National grid/ eversource utility

[aelopez26]

Hey all,
Does anyone have any current frequencies for national grid and eversource electric utilities? Primarily looking for Plymouth and Bristol county MA. I have a uniden bcd996p2. Any help would be appreciated thanks!

 

[ecps92]

Try here

Massachusetts Commercial Utilities - Scan New England Wiki

www.snewiki.com

There is a mix of LTR, Passport, DMR as well as some legacy analog still in use
Altho there is a lot done on Tablets [ Cellular Data ]

Hey all,
Does anyone have any current frequencies for national grid and eversource electric utilities? Primarily looking for Plymouth and Bristol county MA. Any help would be appreciated thanks!

 

[aelopez26]

Try here

Massachusetts Commercial Utilities - Scan New England Wiki

www.snewiki.com

There is a mix of LTR, Passport, DMR as well as some legacy analog still in use
Altho there is a lot done on Tablets [ Cellular Data ]

thanks for this, I’ll look up LTR passport and DMR and see what I can program and listen to in my uniden 996p2

 

[nacsr]

In Central Ny they use 153.455 and 153.680

 

[KEWB-N1EXA]

The DMR frequencies are active for New Bedford ,Wareham and the Vinyard. I don't get dispatches but more pole work and working activating or
de activating circuits.
DMR 451.125 Mhz
DMR 451.250 Mhz


Pete N1EXA

 

[aelopez26]

The DMR frequencies are active for New Bedford ,Wareham and the Vinyard. I don't get dispatches but more pole work and working activating or
de activating circuits.
DMR 451.125 Mhz
DMR 451.250 Mhz


Pete N1EXA

Thank you! I’ll see if I can hear these. I’m located in Hanson MA

 

[KEWB-N1EXA]

Thank you! I’ll see if I can hear these. I’m located in Hanson MA

Scan both Slots 1 and 2 On DMR and Search the talk groups besides the ones listed on Scan NE & RR Ive picked up some others.

Pete N1EXA

 

[aelopez26]

Scan both Slots 1 and 2 On DMR and Search the talk groups besides the ones listed on Scan NE & RR Ive picked up some others.

Pete N1EXA

i wasn’t sure what DMR was, after reading about it I thought it was included in my 996p2 scanner but I guess it’s a firmware that I need to obtain in order to program and listen to DMR frequencies. Is this something I need to send the scanner in for, or is there a firmware readily available to upload into the scanner myself?

 

[KEWB-N1EXA]

i wasn’t sure what DMR was, after reading about it I thought it was included in my 996p2 scanner but I guess it’s a firmware that I need to obtain in order to program and listen to DMR frequencies. Is this something I need to send the scanner in for, or is there a firmware readily available to upload into the scanner myself?

DMR is an Option you need to purchase the Key to activate on your 996P2...It is installed on the latest firmware upgrade which you can
do from your PC with the Download provided by Uniden. ( Free)
The price is an open argument on who you buy it from Ive heard $60 and $75 depending on what Vendor has it.
Once Purchased they will email you the key which is a set of Numbers and letters you thumb bump into the radio to activate. (good for 1 radio)

Around Here DMR is worth it because of the ICE system of towers in SE MA. The Kingston Site is the closest to you. Quit a few Companies on it
Such as Boston Med Flight and Various Ambulance Companies. Besides Eversource lots of towns are going into DMR for their Local
utilities and services.
An Example is the City Of New Bedford which runs a TRBO DMR System for City Services and a few Single Frequency channels such as Housing.

There is also a local 2 Meter Ham DMR repeater near you in Bourne MA on 145.200 MHz which has quit a few talk groups.

Hope this explains it a little better.
Pete N1EXA

 

[aelopez26]

DMR is an Option you need to purchase the Key to activate on your 996P2...It is installed on the latest firmware upgrade which you can
do from your PC with the Download provided by Uniden. ( Free)
The price is an open argument on who you buy it from Ive heard $60 and $75 depending on what Vendor has it.
Once Purchased they will email you the key which is a set of Numbers and letters you thumb bump into the radio to activate. (good for 1 radio)

Around Here DMR is worth it because of the ICE system of towers in SE MA. The Kingston Site is the closest to you. Quit a few Companies on it
Such as Boston Med Flight and Various Ambulance Companies. Besides Eversource lots of towns are going into DMR for their Local
utilities and services.
An Example is the City Of New Bedford which runs a TRBO DMR System for City Services and a few Single Frequency channels such as Housing.

There is also a local 2 Meter Ham DMR repeater near you in Bourne MA on 145.200 MHz which has quit a few talk groups.

Hope this explains it a little better.
Pete N1EXA

gotcha, that was a very helpful post thank you for that. Just upgraded my firmware and and buying the DMR upgrade as I type this. Once I have the upgrade I’ll see about programming those frequencies you mentioned

 

[KEWB-N1EXA]

gotcha, that was a very helpful post thank you for that. Just upgraded my firmware and and buying the DMR upgrade as I type this. Once I have the upgrade I’ll see about programming those frequencies you mentioned

Theres Going to be a little bit of a learning curve with DMR..It runs on 2 slots with Color Codes and talk groups. The 996P2
can run DMR 3 ways 1-is DMR Conventional 2- Is Single frequency Trunk and the 3rd is Regular trunk using mutiple frquencies and Control
channels. ( an example is the ICE Systems) I ran all the ICE towers on 1 Quick key so it does not take up space. You have 100 Quick keys
but I only use 0-9.
Whats good about the 996P2 Is you can run it search mode and it finds the active channels no real need to load specific Slots,CCs or group numbers till you find what you like then you can run scan Mode specifically what you like.

Your going to ask what software did I use to Load them in...NONE! Seeing Freescan does not Do DMR I thumb bumped everything in.
I think any 996 owner should learn how to thumb bump and learn the radios functions.

Pete N1EXA

 

[aelopez26]

Theres Going to be a little bit of a learning curve with DMR..It runs on 2 slots with Color Codes and talk groups. The 996P2
can run DMR 3 ways 1-is DMR Conventional 2- Is Single frequency Trunk and the 3rd is Regular trunk using mutiple frquencies and Control
channels. ( an example is the ICE Systems) I ran all the ICE towers on 1 Quick key so it does not take up space. You have 100 Quick keys
but I only use 0-9.
Whats good about the 996P2 Is you can run it search mode and it finds the active channels no real need to load specific Slots,CCs or group numbers till you find what you like then you can run scan Mode specifically what you like.

Pete N1EXA

Thanks Pete, I’ll do some reading into the DMR. Those frequencies you mentioned for New Bedford, wareham and the vineyard are just DMR conventional freqs?

 

[KEWB-N1EXA]

Thanks Pete, I’ll do some reading into the DMR. Those frequencies you mentioned for New Bedford, wareham and the vineyard are just DMR conventional freqs?

You can run them a conventional DMR but I ran them as Single Frequency Trunk because I loaded all the talk groups in.

I also run the slots and Color Codes in search....I'm sure somebody is going to say your doing it wrong but I i'm just listening.

With the trunk function I have the trucks IDs and the talk group Tags...If there on the Vinyard It says Group 21 :MVY on the screen if there in
New Bedford I think thats talk group :3 and the Unit IDs between the 2 people show up and example is radio UID:1234 and Radio UID: 4321
Im just pulling numbers out of my head But there are groups 3 , 4 and 21.... I also have group 100 show up ...Not listed on any web site
but ive heard them.

The 2 frequncies I gave you have both slots used for different groups. say the vinyard ,New bedford and wareham have different slots and talk groups / in trunk you can run multiple channels at the same time. The radio are programmed not to run into each other.

Its like driving a Tesla 3 for the first time...Your going to sit there for 5 minutes and explore the screen functions before even attempting to drive it.

Peter N1EXA

 

[aelopez26]

You can run them a conventional DMR but I ran them as Single Frequency Trunk because I loaded all the talk groups in.

I also run the slots and Color Codes in search....I'm sure somebody is going to say your doing it wrong but I i'm just listening.

With the trunk function I have the trucks IDs and the talk group Tags...If there on the Vinyard It says Group 21 :MVY on the screen if there in
New Bedford I think thats talk group :3 and the Unit IDs between the 2 people show up and example is radio UID:1234 and Radio UID: 4321
Im just pulling numbers out of my head But there are groups 3 , 4 and 21.... I also have group 100 show up ...Not listed on any web site
but ive heard them.

The 2 frequncies I gave you have both slots used for different groups. say the vinyard ,New bedford and wareham have different slots and talk groups / in trunk you can run multiple channels at the same time. The radio are programmed not to run into each other.

Its like driving a Tesla 3 for the first time...Your going to sit there for 5 minutes and explore the screen functions before even attempting to drive it.

Peter N1EXA

thats a good starting point. Thanks again!

 

[W1KNE]

Aelopez, the Eversource systems in Bristol, Plymouth county are UHF conventional DMR. There are just two TGs, and if you don't mind hearing both, just program it in as the single frequency, set to DMR and the color code. If you want to filter one specific user, then go through the steps above.

A great start for you to see who is on with the commercial utilities, is the Scan New England utility page. Being a big fan of the monitoring, and listening to them regularly, I have a lot of this down as to who is where.

Massachusetts Commercial Utilities - Scan New England Wiki

www.snewiki.com

National Grid uses a LTR system, that has the Passport technology unfortunately, so it can't be track trunked. And because it is LTR, you'll get the databursts hanging up the channel. The good thing with the LTR PassPort is during quieter times, most of the radio traffic is on the home/regitsration channel. (See the wiki).

Also don't forget in Southeastern Mass, you have multiple municipal utilities as well. Middleboro uses a single frequency CAP+ trunk for MG&E, Taunton is VHF simplex conventional (although they JUST licensed a repeater), Mansfield is UHF conventional analog, North Attleboro is low band UHF conventional analog. Hingham is P25 conventional.

 

[aelopez26]

Aelopez, the Eversource systems in Bristol, Plymouth county are UHF conventional DMR. There are just two TGs, and if you don't mind hearing both, just program it in as the single frequency, set to DMR and the color code. If you want to filter one specific user, then go through the steps above.

A great start for you to see who is on with the commercial utilities, is the Scan New England utility page. Being a big fan of the monitoring, and listening to them regularly, I have a lot of this down as to who is where.

Massachusetts Commercial Utilities - Scan New England Wiki

www.snewiki.com

National Grid uses a LTR system, that has the Passport technology unfortunately, so it can't be track trunked. And because it is LTR, you'll get the databursts hanging up the channel. The good thing with the LTR PassPort is during quieter times, most of the radio traffic is on the home/regitsration channel. (See the wiki).

Also don't forget in Southeastern Mass, you have multiple municipal utilities as well. Middleboro uses a single frequency CAP+ trunk for MG&E, Taunton is VHF simplex conventional (although they JUST licensed a repeater), Mansfield is UHF conventional analog, North Attleboro is low band UHF conventional analog. Hingham is P25 conventional.

thanks for all that info! I’ll check it out on scan NE

 

[KEWB-N1EXA]

thanks for all that info! I’ll check it out on scan NE

Any Update on your DMR Venture with the 996P2 ?

Pete N1EXA

 

[aelopez26]

Any Update on your DMR Venture with the 996P2 ?

Pete N1EXA

I’ve got em programmed into the scanner just haven’t had any time to scan around yet, but I’ve got everything programmed in there! 👍