Problems picking up Piscataway TRS? - Page 3

elk2370bruce · #41 (**permalink**) 11-27-2012, 2:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnls7424

Im surprised their is not an underground market for police radios that are already programmed with encryption numbers. Someone could be making a killing selling those.

The only radios that will mysteriously appear that have encryption keys still in place would be stolen from the department. Radio tech's will remove critical program elements before disposing of them or selling them. Under these conditions, would you want to be in possession of stolen PD property?

johnls7424 · #42 (**permalink**) 11-28-2012, 3:53 PM

Nah not me.. I could really careless.

GM · #43 (**permalink**) 11-28-2012, 5:21 PM

I've noticed as of last night (but it could have been earlier) that a new talkgroup has been very active day and night: 11002 in E mode. Could Piscataway Police have changed to a new police dispatch TG? (I know it's a bit of a moot point since it's ENC, but that's the fun of it - trying to ID everything...) I know they were using 1002 Police Dispatch, but possibly a switch to this one, or even better yet, maybe another agency nearby is trying out the system to join in?? (Just food for thought) I guess if anyone is running trunker on this TRS, could verify with the radio ID #'s.

KC2ZHY · #44 (**permalink**) 11-28-2012, 8:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GM

I've noticed as of last night (but it could have been earlier) that a new talkgroup has been very active day and night: 11002 in E mode. Could Piscataway Police have changed to a new police dispatch TG? (I know it's a bit of a moot point since it's ENC, but that's the fun of it - trying to ID everything...) I know they were using 1002 Police Dispatch, but possibly a switch to this one, or even better yet, maybe another agency nearby is trying out the system to join in?? (Just food for thought) I guess if anyone is running trunker on this TRS, could verify with the radio ID #'s.

Perhaps this may be Dunellen PD's allocated talkgroup, should they be switching over; perhaps simulcast??

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

GM · #45 (**permalink**) 11-29-2012, 10:43 AM

A few new talkgroups have appeared today: 11002 and 11010 in ENC mode. Looks like it's time for a field trip to hunt down who the user could be (perhaps it is Dunellen??).

andrew1mbrs · #46 (**permalink**) 11-29-2012, 3:33 PM

So Dunellen is on Piscataways p25 system with full encryption. This is confirmed by a reliable source.

SnakeEater9920 · #47 (**permalink**) 11-29-2012, 4:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew1mbrs

So Dunellen is on Piscataways p25 system with full encryption. This is confirmed by a reliable source.

Wonderful...

-.-

Will they be using it full time now? Or kinda like a mutual aid purpose thing?

johnls7424 · #48 (**permalink**) 11-29-2012, 4:32 PM

Im listening to Dunellen PD in clear on their usual UHF/VHF channel

SnakeEater9920 · #49 (**permalink**) 11-29-2012, 4:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnls7424

Im listening to Dunellen PD in clear on their usual UHF/VHF channel

Yeah, I'm glad I can still hear it; as I am a resident of the borough. I hope they don't totally switch over to it full time. It would really suck to be out of the loop when It comes to things in town.

johnls7424 · #50 (**permalink**) 11-29-2012, 4:46 PM

Most municipalites right now are sketchy about joining the Middlesex County's EDACS talkgroup due to coverage issus. Their really is not nothing wrong with having convential police channels. Only downfall is interopp ability for emergency services. However, everything still goes through dispatch no matter what system you opperate on.

GM · #51 (**permalink**) 11-29-2012, 8:34 PM

Since this system is 100% ENC, I know identifying the TG's will be a bit tough; but here is the list I have complied so far with "best guesstimates" as to the user on each TG: (based on the analog TRS that was in use)

910 Unknown (Maybe Piscataway Events or Traffic TG [used during Rutgers Game])
1002 Piscataway PD Ch 1
1003 Piscataway PD Ch 2
2002 Piscataway Fire Dispatch
2003 Piscataway FD Dist. 1
2004 Piscataway FD Dist. 2
2005 Piscataway FD Dist. 3
3002 Piscataway EMS Dispatch
5002 Piscataway DPW Main
5005 Piscataway Transportation Dept.
11002 Dunellen PD Main??
11010 Dunellen DPW??

Has anyone else logged or noticed any other talkgroup numbers in use so far? If so, please contribute info for discussion. I have not submitted this to the database, as I want to confirm before having it placed in the database.

Not to hijack the thread here, but as a personal note, I find it sick that the DPW is encrypted. Looks like I won't know which roads are plowed now in the Winter time beforehand. End of rant...

johnls7424 · #52 (**permalink**) 11-30-2012, 2:27 PM

someone should take it to court, seriously. Encryption is for the purpose of hiding sensitive material. Its very highly doubtful that the DPW has sensitive material. The FCC has cracked down on two-way radios operating on the FRS frequencies under a type of scramble encryption that certain radios have had. Besides the point, if the courts cannot do anything for you(s) maybe have legislation amended with the FCC making encryption to so actually serve its purpose of hiding senstive material and not for the general radio bands.

johnls7424 · #53 (**permalink**) 11-30-2012, 11:38 PM

Even if everyone just donated like 10 bucks on this site it would be enough to hire an attorney to fight to change legislation.

robbinsj2 · #54 (**permalink**) 12-06-2012, 5:22 PM

I was able to run Unitrunker on the system for a couple hours this afternoon, until my laptop battery gave out. Here are notes:

For the Pro-96/2096, use a base of 470.0125, offset of 24576, and step of 12.5. It still won't decrypt the communications but the Pro-96/2096 does not skip over encrypted communications like most other scanners do, so it can be used to find new talkgroups. If you scanner has a P25 Auto setting, you should use it instead of inputting the table(s) manually.

All comms I received were encrypted.

There were affiliations on 1003 by PPD units, this looks like a police alternate channel. Aside from PPD radios, I never logged a radio ID which affiliated with or transmitted on more than one talkgroup. There was an EMS call while I monitored but 783 was on high-band only and there was no multicast on a talkgroup. There was no fire call in Piscataway while I monitored.

There was a fire call in Dunellen. 153.980 was silent the whole time but there was corresponding activity on 11002, so this is Dunellen police dispatch. One radio ID on that talkgroup was clearly a dispatcher, and that ID was numerically with the PPD dispatcher radio IDs.

Is Piscataway now dispatching Dunellen? Or is the Dunellen dispatcher working in the Piscataway dispatch center? (Is this not new, just new to me?) I was near the PPD headquarters and logged a close call hit on Dunellen's fire repeater input when the page was going out and every other time that the dispatcher transmitted. The spoken identification varied between "Dunellen Police" and "headquarters" but when I've seen departments using other trunked systems (South River, Montgomery prior, North Plainfield) the dispatcher radio ID is not among the "native" console IDs. Not sure if it's a hard-fast rule or just a pattern which doesn't follow here.

Other logged talkgroups:
910 (affiliations only)
911 (affiliations only)
2002 (affiliations only)
2003 (affiliations only)
2004 (affiliations only)
2006 (affiliations only)
5002 encrypted communications, this was second busiest
5004 (affiliations only)
5005 one encrypted transmission
11005 (affiliations only)
11008 few encrypted transmissions
11010 (affiliations only)

I would guess that all the 11### talkgroups are Dunellen, but they may be for departments or services other than police.

I submitted the identified/ confirmed information to the database. I hope to get back for more Unitrunker monitoring, ideally during fire and volunteer EMS calls and somewhere that I can plug in my laptop. I'll submit and/or share here anything more which I learn.

Jim

johnls7424 · #55 (**permalink**) 12-06-2012, 6:34 PM

Jim. I was scanning Dunellens old frequency about a week ago and they were still using the conventional bandwidth VHF/UHF freqencies. Haven't heard anything since then, but then again I haven't turned my scanner on in a couple of days.

Anywho, is Dunellen from what your saying encrypted transmission's as well?

TAMR213 · #56 (**permalink**) 12-06-2012, 6:43 PM

Thanks for the interesting info Jim, sad to see another town "bite the dust". Come to think of it, haven't had the scanner on too much recently, but I haven't heard a peep out of Dunellen for a few days at least.

The last that I knew, Rutgers was dispatching Dunellen (AFAIK out of the RU Public Safety Building in NB) so this is news to me as well.

robbinsj2 · #57 (**permalink**) 12-06-2012, 7:51 PM

Yes, all comms which I received (including the Dunellen PD talkgroup) were encrypted.

GM reminded me of the Rutgers connection after my last post. It's possible my Close Call hit was from a Rutgers transmission -- I wasn't particularly close to their headquarters but CC is a little unpredictable at times. It is possible that Rutgers is transmitting into Piscataway's system to dispatch Dunellen.

I don't have enough information to say that Dunellen has completely switched forever and will always be encrypted. All I can report is what I observed this afternoon. Perhaps this is a trial phase, perhaps things will change.

KC2ZHY · #58 (**permalink**) 12-06-2012, 8:21 PM

Piscataway has been dispatching Dunellen for a few months now; they dropped Rutgers and almost no one heard about it. I didn't even hear about it until 3 weeks after it happened, and I frequent Dunellen working for SMC EMS.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

TAMR213 · #59 (**permalink**) 12-06-2012, 9:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC2ZHY

Piscataway has been dispatching Dunellen for a few months now; they dropped Rutgers and almost no one heard about it. I didn't even hear about it until 3 weeks after it happened, and I frequent Dunellen working for SMC EMS.

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

Interesting, any idea as to why this switch was made? I seem to remember hearing that when RU picked up dispatching for Dunellen, that they were also looking to pick up contracts to handle dispatching for other towns (which obviously has not happened).

Just found this article from NJ.com from when Rutgers first started dispatching Dunellen

SnakeEater9920 · #60 (**permalink**) 12-06-2012, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TAMR213

Interesting, any idea as to why this switch was made? I seem to remember hearing that when RU picked up dispatching for Dunellen, that they were also looking to pick up contracts to handle dispatching for other towns (which obviously has not happened).

Just found this article from NJ.com from when Rutgers first started dispatching Dunellen

Yeah, Piscataway has been dispatching Dunellen for a while now. Not sure as to why they dropped Rutgers in the first place. I noticed that when I stopped hearing the unique voice of the Rutgers' dispatcher.

All I hear on the main Dunellen channel now are EMS calls and such. Occasionally a police unit will come over the air, but Piscataway tells them to use the new system. Two days ago, there was a call for some kinda sweet smell in the air. Police unit came over the air, said he was responding. Then, "Go over to the new system please"

I really hope this isn't some permanent. And if it is, another town lost.

My darn town.

Also, from an inside source of mine; Dunellen has purchased $30,000 worth of new radios for Police and DPW. So, this could possibly be a permanent change. Who knows.