Sherman is Alive

[riverradio68]

The new City of Sherman system is coming alive. Caught me off guard, everything so far is unencrypted. Hearing some Fire Dispatching but not sure if its actually Sherman as they're still operating on the VHF as well. Its not simulcast or gateway traffic best I can tell. Also briefly heard Police and what sounded like public works. I was mobile on the SDS100 simple display so didn't catch the WACN ID or those trunking details. Hearing them full scale in Trenton, Leonard and Wolfe City.

7160 Fire Dispatching
6050 Public Works talk

 

[Russell]

Can you see the SysID, the NAC, site number, etc? I'm creating the system in the DB.

 

[mwjones]

Can you see the SysID, the NAC, site number, etc? I'm creating the system in the DB.

I can't pick it up in Van Alstyne (at least during the day, will try again tonight, since it seems I can pick up NTIRN Dallas Layer 1 and other distant signals after sunset) - I'll take my mobile rig up there this weekend to get the control channels, SysID and NAC for you (and if I'm lucky a few talkgroups).

 

[Russell]

I've made several assumptions. Please submit corrections, additions, etc.

Sherman P25 Trunking System, Sherman, Texas

Sherman P25 Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

 

[riverradio68]

Russell -- I can't get em from the Casa but I'll be in Denison tomorrow so I'll find a parking lot and log that info unless MWJ beets me to it. I also submitted it to the DB WITH frequencies, but here they are also. 854.6625 856.7125 857.7125 858.7125 859.7125 It's a TAIT system. Call Sign: WRYM348 ERP is 400.000 so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to hear it in Van Alstyne. I was receiving them all the way to Wolfe City with 5 bars.

 

[mwjones]

ERP is 400.000 so I don't see why you shouldn't be able to hear it in Van Alstyne. I was receiving them all the way to Wolfe City with 5 bars.

My antenna arrangement is the major limiting factor (25+ year old Radio Shack Discone, HOA community, and radiant barrier roof, so I haven't gone vertical yet). Likewise, I highly doubt they're pushing a full 400 Watts of power, especially with simulcast, they're likely under 50 per site. Tonight, my reception is in the dumpster, I can't even pick up Megahertz at Howe (which I usually receive just fine).

 

[riverradio68]

I'll be at TMC Denison this afternoon for a few hours, I'll get what we need and what they spill out to us. Is it possible to toss a mag mount with Larsen tri-band on an air conditioner?

I've also been documenting Sherman ISD's one site UHF DMR stuff, So far I have Sherman Admin & High School, Percy and SISD Police, will send that to the DB soon.

 

[mwjones]

Is it possible to toss a mag mount with Larsen tri-band on an air conditioner?

I'm getting gutters put on this spring (new construction house), so you're thinking along the lines of what I'm planning.

 

[Gopher]

I'm west of Van Alstyne in beautiful downtown Elmont and I'm still picking up the majority of Sherman FD and PD. The traffic is down but still fairly active. Sherman is usually a pretty good listen.
Whitesboro is pretty busy also.

 

[kmartin]

I'm west of Van Alstyne in beautiful downtown Elmont and I'm still picking up the majority of Sherman FD and PD. The traffic is down but still fairly active. Sherman is usually a pretty good listen.
Whitesboro is pretty busy also.

Hopefully someone will get a feed going for Sherman PD in the near future 😁

 

[Gopher]

If they have a tower at their new station just off of 1417 and 75 I'm about 10-12 miles line of sight from there. I'm hoping I can still pick them up when they complete the switch.

 

[mwjones]

Perplexing. I am currently sitting in my vehicle with my mobile rig at 82 and 75 and getting nada from the system. No control channel or anything. Not even a carrier on any of the frequencies. Before I book it out of town, I'm going to go in close proximity to one or more of the simulcast sites on the license to confirm (ruling out my rig, but I'm getting Oncor and Cooke county so I doubt it), but something's fishy.

The VHF PD dispatch channel is still active, so they must still have that as a fallback if they started migrating to the trunked system.

 

[mwjones]

After my adventure yesterday, I started thinking about it, as things currently just don't add up. As I was leaving town, I drove past 3 of the 4 simulcast sites (including the one by the TI campus, that should be within range of my home in Van Alstyne as its practically in Howe), there was no signs of a working system from any of them yet.

And to answer @Gopher's question, based on the license one of the simulcast sites is on a water tower ".3 MILES WSW OF INTERSECTION S FM 1417 AND PARK AVENUE" so I suspect if you're picking them up today you should be good with the new system.

Then I looked at the talkgroups @riverradio68 posted in the first message - seems odd for those talkgroup numbers to be used on a smaller system (unless they're joining a much bigger system). Could what he received been DX from another system (for example several of the frequencies for Sherman is also used on NTIRN's Arlington site) and not from Sherman? I know this week I've picked up Dallas Layer 1 on NTIRN from here in Van Alstyne several evenings so in theory it's possible.

Anyway, that's just me thinking out loud, be interested to hear anybody else's thoughts.

 

[Russell]

I'm pulling this system back to "staged" as it does not appear to be active, yet. You can still view and submit info on it.

Sherman P25

Thanks,
Russell

 

[ffighter17]

Any updates on the Sherman System?? Are they going to big E

 

[mwjones]

Any updates on the Sherman System?? Are they going to big E

Not picking up any signals from Van Alsytne yet, so they may still be doing the construction on it (But don't take my word for it, since my antenna is sub-optimal on the base station). I need to go back into Sherman one of these days (most of the time I go South towards McKinney) but my mobile rig decided to start acting up on a recent trip to Colorado, so I'm likely going to have to replace a laptop before I do too many remote monitoring trips.

 

[Gopher]

I'm west of Van Alstyne and I'm still hearing Sherman. It's not as active as it once was but I hear fire and PD. I have not seen any news of them going encrypted but we will be the last to know. If you are on FB I'm sure Grayson County Scanner will be on top of it.
I'm still hearing Denison PD and Fire from time to time even though both are encrypted.

 

[ffighter17]

Any update on Sherman. I have heard Stolz has been onsite installing the Tait system

 

[mwjones]

Any update on Sherman. I have heard Stolz has been onsite installing the Tait system

Still no signs of life being received at my Van Alstyne base station (and I'm checking daily).

This weekend marks one year since their license was issued, and the FCC sent them a reminder in May that they had to finish build-out by that one-year mark or file an extension - neither of which has happened (at least entered into the FCC ULS), so I have no idea what's going on.

 

[Gopher]

Still no signs of life being received at my Van Alstyne base station (and I'm checking daily).

This weekend marks one year since their license was issued, and the FCC sent them a reminder in May that they had to finish build-out by that one-year mark or file an extension - neither of which has happened (at least entered into the FCC ULS), so I have no idea what's going on.

I am west of VA and picking them up fine on a Patrolman II and a 996P2. They have been doing a lot of testing this week on the fire side with tones and such. I'm still hearing the PD but there doesn't seem to be as much traffic as there was a year ago.