Region of Waterloo

[Lexxx]

For some reason I can't pick up the Region of Waterloo Police and City of Kitchener on the EDACS system they use.

I have three trunk capable scanners and none of them are able to receive the system. I can get the EMS on a local Motorola system, and the conventional radio frequencies are fine, so I'm pretty sure my radios are ok.

Does anyone know if this system has changed, or is off the air for testing?

Waterloo Region Public Safety Trunking System, Waterloo Region, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies

Thanks

Peter

 

[rkorchensky]

First question.....what scanner(s) are you using?

I live in Kitchener and I'll help you if I can.

Ralph, VE3EUK

 

[Muxlow]

I can get them. And im in london
How did you set it all up in your scanner?

 

[bent6969]

I haven't narrowed down which tower is causing it (or ran unitrukner to see if there are any updates to the frequencies being used), but there is a rogue control channel on 868.275 with no talkgroups communicating on it. Chances are your scanner is getting stuck on that control channel (CID:05) instead of the one is should be.

Temporarily lockout that channel and see if it helps. Worked for me.

 

[motomeso]

I had problems also with my BC245XLT but didn't realize others were also having issues. I will play around a little and get back to the group.

 

[Lexxx]

Many thanks for the responses

I've been runing (and streaming) these scanner feeds for several years without incident (Waterloo Live Scanner Feeds. Police Fire and Air Traffic Control) so I know the scanners are programmed correctly.

Bent6969. Your suggestion of a rogue control freq is very interesting and ties in to what is happening at my end. I can correct the problem by turning off the scanners for 10 seconds and then turning them back on. This would clear the scanner of the 'locked channel'. It is a very intermittant thing. All has been fine for the past day or so now. If this happens again, I'll lockout your suggested frequency and see if that nails it down.

Thanks to all.

 

[bent6969]

Just an update:

Last night I listened to the Waterloo EDACS system for a bit and noted that there are indeed 2 control channels present and broadcasting within the frequency ranges provided to the region for the P/S communications system.

The normal CC resides as one of the channels in RED in the RR database. This "new" CC is LID #13 (according to the DB) and shows up on my scanner with a control channel ID of 5. I monitored it directly last night and still see nothing communicating on it.

Interestingly enough, it appears as though the WRPS is only using LID channels 1-7 (at least on the tower I was receiving signal from in Waterloo). All 3 divisions came in without any missed comms after locking out the remaining channels. KFD uses LID #9 and up from what I gathered from the apartment fire they were dealing with last night.

Lastly, another thing to note/question is has there ever been activity on LID#16? I've never recorded it...

 

[motomeso]

I have had to do the same thing and reset the scanner but I can't seem to find the rogue CC that Bent6969 seems to have seen.

 

[mikewazowski]

Possibly a low power site near Bent6969's location used as fill in or an in-building site? Could be a SCAT system.

Or... with the recent ducting, a control channel from another system?

Having a better location for Bent6969 would help.

 

[bent6969]

To add (my messages are being delayed - new poster to RR and all...) I've been able to confirm this afternoon that this CC running on 868.275 is being transmitted from at least 2 of the regions towers - the one "near" the St. Jacobs roundabout, and another in downtown Kitchener. Confirmed this by matching S-bars between the "real" and "new" CC's on my handheld while travelling in close proximity of those 2 sites. No antenna was required on the handheld while in that close (for those who might be wondering)...

Are they testing new equipment or making modifications to the system? I don't know. All I can say is that "issue" has been occurring for the better part of a week now, and a fix by temporarily locking out the offending CC has worked for me. One of these nights I'll run a tap out to the pc and log some info to find out more.

 

[69stiles]

Same thing happened to me as I was traveling on the 85 nb passing Victoria. I put a hold on the cc, hit lockout, & it jumped to the proper cc then all was good.

 

[Lexxx]

Well it happened again (about 4:00am records show).

Will lockout the alternate control frequency 868.275 as step one, to see if this cures the problem.

 

[Lexxx]

Bent6969

The "lock out" of 868.275 did indeed do the trick. I locked it out on one trunking scanner, and left it functioning on another. At about 6:00pm this evening the scanner with 868.275 froze, but the scanner with this secondary control frequency locked out continued to work perfectly.

Many thanks for your help on this.

Cheers
Peter

 

[motomeso]

Is that channel still being used for voice traffic?

 

[bent6969]

Lexxx:

I'm glad locking out that channel worked for you. If nothing else - at least its a temporary fix for your WRPS feed.
From what I can tell (still haven't run a tap yet) they've made some changes to what talkgroups use what frequencies - with WRPS only using logical channels 1 thru 7. I think they used to use the first 9 (at least of the towers out my way). Considering this (and the fact the rogue CC is on logical channel number 13, you should be safe for a while.


VE3NSV:

As for 868.275... I have yet to hear anything other than either motorboating or silence on that channel since that new CC started being broadcasted from it. There have been times where the CC is not running, but I haven't seen any voice comms filling in the gap...yet.

 

[ATCTech]

I just swung the 800MHz yagi here around to the west and not only can I easily hear 868.275 as EDACS control data, but it's at least 3x stronger on the R7000 meter than the regular channels. I'd have to say it's in a very different location than the normally unreceivable EDACS system from here at my location in Milton.

FYI, ETrunk is showing the data on LCN 'd' (868.275) and voice traffic on LCN 'c' and 'e'. Not having a map for the system I don't know what freqs. it's using..The "voice" traffic is ID 4000, the usual ID signal that pops up every few minutes as a type "F" call (on other EDACS systems as well).

 

[motomeso]

Yup there are definitely two separate control channels tonight. I am hearing the 868.275CC as plain as day here. The signal strength was quite strong but just dropped to nothing and I had to reposition the scanner to pick it up again.

 

[bent6969]

Someday my messages wont be delayed...

For what its worth (verified only from the LCD display of my handheld) it looks like the FIRE & TRANSIT services are using LCN's 8,9,10,11, and 15 (from the DB). This leaves channels 12,13,14, & 16 not active on the system (at least not last night). That new CC is LCN 13 from the DB. No idea on what the remaining region services are using as I didn't hear them when looking at this.

 

[bent6969]

Take note my last response needs its counterpart response (which was posted last night) to make sense. That post is being delayed for some reason...

 

[bluwest]

I now have 868.4750 as a control channel and can hear it plain as day. And comes up SID-05 I am in New Hamburg, just out skirts of Kitchener, but still policed and covered by Region of Waterloo