PA 700 MHz P25 System TGID's

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kizashi

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HM1529

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You may want to see if anything you catch corresponds to documented PA-HART training. The National Guard helos involved in PA-HART would most likely be operating on this system.

I have a few 18xx talkgroups that I think are related to PA-HART, but my only evidence is affiliations on Unitrunker...no accompanying audio.
 

kizashi

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You may want to see if anything you catch corresponds to documented PA-HART training. The National Guard helos involved in PA-HART would most likely be operating on this system.

I have a few 18xx talkgroups that I think are related to PA-HART, but my only evidence is affiliations on Unitrunker...no accompanying audio.

Hey, thanks for the reply. I think you might be right but I have zero experience monitoring military stuff so I'm not sure if that's what I'm getting. Let me know what you think. I'm in Monroeville by the mall and my setup is just an ST4 mounted on a 30 foot mast outside which just barely reaches over the roof. Signal strength for this system is 5 bars on the 536HP. All communication is very clear for me. I guess I'm lucky.

Here's the audio I picked up today...
PA 700MHz P25 System TGID 1831 - YouTube
 
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druhe

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Just a side note, Keystone Operations is located at the Johnstown Cambria County Airport. Helo traffic is daily but increases over the weekends. You may want to monitor 36.500 FM also they conduct flight following on this frequency and its fairly busy at times.
 

kizashi

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Just a side note, Keystone Operations is located at the Johnstown Cambria County Airport. Helo traffic is daily but increases over the weekends. You may want to monitor 36.500 FM also they conduct flight following on this frequency and its fairly busy at times.

Ok will do. Thanks for the info. I'll keep you guys updated on what I pick up.


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druhe

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You may want to see if anything you catch corresponds to documented PA-HART training. The National Guard helos involved in PA-HART would most likely be operating on this system.

I have a few 18xx talkgroups that I think are related to PA-HART, but my only evidence is affiliations on Unitrunker...no accompanying audio.

Ben, I'm curious are you hearing traffic from the western side of the state ? Just wondering if the talkgroups are set up for local, regional or statewide coverage. Unfortunately I am out of range of the Pittsburgh site and haven't located any closer to me.
 

HM1529

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Ben, I'm curious are you hearing traffic from the western side of the state ? Just wondering if the talkgroups are set up for local, regional or statewide coverage. Unfortunately I am out of range of the Pittsburgh site and haven't located any closer to me.


Dan,

My understanding of the system is that talkgroups only appear on a site where there is a radio affiliated with that site and that radio is requesting the particular talkgroup. With only 10 sites statewide, this makes things pretty difficult to map out. I have only picked up nat guard aviation assets from FTIG and I don't get them all the time. I do sometimes also hear the fire dept from FTIG entering and exiting the runway area. FTIG is firmly in the footprint of the Reeser's Summit site and last time I was there, I noted a strong signal from that tower all over the base. So, units are usually going to affiliate there first Since the tower site I can receive from home is the Geigertown site to the southeast of FTIG, I think I only hear traffic when one of the birds gets high enough or east enough to affiliate with Geigertown.

There are still two sites that remain unlocated. I would imagine at least one of those must be near Erie. Not sure where the other would be. The "Pittsburgh" site for the 700 system is probably colocated at this location based on the few signal reports I have seen: Harrison City (WEST03) Site Details (Pennsylvania STARNet) Not sure about that, though. Somebody should take a ride near there with their antenna disconnected and see if they can get a copy on the 700 control channel. If so, then this is the location. If not, it's another high profile tower site to the west or north.

Johnstown is in between Everett and the Pittsburgh area site. So, I would think that when in the air, the helos from there would have solid coverage from either. On the ground...I don't know. But, it seems like the helos there maybe don't use the trunked system too much if you're hearing them regularly on the lowband still. Out this way, when I do hear the helos, they are usually just making a quick radio check with "ops" on the already listed PANG talkgroup. Typical military comms...short and to the point.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention that I sometimes go two weeks or more with no traffic. I have a receiver dedicated to monitoring the Geigertown site and recording audio as I try to figure the system out. I once left a receiver in the Harrisburg area for a week recording Reeser's Summit and got absolutely nothing all week. That surprised me since I always figured that site would be the busiest of all with Harrisburg/ Cap City Airport/FTIG in the footprint. Use of this system is exceedingly sparse...tracking it would be pretty boring for the average "scanner fan".
 
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kizashi

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Ben,

I wanted to dedicate a radio to monitor this system since last year but I waited for the 536HP. It's definitely a boring system to monitor with hours or even days between transmissions. My 996XT never picked up a single transmission while I was listening. So now my interest in the system has peaked. Thanks for all the info.

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HM1529

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I looked at my notes and I have one hit from last year with helo 580 conversing briefly with Keystone on 1831. I think I heard this while I was in Harrisburg so it would have been on the Reeser's Summit site. Based on the recording you posted to YouTube, PANG Keystone Ops is probably a good ID for that talkgroup.
 

kizashi

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Cool. Sounds good to me. I always had my 996XT monitoring the Westmoreland County ICORRS system and Allegheny County so I didn't spend a lot of time with this system. I'm really glad the 536HP has the memory card, replay and record features, they make it a little easier to identify what you're hearing. I can't wait for the new butel software because I loved using the virtual control. I already purchased the new one they are working on.

Thanks again.

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dmg1969

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I have this system programmed on the HP-1 I have had for a little over a month. Other than the two talk groups indicated in the RRDB, is there any way for me to monitor the system for new or unknown talk groups like 1831 that was mentioned? Or...is that something that would require the extreme upgrade for the HP-1?

I use my HP-1 mainly in the car going to and from work and in the house on the weekends. I have yet to hear anything and I do have a site (Blain) in the county I live in...Perry.
 

kizashi

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I have this system programmed on the HP-1 I have had for a little over a month. Other than the two talk groups indicated in the RRDB, is there any way for me to monitor the system for new or unknown talk groups like 1831 that was mentioned? Or...is that something that would require the extreme upgrade for the HP-1?

I use my HP-1 mainly in the car going to and from work and in the house on the weekends. I have yet to hear anything and I do have a site (Blain) in the county I live in...Perry.

What I do to find other talk groups is have the scanner in id search mode rather than id scan mode while scanning the system. I'm not sure how to change it on the HP-1 as I've never used it. The database has been updated with the new talkgroup as well.

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kizashi

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Dated back in 2009 don't know if this info would be helpful or not I'm sure things have change. At the bottem of the PDF link there are channel listings etc. I did find a article about a meeting on the 700 P25 system this coming march 2014.

http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/DocumentCenter/View/279

I found that pdf too on the Westmoreland County website when I was looking for more info on the 700MHz system. I didn't really look at it though.

Westmoreland County, PA - Official Website - Region 36 700 MHz Committee

I'm not sure if it was ever fully implemented because I never knew it existed until recently and haven't even tried to monitor any of the other frequencies listed. Anyone else? I'm pretty sure the current system would be much larger based upon what the plans say on the pdf file.
 

dmg1969

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What I do to find other talk groups is have the scanner in id search mode rather than id scan mode while scanning the system. I'm not sure how to change it on the HP-1 as I've never used it. The database has been updated with the new talkgroup as well.

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OK, I did a Google search and found how to do it through Sentinel. I will try that.
 

n3obl

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i looked at the document. some of that was names for specific 700mhz freq. nothing related to talkgroups. etc..

Frank
 

kizashi

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Yeah I'm not sure what the conventional system is in the pdf. I'll toss the freq's in my 996XT and see if I hear anything. I live in Allegheny County so I'll just listen to those freq's. I guess the possibility was there at one time for conventional 700MHz systems but I don't know if it was scrapped in Westmoreland County for the ICORRS system or this is something completely different.

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talviar

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I found that pdf too on the Westmoreland County website when I was looking for more info on the 700MHz system. I didn't really look at it though.

Westmoreland County, PA - Official Website - Region 36 700 MHz Committee

I'm not sure if it was ever fully implemented because I never knew it existed until recently and haven't even tried to monitor any of the other frequencies listed. Anyone else? I'm pretty sure the current system would be much larger based upon what the plans say on the pdf file.

And you probably won't. . . . . .
That is the actual implementation plan for 700 MHz deployment of frequencies within Region 36. . . . . . Each region that wished to be able to utilize 700 MHz frequencies for public safety on a non STATEWIDE license was required to have an implementation/coordination plan in effect. What you see in the link above is the Region 36 plan for issuing frequencies in the pool of available frequencies.

Since none of the counties / public safety agencies covered by that plan have deployed 700 MHz systems yet, you won't find any traffic on them.

As always YMMV, this has been my $2.25 and there are those that will dispute/argue over my response.

Enjoy!
Have a great day.

T
 

HM1529

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773.30625 with the NAC 01B heard in the Crawford county area on 2/26 at approx 3pm.
sounds like he mentions Clarion.

Sounds like you located another site for the system. Check the 768-780 range for a control channel. This frequency looks like it will be a voice channel on the site.
 
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