Need Help with Unitrunker

[VA3XMR]

My opinion is it is picking up more than one site using the same control channel which is confusing unitrunker.

I really don't think so -- I'm right in the center of Ottawa, and I don't think it could possibly pick up the other areas from here.

 

[dave3825]

For that system, or any other system to work properly, you need the correct freqs. Not sure if you saw my reply but your site 5 in unitrunker has too many freqs, missing at least 1 that I remember, and uses a control channel that's used as control and alternate control channels throughout the system.


I know I asked but are you a paying member here on radio reference? If so, unitrunker can download everything. Freqs, tg's, band plans. It uses your radio reference login id and password.

Or, you could delete all the freqs except for whatever control channel they are using today and unitrunker should populate the remaining freqs it needs based off what the current control channel dishes out. I have been super busy today so I am not that caught up on where you are at with just having the right freqs in site 6.

I will check back in a bit..

 

[dave3825]

Also, I see your in middle of ottawa. so thats this
Ottawa (CARLSL) Site Details (Bell FleetNet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2)

there is a site that does not look to be that far away, and it lists a range of 30 miles. That number should be the intended area of use. You know the area best. See , on google maps, how far ottawa is from Pembroke.

Pembroke (PEMBRK) Site Details (Bell FleetNet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2)

Ther is also another site in ottawa that may yeild you better results. I have not searched out any of the freqs yet but site 7 might be worth a shot. If none of its freqs are used as control channels elseware, you might have better luck.
007 (7) Kinburn (MARTHN)
Ottawa
141.375
141.525
141.735
142.005
142.215a
142.425
142.725c
142.995

 

[VA3XMR]

Also, I see your in middle of ottawa. so thats this
Ottawa (CARLSL) Site Details (Bell FleetNet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2)

there is a site that does not look to be that far away, and it lists a range of 30 miles. That number should be the intended area of use. You know the area best. See , on google maps, how far ottawa is from Pembroke.

Pembroke (PEMBRK) Site Details (Bell FleetNet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2)

Ther is also another site in ottawa that may yeild you better results. I have not searched out any of the freqs yet but site 7 might be worth a shot. If none of its freqs are used as control channels elseware, you might have better luck.
007 (7) Kinburn (MARTHN)
Ottawa
141.375
141.525
141.735
142.005
142.215a
142.425
142.725c
142.995

No, I'm not a paying member.
I did go through and remove all the extra channels, but they self-populate a few seconds later. I had to enter all the frequency info by hand. I confirmed every single channel on the website, and typed those in. All the other frequencies are either ones I discovered, or just random freqs in case Unitrunker was getting confused with random 800MHz freqs in some of them (see my earlier post).

I'm quite positive that the system has changed. I have labelled a bunch of the groups (Ottawa EMS Dispatch, OPP Dispatch, MTO, etc) and I can see them using almost all of the channels (even ones not listed on the website). So there are definitely more active channels than are listed on the website.

Pembroke is QUITE a ways out of town, definitely out of VHF range. The Kinburn spot is intersting, I'm just barely inside the circle at the right-most edge, so I may try that one. However, the current one (site 6) is a very good, strong signal. It decodes with 100 health all the time. Plus, I'm not sure how the FleetNet works, but I am interested in stuff happening in the Ottawa area only.

When I get back to Toronto after Xmas, I will try the system down there again (which, IIRC, I had the exact same problem with, though I think the control freq is further away from the channels than here).

 

[VA3XMR]

The other thing I'm interested in here in Ottawa is OC Transpo. I know they're on an EDACS system, but I can't seem to find any info about the freqs here on RR. There are listings of the old analog system online, but can't find anything about the new system. I know there are people here on RR that listen to them, so there must be info somewhere.
Maybe I should search the forums (again).

 

[VA3XMR]

YES! Just got the Ottawa Public Safety net set up and it's working!!!
Got the police, and other stuff. I need to set it up to filter what I want to hear
So, it does work fine, it's just something wrong with the way I have that site set up.

EDIT: I even have the digital ProVoice going to DSD+ and decoding!! Awesome. Apparently OC Transpo does use this net, I just haven't heard anything but police so far. I noticed that there also seems to be encrypted ProVoice? Some of the ProVoice decodes fine, other times it says it's decoding but it's just a garbled mess, I'm assuming that's the important stuff (SWAT, surveillance, etc).

 

[Dog]

Glad you got it working.

Yes, it is probably encrypted talk groups that you are hearing. You can turn the priority above what you set the rank at (0-99).

It doesn't have to be important but it could be.

 

[VA3XMR]

Well, I got this working, but not the original one. Still have no idea why it doesn't work. Luckily the control and voice channels for the Public Safety system are near each other.

 

[Dog]

Well, I got this working, but not the original one. Still have no idea why it doesn't work. Luckily the control and voice channels for the Public Safety system are near each other.

Ah, ok. Now you know the equipment is working fine. I don't know enough to help from here but I am almost positive it is the frequencies. You shouldn't have to but the easy way out now would be to subscribe to RadioReference and just download the information straight to Unitrunker ($15 for 180 days). You can download any system in the database. It is worth it to me. It populates all the information for you. Talkgroups, sites, systems, channels. etc...

 

[VA3XMR]

Ah, ok. Now you know the equipment is working fine. I don't know enough to help from here but I am almost positive it is the frequencies. You shouldn't have to but the easy way out now would be to subscribe to RadioReference and just download the information straight to Unitrunker ($15 for 180 days). You can download any system in the database. It is worth it to me. It populates all the information for you. Talkgroups, sites, systems, channels. etc...

Unfortunately, I believe that charging for information about radio frequncies goes directly against the spirit of amateur radio. It upsets me that people submit all the info for free, and then RR not only show ads but then charge to download the data? It just seems ridiculous. Someone should just make a free database.

But yeah, the equipment is fine. I really don't know what could be wrong with the freqs. Everything is set up fine. Even if some of the freqs are wrong, it would just tune into a blank station when it saw that channel being used. Now that I know what the voice VCO looks like while trunking, I can say with certainty that the voice VCO is NOT trunking with the other setup. So I don't think the frequency entries are the problem.

But thanks so much for all your help. I definitely learned a lot about Unitrunker!

 

[VA3XMR]

When you look at the band plan on an info page, the table looks like this:

Custom Frequency Tables

Base Spacing Offset
412.50000 12.5 380
421.00000 12.5 501


However, Unitrunker has columns for Base, Lo, High, Spacing and Slots. What does offset mean, and how does it relate to those other columns? What does entering the band plan do? Does it help UT to populate the frequency entries for each channel?