VIPER Legacy 3600 Baud Analog/Digital Discussion

[reconrider8]

Anyone know a 17264?

[gr8rcall]

I didn't hear too much on 33472...could someone tell me what it was?

Thanks,
Gr8rcall

[trumpetman]

DURGOV aka Durham Government

Seems the radio folks like to hang out on the gov channels when they venture out into the wilderness and away from their home radio system

[KE4ZNR]

Originally Posted by trumpetman

DURGOV aka Durham Government

Seems the radio folks like to hang out on the gov channels when they venture out into the wilderness and away from their home radio system

More formally known as "ShopViper" to some folks
Just never know who you will hear on that talkgroup
Marshall KE4ZNR

[GB1952]

I have for sometime now been monitoring viper traffic off (868.9875) here in cumb co. i have not found this in the viper data base.I hear all cumb co TGs and well as state gov TGs and ideals as to were this is coming from???

[GB1952]

Monitored TG# 6168 in cum co,talking about meeting in the cumb and robeson areas.did not find it in data base.???

[KE4ZNR]

Originally Posted by GB1952

Monitored TG# 6168 in cum co,talking about meeting in the cumb and robeson areas.did not find it in data base.???

That was Probably 6160 which should be an ALE Talkgroup.
6168 would be ALE plus DES encryption.
So I am pretty sure you heard 6160 non-encrypted ALE traffic
unless you started working for them in the last day or so.
Was this analog or digital?
Marshall KE4ZNR

[GB1952]

Just a radio test analog have not received it again

[trumpetman]

Uh oh, looks like a stray ALE radio didn't get reprogrammed.

[basstuba]

[QUOTE=GB1952;1834626]I have for sometime now been monitoring viper traffic off (868.9875) here in cumb co. i have not found this in the viper data base.I hear all cumb co TGs and well as state gov TGs and ideals as to were this is coming from?
868.9875 is a new control channel for site 10 irwin 6038.

[GB1952]

Thanks i will alfa this.

[SquareCircle]

Talking about the Iredell county patches on Viper- They do sound really bad, but not nearly as bad as the Highway patrol dispatching from Monroe.
It sounds worse than an old neglected McDonalds drive thru speaker. (Not sure how the people who's lives depend on understanding them even use it!)
Astonishing that anyone would not be able to figure out they sound as bad as they do, and let it go on for so long?

SC

[reconrider8]

question about state wide event tgids? ok so i realize they are state wide but how come i can pick up 880 from the fair but no other tgids that are being used at the fair?

[KE4ZNR]

Originally Posted by reconrider8

question about state wide event tgids? ok so i realize they are state wide but how come i can pick up 880 from the fair but no other tgids that are being used at the fair?

Someone with an official radio affiliated to the tower you are monitoring
has their radio parked only on Alpha 4 (TG 880). Remember that just because there is the word "statewide" in statewide event talkgroups does not mean that you can monitor all of the them anywhere in the state. Statewide refers to the fact that they can be used anywhere in the state. For you to monitor specific talkgroups on a SmartZone site, someone's radio must be affiliated to that specific site. Therefore, if you are monitoring statewide event talkgroups on a site with no affiliated radios on any of the talkgroups, then you will not hear any communications on those talkgroups on that site. So there is a radio affilated to the site you are monitoring but it is parked on Alpha 4 only so you won't hear radio traffic on the other talkgroups unless they switch their radio to one of the other TGs.
Marshall KE4ZNR

[reconrider8]

I was kind of thinking that after i posted this lol i wonder who would gave 880 parked in there radio around this area

[gr8rcall]

I can use some help trying to figure this TG out...
Its shown in the DB as "Alamance County Rescue Admin" TGID 53408!
However, it sounds like some sort of PD Talkgroup. (Possibly Gibsonville)

Can some people help me listen to this and try to figure out what it is? (or confirm it)

[n4wrl]

Originally Posted by robkermit

Thanks for your quick response. I live in the middle of Mitchell County, Ledger community, and can pick up Woody's/Locust VIPER with no problem. I go to school in Avery County, and travel frequently all over Avery-Buncombe-Madison-McDowell-Mitchell counties.

Here is how I have my radio programmed now:
ID Scan with the talkgroups I'm interested in
Mitchell-Woodys
Mitchell-Locust
Yancey-Clingman (locked out)
Avery-Linville (locked out)
McDowell-Grant Mtn. (locked out)
McDowell-Dobson (locked out)
Madison-Big Knob (locked out)
Madison-Viking Mountain (locked out)
Buncombe-HWM (locked out)
Buncombe-Meadows (locked out)
... And of course I have an Analog system that has all the old VHF frequencies loaded in it with each county in its own group.

Then I have ID Search (a "catch all") for the same towers. I usually do not unlock these unless I am travelling outside of Mitchell County.

Eventually, I would like to have each VIPER site in ID Search mode where I can (un)lock as I travel throughout the state.

I appreciate your assistance in helping me get the programming for this scanner set up properly.

I was a former member of VFD in Mitchell County and had a Motorola MT2000. I sold this radio a couple years ago to a VFD member in Avery County, as I had absolutely no use for it any longer, and he said that he couldn't use it because it did not support narrow-banding. My research indicates that it does, in fact, support narrow-banding. He ended up purchasing an XTS3500.

While I had the MT2000 radio, I dumped all the Mitchell County frequencies out of the radio by unscrewing the antenna, keying it down, and letting a scanner in search mode do its job. I have all the "juicy" frequencies (such as Channel 4, 5, 19, 20, and 21) that the SO uses (and, mind you, these frequencies are NOT registered with the FCC. Can the law enforcement legally use these frequencies without FCC registration?).

Here is how I would like to have the scanner configured:
ID Scan for the towers in Mitchell, Yancey, Avery, and McDowell counties with their respective talkgroups (and the statewide talkgroups). The rest of the counties I would be fine listening in ID Search mode.

I've become pretty acquainted with locking and unlocking the "groups" in the scanner, but would like to find an easy way of scanning for the towers so I don't have to mess with it.

I have a family member down the state that works for a company that programs the portable radios for the different agencies, as well as installs the radios and lights in the vehicles. He has confirmed that Richmond is on Viper. He also sent me the photo of the XTS2500 which was locked on Scotland SO that I posted in my previous post. My research on this radio tells me that it is digital. I have no way to verify that it is actually using the VIPER towers because I'm 200+ miles away. I've been trying to talk him into getting me one of these radios, but I think the company he works for is keeping an extremely close inventory on these radios. With the price tag that comes with them, I guess I can't blame them.

I considered purchasing one of the 800MHZ APCO 25 radios (like the XTS2500 or 3500), merely to use as a scanner, but based on my research, the way the VIPER system is designed, the radio will not turn on unless it is registered with the State. Since I'm no longer a VFD member (and have no desire after my resignation after my eyewitness of the Mitchell Co. Jail Fire), I didn't know what kind of hurdles I would have to jump through to be able to use one of them as a listen-only radio, like I did my MT2000 (BEST scanner I ever owned).

I am really just looking for a simple radio I can use as a scanner state-wide without having to flip through the settings each time I travel from county-to-county. I have friends that are still in the fire department, a person who can program the radio, and I'm sure if I purchase the radio my friend would have no problem getting it registered for me. The question I have about doing this, though, is if the radio (like the XTS2500) will only pick up the talkgroups for Mitchell County (regardless of the county I'm sitting in), or if I would be able to monitor other talkgroups throughout the state. The cost of one of these new radios just to pick up one county would be extremely cost prohibitive, and not really something I'd want spend money on when this Uniden scanner would be a more viable choice.

As far as what I am picking up on VIPER, I am picking up Mitchell Fire, EMS (and Yancey Fire, EMS when one of the radios is associated with Woodys/Locust). I can pick up Mitchell EMS in Simplex on 155.280, and on VIPER at the same time. Once the EMS truck is out of range of my analog scanner, I can only pick the communication up on VIPER. From my understanding, the Mitchell Fire frequencies are "patched" to the VIPER channels. For example, we had a power outage recently while the 911 Center was undergoing a generator upgrade (whoops?). This was back in June if my memory recalls correctly. Members who had VIPER radios could go to MITCHELL(EM) and the communication broadcast over the analog Fire repeater(s). It was crystal clear. I'm not 100% sure how its set up now, but traffic on MITCHELL(FIRE) is broadcasting over the analog Fire system, and vice versa. The odd part about it, though, is that if a user on VIPER is on Woody's Knob (Considered the "South Tower") transmits, then the communication only transmits on the South Repeater. Same goes for a member on VIPER using Locust Knob, their communication only transmits on the North Repeater. I'm not for certain if Law is running on VIPER yet or not. I have not picked them up on VIPER. They may be on there but have the talkgroup in ENC mode. I have no way to really verify. But its such a mess because if a user keys up on the south tower, and another on the north tower, the two towers walk all over each other. It is so bad that even the law enforcement is getting fed up with the radio system. Radio Maintenance doesn't seem to care, I'm sure it would not be hard to turn the "5 second dead silence" off after a user unkeys their radio. Funny thing about it, the 911 Center seems to have no problem picking any of it up! This was one of my main reasons for wanting to get the digital scanner, so that I wouldn't have to listen to the two towers walking all over each other all the time. I also pick up SHP Troop G and have heard chatter on DEA on the Mitchell VIPER towers. I have also heard Burke County EMS on Woody's Knob tower. (This tower has a line of sight to Morganton).

Mitchell County users are still, for the most part, using VHF radios, but some of the users have purchased digital 800 MHZ radios. For example, we were able to pick up Mitchell County Fire dispatch at the Outer Banks on VIPER.

All in all, what I have got to hear of VIPER through my new scanner, it sounds absolutely fantastic, and I can't wait until they get all the departments online and all the users with a digital radio in their hands.

Also, another reason I am doing my research on all of this and getting a better understanding about this system is because I intend to write a research paper for one of my college courses, and I thought this would be a good topic to write on (such as the incompatibility of radio communication on Sept. 11 and other events that have happened here in NC and how the transition to 800MHZ APCO-25 radios nationwide will eliminate radio incompatibility and make communication between first responders more effective). But I can't write a paper on something that I have vague knowledge about. Plus all my sources have to be up to Academic Standards (OH BOY!).

I intend to interview the Emergency Management Director of Yancey County (I know him on a first-name basis) about this "digital transition" that was run as news over WKYK, as well as the Emergency Director in Mitchell County soon. I will report back to this board the information I gather.

Thanks for your willingness to discuss this with me, as I am still learning how all of this works, and eventually, would love to help contribute back to this community. It is the best online site I've found during my 15 years of scanner frequency searching. In addition, if you are interested in my Hotsheet of analog frequencies in use in this area, let me know and I'll be glad to share them with you. Also, if you are interested in the current system in our area, I have extensive knowledge of each of the tower sites in Mitchell and Yancey County as I used to be the Operations Manager of a WISP and we co-lo'd our Access Points on some of the county towers (and some on WSPA TV translator towers that were literally feet from the county towers), and housed our network switches in the county buildings with their radio repeaters.

Can you email me at n4wrl@aol.com ref. to mitchell county viper.

[joncleve]

Originally Posted by SquareCircle

Talking about the Iredell county patches on Viper- They do sound really bad, but not nearly as bad as the Highway patrol dispatching from Monroe.
It sounds worse than an old neglected McDonalds drive thru speaker. (Not sure how the people who's lives depend on understanding them even use it!)
Astonishing that anyone would not be able to figure out they sound as bad as they do, and let it go on for so long?

SC

I said the same thing a few months ago and basically got no response. It does sound bad, Asheville and Newton sound great in comparison.

[KC4YIN]

Don't know if anyone has noticed this or not but the control channel has changed from 868.7375 to 868.4125 on the Kinston Viper site.
I submitted a ticket on this earlier today through the proper channels. I verified it with Unitrunker and Win 500.

[kg4uad]

Around 2:00pm this afternoon i noticed that my scanner was very quiet. it wasnt until around 4:00pm i picked it up and noticed that all Henderson county Viper sites were offline. "bearwallow","jumpoff","Corbin" and "Tryon Peak" are all still down, anyone know whats up? Im assuming that two days of high winds have done some damage at the site locations but its alittle surprising that they are all offline. Still pulling from "brevard" and "chambers mtn." so at least i have some entertainment.

kg4uad