Marshalltown EDACS Site new LCN 14 Active

Radioman96p71 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-19-2009, 09:06 PM

Confirmed yesterday, July 18th. New LCN in use dedicated to Marshall Co Sheriff and Marshalltown PD like LCN 11 is.

LCN 14 is 859.2625.

Havent seen any others go active yet, but it was first seen used by me on monday this week but I didn't have the freq programmed in etrunker.

KCØGIK

Haley · #2 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 08:47 AM

Radioman, I still have a lot to learn on these systems. Do you mean then that on the Marshalltown site , which I have 11 freq. for, I would skip slots 12 and 13 and put the new freq. in slot 14? I kind of wondered why traffics been so light. Thanks, Mike

Haley · #3 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 08:59 AM

Think I may have answered my question. Put it in that way (in the 346XT), and started getting much more. I wonder if maybe they have been using it off and on? I am seeing local IDs (mostly PD), that I havent gotten either at all, or for a long time. Mike

Haley · #4 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 09:28 AM

One more thought, do you think if LCN 12 and LCN13 become active they might be 857.2625, and 858.2625? It would kind of fit their "pattern". Anyway just a thought. Mike

Radioman96p71 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 12:50 PM

Something that few know about the RACOM system is that they use the same LCN's for all sites with the same number. i.e all locations that are Site 1 use the same LCN sets. And all the LCN sets allow for 20 frequencies. So the Marshalltown site technically has 20 LCNs available to it according to the RACOM 'band plan' but whether or not they have the physical gear in place to use it is unknown (to me at least!) There are actually only 15 sites on the RACOM system, they are just distributed in a way that they will not interfere with each other. I think the reason they did this is the older radios they had back in the day only supported 16 systems max, so a workaround was to only have 15 sites systemwide but max out the LCNs for each system. In other words, System 1 in Town A uses LCNs 1-8 and System 1 in Town B uses LCNs 9-16. Both sites can work at the same time, using the same site number but the radio only uses the appropriate LCNs when it is in range. A creative way to make reprogramming easy to. If you need to reband a site, make LCN 16-20 the new frequencies, then when the time comes just flip on the new LCNs and shut down the old. The radios dont even miss a beat!

I have an official document from inside sources that have all the LCNs available on the RACOM network, I will ask the person I got it from if it is OK to re-distribute it before i go stepping on toes.

Sorry for the long post, I'll post the 'master list' here if I hear back from him today. For starters here is all the LCNs for System 2:

Code:

1  861.5625
2  862.5625
3  863.5625
4  864.5625
5  865.5625
6  861.9625
7  862.9625
8  863.9625
9  864.9625
10 865.9625
11 856.2625
12 857.2625
13 858.2625
14 859.2625
15 860.2625
16 857.2125
17 *blank*
18 858.2125
19 859.2125
20 860.2125

It wouldn't hurt to go ahead and program these into your scanners, if they are never used no harm done. You'll be ready when they ever come active too...

KCØGIK

Radioman96p71 · #6 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haley

Think I may have answered my question. Put it in that way (in the 346XT), and started getting much more. I wonder if maybe they have been using it off and on? I am seeing local IDs (mostly PD), that I havent gotten either at all, or for a long time. Mike

I guess I can't really CONFIRM exactly when this LCN came active, I have my Jaguar 7100 programmed with the master list, so I never noticed a lack of traffic. I was running in FCC Mode the other day testing a new antenna and saw that almost all Sheriff and PD traffic was coming in on 11 and also 14. I had to come home and verify that 14 wasn't active before on etrunker. From the list I have, it seems LCNs 11-15 are reserved for Marshall Co priority, meaning that in the event other users occupy LCNs 1-10, the rest will be reserved for Marshall Co/Marshalltown to use. What that also means is that LCNs 11-15 will be utilized first, then they will spill over to the 'regular' LCNs. My guess is that with the BBQ festival a couple weeks ago and the Fair this week, they need another channel for the increase in law enforcement traffic.

So to sum up, the reason you are seeing a lot of new local IDs is that you havent been getting them for some time. Down here in Bondurant my reception of the Mtown Site is very poor, otherwise i would have caught that sooner

But if anything happens on the Pleasant Hill, Des Moines, Wes Des Moines or Ames sites I'll let ya know in almost real time lol... Wow I need a different hobby

KCØGIK

Haley · #7 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 04:13 PM

Thanks for all the info! That does clear things up. I think I will just put all 20 freq. in and see what I get. You know sometimes I get other systems on the Marshalltown site, is that due to 800MHz skip, or the fact that Marshalltown is the "home office" so to speak.

In all the years I have monitored this site, and looked over the all the RACOM systems , you would think I would have realized their were only 15 sets of freq. used! Learn something new everyday. Thanks Mike

Radioman96p71 · #8 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 05:53 PM

By other sites do you mean you pick up other control channels or you mean you hear Scott Co Sheriff and Dubuque etc on the Mtown site? If the latter, then yes, that's mainly because that is the main office and they get vehicles in there all the time from other areas to be serviced. A lot of it also comes from them testing radios sent to them from the other shops. And lastly, almost all the employees there have personal radios and they are usually tuned to the GID of their home town or whatever they want, which drags the GID to them. Glad I could help, RACOM is a pretty complex beast but with a little probing its not that bad!

KCØGIK

Haley · #9 (**permalink**) 07-20-2009, 08:17 PM

You explained it perfectly again! I had always assumed it was because RACOM was here, but what you said makes total sense. Mike

Haley · #10 (**permalink**) 07-21-2009, 08:42 AM

Sorry, should have said the latter in referring to your last post. Mike

Radioman96p71 · #11 (**permalink**) 07-21-2009, 08:59 AM

I find that where there is a larger shop, like Des Moines, Marshalltown and the Quad Cities, there always seems to be a lot of 'out of area' traffic on the site. Makes it kind of interesting to listen to, get to hear things you normally wouldnt hear. I didn't get much of a chance to monitor the test site at the RACOM building but im sure that would be another good one to listen to. Too bad its such low power it barely goes 6 blocks!

KCØGIK