SLEMCO LTR IN LOUISIANA

[kylev]

Has anyone had any luck figuring out the LTR system for SLEMCO in Lafayette,LA I have been trying with my 296D uniden and no luck. I read all the post here on how to figure them out and even got the freqs off of the fcc website but no luck. Can anyone help. If you have any info on this system please let me know.

 

[INDY72]

Trunking LTR with a Uniden requires putting the Freqs into proper LCN order, like with an EDACS TRS. The info should be listed in the db for the LCN's that are known. The system is active, and if I remember right, there are TG ID's listed as well.

 

[kylev]

I understand that part but the database is incomplete for SLEMCO and I want to finish it. Given the freqs listed on the database they do not in any way match the order on the FCC website.

 

[INDY72]

Umm the FCC does not list LCN order.. only the freqs in use on various towers/mobile. You will need to determine the proper LCN's of all the repeater freqs by careful monitoring..... If the system is NOT real busy then you can do this a lot easier than with a busy system. It can be done in one of 3 ways.... 1: Use 2 scanners with one trunk tracking,.. and the other conventional scanning only this system.... follow the freqs as the comms go through the repeaters... 2: Don't set any aplpha tags on the bank/chans and that way as the repeaters cycle with the comms you will see what freq is being used at each tx. 3: Set up a data slicer and run LTRtrunk/LTRdump.

 

[loumaag]

I understand that part but the database is incomplete for SLEMCO and I want to finish it. Given the freqs listed on the database they do not in any way match the order on the FCC website.

...and...

Umm the FCC does not list LCN order.. only the freqs in use on various towers/mobile.

milf is correct, the FCC lists frequencies in accending frequency order, which has nothing to do with LCN.

Additionally, LTR systems are notoriously mis-represented in the FCC data (although maybe not in this specific case.) A lot of times you will find muliple licenses used in a LTR system. Lots of times, licenses may be issued to more than one entity, they may also have started out as IG licenses issued to several businesses that ended up pooling the frequencies into a system and didn't bother changing the licenses. Basically when dealing with LTR systems, don't count on the FCC data too much. :?

 

[kylev]

Ok I get the idea now. What I dont understand is I cant hear anything anymore on the freqs that I programmed in my new scanner. When I had the old PRO-95 I heard traffic all day long. Now that I have a new Uniden I cant hear any traffic. I have the same antenna at home and in the mobile. I am in lafayette and not to far from carencro so I should be able to hear something. I tried programming the LTR like the database says with channel 1 5 and 17 and it will not even go into search mode. When it is scanner the LTR freqs and I press search it goes into the programmable search that has nothing to do with the bank I am working with LTR on.
So what I have done is backtracked and programmed the freqs in conventional mode and still I hear nothing. It is like they just quit using the system all together. I am really going to pursue this because I want to monitor SLEMCO. I have inputed all of the freqs on the FCC website even the ones that are not listed on this database. I have inputted them all in convetional mode and will wait to see if I hear anything.
Once I can hear some traffic I will try to put them back in LTR mode to see if I can make the scanner go into search on the LTR system. Can anyone give me anymore pointers. I bought this scanner because it had LTR but it looks like it simply will not work.
Thanks again.

 

[INDY72]

Thus the advantage of GRE scanners on LTR.... With the exception of the upcomming PRO-2051, and 97,.... You only need to make sure that the chans are set to LTR mode..... and can list the freqs in any order as long as you list them all. If you can get ahold of a PRO-92, or 2067, use those to listen and using the trick that I found and listed on another post, monitor and find the LCN's.... then you should not only be able to get additional TG ID's, but also the complete LCN's for the Cell your trying to hear. As for the Uniden.. I am not extremely familiar with how they should completely be set up for LTR.. is there a place to set the chans to LTR? (If yes, be sure you did that) Is there a place to set the bank to LTR? (Possibly that will help if so)

Be sure to check out all the threads in the LTR Discussion as there are several good tips on tracking these effectively and accurately... And a few good tips on getting proper LCN's!

The only other suggestion I have is see on the FCC pages if they have OFFLINED this system for any reason, and look for any conventional freqs for SLEMCO that might be in use in this scenario.

 

[loumaag]

Hmm, well might I suggest that you fire up the "old Pro-95" and see if you still pick them up. Now if you have (horrors!) gotten rid of the Pro-95 let me suggest a field trip up north closer to the Carencro area and see if you can hear anything, perhaps a long lunch during the week would be the ticket.

As a second thought, (I can find no evidence of this) could SELMCO moved their communications to the Entergy TRS?

 

[kylev]

Update

I was in lafayette today and programmed the scanner for SLEMCO the way the confirmed LCNs are on the rr database. I turned on trunking for the bank and turnking for each channel that is for the slemco system. When I scan the back it never stops on the channels even though there is traffic. When I manually stop the scanner from scanning and put it on one of the 3 freq for slemco and traffic comes over the scanner I get the talk group id for slemco that is listed in the database on this website. (First time ever seeing an LTR talkgroup) But it never stops scanning on the freq if it becomes active. Could this be because I dont have the entire system programmed? It is really puzzling me. No that I have SLEMCO traffic on the channel I cant get the dorn scanner to stop on those freqs. I know there is traffic at the time I am scanning because I hear it on another scanner. If I turn trunking off and make those 3 freqs conventional then it will stop on those freqs when traffic is there but never show the talkgroups of course because LTR trunking is off.
Please advise.

 

[loumaag]

...When I manually stop the scanner from scanning and put it on one of the 3 freq for slemco and traffic comes over the scanner I get the talk group id for slemco that is listed in the database on this website. (First time ever seeing an LTR talkgroup) But it never stops scanning on the freq if it becomes active. Could this be because I dont have the entire system programmed?

It's not because you don't have the whole system programmed, but it does sound like what you have programmed isn't progrmmed correctly. You obviously have the bank in the proper mode because you see the correct LTR TG information. That leads me to believe that it is the frequencies that are not correct. I don't think you said what bank you have them in, so I will just use bank 1 as an example. Check to make sure you have 855.1125 in slot 101, 855.1375 in slot 105, and 860.3875 in slot 117. Check to make sure each of those three are set as LTR trunking.

 

[kylev]

I have them in bank 10 which is 901-1000

855.1125 is in 901
855.1375 905
917 etc

So what you are saying is until I have the entire system programmed I will not be able to scan it.

 

[cg]

after you have them programmed in as LTR trunked channels and the bank is set as LTR trunking, hit SCAN. You have to be sure to have TRUNK on as well. Then hit SEARCH, this will set up a search on a trunked system with no talkgroups entered.
Keep in mind that if you don't have a good signal, you may not get the scanner to stop on the channel and decode the talkgroup info (thereby opening up the squelch and hearing the traffic)

chris

 

[loumaag]

So what you are saying is until I have the entire system programmed I will not be able to scan it.

No, I am not saying that. With an LTR system all you need is one frequency in the right LCN for you to decode on that frequency. Of course the more you have of the system, the more you pick up.

Make sure you follow cg's advice in the previous post.

 

[INDY72]

Correct, the more correct LCN's the better.. you get more traffic,.. and also have better chances of getting the home repeaters down. Good luck, and have fun!

 

[Landman]

I heard SLEMCO yesterday with no problem in LTR mode with my 296. Kyle try this: when you are scanning that bank with your 296 hold down the trunk button for a few seconds until the display says "ready to ID search." If you have not programmed any talkgroups and you are in ID scan mode instead of ID search mode you wont hear anything. That may be your problem. Just do what I said above and that may solve your problem.

 

[kylev]

Thanks landman, I think the other guys didnt see my earlier post. What you have to understand is I went to carencro and had perfect signal and the same thing happened. I cannot get into ID search mode in the first place because if you hit seach while it is scanning only bank 10 (SLEMCO LTR) it goes into the limit search. Now that landman is telling me I have to hold trunk down to get it into ID search mode that might work. I have been trying since the beginnging to get it into ID search mode but it has never gone into that mode. Only gone into limit search mode. Thanks and I will try. If this works can anyone tell me how I would go about finding out the other freqs of the system?

 

[kylev]

Thanks thanks thanks. That is all it took was the one button that I pressed. They sure dont explain that in the manual on how to get into search mode. You have to hold trunk down until it says "ready to id search". I kept pressing search and it would limit search everytime.

Now I am able to listen to SLEMCO but I thought there would be alot more traffic than is on there. I have heard most of the traffic on 855.1375 channel slot #5.
I did like another post said and programmed 1 of the freqs listed in every slot 1-20 in the bank and searched and once there is traffic on the channel you look at what channel it stopped on and that is the posistion on the LTR.

That I guess will work but there has to be traffic on the channel first before you can track it.

Ill keep it up and hopefully post more updated info once I get it.

Thanks again.

 

[kylev]

Do they make any LTR tracking software so I dont have to watch the scanner for it to stop on a particular freq. The software that comes with the uniden scanner I have only will log talk groups not the actual channel it stops on.

 

[INDY72]

YES,... but you will need a second scanner to open up and then wire it as a data slicer,.... then run it on your PC on two apps called LTRDump, and LTRTrunk. To make a slicer youll need to look at the proper wiring diagrams, and be sure you have STEADY hands, lots of patience,.. and some skill with a soldering iron.

 

[n5tbu]

Hello does anyone have updates on this system?
Specifically Washington area LCN's and ID's?
I want to program a Kenwood TK-940 LTR radio to monitor my area.
Thanks,
Mark