United Airlines at IAH

[mwjones]

Was going through some old notes, and recall seeing the license modification for United Airlines that gave them new 800MHz frequencies to replace their 900MHz frequencies (part of the 900MHz rebanding), and that the emissions were for DMR, spelling the end of the line of the OpenSky system.

As someone who hated OpenSky when they were talking about replacing their EDACS system (I was a contractor for Continental Airlines, pre-merger, and was involved in the discussion, and the alternative proposal to replace the EDACS with ARINC's iDEN system as well at that time, which they were successfully using in Newark, NJ), this one has been on my radar for a long time, despite me being in North Texas now.

I suspect that United will add it to the existing Moto Connect Plus that is in use at their other hubs, but I haven't heard if it is online yet. Has anyone in the area picked up on the new system and if the OpenSky is gone?

 

[ericcarlson]

Given the noise on the 900 frequencies I assume the opensky is alive and well. Nothing on the 861 frequencies that I've heard.

 

[ericcarlson]

Per an FCC filing, the IAH system is changing to Cap Max 800 MHz in December (scheduled) but may slip into 2023.

 

[Alrib123]

Per an FCC filing, the IAH system is changing to Cap Max 800 MHz in December (scheduled) but may slip into 2023.

Switching to cap max at DEN, IAD, and SFO too

 

[mwjones]

Wonder what's driving them away from the Connect Plus system, unless Motorola is forcing users down that road, since they aren't selling the system new in favor of Capacity Max.

Of course, in the last 18 months I was at Continental and the merger was underway (I left in November 2011), I saw a lot of questionable things happening from the United side of the house, so them doing crazy things like a system forklift of this nature would not come as a surprise.

 

[Alrib123]

Wonder what's driving them away from the Connect Plus system, unless Motorola is forcing users down that road, since they aren't selling the system new in favor of Capacity Max.

Of course, in the last 18 months I was at Continental and the merger was underway (I left in November 2011), I saw a lot of questionable things happening from the United side of the house, so them doing crazy things like a system forklift of this nature would not come as a surprise.

Con+ is end of life. Ever since the merger it's been rocky. Funny there's another ex con here

 

[ericcarlson]

United is DMR Tier 3 trunked on the 930 MHz frequencies now.

 

[mwjones]

United is DMR Tier 3 trunked on the 930 MHz frequencies now.

Is it really going to be on the 930 MHz frequencies? My understanding is that they were giving those frequencies up because of the Anterix rebanding, and was getting 860 MHz frequencies to replace them.

930 MHz License (doesn't show DMR emissions, and all those frequencies are right in the middle of the Anterix block)

FCC Callsign WPIU889 (United Airlines, Inc.)

FCC Callsign WPIU889 (United Airlines, Inc.)

www.radioreference.com

860 MHz License:

FCC Callsign WROJ553 (United Airlines, Inc.)

FCC Callsign WROJ553 (United Airlines, Inc.)

www.radioreference.com

 

[ericcarlson]

🤷 CC 0 DMRT3 Net 1h on the SDS100

 

[n5pwp]

I'm seeing NXDN48 signals in the 930MHz range. What frequency is that DMR Control Channel on Eric?

 

[KevinC]

I'm seeing NXDN48 signals in the 930MHz range. What frequency is that DMR Control Channel on Eric?View attachment 147604

Wouldn't 931 be paging? Seems odd that you see DMR there.

 

[mwjones]

Wouldn't 931 be paging? Seems odd that you see DMR there.

I agree, the LMR band is 935.0-939.9875MHz, but Anterix is trying to get nationwide 936.5-939.5 for their LTE network (and United is supposed to be surrendering their frequencies in trade for the 800MHz frequencies since they're right in the middle of Anterix's space).

 

[ericcarlson]

I believe Motorola makes DMR radios that are dual band 800/900 MHz so they could just be cutting over to 860 MHz later.

 

[mwjones]

I believe Motorola makes DMR radios that are dual band 800/900 MHz so they could just be cutting over to 860 MHz later.

Would be an unusual way to upgrade unless the OpenSky system completely cratered and didn't want to deal with replacing the antennas and the other fine tuning necessary to switch to 800MHz when recovering from the failure, and the frequency changes will come later when the rest of the infrastructure is ready.

Also, digging into the 800MHz license, there's a request for an extension to complete buildout by end of this year, due to supply chain issues from Bearcom. So, this does seem like they may have had a failure and got "loaner" equipment to get back online quickly but will build out the long-term infrastructure in parallel once the purchased equipment arrives.

 

[ericcarlson]

DB updated with 2 Houston 900 MHz sites.

 

[n5pwp]

DB updated with 2 Houston 900 MHz sites.

Thanks, Eric. I'm monitoring now. Of course since its Sunday there's not much activity. Maybe tomorrow.
Mike

 

[mwjones]

Thanks, Eric. I'm monitoring now. Of course since its Sunday there's not much activity. Maybe tomorrow.
Mike

When monitoring any airline system at the major hubs, the radio activity will typically happen around the times of large blocks of flights, so you'll have a couple of hours of low traffic, followed by a lot of traffic as a number of flights come in and depart around the same time - seven days a week. I saw that all the time when I was in Houston and see it now with American Airlines at DFW (Of course American went cheap with a Capacity Plus system, and then encrypted everything, so monitoring them is worthless - but I can't say much, Continental went OpenSky before this new Capacity Max system).

I used to know Continental's blocks of flights, but that was 12+ years ago, so they've likely changed (and I've forgotten what I knew since then) by United post-merger.

 

[n5pwp]

When monitoring any airline system at the major hubs, the radio activity will typically happen around the times of large blocks of flights,

I see that tracking ADSB/ACARS/VDL2. But so far today the DMR frequencies @ IAH are kinda dead. There's a little DMR burst followed by the Rest frames and then an analog CW ID. I live just north of IAH and I get the IAH P25 TRS great. It just seems that there's no traffic today on DMR.

 

[mwjones]

I see that tracking ADSB/ACARS/VDL2. But so far today the DMR frequencies @ IAH are kinda dead. There's a little DMR burst followed by the Rest frames and then an analog CW ID. I live just north of IAH and I get the IAH P25 TRS great. It just seems that there's no traffic today on DMR.

Might try checking across all the frequencies for analog traffic. If I remember correctly (I was there for the sales pitch for OpenSky at Continental) the system was capable of a "fail soft" mode, where if the controller went south, certain talkgroups would default to using a dedicated frequency in analog. This would be the likely scenario right now if they're scrambling to get back from an OpenSky failure that I mentioned previously. It could be that the new radios have not been issued yet and they're still in fail soft.

I haven't talked to the Continental/United Ground Radio guys in over 12 years (if the same guys are still there), not like we are on speaking terms after the OpenSky system in Houston and the Zetron console fiasco in Cleveland Ohio (another story for another day).

 

[mwjones]

DB updated with 2 Houston 900 MHz sites.

2 Sites would make sense, as that was the original plan with OpenSky - the primary site was on the maintenance hangar on Wright Road (East of the terminals), and they were adding a second site on top of the Cargo building (West of JFK on Pallet road) for better coverage of the Terminals (particularly A and B).