> I turned off the PL and heard someone named Martin testing VIPER comms with the next test from ITAC-1 repeater patched through. The PL was 173.8 if I remember correctly. Was this from Charlotte or Asheville? The signal was reasonably strong.
>> I can't see 173.8 used on the NC MCN system.
With reference to the signal source, it could have been either the Asheville area, or from the Charlotte / Concord area.
The tone designation for 173.8 Hz is "Z," according to the DialCode guide, although it is not mentioned in the MCN information.
At this time (12 noon on Sunday), Northeast Medical Center in Concord is running tests and patches on Med 10 - with a tone of 173.8. They are using the Med 10 site near Harrisburg - WQAS698 - which is listed as 10G (167.9) in the DialCode guide. So far during the testing, the only tone I have seen is 173.8.
Cabarrus is testing with other facilities, and mobile units within their county (the primary comm system in Cabarrus Co is Motorola 800 trunking ... I don't know if they have UHF in the EMS vehicles, but they used to use VHF before going to trunking.) Earlier, NE Med Ctr was linking to the Med 10 site in Wilkes Co for tests with Davie Memorial in Statesville.
The State of N.C. has sites on Med 10 that use automated voice identification in Buncombe, Yancey and Burke Counties, with 173.8 Hz on the site output. Possibly, Bob, you heard someone working on the Viper system in that area who was testing a link to an MCN repeater.
My uneducated guess is that 173.8 serves to access administrative or control functions for the sites within the MCN system, but I don't know why it's visible on the repeater output. I look forward to anyone with additional information.
