| Home |
| Search |
| Today's Posts |
|
|
|
#1
November 21st 03, 01:35 PM
|
|||
|
|||
Newbie on Pro-95 Trunking
I have a Pro-95. I have a couple of Mot and Edacs trunking systems in the
region. These are Police trunks in a town about 15 miles from here, and another town about 20 miles away. I am running off of an antenna warehouse super discone. If I scan between 851.0 and 868.9875 I do not pick up any strong repeaters, but otherwise I have no problem receiving as far at 40 miles away on conventional frequencies....much further on Ham. What would be the normal expected transmit range on an 800mhz trunked system/repeater? Since I can't seem to pull in any strong repeaters, that should tell me that I need a better antenna, an 800mhz specific antenna, or to tune the discone somehow. Is my thought process valid? Any ideas? Harryc -- |
|
#3
November 22nd 03, 04:50 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
BDK, thanks for the reply. I think you may be onto something with the coax
or antenna. I stuck on a RS telescoping and I got to the nearest trunked system no problem. So, I guess I'll check out the coax first (It's RG6/U), then maybe try the scantenna. The discone is brand new, and the RG6 is a couple of years old. Might try another straight run of coax. Is there an easy way to test for loss on coax? I could just go right out to the discone and run a short piece to the handheld I suppose. Harryc -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... I have a Pro-95. I have a couple of Mot and Edacs trunking systems in the region. These are Police trunks in a town about 15 miles from here, and another town about 20 miles away. I am running off of an antenna warehouse super discone. If I scan between 851.0 and 868.9875 I do not pick up any strong repeaters, but otherwise I have no problem receiving as far at 40 miles away on conventional frequencies....much further on Ham. What would be the normal expected transmit range on an 800mhz trunked system/repeater? Since I can't seem to pull in any strong repeaters, that should tell me that I need a better antenna, an 800mhz specific antenna, or to tune the discone somehow. Is my thought process valid? Any ideas? Harryc -- Well, just about ANY antenna is better than a discone, but you should be able to get at least the closer of the two systems with the rubber duck, let alone an outside antenna. You may be overloading the 95, and that's why you can't hear anything. Try scanning the 800 PSB freqs with the duck and see what happens. Maybe the coax on the discone has taken a dive and hasn't gotten really bad yet, so the higher freqs are the only ones affected so far. For a better antenna, check out: http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm Can you hear anything on 800? You should be able to hear control channels buzzing away somewhere, and that's all the 95 needs to trunk track. My 93 has no problem getting local trunked when I am 15-20 miles away with a replacement (MFJ dual band short duck) antenna, the original got tweaked and I tossed it. BDK |
|
#4
November 22nd 03, 02:58 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Ran the handheld off of a 10' piece of RG6 direct to the discone, There was
a slight trunking reception improvement over the connection inside the house, but nothing compared to the RS telescoping antenna. So, either the discone is junk, or I do not have it in the right location. Currently it's about 15 feet up a mast on the side of the house. Can't roof mount it. Harryc -- "HarryC" wrote in message ... BDK, thanks for the reply. I think you may be onto something with the coax or antenna. I stuck on a RS telescoping and I got to the nearest trunked system no problem. So, I guess I'll check out the coax first (It's RG6/U), then maybe try the scantenna. The discone is brand new, and the RG6 is a couple of years old. Might try another straight run of coax. Is there an easy way to test for loss on coax? I could just go right out to the discone and run a short piece to the handheld I suppose. Harryc -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... I have a Pro-95. I have a couple of Mot and Edacs trunking systems in the region. These are Police trunks in a town about 15 miles from here, and another town about 20 miles away. I am running off of an antenna warehouse super discone. If I scan between 851.0 and 868.9875 I do not pick up any strong repeaters, but otherwise I have no problem receiving as far at 40 miles away on conventional frequencies....much further on Ham. What would be the normal expected transmit range on an 800mhz trunked system/repeater? Since I can't seem to pull in any strong repeaters, that should tell me that I need a better antenna, an 800mhz specific antenna, or to tune the discone somehow. Is my thought process valid? Any ideas? Harryc -- Well, just about ANY antenna is better than a discone, but you should be able to get at least the closer of the two systems with the rubber duck, let alone an outside antenna. You may be overloading the 95, and that's why you can't hear anything. Try scanning the 800 PSB freqs with the duck and see what happens. Maybe the coax on the discone has taken a dive and hasn't gotten really bad yet, so the higher freqs are the only ones affected so far. For a better antenna, check out: http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm Can you hear anything on 800? You should be able to hear control channels buzzing away somewhere, and that's all the 95 needs to trunk track. My 93 has no problem getting local trunked when I am 15-20 miles away with a replacement (MFJ dual band short duck) antenna, the original got tweaked and I tossed it. BDK |
|
#5
November 22nd 03, 06:41 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
In article , harryc56
lid says... Ran the handheld off of a 10' piece of RG6 direct to the discone, There was a slight trunking reception improvement over the connection inside the house, but nothing compared to the RS telescoping antenna. So, either the discone is junk, or I do not have it in the right location. Currently it's about 15 feet up a mast on the side of the house. Can't roof mount it. Harryc -- "HarryC" wrote in message ... BDK, thanks for the reply. I think you may be onto something with the coax or antenna. I stuck on a RS telescoping and I got to the nearest trunked system no problem. So, I guess I'll check out the coax first (It's RG6/U), then maybe try the scantenna. The discone is brand new, and the RG6 is a couple of years old. Might try another straight run of coax. Is there an easy way to test for loss on coax? I could just go right out to the discone and run a short piece to the handheld I suppose. Harryc -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... I have a Pro-95. I have a couple of Mot and Edacs trunking systems in the region. These are Police trunks in a town about 15 miles from here, and another town about 20 miles away. I am running off of an antenna warehouse super discone. If I scan between 851.0 and 868.9875 I do not pick up any strong repeaters, but otherwise I have no problem receiving as far at 40 miles away on conventional frequencies....much further on Ham. What would be the normal expected transmit range on an 800mhz trunked system/repeater? Since I can't seem to pull in any strong repeaters, that should tell me that I need a better antenna, an 800mhz specific antenna, or to tune the discone somehow. Is my thought process valid? Any ideas? Harryc -- Well, just about ANY antenna is better than a discone, but you should be able to get at least the closer of the two systems with the rubber duck, let alone an outside antenna. You may be overloading the 95, and that's why you can't hear anything. Try scanning the 800 PSB freqs with the duck and see what happens. Maybe the coax on the discone has taken a dive and hasn't gotten really bad yet, so the higher freqs are the only ones affected so far. For a better antenna, check out: http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm Can you hear anything on 800? You should be able to hear control channels buzzing away somewhere, and that's all the 95 needs to trunk track. My 93 has no problem getting local trunked when I am 15-20 miles away with a replacement (MFJ dual band short duck) antenna, the original got tweaked and I tossed it. BDK What discone is it, most are the same electrically and only differ in price and quality of materials, but there are some of the oddball ones that dont seem to work well on 800. A 5 buck ground plane made from coat hangers and a "F" connector and hung in my attlc blows the Icom discone out of the water. 460MHZ signals that are full quieting on the ground plane are hissy on the discone. 800 is the closest they get, and the GP still beats it easily. You still may be overloading the 95, what do you get with the duck? If you hear them ok with it, I would guess some nearby transmitter is blasting you. I have an easy test here, any scanner that gets no intermod in 460 or 851-855 and can hear everything on the scantenna is pretty good, and not many handhelds can do it, the 93 included (a 95 is pretty much the same radio, with more channels). There's a local PD right across the river and it can be heard on FM radios lots of the time. On high end radios with S-meters I have had, it pegs the meter with a 4" hunk of wire stuck in the center, and can be clearly heard without any antenna at all. If a scanner can't hear it at all, it's really dead. I have had a few that as soon as the antennas (any of them) are hooked up, they get seriously deaf. My BC9000 XLT gets hash all over the place when any of three nearby transmitters is keyed up, but it still hears most everything. My RS Pro 2004 and 2005's are much better. On almost all my handhelds, except for a couple of the ham HT's, I have to run a duck on them, or keep the telescoping whip really short to keep them "clean". BDK |
|
#6
November 22nd 03, 06:24 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
In article , harryc56
lid says... BDK, thanks for the reply. I think you may be onto something with the coax or antenna. I stuck on a RS telescoping and I got to the nearest trunked system no problem. So, I guess I'll check out the coax first (It's RG6/U), then maybe try the scantenna. The discone is brand new, and the RG6 is a couple of years old. Might try another straight run of coax. Is there an easy way to test for loss on coax? I could just go right out to the discone and run a short piece to the handheld I suppose. Harryc -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... I have a Pro-95. I have a couple of Mot and Edacs trunking systems in the region. These are Police trunks in a town about 15 miles from here, and another town about 20 miles away. I am running off of an antenna warehouse super discone. If I scan between 851.0 and 868.9875 I do not pick up any strong repeaters, but otherwise I have no problem receiving as far at 40 miles away on conventional frequencies....much further on Ham. What would be the normal expected transmit range on an 800mhz trunked system/repeater? Since I can't seem to pull in any strong repeaters, that should tell me that I need a better antenna, an 800mhz specific antenna, or to tune the discone somehow. Is my thought process valid? Any ideas? Harryc -- Well, just about ANY antenna is better than a discone, but you should be able to get at least the closer of the two systems with the rubber duck, let alone an outside antenna. You may be overloading the 95, and that's why you can't hear anything. Try scanning the 800 PSB freqs with the duck and see what happens. Maybe the coax on the discone has taken a dive and hasn't gotten really bad yet, so the higher freqs are the only ones affected so far. For a better antenna, check out: http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm Can you hear anything on 800? You should be able to hear control channels buzzing away somewhere, and that's all the 95 needs to trunk track. My 93 has no problem getting local trunked when I am 15-20 miles away with a replacement (MFJ dual band short duck) antenna, the original got tweaked and I tossed it. BDK If it's new RG-6, and is even reasonably decent quality, it should be ok. Some is ok at first, but only lasts a couple of years before it starts getting real lossy, and 800 is going to be the first affected by it when it starts to go. How many feet are you running? BDK |
|
#7
November 22nd 03, 08:14 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
BDK, it was the discone. As a test I picked up a cheap RS 20-176, and 800
trunks are crystal clear. It was an antenna warehouse super discone. I emailed them and they are going to exchange it for a scantenna for a niminal fee. Generous of them I thought. Thanks again, Harry -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... BDK, thanks for the reply. I think you may be onto something with the coax or antenna. I stuck on a RS telescoping and I got to the nearest trunked system no problem. So, I guess I'll check out the coax first (It's RG6/U), then maybe try the scantenna. The discone is brand new, and the RG6 is a couple of years old. Might try another straight run of coax. Is there an easy way to test for loss on coax? I could just go right out to the discone and run a short piece to the handheld I suppose. Harryc -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... I have a Pro-95. I have a couple of Mot and Edacs trunking systems in the region. These are Police trunks in a town about 15 miles from here, and another town about 20 miles away. I am running off of an antenna warehouse super discone. If I scan between 851.0 and 868.9875 I do not pick up any strong repeaters, but otherwise I have no problem receiving as far at 40 miles away on conventional frequencies....much further on Ham. What would be the normal expected transmit range on an 800mhz trunked system/repeater? Since I can't seem to pull in any strong repeaters, that should tell me that I need a better antenna, an 800mhz specific antenna, or to tune the discone somehow. Is my thought process valid? Any ideas? Harryc -- Well, just about ANY antenna is better than a discone, but you should be able to get at least the closer of the two systems with the rubber duck, let alone an outside antenna. You may be overloading the 95, and that's why you can't hear anything. Try scanning the 800 PSB freqs with the duck and see what happens. Maybe the coax on the discone has taken a dive and hasn't gotten really bad yet, so the higher freqs are the only ones affected so far. For a better antenna, check out: http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm Can you hear anything on 800? You should be able to hear control channels buzzing away somewhere, and that's all the 95 needs to trunk track. My 93 has no problem getting local trunked when I am 15-20 miles away with a replacement (MFJ dual band short duck) antenna, the original got tweaked and I tossed it. BDK If it's new RG-6, and is even reasonably decent quality, it should be ok. Some is ok at first, but only lasts a couple of years before it starts getting real lossy, and 800 is going to be the first affected by it when it starts to go. How many feet are you running? BDK |
|
#8
November 23rd 03, 04:11 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
In article , harryc56
lid says... BDK, it was the discone. As a test I picked up a cheap RS 20-176, and 800 trunks are crystal clear. It was an antenna warehouse super discone. I emailed them and they are going to exchange it for a scantenna for a niminal fee. Generous of them I thought. Thanks again, Harry -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... BDK, thanks for the reply. I think you may be onto something with the coax or antenna. I stuck on a RS telescoping and I got to the nearest trunked system no problem. So, I guess I'll check out the coax first (It's RG6/U), then maybe try the scantenna. The discone is brand new, and the RG6 is a couple of years old. Might try another straight run of coax. Is there an easy way to test for loss on coax? I could just go right out to the discone and run a short piece to the handheld I suppose. Harryc -- "BDK" wrote in message ... In article , harryc56 lid says... I have a Pro-95. I have a couple of Mot and Edacs trunking systems in the region. These are Police trunks in a town about 15 miles from here, and another town about 20 miles away. I am running off of an antenna warehouse super discone. If I scan between 851.0 and 868.9875 I do not pick up any strong repeaters, but otherwise I have no problem receiving as far at 40 miles away on conventional frequencies....much further on Ham. What would be the normal expected transmit range on an 800mhz trunked system/repeater? Since I can't seem to pull in any strong repeaters, that should tell me that I need a better antenna, an 800mhz specific antenna, or to tune the discone somehow. Is my thought process valid? Any ideas? Harryc -- Well, just about ANY antenna is better than a discone, but you should be able to get at least the closer of the two systems with the rubber duck, let alone an outside antenna. You may be overloading the 95, and that's why you can't hear anything. Try scanning the 800 PSB freqs with the duck and see what happens. Maybe the coax on the discone has taken a dive and hasn't gotten really bad yet, so the higher freqs are the only ones affected so far. For a better antenna, check out: http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm Can you hear anything on 800? You should be able to hear control channels buzzing away somewhere, and that's all the 95 needs to trunk track. My 93 has no problem getting local trunked when I am 15-20 miles away with a replacement (MFJ dual band short duck) antenna, the original got tweaked and I tossed it. BDK If it's new RG-6, and is even reasonably decent quality, it should be ok. Some is ok at first, but only lasts a couple of years before it starts getting real lossy, and 800 is going to be the first affected by it when it starts to go. How many feet are you running? BDK No problem.. BDK |
| Reply |
| Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Forum | |||
| Newbie CB User has ?'s Please someone advise | CB | |||
| Pro-94 How to set trunking. | Scanner | |||
| Newbie | Homebrew | |||
| Newbie | Homebrew | |||
| question about trunking | Scanner | |||
Hybrid Mode
