Battle Mountain

[tahoekid77]

I have noticed I have a new "gap" on travels between UT and CA via I-80. I listen in on NHP talkgroups, and I get zero radio traffic off Golconda, all 3 Battle Mountain sites, and Carlin.

Between Winnemucca and Elko Central is a black hole. (Geographically Golconda summit and Carlin summit).

I received no hits on the following sites yesterday (30 minutes on all NHP talkgroups)

Peeve
Secret Pass
Battle Mountain (all 3 sites)
Carlin
Golconda

I don't see any other sites that would fill this gap on the RR maps.... any ideas?

btw, what DOES work well, Elko Central, Oasis which bridges the entire run to the UT border.

It is also possible that NHP is using some other talkgroup in that area... ?

 

[tahoekid77]

FYI - my working map so far from border to border:

Reno Simulcast->Patrick->Eagle Ridge->Toulon->Winnemucca-> GAP ->Elko Central->Oasis

 

[tahoekid77]

I'm using the following talkgroups:

719
721-727
1282-1285
755, 760, 761

 

[Jellicoe1]

I have lived in Battle Mountain for 6 years and have yet to hear NHP anywhere in the county once they took down the VHF link. The frequencies listed do no work or are no receivable on my radio

 

[tahoekid77]

I have lived in Battle Mountain for 6 years and have yet to hear NHP anywhere in the county once they took down the VHF link. The frequencies listed do no work or are no receivable on my radio

Just to clarify - you are not able to get the NSRS 800mhz trunked channels?

 

[Jellicoe1]

Once in a great time, never hear the control freq.

 

[KF7RAY]

I haven't been all the way to Battle Mountain in awhile, but I do remember getting a couple of control channels but not hearing much when I was in the area late last year.

 

[tahoekid77]

I can see the radio is getting a signal off some of the sites, just no NHP traffic. I'll set up my radio into search mode next time I run through there (July 3rd), see if anything pops up.

 

[tahoekid77]

I tried an ID search in the Battle Mountain area yesterday. The only traffic I got was some road crew. I never received any dispatch calls out of Elko. I will try again Sunday. Not looking good.

 

[Jellicoe1]

I can see two of the Trunked Tower sites from my home. Have a outside antenna at 20 feet and am using a ham TM-D710A which has 900 mhz capability. No trunking functions. Only time I have heard NHP is mobiles when monitoring the vehicle frequencies and they are in or near town. Never hear the dispatchers. I do sometimes hear the NDOT and our local hospital that ID's around 0000-0100 Hrs.

 

[tahoekid77]

Ok, so I was in Battle Mountain again yesterday (7/8/2012) and parked awhile doing a ID search on all sites for B.M. My search was specifically for NHP talkgroups.

I did get hits off Carlin (West) for NHP talkgroup 722 "Elko 2" from within the city limits going east. West of B.M. to Golconda was sketchy, the Carlin Site does not quite reliably reach that far west, but now my "black hole" has become much narrower.

Carlin (West) Site Details (Nevada Shared Radio System)

.....Jellicoe1 -- What channels are you hearing when they use "mobiles"? Are you just getting a hit on one of the 800mhz transmissions?

Anyway, I was able to clearly receive NHP radio traffic and dispatch via Carlin (I even saw one during a traffic stop, heard him come up on the radio).

It looks like Golconda and the 3 Battle Mountain sites listed do not carry NHP radio traffic. Not sure why they would set up most of the state so well and leave that part missing.

 

[SCPD]

I don't believe an EDACS system works like a Motorola Smartzone system. Smartzone systems on activates repeaters if a radio is on within the area covered by a particular repeater. When I'm in northern Mono County the Conway Summit repeater on the Southern California Edison (SCE) Smartzone system does not activate until a mobile unit enters the Conway repeater coverage area. During storms when I want to hear what is going on in the Inyo-Mono region I can't unless a trouble call causes a mobile radio to enter the area.

I believe that all the repeaters activate on EDACS systems, so the lack of a unit in a repeater area should not affect reception of it.

 

[tahoekid77]

I don't believe an EDACS system works like a Motorola Smartzone system. Smartzone systems on activates repeaters if a radio is on within the area covered by a particular repeater. When I'm in northern Mono County the Conway Summit repeater on the Southern California Edison (SCE) Smartzone system does not activate until a mobile unit enters the Conway repeater coverage area. During storms when I want to hear what is going on in the Inyo-Mono region I can't unless a trouble call causes a mobile radio to enter the area.

I believe that all the repeaters activate on EDACS systems, so the lack of a unit in a repeater area should not affect reception of it.

Good info, thanks.

The trunking system in Utah works as you describe. If a mobile unit from southern Utah comes up north and uses his designated talkgroup, for a period of time (not sure how long), I can hear radio traffic from far south in the state being broadcast on local northern repeaters.

For Nevada, I normally hear NHP dispatch and mobile units anywhere within the dispatch area (which in northern Nevada is huge). From a single repeater I was able to hear mobile units on Interstate 80, from mile marker 215 to MM 400 near the Utah border.

 

[Jellicoe1]

I have removed all of the trunking frequencies from my scanner. From my listing I was hearing mobiles of one of the following frequencies.
811.9375
812.9375
813.9375
810.9625
814.4625
815.9875

As a side note. I do hear NHP mobiles come up on Lander County Sheriff frequencies once in a while and ask them to relay by phone traffic to NHP dispatch, apparently not being able to contact their own dispatch on 800.

 

[tahoekid77]

I have removed all of the trunking frequencies from my scanner. From my listing I was hearing mobiles of one of the following frequencies.
811.9375
812.9375
813.9375
810.9625
814.4625
815.9875

As a side note. I do hear NHP mobiles come up on Lander County Sheriff frequencies once in a while and ask them to relay by phone traffic to NHP dispatch, apparently not being able to contact their own dispatch on 800.

Interesting... thanks. The site list for the entire state of Nevada shows the frequencies in the 85x.xxx range. I don't see anything with 81x... Not sure what that maps to.

But the fact that NHP is using a surrogate in Lander County tells me a lot. I'm guessing west of BM, as in this video I recorded Sunday...

Escort Redline vs Nevada Highway Patrol I/O Radar - YouTube

 

[Jellicoe1]

Interesting... thanks. The site list for the entire state of Nevada shows the frequencies in the 85x.xxx range. I don't see anything with 81x... Not sure what that maps to.

But the fact that NHP is using a surrogate in Lander County tells me a lot. I'm guessing west of BM, as in this video I recorded Sunday...

Escort Redline vs Nevada Highway Patrol I/O Radar - YouTube

If following normal UHF conventions the lower frequencies would be the mobiles, But I have no idea if this is true of anything in the 800 range. I don't even remember where I found those frequencies. I would think the FCC database but not sure.

Of all the sites for Lander County, Argenta Rim and Golconda should be the best up north. I have been told that the Lander Sheriff vehicles do not have NHP frequencies programmed into their scanners nor is dispatch aware of NHP dispatches unless called in by NHP dispatchers by phone. If NHP needs backup they request it on the Lander County frequency.

 

[tahoekid77]

I have lived in Battle Mountain for 6 years and have yet to hear NHP anywhere in the county once they took down the VHF link. The frequencies listed do no work or are no receivable on my radio

Revisiting this again.

In the last 4 weeks, I've crossed I-80 through Elko County 4 times, and I can CLEARLY hear NHP using NSRS in Battle Mountain. I was able to clearly pick up a trooper making traffic stops at MM 226 on TG 722 (Elko 2).

However, I was receiving this radio traffic off other sites before I arrived into the Battle Mountain / Pumpernickel Valley areas. I picked up this chatter from Toulon and Winnemucca Sites. Once I crossed over Golconda Summit, nada. None of the Battle Mountain, nor Golconda sites as entered here on the RR database result in a hit. Once I cross over Carlin Summit, I am able to hear the ELKO 2 TG again (the one NHP uses for Battle Mountain on NSRS) from Elko Mountain.

So if anyone local can figure out what site they are pinging off.... would be great.

 

[com501]

Golconda Site ID 15

856.2625
857.2625
858.2625
851.4375
852.0500

Fencemaker Site ID 16

854.7875
855.5625
859.7875

Winnemucca Site ID 12

851.4750
851.8500
852.4750
853.1625

Hickison Site ID 22

855.2375
856.2375
857.2375
858.2375

New Pass Site ID 22

856.4625
857.4625
858.4625
859.2625

Argenta Site ID 10

856.9375
857.9375
858.9375
854.9625
853.6125

Enjoy!

 

[tahoekid77]

Thanks. I will plug all of these in and find out which one (hopefully at least 1) chimes in with NHP Elko 2 talkgroup. I will reply back again for anyone else interested in this info. (Will be a few weeks - heading to Las Vegas / Los Angeles on my next venture).

 

[com501]

The information is what is programmed into a working radio. NOT a scanner.