Lancaster County - P25 System (Was OpenSky System Dumped)

[Captain715]

The alpha paging is not on a "site" per say. It was built out using the old "Admin South" frequency that was County-wide on the existing towers from the 33MHz system.

 

[MisterPixel]

For what it's worth department, the alpha paging on 453.525
is loud and easy to de-code here in Gettysburg.
Unable to tell which site...
-----

How does one decode it?

 

[Captain715]

Free software and either a scanner with a discriminator tap or sound card. I use the PDW software

 

[MisterPixel]

Free software and either a scanner with a discriminator tap or sound card. I use the PDW software

So if someone had this they could in theory make a web site that would show all of the dispatches like the one in Lebanon county? http://home.comcast.net/~wa3rey/TOM/monitor.html

 

[Captain715]

There is something similar that DCR Inc hosts on their website here: www.southernpa.net

It decodes both York and Lancaster Counties Alpha paging and also has links to various online scanner feeds. Some of the feed links are offline and need updated, but the alpha paging feed is there (although it appears to have stopped decoding)

 

[Captain715]

FYI...the Lebanon feed hasn't been live since 1/2009

 

[MisterPixel]

I posted the wrong url. This one appears to be live: https://lebanonema.org/pager/html/monitor.html

 

[MisterPixel]

There is something similar that DCR Inc hosts on their website here: www.southernpa.net

It decodes both York and Lancaster Counties Alpha paging and also has links to various online scanner feeds. Some of the feed links are offline and need updated, but the alpha paging feed is there (although it appears to have stopped decoding)

Thanks. I'll have to keep an eye one this.

 

[chankel]

Thank you for pointing out PDW. It didn't want to work with audio in to the soundcard from the PSR-500's earphone-out jack, so I'm going to try it with one of these [4-level slicers] [http://www.discriminator.nl/order/index-en.html] with audio out first, then if that fails, a discriminator tap.

 

[DisasterGuy]

Does anyone have a general update on this system, how it is performing in the field, if ahead of or behind schedule, etc. Also looking for confirmation that they cut over prior to having all their radios installed.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[RLNOLT]

Is the police going to be able to talk with fire/ems directly in the future? Thought that was one of the reasons for going to a trunked system.

 

[Captain715]

Does anyone have a general update on this system, how it is performing in the field, if ahead of or behind schedule, etc. Also looking for confirmation that they cut over prior to having all their radios installed.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Yes, the switch over took place before all the radios were installed.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[mlmummert]

Is there an ALL CALL cap code on the new paging system?

 

[Subliminal87]

A lot of times today county was telling units "your radio is unreadable, can you repeat".

It's not the radio, it's the system being trashy.

It WAS good, but today it was complete crap.

 

[MisterPixel]

A lot of times today county was telling units "your radio is unreadable, can you repeat".

It's not the radio, it's the system being trashy.

It WAS good, but today it was complete crap.

I noticed the same thing and a couple times county told the units they were unreadable I could read them although other times I couldn't understand units at all when county just acknowledged them.
Wednesday evening I was up in the New Holland/East Earl area (receiving on northeast) and I thought the systems sounded much clearer and stronger than it does here in the central area.

Also I'm quite frequently hearing units transmitting and they're unreadable because of an echo that sounds like there's another radio on close by.

 

[Subliminal87]

I noticed the same thing and a couple times county told the units they were unreadable I could read them although other times I couldn't understand units at all when county just acknowledged them.
Wednesday evening I was up in the New Holland/East Earl area (receiving on northeast) and I thought the systems sounded much clearer and stronger than it does here in the central area.

Also I'm quite frequently hearing units transmitting and they're unreadable because of an echo that sounds like there's another radio on close by.

I use the system daily and it sucked. On the site we were connecting to, we had issues. No one could get out for awhile.

Then in another end of the county, county was telling units their radio was garbled...

I ended up calling county by phone instead for basic info.

 

[bauker]

Interference to the system is occurring periodically due to tropospheric ducting. A Washington DC area TV station gets into the receiver inputs. It is most common during the early morning hours.

 

[Captain715]

Interference to the system is occurring periodically due to tropospheric ducting. A TV station this side of Washington DC gets into the receiver inputs. It is most common during the early morning hours.

Thanks for the update. Is this going to be a common occurrence, or is there something in the works to try to combat this?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[bauker]

I haven't heard a resolution yet. They are looking at the channel plan. It is affecting the frequencies used in the North East "B" cluster particularly. Tropospheric ducting can occur anytime due to cloud formations but is most common Spring and Fall.

 

[Septa3371CSX1]

Not much can be done about this periodic interference other than moving off of UHF T-band. Several counties in New Jersey have either moved off or are in the process of moving off of T-band and up to 700 MHz in part because of the ducting interference (which given NJ's location near the ocean occurs quite a bit).

With the impending deadline of 2023 for all public safety agencies to vacate T-band I'm sure Lancaster County will have to move to 700 MHz at some point down the line.