Oakland PD/Fire

[MaryMikulin]

The Database for Oakland has recently been updated and there is an error in the LCN. If you do a Web Import you will have problems with Ch.5. I am also picking up Control Channels while scanning--not sure what this is about but I know there is Digital Testing going on which has affected one the the Sites.
Some freqs have been taken for use in the testing. Any input ? Oakland is on eggshells right now.

Thanks !

mm

[MaryMikulin]

I have located information the the Yahoo Bayscan Group site that got me back up and running with
Oakland. Note: this is not my information-it was provided by a gentleman-I presume he is a gentleman-
named Inigo, who is a well known scannist in the SF Bay Area. Thank you,Inigo for this very helpful info...

Current LCN for Oakland:

Ch 02 866.3250
Ch 03 866.4000
Ch 04 866.6000
Ch 06 867.0500
Ch 08 867.5750
Ch 09 867.8250
Ch 11 868.4625
Ch 12 868.5625
Ch 13 868.8250

Ch 01, 07, & 10 were removed for the P25 System testing. There never has been a Ch 05.

Since the EDACS System is in flux right now I am not sure if the Database should be updated even
though it appears to be in error right now. Hmmm...

Mary

[dougr1252]

That's interesting. The database right now shows the same info as in your post. I can still monitor Oakland with the old channel set no problem. The LCNs that were "borrowed" to populate the P25 site are not assigned by the APL / 1111 Broadway site. Haven't tried importing though. Maybe they need the blanks in there. I don't think LCN order would have changed if they only took channels out.

The P25 site is operating on 866.1250, 867.3000, and 868.1750. 867.3000 has been the control channel for a while now. Oakland FD channels 1 and 2 are being crosspatched between the analog and P25 systems. Everything else is still on the analog system.

[inigo88]

Thank you Mary you flatter me, and yes I am a gentleman.

The way EDACS trunking works is the control channel says "Conversation on talkgroup 02-021, go to logical channel number 2." When we program our scanners we have to make sure we have the right frequencies programmed in the right channel numbers. In my example, if LCN 02 was correctly programmed as 866.325 MHz, then the scanner would go to this frequency and we would hear the conversation. If LCN 02 was programmed as something else, the scanner would go there instead and we wouldn't hear anything.

I think Oakland chose a really elegant solution to avoid re-programming thousands of radios by just telling the trunking system to stop telling calls to go to LCN 01, 07 or 10. So if you left these frequencies programmed, it wouldn't matter because the control channel would just never tell anyone to go there (as dougr1252 said).

I suspect that when you had LCN 05 programmed, it had the control channel for Oakland's Seneca St site #2. You can listen to either Site #1 or Site #2, but not both in the same bank because each one has a different logical channel number order that needs to be programmed (don't worry about site 2 they carry the same traffic). I think that since your scanner was stopping on two control channels instead of just one, half the time you were hearing the correct voice channels (from the site 1 control channel) and the other half the time the scanner was being told to switch to channels with no voice traffic on them (by the site 2 control channel, thinking you had programmed site 2).

I'm glad to hear my post on the other list helped you get it sorted out!

Regards,

Inigo

[MaryMikulin]

Inigo,

Yeah, you nailed it. Thats exactly what was happening--I was hearing nothing because of the dual CC's.
Learn something new every day.

Mary