Southern California Edison

[vince48]

Greetings,
is anyone monitoring the SC Edison with a SDS200? I'm trying to monitor, but my SDS has a strong CC (-85 dbm) but it does not stop on any talkgroups.

 

[Randyk4661]

I listen on a 996P2 & SDS100.
Check different sites in the area. The Edison sites on Radio Reference are not detailed enough. Could be a programming error as well?
I'm sure someone will chime in on this with better info for you.
You can also do what I did and that was to use close call when then were in the area, I found the site they used in my area.

 

[LAflyer]

Assuming it's not a programming error, you might be sitting on a site with minimal activity to begin with, and without any user radios associated with it, there could virtually be no activity for long stretches.

In my experience, the SCE system is rather slow until there are weather events that brings out all the repair crews.

Assuming you are not geographically limited in reception, you might want to check out different sites that can receive and see how active they are in comparison. From my location, I receive 4-5 of them, and there are different amounts of activity among them.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

I monitor it on an APX 4000 (900mhz) in NAS mode. What Site or where are you at? Its most likely a site above in the previous post that is not used much. But if you give me your location then I can figure out what site you need. The system is pretty quiet anyways unless you are in normal business hours or during stormy weather.

Also, make sure your radio is set in ID Search mode too so it catches anything that

 

[vince48]

Thanks all for your input. I know what repeater to use (Blue Ridge) I'm in Visalia. My problem is that when I monitor with DSD+, the voice comms i can hear, when I program Site 133 in my SDS200, it never stops on voice, it does nothing.
I just wanted to see if any other SDS owner monitoring SCE experienced that same behavior.

 

[Eng74]

Try different filter settings on the site. My SDS-200 will not pick up the site while the SDS-100 will. I adjust the filter on the site and it comes in.

 

[vince48]

will do, thanks and I will let you know if I find the right setting

 

[vince48]

Try different filter settings on the site. My SDS-200 will not pick up the site while the SDS-100 will. I adjust the filter on the site and it comes in.

Question, do you see a "band plan" on your 100 when you are monitoring SCE? I tried different filter settings as you suggested and no joy.

 

[monitor142]

Keep in mind that when they went P25 Phase 2, the infrastructure layout changed greatly. Gone are the high hilltop designs with a large amount of RF channels. They still kept those sites but at a much reduced channel count. It's all P2 so each voice channel is two time slots and they make heavy use of the smartzone capabilities of roaming to different RF sites. Compare the old analog system to the P25 system and you'll see a lot of new sites added. It's a Motorola managed and maintained system.

A lot of their info/calls is via their MDC's (Toughbooks) in their service vehicles. Heavy use of Microsoft Teams for chat. I'm sure they have access to numerous databases for troubleshooting circuits, etc. via the MDC's.

Make sure you are in ID search mode and have the individual call turned on. Plenty of patching and private calls on the system.

 

[es93546]

Make sure you program all of the talkgroups as they patch them in what would seem to make no sense. Up here in Mono County, all the real meat of repair/maintenance occurs on the "Lugo" talkgroup, which is located down near Hesperia. I hear all the Bishop District's traffic. They have consolidated all the substation traffic into that one location. Gone are the days when the Bishop District (85) "Control" station did all the remote switching and confirmation of the status of circuits. "Control" is located at a station located in Bishop Creek. However, unless you listen to the Lugo talkgroup you would never hear any traffic for the Bishop trouble men. Yet, there is still is a "Control" talkgroup that I haven't heard a peep on it since getting my BC-325P2P2 a couple of years ago. Bottom line, load all the RR database listed talkgroups in and you might hear what you have been missing.

 

[es93546]

Another tidbit, they used to have 4 distribution operations centers (DOC's), Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western. Those have all been consolidated into one DOC, I think at the old "Eastern" location. Now they just use the callsign "DOC" ("dock"). Traffic on the "Field Service Representatives" talkgroups has also been consolidated in a similar fashion. Because of all these consolidations you have to program all the talkgroups to hear what you used to hear on a local talkgroup. Why keep all of these local talkgroups? You're guess is as good as mine.

 

[vince48]

Thank you for the information. I do have "all" the talkgroups programed. I even put in the "patched" talkgroup. I even put in the "band plan" i got from DSD+, sadly still no joy.
Blue Ridge site must be one of the control sites that have been elected one of the areas. today, -77 dbm signal. DSD+ has no problems decoding the voice channels were SDS200 does not even stop on them. What is weird is one members SDS100 has not problem, yet is SDS200 is totally deaf like mine.
Thanks again Happy Holidays

 

[es93546]

Thank you for the information. I do have "all" the talkgroups programed. I even put in the "patched" talkgroup. I even put in the "band plan" i got from DSD+, sadly still no joy.
Blue Ridge site must be one of the control sites that have been elected one of the areas. today, -77 dbm signal. DSD+ has no problems decoding the voice channels were SDS200 does not even stop on them. What is weird is one members SDS100 has not problem, yet is SDS200 is totally deaf like mine.
Thanks again Happy Holidays

Someone else mentioned this, but having a local radio affiliate with the system is very important. In my case there is a local SCE office where they seem to keep a base radio on all the time. Therefore I hear everything on one or more repeaters, day and night. You may already know this, but I thought I might add. Do you know if your local district has an office where the public can pay their bills and address other power related issues? If not, you may only hear traffic during the M-F on shift timeframe when mobile radios are turned on.

 

[vince48]

yes, my area (Visalia). I hear traffic on weekends occasionally, but its fairly quiet on weekends. DSD+ is what I will monitor this system, just so weird that one device works and the other one doesn't. No Biggie.