How Are You Scanning Montana Interoperability Sites?

[Helitac]

I have several questions pertaining to the new P25 system.

I monitor from my home in Missoula and my cabin in Hungry Horse with either a BC785D or the new BCD996XT. In addition, I do a lot of travel/monitoring across the state of Montana. I am hoping to eventually be able to load the MT system and listen to it as I travel across the state without having to memorize a multitude of Site QuickKeys needed to turn on/off certain sites.

Missoula has both a North and South repeater in the MT system; neither have a control channel listed.
Kalispell and Blacktail sites have a control channel.

QUESTIONS:

1. Should I enter each site with a control channel individually vesus entering "MT System" and all control channels in a single bank/group and set bank for "Trunking"?

Example A:
Channel 1 - Kalispell Control Channel
Channel 2 - Blacktail Control Channel
Channel 3 - Hogback Control Channel 1
Channel 4 - Hogback Control Channel 2

Example B:
Bank 1 = MT Interoperability = All Control Channels

2. Should I enter all frequencies in sites which do not have the control channel?

Example: Missoula (North) 155.49000 155.71500 155.83500 155.86500

3. Or, should I load all frequencies and remove duplicates since most agencies using the system seem to be using the system as a conventional repeater.

Example: Butte 154.98000 155.68500 155.91000 xxx.xxxxx 156.27500 156.55000
Butte (South) 154.43000 xxx.xxxxx 155.92500 161.60000 161.79000 161.82500
Butte (Southwest) 155.68500 xxx.xxxxx 156.35000 xxx.xxxxx 156.60000 161.85000

4. Depending upon your response, how would you suggest I download and format this from RR using Butel ARCXT.

5. How do I determine which site frequency is conventional in the system, since the MT system has built in safeguards if the P25 system goes down?

I don't even know if these are the right questions, but I was always taught there are no "dumb" questions.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jim Kelly (Helitac)

[akuter]

I have several digital receivers ready for several years(6), A Pro-96 and now a 396T, just nothing in the SW area online yet. I did have several hits on Hogback 1 at my weekend in Helena in July. I mostly downloaded from Freescan. I have heard of other ideas of having each county as a quick key, but thats's alot of counties. I have my BCT15 set to East(3), West(2), South(1), and Central co's for conventional (Q)keys.
I hope other's can help us

[blantonl]

When I'm at my home in Whitefish during the summer and winter, I just monitor the Blacktail and Kalispell sites together as separate systems. my place is up on Big Mountain so I can get really good reception all the way down to almost Missoula.

In your case, I guess it depends on whether you want to monitor to discover new things, or monitor what is happening around you since you travel a lot.

[Helitac]

I came to the same conclusion as "akuter" as far as dividing the state into four regions. Passing through Butte I found they seem to be using the system as a conventional repeater.

[Helitac]

Originally Posted by blantonl

When I'm at my home in Whitefish during the summer and winter, I just monitor the Blacktail and Kalispell sites together as separate systems. my place is up on Big Mountain so I can get really good reception all the way down to almost Missoula.

In your case, I guess it depends on whether you want to monitor to discover new things, or monitor what is happening around you since you travel a lot.

Linday - I am usually on the road two weeks out of every month and divide the rest of my time listening from either Missoula or Hungry Horse. When on the road, I am interested on knowing what is going on around me. At home, I enjoy listening to what's happening in the community or searching for new signals. Having been involved in emergency services for most of my life, it's just a way to stay in touch.

From your perch on the mountain, I can understand your blessing of clear reception. I, on the otherhand, find myself on the Flathead River as it prepares to flow through Bad Rock Canyon. Both sites are blocked by Teakettle mountain. This should clear up as additional sites come on line.

I assume you are using the control channel for Blacktail and a single frequency for Kalispell. Question, are you hearing MHP on the Blacktail site? If so, are they using it as a conventional repeater or a trunking site?

I am beginning to think the Montana System is simply developing as a Motorola System that uses APCO 25 standards. Am I wrong?

[Jay911]

How heavily used is this system at this point in time? How far can you hear a tower, generally speaking?

It's not unusual for me to road-trip to within a couple dozen miles of the US border on the north side, near Sweetgrass-ish (Coutts, AB) area. Anything for me to pick up in that area?

A lot of the frequencies I found on FCC searches as well as looking at the sites in the RRDB are already in use on this side of the border by either federal/provincial police or provincial parks/forestry personnel. Examples: Pretty much everything in the 155.x range is used in analog conventional police repeaters here, and 154.415 (seen on one of the sites, I forget which) is part of a province-wide parks/forestry comms network. Ever see any interference cross-border?

[blantonl]

The MSP in Northwest Montana is still on conventional VHF (154.785). I suspect that when the Big Mountain site comes online, coverage in those areas you mentioned will fill in much nicer.

Jay, I've never heard any comms come in from the north, even up at the top of Big Mountain. I suspect the terrain of the area blocks things quite nicely.

[SM166]

Has the system been turn on in the Bozeman/West Yellowstone - Gallatin Co area yet? as listed in the DB

[akuter]

Nothing yet. The new 911 center/Fire station has a tower up but no hardware is on it.
The Manhattan site has data churps on 154.785, but no voice yet. Maybe next year they'll be on.

[cjrjr507]

Hi All

Found an APCO-P25 Control Channel (Montana PSSB/WQDZ731) on 154.7100 out of eureka on pinkham repeater. comes in 3 signal bars on my scanner, have an BCT15, I know the scanner is not digital but at least I found a signal if I do get a new digital scanner. Have all the pssb freq's in my scanner for lincoln county area and am getting another signal out of troy, king repeater on 154.7400, PSSB/WQDW896 but all I'm hearing so far is the repeater cw callsign. I live in Libby, Mt. Can't wait until I can afford a new scanner!
Using FreeSCAN software for programming the scanner, makes it easy to program. Have over 897 channels in my scanner covering local, milair, state and federal, business and lots of other sites. Oh, also picking up a signal on PSSB/WQDW898 out of the yaak area on 155.7000 but the signal is very weak. It could be coming from the sheriff's office as they are on 155.595 and it could be bleedover, no voice just static.

P.S. If I pick up anything else on APCO-25 will let you know.

[cjrjr507]

Picking up APCO P25 on 154.6500. 154.7100 is down for now on pinkham repeater. I live in Libby. That freq is listed as bozeman but I know it's not coming this far, ha ha. Wonder where it's coming from, 3 bars on BCT15. pinkham or big mountain ?