Hydro Quebec Electric

ecps92 · Nov 28, 2014

Hydro Quebec and other companies has gone mutual aid to New Hampshire due to the extensive heavy snow fall with many power outages.

Anyone have a good list of Power Service Frequencies (look in the RR DB, but found only the trunked systems) that we should be looking for as they travel New England.

TAFL was not much luck either at this time, even for the one frequency found.

163.2875 107.2 has been heard in the US before with French and English.
TAFL indicates CA uses 163.2800 or 163.2900

thoughts/comments from the North.

Thanks

mikewazowski · Nov 28, 2014

Most of their conventional stuff is between 141-143MHz.

I also see 165.480 as the only channel outside of that range.

ecps92 · Nov 28, 2014

Thanks for the reply Mike, much appreciated

We will keep searching, see what else we find, the 163.2900 is very active

MikeOxlong said:
Most of their conventional stuff is between 141-143MHz.

I also see 165.480 as the only channel outside of that range.

DaveH · Nov 30, 2014

Hydro-Quebec has a ton of frequencies licensed, using the TAFL Licensee Name
search (9-10 licences). There's a fair bit in the 150-154 range, 157/158, UHF, 850MHz,
some 930/940 links, plus microwave. TAFL doesn't show any H-Q connection to
163.290 and 165.480; lots of taxis, forestry, ambulance, public works and others;
or did I miss something?

TAFL descriptions of some frequencies include portable (PBL) or transportable
(TPL) within the province, which doesn't mean outside of Canada, but some of these
might have a cross-border arrangement. It would take a bit of work to collect these up
from the lisitings as some (especially for northern Quebec) are quite long.

Dave

DaveH · Nov 30, 2014

ecps92 said:
163.2875 107.2 has been heard in the US before with French and English.
TAFL indicates CA uses 163.2800 or 163.2900

thoughts/comments from the North.

Thanks

What frequency band(s) do NH hydro ops natively use i.e. could likely be used for interop, if
any other than the obvious?

What is the 163.2875 usage in US in that area, and generally? (163.2875 is not
on the Canadian channel "grid", doesn't show in TAFL).

Dave

ecps92 · Dec 1, 2014

Thanks, I did look thru TAFL and added some of them to the search banks as they keep busy in NH It just caught some of us, 163.2875 is one of the US Interops for Law Enforcement

DaveH said:
Hydro-Quebec has a ton of frequencies licensed, using the TAFL Licensee Name
search (9-10 licences). There's a fair bit in the 150-154 range, 157/158, UHF, 850MHz,
some 930/940 links, plus microwave. TAFL doesn't show any H-Q connection to
163.290 and 165.480; lots of taxis, forestry, ambulance, public works and others;
or did I miss something?

TAFL descriptions of some frequencies include portable (PBL) or transportable
(TPL) within the province, which doesn't mean outside of Canada, but some of these
might have a cross-border arrangement. It would take a bit of work to collect these up
from the lisitings as some (especially for northern Quebec) are quite long.

Dave

ecps92 · Dec 1, 2014

Hydro varies, however nothing much has been reported in NH, altho Maine is VHF

162-174 is the US Government band, so utilities would be 151-161

Just shows, it's always good to use "SEARCH"

DaveH said:
What frequency band(s) do NH hydro ops natively use i.e. could likely be used for interop, if
any other than the obvious?

What is the 163.2875 usage in US in that area, and generally? (163.2875 is not
on the Canadian channel "grid", doesn't show in TAFL).

Dave

DaveH · Dec 1, 2014

ecps92 said:
Hydro varies, however nothing much has been reported in NH, altho Maine is VHF

162-174 is the US Government band, so utilities would be 151-161

Just shows, it's always good to use "SEARCH"

Bill, I think there are two aspects to this. One is interop between H-Q and NH crews
which I would think would be mostly english. The other is communication within H-Q
crews, which is likely mostly french, though not necessarily in the same band.

I can scan TAFL licence data for likely VHF etc. channels though this is subject to a bit
of interpretation. For example 150.700 is transportable but is TX-only, most likely
paging. A search of 150-154 has a good chance of finding something. I'm somewhat
doubting 138-144 is likely hydro usage in the U.S. due to its military usage, but who knows.

Also I think commercial/industrial etc. VHF use in U.S. starts at 150.775, below that
is military/gov't and not likely hydro? Some H-Q channels are right around that.

Dave

ecps92 · Dec 1, 2014

Yes, on the VHF US Business/Public Safety

And Yes for the H-Q using what would be US Federal Gov't and also US Military frequencies.

We are continuing to listen to the French/English on the 163 Freq, nothing else found as yet. "Do you still have American Money for the Tolls?" - you would think NH would have waived the $$

DaveH said:
Bill, I think there are two aspects to this. One is interop between H-Q and NH crews
which I would think would be mostly english. The other is communication within H-Q
crews, which is likely mostly french, though not necessarily in the same band.

I can scan TAFL licence data for likely VHF etc. channels though this is subject to a bit
of interpretation. For example 150.700 is transportable but is TX-only, most likely
paging. A search of 150-154 has a good chance of finding something. I'm somewhat
doubting 138-144 is likely hydro usage in the U.S. due to its military usage, but who knows.

Also I think commercial/industrial etc. VHF use in U.S. starts at 150.775, below that
is military/gov't and not likely hydro? Some H-Q channels are right around that.

Dave

jmarcel66 · Dec 1, 2014

H-Q has returned north of the border and seems our power is good until the next storm.

163.2875 (163.280-163.290) was used exclusively for unit-to-unit communications between H-Q crews. As Bill said, it was a mix of French/English (usually french) and didn't appear any of our (Local US) crews were on frequency.

Also found 141.795 in use by the H-Q crews as well. At least assuming H-Q because it was french again in the area of outages.

The area I'm in that received H-Q help (Concord, NH USA) has Unitil for their power company. They had licensed several new VHF frequencies for digital use (none of the above); but hadn't started using them yet. They currently run on 37.58 with a few High-Band mobile repeaters.

Thanks to the crews north of the border for their electric assistance and scanner enjoyment.

mikewazowski · Dec 1, 2014

I can confirm that 141.7950MHz is a valid HQ frequency.

The strange thing is I don't see the 163.290MHz frequency in their radios which makes me wonder if they borrowed radios while down there?

jmarcel66 · Dec 1, 2014

If I had to guess, I would say no they didn't borrow anything because the frequency is in our Federal band and other than a few frequencies between 162-174, everything is the feds and they don't like to play w/others that way. Especially since that frequency is in use for federal law enforcement interop in the area (using P25). Not saying it couldn't happen; anything is possible.

Somewhere in the thread there was mention of utility interoperability and I'd be curious if nationally (and internationally) there was anything moving towards that. Utilities, like any businesses down here are all over the place and except for railroad have very little, if any, common frequencies to pool together for interop. Even public safety interop developed from ad-hoc measures.

mikewazowski · Dec 1, 2014

Industry Canada doesn't even show Hydro Quebec licenced on that frequency or any other frequencies close by.

Any chance it was an image of one of their 141MHz frequencies?

VE2NCG · Dec 2, 2014

Did you check the 2 Hydro systems? a possibility is that they use the input or the output frequencies as simplex when out of range, and those systems are P25:

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=1797

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=2951

VE2NCG · Dec 2, 2014

And don't forget the canadian simplex bands: 453.0250-454, 458.0250-459, 464.0250-465 and 469.0250-470.... they have a lot of frequencies called "Transportable"

ecps92 · Dec 2, 2014

My experience with having such Mutual Aid, is the Utility assigns someone with the local radio to the Out-of-Town Crews

A Mystery to ponder till they cross-the-border for the next event.
Anyone have a friend who works for H-Q to check out a radio template?

Thanks Guys for the wealth of Info

MikeOxlong said:
I can confirm that 141.7950MHz is a valid HQ frequency.

The strange thing is I don't see the 163.290MHz frequency in their radios which makes me wonder if they borrowed radios while down there?

mikewazowski · Dec 2, 2014

I've checked the radio template I have and that frequency isn't in it.

DaveH · Dec 2, 2014

Amidst the pile of TAFL frequencies I found 141.330 and 141.795 (already noted) simplex.
The bunch around 150 includes 150.550, 150.670, 150.700, 150.760 and 150.790.

Interesting what you find doing a TAFL fishing expedition. UHF simplex 458.4875 showed
up, which I heard way back, believe it was a vehicle repeater, but never confirmed. Also
in the same range: 458.5000 and 458.5125.

A bit off the current topic but I found a UHF DMR repeater (462.1375) listed nearby
(Gatineau, Hull sector). That channel is used locally by other low-power (and not so low power)
systems, not sure if I will be able to confirm.

The 163.2875 sounds suspiciously like an image of 141.795.

Dave

ecps92 · Dec 2, 2014

Could be however only the 163 returned a CTCSS where-as the 141 was CSQ

DaveH said:
The 163.2875 sounds suspiciously like an image of 141.795.

Dave

DaveH · Dec 2, 2014

ecps92 said:
Could be however only the 163 returned a CTCSS where-as the 141 was CSQ

OK, still a bit odd. Can you hear the 163M channel on different receivers (with different IF's)?

The 165M frequency also seems odd, but if you hear it and it's on that frequency, who
am I to disagree

?

Dave

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