New to RSO and Confused

[krazybob]

OK. I get trunking. I get EDACS. I get scanners. What I don't get is that I have 6 banks setup on a dedicated scanner for RSO and I am hearing Temecula units on Blythe. I am hearing Cabazon units on Southwest. Moreno Valley on Central. Of course I hear each of them on their assigned site as well. From Running Springs using a commercial antenna I can hear all of the sites. I am using a 796D at the moment.

Are the talkgroups normally patched countywide?

[krazybob]

Before anyone asks I have all the talkgroups programmed into all 6 sites. Right now they are patching some TG's, as indicated by the alpha tags.

[sp1989]

That's the difference between open and closed on EDACS, if it's open, you'll hear everything, closed, just the talk groups you have programmed in.

[krazybob]

So basically I can point my yagi at the strongest site, program all of the TG's into one bank, and listen to almost the entire county? I've put everything in proper banks since I last posted. One thing that I've noticed is that MOVAL sounds terrible no matter what site I monitor.

[cvrules90]

Sometimes, multiple repeaters may be associated with one site.

For instance, when I was down south back in '09, I got Cabazon patrol cars on the Desert Site. That was the only one that was in my scanner at that time so I'm guessing they have simulcasts.

I haven't taken my scanner to the far west end of the county to be able to tell you how it would work from there, but I expect some overlaps between the West and South cells.

By the way, look at all databases and West and South have the same frequence setlist. So I believe you had the south site entered (which is a simulcast) so you can hear Blythe cars and such. Have you heard any desert area cars from your area?

I am not too sure about MV. You might try to click on the West site on radioreference.com and find its coordinates. Then, using those coordinates, move your antenna to the general direction.

My RSO expertise is not that great either because I have not listened to them virtually with a scanner but I still hope I helped you.

[krazybob]

Sometimes, multiple repeaters may be associated with one site.

For instance, when I was down south back in '09, I got Cabazon patrol cars on the Desert Site. That was the only one that was in my scanner at that time so I'm guessing they have simulcasts.

I haven't taken my scanner to the far west end of the county to be able to tell you how it would work from there, but I expect some overlaps between the West and South cells.

By the way, look at all databases and West and South have the same frequence setlist. So I believe you had the south site entered (which is a simulcast) so you can hear Blythe cars and such. Have you heard any desert area cars from your area?

I am not too sure about MV. You might try to click on the West site on radioreference.com and find its coordinates. Then, using those coordinates, move your antenna to the general direction.

My RSO expertise is not that great either because I have not listened to them virtually with a scanner but I still hope I helped you.

Thanks for the reply! I had not noticed duplicate frequencies on South and West. During my test I had all TG's from all groups entered into all 6 sites. Doing so allowed me to hear Cabazon units while listening to system 6. Or Perris while listening to system 1. But I've never heard Blythe units on any system. I have since programmed the 796D as 6 banks with all TG's from all systems. I am not hearing Palm or Blythe and certain other agencies. I was unaware of whether or not they simulcast and it appears that they do.

I have an 800MHz Yagi antenna pointed at Elsinore and I hear system 6 loud and clear (West, Central and Desert as well.) This is a great direction because I also hear Orange County Fire Countywide loud and clear on a second scanner with a combiner. But MOVAL units just sound like crap. I can hear the dispatcher fine but the units are grungy much of the time., The dispatcher can hear them fine so it's on my end. The main site for MOVAL is Box Springs and I can physically see it from my home. This isn't a signal strength issue. In fact, I use ProScan software and it shows the signal strength in real-time on the test screen. I have varying signal strengths of >135. The south system is over 200. This suggests frequency reuse and you're correct that I am decoding a TG on a frequency from a different system. I'm not sure - just guessing.

I've noticed that signal strengths are down today in the ~150 range on south system but OCFA is 215+.

[krazybob]

I checked and there are many reuses of frequencies between systems.

[brandon]

On West you can hear dispatch talkgroups for Temecula, Lake Elsinore, Perris, Jurupa, Moval and Hemet/Cabazon. But the Temecula car-to-car and south special ops groups typically don't show here and require you to monitor them from their specific area (i.e. South). Desert talkgroups are not heard on the west county systems, although one exception seems to be when Palm Desert+Indio or Blythe+Indio get patched they sometimes can be heard on south for some reason.

If you park the scanner on the control channel it should give you a SID #
1-West
2-Central
3-Desert
4-Blythe
5-Santa Rosa
6-South

This should help you determine what systems your actually hearing.

[cvrules90]

But remember that Santa Rosa is supposed to be a fill-in site. You actually need to find the appropriate talkgroups listed for Central Desert and South.

If you're trying to monitor Temecula Car/Car and Ops channels, move your Yagl in the general direction of the southern repeater. I don't know what else to tell you.

[krazybob]

But remember that Santa Rosa is supposed to be a fill-in site. You actually need to find the appropriate talkgroups listed for Central Desert and South.

If you're trying to monitor Temecula Car/Car and Ops channels, move your Yagl in the general direction of the southern repeater. I don't know what else to tell you.

I'm at 6,300 feet overlooking the Inland Empire. Even pointed at Elsinore I hear everything except Blythe. I want to hear everything but not Temecula specifcally. I have West, Central, Desert and South on scan. I have a commercial 800MHz omni antenna to put up -- that will be interesting. But as I said the fact that I am pointed at the primary site, Elsinore Peak, I can hear most of RSO and Orange County Fire on another scanner (multi-coupler.)

Thanks for the tip on the SID. I'll try that. But I don't think that will disclose frequency reuse. Just wait. I have a new remote controlled radio at 8,000 feet...