. Your Pro-97 will not work on those.

For example: Salt Lake Simo has twenty frequencies, fourteen ending in 5 and six ending in 0. You will hear a majority of the traffic with your Pro-97... but Davis Simo has twelve freqs, only three end with 5 so you'll miss the majority of the traffic.

Bottom line: you'll need to get a reband-capable scanner.

 

[kc5sws]

Actually i'm able to get everything with 2 scanners. I have some data slicer and com ports which control 2 scanners. And yes you are correct that the pro97 does not support rebanding but between 2 scanners I capture everything with a computer.

Sorry for the confusion I had put in bad information into one scanner.

 

[kf7yn]

bcoray, you are correct that the med helicopters "drag" a talkgroup with them from site to site. Medical traffic has absolute priority on any of the sites since they are involved with safety of life. You can hear Air Med on their entire route anywhere on the UCAN system. I have heard them on the SL Simo system calling in from Rock Springs, Price, Roosevelt Jericho, etc. by virtue of dragging the TG from site to site.

Agencies can drag a TG as they move from site to site across the state but there is a priority system. Medical and Law Enforcement are high priority. Public Works, garbage collection, etc. are low priority so they seldom if ever are on more than one site.

I hope that answers your question.

 

[bcoray]

Jon,

Thanks for confirming my theory. Ironically, after I posted yesterday I began hearing Summit Co. UHP and Park City PD thru the Lewis Peak site. Maybe it was just a really slow Sunday on the Wasatch Back.

KC5SWS,

I'm glad you got your system up and running. What type of antenna are you running?

Thanks!

 

[kc5sws]

My antenna is a home brew balanced quarterwave antenna on the roof mounted 4ft tall off the roof.

I ran the coax with high grade monstercable satellite cable rg-6 down into my shop where I make violins for a living. This is hooked to a splitter which branches off to both scanners.

The quarterwave antenna is a 7.5 inch disk with a hole drilled in the middle and a half inch lip around the disk. The vertical element is a 1/4 inch solid brass rod cut to 856mhz on a quarterwave (i believe 167mm) and is centerfed with an so-239 connection. With some playing around with the coax and the splitter with quite a few tests and trimming of coax as well as diameter of the vertical element it's balanced into the shop and has superb reception.

I tried an 8 element collinear cut for 856 mhz but the takeoff of the antenna was rather low and I wanted something farther line of site for things like nelson peak or cal mountain.

I also had a commercial antenna cut for 850mhz that was given to me back when I was doing some radio stuff on the towers in cedar hill, tx south of dallas. I tried this one, and 15 miles was ok but I wanted to pull out a bit of distance.

The quarterwave was a winner once the feedline was balanced and diameter of the vertical element set. I think I ended up using some 12 different diameters before I settled for 1/4 inch brass rod.

Once some violins sell I'll probably upgrade to something digital but for now i'm happy.

 

[bcoray]

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You must make on heck of a violin based on your attention to detail!

I have considered a fixed mount antenna however I appreciate the portability of the handheld. It would be nice for the distant sites.

Thanks for the info.

 

[kf7yn]

KC5SWS: If you are using a TV type splitter you might consider replacing it with a multicoupler at some point. I use a Stridsberg MCA204 multicoupler MCA204A
No more issues with scanners reacting to each other as they did using a TV splitter.