Author Topic: NEED HELP - Pro-2055 Houston area  (Read 5050 times)

Offline mdl21483

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NEED HELP - Pro-2055 Houston area
« on: January 12, 2006, 04:54:30 PM »
Hi there, like many of us, I've been listening to Live ATC on and off for almost as long as its existed and also like most are ambitious about starting a new feed. I'm intending on having the setup operational in a few months, BUT  I'm running into a couple of snags and need ya'lls help.

I've owned the Sporty's Airscan V for over a year now and its been operational with both the default 4" BNC antenna and 13" Radioshack dipole antennas with marginal to decent performance, respectively.

here is a previous post i pinned on a local group about what was going on...

 
Date: Thu Jan 5, 2006  3:06 pm

Just bought a new antenna for the scanner and for the past few days
its been working great- bringing in crystal clear air to ground and
decently clear tower but no dep/arr/center until two days ago when
center started to come in. BUT yesterday night, things started getting
funky- not dep/arr controllers are coming in loud & clear but the air
to ground that ive had since ive had the scanner has all but
completely disapperared!?! Now its apr/dep and only 10% of the traffic.

The antenna is the same one that was recomended on here in the
forum about hosting a feed<
http://www.liveatc.net/forum/about1000.html >, which is what I'm
intending to do starting this summer for Hobby Tower, SugarLand,
and (primary) Approach/Departure.


STATS:

Location proximity:  (UPDATED 01/17/06 via Google Earth)
8.26 miles (13.30 km) ENE of KSGR Sugarland Tower
14.72 miles (23.66 km) W of KHOU
24.83 miles (39.95 km) SSW of KIAH Bush Intercontinental
11.81 miles (19.00 km) NNE of KAXH Houston-Southwest
1.41 miles (2.27 km) S of 12TA (Channel Two Helipad)

Scanner: Sporty's AirScan Desktop

Frequencies (primary):
118.650 Sugar Land Tower(6AM-10PM)/Traffic (overnight)
118.700 Hobby Tower/Ground(off-peak)/Clearence(off-peak)
126.675 Approach/Departure (primary)
(as well as two additional secondary frequency spots such as 132.15
APR/DEP/CNTR and 126.425 CENTER ~SEALEY)

Antenna: Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna $24.99 <
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103641&cp >

linked to scanner via:
Model: 278-120 BNC Connector
<http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?
productId=2062626&cp=2032058.2032231.2032281>

Model: 278-969 5 Ft. RG-8 Coax Cable Assembly $5.24 <
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?
productId=2102421&cp=&pg=3&kw=pl-259&parentPage=search >

Antenna is proped up inside for now until I can get a PL259/RG-8 cable
longer than the 5ft available at RS. purchased another BNC-BNC with
adaptor that was 10 ft but is flimsy like phone line and negates most
reception. Antenna is propped on the sceond floor, 5ft above floor, 17
Ft above Ground, 10 ft below scattered treeline in moderate density 2
floor apartments.
....

Its been a while since Ive asked that and after disassembling the antenna and reassembling the problem disapated though back to little from controllers and also the Sporty's is now critically on the fritz so is now unrelyible.

A Radioshack PRO-2055 1,000 channel triple trunking mobile/base scanner was recently bought yesterday and works fine except for the fact that now on airband, im not getting anything except overwash from the FM frequencies (ie like in between two radio stations within the same ***. group) very weird thats the primary problem right now.

I'd like to keep this thread as a continuing troubleshooter until we ca finally reestablish comms for the Houston area online once again.

~Mel~



Offline mdl21483

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Questions! RE: NEED HELP for PRO-2055 Houston Area
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2006, 11:11:52 AM »
Figured out the basics of the 2055 finally. although the options for coding modes are still a little confusing. OK, there's three questions I have to start off with.

Q1 - One problem that I'm having now is that  when the thing is plugged into the external antenna, reception on the low end airband  seems to bwe picking op some weird noises from of all things TV and radio...  is that a problem with the scanner itself or is there such a thing as too much sensitivity??? :?  I've already tried moving the antenna from inside to outside on a tree limb, 23 ft up for a few days, seemed to pick up more air-to-ground transmissions, but nothing more for hobby tower/artcc.
The only controllers that i"m able to pick up are the ones at Sugarland Tower. would that be good enough for a feed?


Q2 - How bad are powerlines???  -  I want to be able to get the controllers for my area without having to move to another complex that will charge me twice or more of what im already paying just for a few db of gain.  I'm not under any lines, but there are some high tension 120ft towers that peek over the rooftops as close as .22 miles (.35 km) away.   is this whats the culpret for not hearing apr/dep and ARTCC ground- to air?


Q3 - Recieving controllers in the 400s. - according to some references, there's some additoinal frequencies that are established for hobby tower, ARTCC, and apr/dep in the 480s range, although I have yet to recieve any transmissions from them.  Is this for when theres military ops or do i need to be on another mode (FM,CTCSS,DCSS,trunking) for these to Work?

Offline mdl21483

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ZHU Houston Center chart/map
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2006, 04:51:07 PM »
Made a Map of the General locations of ZHU's transmitters using Google Earth, however ive yet to see teh actual zones that these locations control.  Would a Super Discone be teh best to try and get as much of em as can be or would i need something huge like the Log periodic  for teh atlantic/pacific feeds?