Hamilton County EDACS question

[fohdeesha]

Hamilton Co. EDACS Control Channel Change

Hey there, had a BCT15 several years ago but recently jumped back in when I saw how cheap and capable the rtl-sdr dongles were. Following and listening to EDACS and P25 etc systems for $30 in great sounding quality ain't bad! Even if you have to be a half wizard to get it working.

Anyway, I know hamilton co is in the middle of moving to Indianapolis public safeties P25 system (as their own Site 3), which I've monitored a bit but there's next to zero traffic on site three so just monitoring the EDACS system for now.

The Radioreference page for this system lists the only EDACS site as Site 1, with control LCN's of 5 and 10. Shown here - Hamilton County Public Safety Trunking System, Noblesville, Indiana - Scanner Frequencies

However there's no such system to be found. The control channel is now actually LCN 8, and when you listen to that channel with a trunk information program it shows the EDACS data is clearly identifying itself as Site 2. No site 1 to be found, and no other control frequencies around. It's obviously the Hamilton Co edacs system and I'm monitoring it great, however it seems they have changed the site number delegation in the EDACS system from Site 1 to Site 2, and the control channel is now LCN 8 at 853.075mhz. I've been monitoring it for a couple weeks now, and it's been LCN 8 as control this whole time, hasn't changed.

So I guess my question is, should the radioreference DB page be updated to reflect this? This drove me crazy for a couple days when I received my SDR dongles, I tuned to both specified control frequencies listed on the DB page and got nothing but occasional voice, so I gave up thinking they were in between edacs and p25 and there was no longer a working edacs control channel. However a couple days later browsing through the spectrum I saw plain as day an EDACS control channel in the waterfall view and tuned to it and voila, Unitrunker pops up the hamilton county system, although it's identifying itself as site 2, not site 1 now. Also worth noting LCN's 1, 3, 6, 7, and 11 don't seem to be used now. At least I haven't gotten any hits on them in two weeks while tracking the system. Perhaps those frequencies are now being used for the P25 Site 3 Hamilton Co testing? (edit: after monitoring the P25 Site 3 trunk (hamilton co) these 5 frequencies are definitely being used as P25 LCN's for testing well as a sixth new frequency, 859.81250, so that would explain why they're no longer being used as LCN's on the EDACS system. Perhaps these LCN's should be removed from the edacs db page as well?)

I guess I'm just wondering if someone should update the DB page to reflect the new control channel and site number to help other poor confused souls out Even if it will only help for the last month or so before the edacs system is gone

You can see in a screenshot here the system clearly working on LCN 8 as control - http://i.imgur.com/IHsiv66.png

Thanks in advance for any help, this forum has been a savior. For anyone on the edge about purchasing these cheap SDR dongles, I highly recommend it as I'm tracking and decoding P25 voice (indy public safety) with a nice Unitrunker GUI for the price of a pizza

 

[SCPD]

Ok on the EDACS Site 2 has been in operation for some time now so the DB for that can be updated however on the CC there is really no need to update them since they change so often during the P25 transition also the LCN should be left alone for now that is the correct LCN order if you remove that out most scanners wont trunk the EDACS right even though they are using 5 of the EDACS frequencies they are not truly out of the line up for the EDACS kind of like a lock out or a skip feature to my understanding so if for some reason they needed them they could still use them. On the difference of 10 channels and the 5 Carmel owns there own system and 5 of those channels and Hamilton County own there own system and those 10 channels several years ago they merged the two systems but can separate them at any time for maintenance or other issues known as Bypass Mode and Site 1 and Site 2. On the P25 859.8125 and 857.8125 is not in use yet it is still in use on the EDACS there are 5 channels in operation on the P25 and those are

851.7625
852.1875
852.7750
856.8125 CC
858.8125 CC
Look for more changes on the EDACS from time to time that is why I would not do much updating to the DB for the EDACS since it changes a lot right now and every couple of days or weeks it would need to be changed in the DB maybe a side note should be added to what is going on in the DB for he EDACS to help others out,

See this thread that might give you some more info
http://forums.radioreference.com/in...m/297593-hamilton-county-new-p-25-system.html

 

[fohdeesha]

Thanks for the info. So I guess it is labelled as Site 2 because during bypass mode when noblesville and hamilton co split, one of them becomes Site 1? That makes sense, however the DB page makes it seem like Site 1 is the main site that should come up when the system is in normal operation as it's the only one that is listed, however it doesn't seem to actually exist currently unless the system goes into bypass mode

I agree, if it was changing a bunch it wouldn't make sense to update the control channel, however I've been monitoring it for more than two weeks now (I leave Unitrunker running 24/7) and LCN 8 has been the control channel the entire time, it has never changed even for a second. I would think it could help anyone potentially trying to track the system during the transition to know that one of the currently listed voice LCN's is being used as control and the two listed control LCN's are no longer being used for control. I note that you can submit suggested changes to the DB page wikipedia-style and I'm guessing an admin reviews them. Would it be appropriate for me to submit these control channel changes? I leave Unitrunker up in the background all the time so if the control channel does change again I would know as soon as it did, and I would have no problem making another submission to the DB so the page remains accurate

Oh, do you have any guess as to when hamilton county will be totally switched off of EDACS? I remember hearing january, but I thought I'd hear more traffic on the P25 system this late in december if they were gunna be fully on it by next month, right now I only hear one or two test calls every couple of hours

 

[SCPD]

Sure please summit any info you may have to the DB admin every little bit helps.
I did check CC should be the same for a while unless a issues arises on one of the tower sites or as more channels are moved to the P25. As far as radio traffic on P25 there is a lot during the day a few hours worth of signal testing yesterday at Carmel schools and offices and parking garages. Some testing in the evenings as well Not sure on time frame yet they are still pushing for as soon as possible to get on the P25

 

[fohdeesha]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[SCPD]

Ok after doing some checking and confirming scanner users can leave there EDACS the same or change to reflect the new channel and LCN settings and the RR DB can be updated to show the change however keep in mind there may be changes such as the 859.8125 being removed in the near future. Or in bypass mode

857.8125 LCN 2

859.8125 LCN 4 This will be removed in the near future

857.5125 LCN 5

853.0750 LCN 8 CC SITE 2

853.550 LCN 9 ALT CC

853.8000 LCN 10 May be used as CC in Bypass Mode

852.3500 LCN 12

852.8000 LCN 13

853.3250 LCN 14

853.6625 LCN 15

Please see the Hamilton County P25 thread for more updates I will be posting there