Horry System - New TGs

[b443sc]

I've heard the following new talkgroups on the HC system, all of them around 12:30-13:00 today.

3792
3888 - Discussing a power failure.
32016
34160 - NMBFD Firecomm
48016
48080 - HCFR TAC 1
48016 - HCFR Dispatch
48112 - HCFR TAC 2
48176 - HCFR TAC 4

Most of the changes, from what I can tell, have been related to fire/EMS.

One of the dispatchers also said that today they're working on a radio tower in the southern part of the county, and that they anticipated losing coverage on and off throughout the day.

Also, one of the officers asked to switch over to the "sheriff channel." To my knowledge, HCSO doesn't have any talkgroups on the HC system, if that makes any difference, but they could have been referring to the HCSO transport TG on Pal800.

If anyone has any additional insight as to what kind of changes they're making, feel free to share.

 

[KWs]

Are these new TGs digital or analog ?
There was some discussion a while back about Horry County system going to convert to digital ...

 

[b443sc]

These are analog.

I was thinking it could be related to the digital transition, but I wasn't expecting them to start working on it this soon. It may be time for me to bite the bullet and invest in a P25 compatible scanner lol.

 

[scradio1]

Does this mean encryption is coming?

 

[b443sc]

Encryption? No, I seriously doubt it.
P25 digital? Yes, eventually.

Digital comms can be monitored with a digital-capable scanner. Encrypted communications cannot be monitored.

HCPD is the primary user of the system, and most officers really don't care if they can be heard on a scanner. They're equipped with ways of talking to each other that are more secure than a radio. I don't know how the brass or county council feels, but I don't see either of them trying to encrypt anytime soon.

 

[scradio1]

Encryption? No, I seriously doubt it.
P25 digital? Yes, eventually.

Digital comms can be monitored with a digital-capable scanner. Encrypted communications cannot be monitored.

HCPD is the primary user of the system, and most officers really don't care if they can be heard on a scanner. They're equipped with ways of talking to each other that are more secure than a radio. I don't know how the brass or county council feels, but I don't see either of them trying to encrypt anytime soon.

Thanks. Listening all day today and did not hear anything else new. Sounds like the system is working better.

 

[fpo701]

They're equipped with ways of talking to each other that are more secure than a radio.

iCall was very active on the system last week and the week before. I never paid attention to what the iCall users were affiliating with. It did seem to be more non-PubSafety related though.

I'll have to comb thru audio logs from my trip. I picked up some traffic on I think 4168. I know it was an unknown JetPort talkgroup. Most of the traffic was about shuttling passengers around. I could never tell what the entity was.

 

[b443sc]

iCall was very active on the system last week and the week before. I never paid attention to what the iCall users were affiliating with. It did seem to be more non-PubSafety related though.

I'll have to comb thru audio logs from my trip. I picked up some traffic on I think 4168. I know it was an unknown JetPort talkgroup. Most of the traffic was about shuttling passengers around. I could never tell what the entity was.

As a slightly educated guess, could it have been Coast RTA? That's the only thing that comes to mind. They operate most area buses and make stops around the airport. I don't think they have a route that stops at the terminal itself, though.

I've logged various talkgroups unrelated to public safety also. A few sounding airport-related, some sounding more like maintenance or public works. The only ones I've been able to identify are the ones in my first post, unfortunately. Hopefully I'll have some time to pull out the scanner tomorrow and see if anything has changed.

 

[brian]

I added some new HCFR talkgroups to the database that were submitted. I'd appreciate confirmation on those.

I need to look through my logs from my trip in June to see what I found that was unidentified.

Anyone in the Horry County area running a trunked system decoding application like Unitrunker or Trunk88?

 

[b443sc]

Thanks brian! I was hoping someone else in the area could chime in with confirmation on those talkgroups to double check them. If I can get any identified later I'll get them submitted.

I'm eventually going to disc tap my scanner and I'll post any info I get from that as well. Right now I'm hesitant on opening up my only scanner. I may pick up a cheap non-trunking scanner and tap it, especially if we don't have additional info submitted.

I'm assuming each of HCFR's 11 TAC talkgroups have been changed into the 48xxx range. From what I can tell, starting with the dispatch TG 48016, each TAC talkgroup is spaced 64 plus the previous talkgroup (e.g. Dispatch 48016, TAC 1 48080, TAC 2 48112, TAC 3 48144, and so on). The only ones I've confirmed are the ones in my initial post, though. HCFR's TAC talkgroups above TAC 3 aren't exactly frequently used, so catching those won't be as easy as say the dispatch talkgroup.

 

[fpo701]

Bryce,

You shouldn't need a tap for Unitrunker. Just run an audio able from the scanner to the line in of your sound card. Then, set the scanner on manual (so you hear the control channel data noise).

PM me if you need help setting everything up.

Also, I PM'd the owner of the Horry County Fire feed to make sure he saw the new talkgroups. His feed was quiet for a few days, but is now running only on HCFR's VHF. Hopefully, we can get the feed back on track soon.

 

[b443sc]

I have Trunk88 running, but it's only getting about 25% or so decode, with a standard audio cable from the headset jack, while the scanner's getting 99%. Unitrunker is showing the health at "2" and after leaving it on for a couple hours, it only showed one active talkgroup.

Just leaving Trunk88 running for part of tonight, I've captured the following TGs. I haven't listened to any voice on them yet, so I can't say what they are. If anyone else in the area has heard anything on them, as usual, feel free to chime in.

1568, 1648, 3792, 3856, 3888, 4168, 12592, 32016, 34128, 36176, 45088

 

[brian]

Updated the list in the database based on independent verification.

I'd be interested to know if the new talkgrous are patched to the old ones during a transition period (like is being done with SCHP talkgroups on Palmetto 800). If not, and the old talkgroups are no longer in use, I'll set those talkgroups to "deprecated" status.

 

[b443sc]

Trunk88 was showing a few patches between the new HCFR dispatch talkgroup and the old one. It seemed intermittent, and I'm not hearing traffic on the old dispatch talkgroup right now even though the new is active.

Aside from the occasional unit likely keying up on the wrong talkgroup, I'm not hearing any traffic on the old ones. All the HCFR units are using the new TACs 1, 2, and 3 as far as I can tell.

There haven't been any major incidents while I was listening, so I can't comment on the new TACs 4-11. It will be a while before some of those are even put into use unless we've got something widespread going on.

All activity on the old HCFR dispatch and TACs has been very minimal.

Today I'm hearing 34128 being used as North Myrtle's dispatch (firecomm) talkgroup. I originally believe I heard 34160 for that purpose, but they've been using 34128 heavily today. I haven't heard activity on their old firecomm/dispatch channel, but I also haven't been watching it as closely as HCFR.

 

[scradio1]

iCall was very active on the system last week and the week before. I never paid attention to what the iCall users were affiliating with. It did seem to be more non-PubSafety related though.

I'll have to comb thru audio logs from my trip. I picked up some traffic on I think 4168. I know it was an unknown JetPort talkgroup. Most of the traffic was about shuttling passengers around. I could never tell what the entity was.

There was an article in THE SUN NEWS about construction at the airport and how they are using shuttle buses??

 

[dist24]

my mtx8000 shows only new talkgroups when transmissions are active apparently fire/rescue is continuing their migration in rebanding (all analog)

 

[scradio1]

I thought rebanding was only moving the freq. down 15 mhz?

my mtx8000 shows only new talkgroups when transmissions are active apparently fire/rescue is continuing their migration in rebanding (all analog)

 

[hntsgt]

At midnight I lost the control channel for Horry Co. Public Safety TRS. Anyone know if they've switched?

 

[b443sc]

At midnight I lost the control channel for Horry Co. Public Safety TRS. Anyone know if they've switched?

CC's 858.21250 at 19:00. I wasn't listening last night much, so I can't say if anything happened around midnight that caused an outage.

There was an article in THE SUN NEWS about construction at the airport and how they are using shuttle buses??

I had completely forgotten about that. That's probably it. If that's the case, the TG is likely temporary and won't be used anymore after the terminal's done, or so I'd guess.

I thought rebanding was only moving the freq. down 15 mhz?

The DB lists the system as rebanded. I've heard that the county's still working with Sprint, but that may be to add additional voice frequencies to the system. While they're making changes to the radio during rebanding, they sometimes may make other changes to the radios (in this case, swapping talkgroups) since they've already got the radios scheduled to be reprogrammed. (Again, that's just a guess. I have no experience with trunking systems, other than with a scanner and what I've picked up here, so this could be completely unrelated to rebanding. :wink

 

[hntsgt]

At midnight I lost the control channel for Horry Co. Public Safety TRS. Anyone know if they've switched?

It was down for about two hours... I don't know where they migrated to, but just before 2AM I heard dispatchers informing FD units that they should be back on the their regular channels.