Dauphin County - Motorola p25 System

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scan-pa

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This thread is to talk about Dauphin County's New Motorola APCO 25 Digital Trunked Radio System.

Construction has begun and the County is finishing getting FCC licences for the new Microwave Backbone system.

With the info I got from DauCoEMA 1, I already have the system setup to monitor.

Same with the Text Paging system.
 

johnhbg23

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newbee - what to buy

Hello. My old scanner (uniden) doesn't seem to pick up Dauphin Co. Fire anymore. Wanted to buy a new scanner for Dauphin Co. fire and police, and Harrisburg city fire and police. Boy am I comfused. Started looking for a handheld scanner and ran into 800 band rebanding, P25, analog vs. digital??????
I found this site and hope it can help. Your message said you are already set up to monitor. Do you have a suggestion on what I should buy? I was looking at a Radio Shack Pro97, but I don't want to buy something that won't work, or will work for 6 months and then go blank.

Thanks
 

HM1529

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johnhbg23 said:
Hello. My old scanner (uniden) doesn't seem to pick up Dauphin Co. Fire anymore. Wanted to buy a new scanner for Dauphin Co. fire and police, and Harrisburg city fire and police. Boy am I comfused. Started looking for a handheld scanner and ran into 800 band rebanding, P25, analog vs. digital??????
I found this site and hope it can help. Your message said you are already set up to monitor. Do you have a suggestion on what I should buy? I was looking at a Radio Shack Pro97, but I don't want to buy something that won't work, or will work for 6 months and then go blank.

Thanks

John,

Unfortunately, with Dauphin moving to a digital trunked system over the next few years, you will have to make a hefty investment in a scanner capable of monitoring digital audio. Any scanners that can do this run in the $350-$500 range. There are some questions as to whether the first generation of digital scanners (i.e. the PRO-96 rom Radio Shack) will be able to monitor certain 800MHz trunked systems after the rebanding process is completed.

I would recommend that if you are serious about wanting to listen and don't want to run into issues with being able to monitor digital traffic or issues with rebanding, that you just drop the cash and buy one of the newest Uniden or GRE digital scanners.

The new GRE PSR-500 scanner and it's upcoming mobile counterpart (PSR-600) should do everything you need and much more. http://www.scannermaster.com/GRE_Scanners_s/284.htm

Unfortunately, there is a bit of a steep learning curve for many folks. There is a section of this message board to specifically discuss the GRE scanners.

Best of luck....
 

johnhbg23

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Thanks for the recommendation. I don't mind the learning curve, and I also don't mind spending the money, I just want to make sure what I buy will work.
 

scan-pa

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johnhbg23 said:
Thanks for the recommendation. I don't mind the learning curve, and I also don't mind spending the money, I just want to make sure what I buy will work.


The Following DIGITAL Capable Scanners will Work on the non Encrypted Talk Groups for Dauphin County / City of Harrisburg Trunked system. All are priced about $400.95 - $599.00

GRECOM

PSR-500 Portable
PSR-600 Base/Mobile

Radio Shack

PRO-96 Portable
PRO-2096 Base/Mobile

Uniden Bearcat

BCD396T Portable
BC996D Base/Mobile

as this trunked system is a UHF 453/460 & 500 mhz system, there is no need to worry about 800mhz rebanding issues or problems.
 

johnhbg23

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Thank you for the reply. This is the info I need. Now I just have to start looking for a good deal.

Thanks again.
 

scan-pa

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The system is not even finished building out yet. Radios have been selected, but as far as I know have not yet been delivered.

Motorola will soon be doing hardware and software setup.

They will be working on the 500Mhz East side sites first, and then work on the 453/460 mhz west side sites last as they use all of the freqs that are currently used on the conventional systems.

Trust me, we will post when the system begins testing. I have a PSR-600 sitting on the desk with all sites programed and monitoring for p25 talkgroups.

:)

I would say by May the buildout should be under final stages and testing should begin in the summertime.
 

Mattsenft

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I am pleased to report there is a control channel up occasionally. I caught it last night on 501.5125. The system ID is 1E8. I forgot to write down the NAC but will get it the next time.
 
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Wow, Dauphin co. sure is moving fast. I'm hearing control channels on constantly, day and night on 502.15 and 501.5125. Yesterday and today they have been off and on simulcasting county FD(33.80), EMS(462.95), city FD(453.70), and PD (460.075) primarily on 502.5875 and occasionaly on 502.9125. They are A25 simulcasts that sound anywhere from quite good to garbage! The simulcasts are not on at night and are not on constantly. I also briefly heard a simulcast of something repeaterd from A25 to analog on 33.84! Who knows what they are planning!
 

scan-pa

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Radio Techs are testing site 6. It is up with full p25. Currently patched TG 11001 rebroadcasting PD Conv F-1

Have also heard Talkgroups 31001, 21001 but the were garbled.

I am getting 99% decode rate on signal here in Lebanon City off the DauCo. Site 6 system

Great Job.

at this rate, both York and Dauphin will have a fully operational trunk system, before Lebanon get's everyone on there system.
 
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scan-pa

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TG 21001 is The patch to FD Conv. F-1 was just active and sounded fair to good.

some garbled parts.
 

scan-pa

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I now have 4 of the 5 active tg pretty much locked down.

11001 & 11002 are both rebroadcasting County PD F-1 ---> F-5, but it is not every conversation. It has been active all day and unlike the previous nights where it was quiet after 6pm. It is now 02:18 Sat Morning and it is still up.

Same with 21001 & 31001 for the ocasional Fire or EMS Dispatch.

tg 61001 has over 12 hits on friday, but I was not able to hear any voice chatter to confirm the user.

Anyone else in DauCo. land getting anything, or confirming any other tg id's?

To me it looks like they are working on patches from the old Conventional system to rebroadcast on the New Digital p25 system.

Audio has been wacked on both my PRO-96 and PSR-500/600


Also notice some testing and multiple pager data bursts on the New Text pager Freq.
 

scan-pa

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Now it seems as TG 11001 is now locked in on County PD 3 (Conv)

Now instead of dispatches, I am hearing NCIC, & Traffic Stops.
 
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Yes, I also heard the TG's active last night, but not all the conversations. The base sounds Very good, however the mobiles sound good to garbled and choppy. I'm using a PRO 96,however I can't get it to read any TG ID's, I don't know how you are getting that. I listen to the channels conventionaly either under FM or MO, but no TG ID's. Of course, I can't trunk it because of not having the base/step/offset data yet. I'm listening to it from the south end of Derry Twp. and assume I'm receiving the Blue Mtn. simulcast. I'm in the shadow of the mountains which block out reception from either Middletown or Reesers, and I'm not sure where the chambers hill rptrs. might be. One thing I have noticed is very good full quieting reception from the 500MHz transmitters as compared to their 462 and 460.075 repeaters up on Blue Mtn. which I recieve good, but moving around sometimes choppy. Listening to the 502.5875 and 502.775 active A25 rptr.s there is no dropout at all on the transmissions as I bike around, as if the repeaters were here in Derry Twp.
 

Mattsenft

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21001 Fire 1
21002 Fire 3
21003 Fire 4
21101 City Fire 1
41101 Encrypted Probably EMA Com Center or techs
All communcations are clear if you are in close range to the tower sites.
 

scan-pa

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richardfaloney said:
Yes, I also heard the TG's active last night, but not all the conversations. The base sounds Very good, however the mobiles sound good to garbled and choppy. I'm using a PRO 96,however I can't get it to read any TG ID's, I don't know how you are getting that. I listen to the channels conventionaly either under FM or MO, but no TG ID's. Of course, I can't trunk it because of not having the base/step/offset data yet. I'm listening to it from the south end of Derry Twp. and assume I'm receiving the Blue Mtn. simulcast. I'm in the shadow of the mountains which block out reception from either Middletown or Reesers, and I'm not sure where the chambers hill rptrs. might be. One thing I have noticed is very good full quieting reception from the 500MHz transmitters as compared to their 462 and 460.075 repeaters up on Blue Mtn. which I recieve good, but moving around sometimes choppy. Listening to the 502.5875 and 502.775 active A25 rptr.s there is no dropout at all on the transmissions as I bike around, as if the repeaters were here in Derry Twp.


There only working on the East side systems. All 500mhz band. After all of those sites are online, they will then work on the West side systems and sites. they have to wait untill they get the current users of those conventional freqs off them and on the 500mhz sites, then those trunked systems will go online.


On both my pro-96 and PSR-500 they are trunking just fine with the standard table settings for 500mhz. Getting 99% decode here in Lebanon City, Lebanon County.

I now have a total of 11 TG that have been used for various voice patches to the old Conventional system.

Once I confirm a few of them some more, I will add those to the db.
 
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Well, I programmed in the 500.000/ 5.0/ 12288 base/step/offset as listed in the database into my pro 96, but no go. Somethings not right. I now get the TG's readout but no voice! the VC shows as 476.9875 or some other odd frequency,but no sound. However it shows the correct TG. I listen to the A25 repeaters conventionally in one bank, then switch over to the TRS set up in another bank to ID the TG. I have tried different steps such as 12.5,etc. and different offsets such as 380, but still no voice off the TRS trunked. Conventionally I hear the digital repeaters just fine. Either I'm doing something wrong or its the wrong data. Anyone who is using a PRO96 to listen to the Dauphin co. TRS, are you using the above custom data,and if so, as a single table entry or is there a second set of data to be entered(as with the West Virginia UHF A25 TRS)?
 

scan-pa

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Richard,

have you tried CC only mode?

500.437500

the system is working fine for me. my PSR-500 does a way better job then it's older brother PRO-96/2096





one other thing it is p25 not a25
 
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