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There are two new DSTAR and a P25 repeater(s) in the sno co area.

Tulalip ham club
442.350MHz D-Star K7TUL B

Mt Pilchuck DSTAR

440.325 NR7SS  B
1251.650 NR7SS

there is a issue with it now that will be fix soon

south sno co P25

443.125 NAC 293 dual mode repeater NFM/P25

Damn, Why does the P25 repeater have to be UHF???? :evil: Oh well, looks like I'll have to save up and get a UHF moto now.

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Tim - KD7DEY

I would venture to guess that a UHF P25 machine would have better coverage in a area such as Seattle.

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

That isn't it. VHF would do better in the Seattle area other than UHF due to all the hills around here. VHF is less line of sight compared to UHF. Why do you think they keep VHF fire up in the mountains other than 800? 800 is great indoors and in the city.

The reason is that there are no 2M frequencies to give out. The person who owns the P25 machine, also owns two other repeaters on the same frequency.

Actually the 800 radios are sucking inside buildings. Ask any fireman who responds to a high-rise. The first thing they have to do is abandon their repeaters and switch to simplex. I assume it's the radios, not the frequencies, but don't honestly know.

Oh I didn't realize the actual location either of where the P25 machine was. I was thinking it was somehow somewhere in Seattle proper...

Yeah, from South Sno, VHF machine would better. But there seriously no coordination left on 2 meters in Western Washington?

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

I had a customer / dealer in Texas who sold all of his 800MHz licenses to Nexthell and them moved to 450/460 MHz for his LTR style trunking.

He swore the in building penetration is superior on 800 vs. UHF.

I can't speak for other agencies, but prior to the switch to trunking, SFD had receivers in many hi-rises in downtown Seattle. One building I worked in had one, and the antenna was basically a coil of radiax in the bottom of the elevator pit. It may have spanned the shaft as well, but I never went up there.


It's tricks like that that can make a band appear to be "better".

'Course, Southcenter enjoys a cool trick that a frequent guest here played a role in, and from what I hear the 800 coverage there is now quite extensive.

Trying to fill every nook and cranny of a region like ours, both in building and in all of our valleys is next to impossible, regardless of band choice, without adding some tricks.

It is scary to think if the 800 MHz has problems now under normal operating conditions how many more issues will appear during a disaster or earthquake.

I think the lesson on 9/11 should give us a clue. I heard the 800 MHz system in New York was off the air for sixteen hours after the Trade towers come down. One of the main repeater sites was on one of the towers and system could not handle the loss of the site which over loaded the remaining sites.

This reminds me what happened during the Nisqually shaker.
The Super 800 system went down.
WSP's old school comms were up.
I listened to the 145.330 for info.

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Huh? I thought everyone was just getting bonked due to the high amount of traffic.

People were getting bonked because of user error. When you get a bonk due to the system being busy, you are suppose to let go of the PTT and wait for the ready beeps. When you have heard the ready beeps, rekey your radio with your traffic. What was happening was that people would get a bonk and rekey the radio without waiting. So not only do you have a request for access on your 2nd rekey but you will also have your original request for the 1st PTT keying. So with everyone not knowing how to use their radios, they kept on rekeying their radio when they got a bonk and overloaded it with endless "Q's in the system. So the control channel got overloaded more than the VCs

Also depending on radio programming, IIRC, second keyup would be a 'priority' keyup which would step you up to the next slot....

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

Also, NYPD and FDNY as mentioned are not on 800...they use UHF conventional and actually it probably is a good thing for the largest city in the US.

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

Yeah I think it was just overloaded, but useless never the less.
There should be a way to let first responders have priority and keep the garbage trucks and janitors and the like off until an incident moderates.

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I believe there's a way to program it that way on the back end.