Calgary Frequencies

[RedsunsDriver]

Hi there, i just got a cheap analog trunk scanner today
I know i can't scan police and i plan to invest in one soon.
But for now as a newb i just wanna check stuff out first.

I was wondering what other frequencies besides from the database can be heard in calgary.

I realized that in the database, there are no transit, the non back up parking, taxis, mall securitys and other stuff.

So i was wondering what frequencies are these.

 

[Jay911]

I realized that in the database, there are no transit, the non back up parking, taxis, mall securitys and other stuff.

Hi there,

First of all, welcome to the site and the hobby. I started when I was a kid, with a 4-channel crystal scanner monitoring my dad's fire department, and been hooked ever since.

As for the services you've mentioned above, I've had interesting luck finding new frequencies in town, including taxis and other such services.

Calgary Transit uses the TELUS MiKE radio/phone system, which is unmonitorable - mainly because it is a form of digital trunking that is not (and likely will not) be included in a scanner for the foreseeable future.

Taxi services I've been relatively successful with. Many of them are still on conventional frequencies, and I plan to add them to the DB soon.

Here's what I have for taxis right now:

Associated - 461.4875
Co-Op - 149.53
Blacktop - 171.45
Mayfair - 161.79 / 165.33
Calgary Cab - 165.54
Checker - 143.475 / 151.715
Avacab (Airdrie/Cochrane) - 406.9125

There may be more frequencies for Checker, as they have a whole batch of frequencies. I'm working at figuring out which of these are data (which are a few) and which are voice. Also to remember is that about 97% of the taxi companies in Calgary are owned by either Associated or the Checker Group, so if your favorite (umm.. ) isn't listed, it's likely run by those.

Non-transit buses is another thing I'm working on. Handi-bus is pretty cut and dry: 158.37 / 159.54, and there is a CTCSS but I haven't logged it on my new scanner yet. Southland Bus Lines has about half a dozen freqs, probably separated by city vs. rural (they have an extensive operation in south Calgary, and another in Cochrane). Cardinal has several repeaters, with one channel I've confirmed at 171.39. And Willco has a frequency listed in the government frequency list ( 165.48 ) but I haven't logged anything there yet.

I'm not sure what you mean by the 'non back up parking' - do you mean Impark, or the parking control services? If the latter, most of Calgary Parking Control works off of the city's EDACS trunk system. I have found a bunch of frequencies assigned to them in a conventional format. They are: 462.975 and 469.6125, again, with CTCSS not yet logged.

I have a metric boat load of frequencies for ATCO Gas and Fortis - the two main utilities providers outside of Calgary. Still trying to log the ones which are in use.

Public works frequencies for the rural towns have been confirmed as follows:

Airdrie - 169.41
Banff - 155.985
Chestermere - 159.3
High River - 172.65
M.D. Rocky View - 153.77, CTCSS 100.0

Towing companies - a bunch of the towing services are using the commercial trunk systems (Caltronics, NextCom, Sekom, etc). However, there are a few conventional frequencies I've found.

AMA/CAA - 142.995
City Wide - 463.9125 / 861.2625 (CTCSS unlogged)
Standish Towing (mainly Banff/Canmore) - 158.175

Want to hear Captain Kirk's traffic reports, plus the comments made before/after the 'live shot'? Rogers Broadcasting puts him on 450.3 FM.

Security services, as far as I have been able to tell, are almost exclusively on the commercial trunks. I'm waiting for a chance to try to use my new scanner's Close Call feature (which identifies frequencies in use nearby your location) to pinpoint some of them.

There are an absolute ton of common, or itinerant frequencies which are used by companies/agencies all over the city. For example, 459.275 is used, with different CTCSS and DCS codes, by: Calgary Herald, Standen's Springs, Dynamic Furniture, UPS, Coca-Cola, Famous Players Theaters (note below), Jager Homes, Palliser Hotel, Jubilee Auditorium, Northland Mall, Mariott Hotel, and Calaway Park.

The neat one out of that batch is Famous Players Theaters. They appear to be using this freq with a computerized control system for their projectors. Drive near a Famous Players cinema (the ones I've heard it on are Westhills and Coliseum). You'll hear "Projector.. 1.. Alarm." and other such things. Presumably they employ only one or two projectionists now and have them monitor the entire place by radio..

Anyway, my main interest in scanning is emergency services, because that's my profession. But I've found it fun to try to sniff out these other services, especially with this new scanner, so in time, I will be posting some of these other frequencies on the site.

 

[RedsunsDriver]

wow, thanks for all the info.

and about that parking question.
on the database, the calgary parking, it saids that its a backup sub system.
So i was just wondering whats the main trunking system that calgary parking uses.

also, as i was listening to ems, mainly 16400 talk group ID, they don't really say whats going on in the city.
I was expecting dispatch to say who where what when how and all that info to the ems and tell them to go.

and while i was scanning the 800MHZ i found alot of people talking but don't really know what they are.

and i was wondering if we are able to hear fast food drive thru comments.

i know thats alot of stuff, but i still have to learn alot from scanning.

Thanks

 

[Jay911]

on the database, the calgary parking, it saids that its a backup sub system.
So i was just wondering whats the main trunking system that calgary parking uses.

Ah, that may be old info I've not updated. The two EDACS systems in Calgary (that one and the larger one) used to be used for every city service - ENMAX, sewers, waterworks, EMS, etc - except police and fire. The smaller system, labelled as being owned by parking control now, was treated as EMS's 'backup' system, in case the primary one went down. Right now, the only people shown as licensees of the smaller system are parking control, while half of the city is still shown licensed to use the larger EDACS system. However, lots of people have moved off it to other systems. ENMAX is now on the same trunk as Fire and EMS, and animal control has moved to MiKE (reportedly) as well, etc.

also, as i was listening to ems, mainly 16400 talk group ID, they don't really say whats going on in the city.
I was expecting dispatch to say who where what when how and all that info to the ems and tell them to go.

EMS doesn't say a tremendous amount on their channel 1 (16400), mainly because almost everyone in the city (media, etc) has access to it, and confidentiality is big in their line of work. If you listen to the other EMS channels (16496, 16592, etc - see the database for their IDs), you will tend to hear stuff from time to time, but not nearly as much as used to be transmitted. The issue is, EMS now has mobile data terminals in their vehicles, and can send messages and info back and forth about a call over those encrypted connections. So, when EMS wants an ambulance to respond to a call, all they do is ring a set of bells in their station, and the crew goes out to their truck - by the time they have it started, the details of their call are delivered to their CAD screens.

You'll still hear activity if it's a major incident, because radio is much more efficient to communicate details of that nature than CAD messaging.

and while i was scanning the 800MHZ i found alot of people talking but don't really know what they are.

Make a note of the frequency and compare it against either the database here or the TAFL at http://sd.ic.gc.ca/pls/eng_alpha/web_search.frequency_input - just type in the frequency in that page and it'll tell you who is licensed to use it.

and i was wondering if we are able to hear fast food drive thru comments.

A lot of the fast food places I go to have done away with wireless headsets and/or order boards, but there are still a bunch of them out there. I don't listen, so I can't tell you if there's any funny or weird comments made, but the most common frequencies I've seen in the TAFL are 32.48 / 154.51.

Enjoy!

 

[RedsunsDriver]

so what are the frequencies of the calgary parking?

 

[Jay911]

so what are the frequencies of the calgary parking?

They're using the Calgary EDACS trunk system, which is available at http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=2029 in the RadioReference trunk database. I've also uncovered a pair of frequencies licensed to them at 462.975 and 469.6125, but haven't confirmed them.

 

[RedsunsDriver]

Besides from EMS and Fire.

What else is interesting to listen to in calgary?

 

[RBerezowski]

Besides from EMS and Fire.

What else is interesting to listen to in calgary?

What isn't interesting to listen to? Each hobbyist is different, it's really a personal choice. It's like asking people what their favourite TV channel is. There is no right or wrong answer.

Jay did a very good job summarizing the different services that can be monitored. Of course it's impossible to cover everything, since there are a lot of radio users.

The Calgary Police are digital, but the RCMP are analog. You might plug the RCMP in. I like monitoring aircraft. In Calgary there is a heavy amount of air traffic. Other hobbyists like listening to and identifying users. For example, some people like monitoring to identify security companies.

Are you into winter sports and located near Canada Olympic Park? You might be interested in monitoring C.O.P.

These are just a few examples. As I said before, it's really hard to answer such an open question like "what's interesting?".

Rob

 

[RedsunsDriver]

may i ask it the RCMP is on analog or digital

thanks

 

[Jay911]

may i ask what the frequencies for RCMP in Calgary and perhaps alberta?

thanks

RCMP are in the Alberta Wide 'agency' in the RR database at the following URL:

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&aid=678

There are a number of repeaters across the province - the names of the towns/detachments closest to Calgary using those repeaters is shown on the text labels in the database. There are other towns/detachments using the same repeaters, but they are so far apart that they'll never be both heard at the same time. Example - B4 is used by both Three Hills and Lethbridge, but neither will hear each other because of the distances between them.

RCMP are dispatched from two centers in the province - one in Red Deer covering everything south of Lacombe, and one in Edmonton covering everything north. (I could be wrong about where the split lies.)

 

[RedsunsDriver]

are they analog or digital?
cuz on the MODE section its not A nor D. Its R

 

[RBerezowski]

are they analog or digital?
cuz on the MODE section its not A nor D. Its R

The Alberta VHF RCMP frequencies are analog.

The R stands for Repeater, which is the base frequency you want to plug into the scanner. You can hear both sides of the conversation on the Repeater Output frequencies listed.

Some of the VHF frequencies are shown as encrypted. Those transmissions cannot be monitored bya scanner. But everything else should be good.

Rob

 

[RedsunsDriver]

I know that we can not monitor calgary transit.
but i just want to know what frequency range do they use.
800? 400?

 

[DX-300]

Calgary Transit

Transit's frequency range is in the 800MHz which is what the iDEN network (Telus MiKE network here) their using utilizes. There are a ton of freqencies for this system within the 806-820MHz (TX) and 850-866MHz(RX) range as well as many tower sites throughout the city. All you will hear on the frequencies themselves with your scanner is a buzzlike noise like this one here:

http://www.kb9ukd.com/digital/mot_iden.wav (open file to listen)

Here just as an example for the range are few of the frequencies which are transmitted from one of the towers in SW Calgary:

RX: TX:
851.2125 806.2125
851.4625 806.4625
851.7125 806.7125
860.0875 815.0875
860.3375 815.3375
860.5875 815.5875
860.8375 815.8375
861.0875 816.0875
863.9375 818.9375
864.0625 819.0625
864.1875 819.1875
864.4375 819.4375
864.6875 819.6875
865.3875 820.3875

Happy Scanning! 8)

 

[Guest]

I also have been scanning the 400 range and i found some air canada and westjet operations.
I believe they are baggage operations.
I got a few, but i don't know if they are trunked.
Does anyone know the frequencies used in airports (not nav canada)?

 

[Guest]

I also have been scanning the 400 range and i found some air canada and westjet operations.
I believe they are baggage operations.
I got a few, but i don't know if they are trunked.
Does anyone know the frequencies used in airports (not nav canada)?

 

[DX-300]

The Airport Authority here in Calgary is on the 753F Smartzone system using APCO P-25. I believe I am aware of the frequency of which you speak which is on 463.8375 which does seem to be baggage and according to a quick TAFL search I've done, this frequency is apparently used by Westjet indeed. As far as other frequencies go, there are some other airport operations on the other trunked systems listed in the RR database such as under the Nextcom (Bankers Hall site) and TAC Mobility system lists. Hope this info helps you abit.

Happy scanning 8)

 

[Jay911]

Like DX said, you've hit on the airport freqs in the 400 section, and I'm 99% sure it's conventional non-trunked. As for finding airport freqs, what you wanna do is a geographical search in the immediate vicinity of the airport. That won't get you the things like the people operating on the Nextcom trunk (again, like DX mentioned), but it should help with some of the close conventional operations.

If you need more description on how to do a geo search using the TAFL, just say so and I'll make a post.