Mystery Pager on 153.635

[empireco]

While working in Cincinnati, Ohio and Spartanburg South Carolina my close call was set off on 153.635 for a strange POCSAG Pager that ID's with Morse and a voice message saying "This is a test of the prison paging system". I first heard it in Cincinnati and thought what the world? when I heard the same pager and same ID message in SC thinking it's awfully strong for Tropo. Then I went back to SC a year or so later and it's still there, in fact I'm picking up one of them from Home right now in Central Ky probably because of the Tropo blob showing right on top of me on the VHF Propagation Map.

I don't do Morse code so I can't tell what the ID is.

Has anyone else heard this pager and or knows what it is? A ULS search shows nothing active for South Carolina on that freq and the search results for Ohio are confusing.

 

[empireco]

It just ID'd again at 11:26 AM Eastern

 

[ArloG]

Download a morse decoder on your phone. Hold it up to the speaker. Works like a peach.

 

[217]

It just ID'd again at 11:26 AM Eastern

Can you record it? I can decode the morse.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I don't do Morse code so I can't tell what the ID is.

I'd suggest at the minimum learning morse code numbers if you want to try and ID repeaters on the fly. If you catch the last number (or ideally 2 or 3) you'll have a decent shot at ID'ing the station. With that said I did a range search of all repeaters from 153.630 to 153.640 for Ohio and South Carolina. I also threw in a few surrounding states but I couldn't locate anything related to a prison. If you hear it again it might help to post a recording so we can try and ID it

 

[kd1sq]

Chances are that it's a third party system sold to multiple facilities nationwide. Canned maintenance messages, possibly alphanumeric as well as voice paging. A bit like the man down systems in terms of ubiquity.

 

[ecps92]

153.6350 for years had historically be a Utility [Power, Water] frequency

While working in Cincinnati, Ohio and Spartanburg South Carolina my close call was set off on 153.635 for a strange POCSAG Pager that ID's with Morse and a voice message saying "This is a test of the prison paging system". I first heard it in Cincinnati and thought what the world? when I heard the same pager and same ID message in SC thinking it's awfully strong for Tropo. Then I went back to SC a year or so later and it's still there, in fact I'm picking up one of them from Home right now in Central Ky probably because of the Tropo blob showing right on top of me on the VHF Propagation Map.

I don't do Morse code so I can't tell what the ID is.

Has anyone else heard this pager and or knows what it is? A ULS search shows nothing active for South Carolina on that freq and the search results for Ohio are confusing.

 

[empireco]

I'll try to upload a small clip that I recorded on my phone and sent to my buddy.

I've tried the phone apps for Morse reading and couldn't get any of them to work plus they all had terrible reviews
if someone here has one that works please name the app for Iphone.

 

[empireco]

Here's a small snippet of the ID I happened to partially record.
The pager ID's with a very long high pitched tone then switches to the lower and shorter tone you hear here with the Morse ID being played with the lower tone and then plays the voice message.

You can tell it's simulcast over multiple sites and can hear another higher pitched Morse ID with the primary one I caught here.
Depending on where I've picked it up from, sometimes the voice message sounds awful because of the simulcast.
This is actually the clearest I've ever heard or recorded the voice message. Location of recording was Spartanburg SC.

 

[empireco]

YES! Just managed to record it ID from my Home monitoring station with my BCD996P2 hooked to a Hustler G6-270R fed with 200 feet of LMR-400, the antenna is at the top of my 105 foot tower. This has to be the one from Cincinnati because I'm showing no Tropo right now.
You can hear the difference in the voice message, the one from Cinci always says "This is a te.... This is a test message of the prison paging system".

It's weak, I hope you guys can make out the Morse but the full ID is here.
Again this is the clearest I've ever heard or recorded the voice message from the Cincinnati one.
Strange how pagers in two different states have the same voice message.

 

[217]

37 is all that I can get from the first recording. The second recording sounds like three stations at the same time. You hear this is a test twice.

 

[empireco]

I'll try again in the morning when tropo should be kicking.

It's out there IDing at 26 minutes past the hour if anyone around the area wants to try to catch it.
I also caught it or one of the stations IDing at 18 minutes past the hour, didn't catch it on the phone 'cause it took me by surprise without the long intro tone and didn't have the voice message but Free scan caught it.

 

[Randyk4661]

Don't know if this is still active or not but if you pull up the website for this company and look under the states listed, Ohio, Kentucky, and South Carolina are all listed.
See a former forums posting about this frequency here, Duke Energy - Charlotte

 

[empireco]

You hear this is a test twice.

The one in Cincinnati always does that even when your right on top of it close enough for it to set off close call.
As i said in the post,

The Cinci one's message is different because it says "This is a te... This is a test message of the prison paging system" where the other one says "This is a test message for the prison paging system"

 

[empireco]

Don't know if this is still active or not but if you pull up the website for this company and look under the states listed, Ohio, Kentucky, and South Carolina are all listed.
See a former forums posting about this frequency here, Duke Energy - Charlotte

Interesting but I don't see how a power company's paging system would include a test message for the prison paging system in its ID.

 

[Randyk4661]

Duke Energy Business Services, LLC
This is how it's listed on the FCC web site with 19 active licenses all with 153.635.

As for "Prison" could be adding a new transmitter site, or repairing a site at a prison or town, or could be a code name they have given the site.

But I think you will find this to be the mystery owner of the pager channel.

 

[217]

The one in Cincinnati always does that even when your right on top of it close enough for it to set off close call.
As i said in the post,

The Cinci one's message is different because it says "This is a te... This is a test message of the prison paging system" where the other one says "This is a test message for the prison paging system"

I beleive it's Prism, not prison. Prism-IPX Systems.

copied:
Company Description

Prism-IPX Systems provides redundant radio paging systems, IP controlled transmitters, encryption, OTA paging message logging. Versatile and robust Critical Message Management systems using paging, IoT and other wireless technologies for high performance and dependable communications. Siren Control over P25, DTMF/2Tone/POCSAG/4G/LTE; P25 Voice/Text pagers; Analog/Digital pagers; 2-Way Ack pagers for Staff Response Location Tracking and Threat Alert Solutions; Low-Band Analog/Digital DMR radios.

 

[cmjonesinc]

Shooting in the dark here, but could it be a 'prism paging system'? Prism-IPX Systems | Critical Message Management Systems | Wireless Paging Alerts

 

[cmjonesinc]

I beleive it's Prism, not prison.

Beat me by just a second I believe haha

 

[empireco]

Finally because of good Tropo this morning I got 2 clear IDs, the first clear Morse comes at 18 past the hour and the ID with the two tones and voice message comes at 26 minutes, hope someone can ID it from the Morse and it still sounds like "prison" to me.
The first vid is about 2 mins long as I was already recording trying to make sure Didn't miss the beginning Skip to 1:24 for ID.
Second vid pretty much is ID only