ISP Vehicular Repeater

[VASCAR2]

Last year the Illinois State Police started transitioning to Motorola APX8000 hand held portable radios. My understanding is APX are dual band and the ISP model is VHF Hi band and 800 MHz. I also heard ISP was changing vehicular repeaters at the same time the portables were being issued. I suspected ISP was going to use VHF Hi band vehicular repeaters integrated to work with the 800 MHz SC21 mobile.

The ISP previously used an inband Motorla vehicluar repeater which required a monthly user fee on the STARCOM 21 system. Not every patrol car was issued a vehicular repeater to reduce cost. Under the SC21 system an Agency incurs a monthly fee for every portable, mobile, vehicular repeater on control point transmitter.

By using the dual band VHF/800 APX8000 portable a Trooper has access to agencies still using VHF Hi band plus legacy VHF Hi band ISPERN, HF4, IREACH, HF2 (District high band).

I finally heard a ISP portable and vehicular repeater today on frequency 155.505, DSC 152. The portable was transmitting on analog with a digital code. The previous in band vehicular repeaters were analog 700 MHz but the frequencies were duplicated. As an example if a Trooper was away from his home District he needed to use the correct setting/District for his physical location. Normally at least two Districts used the same vehicular repeater Frequencies and were not adjoining districts geographically. The portable would display Rptr 19/7 indicating the portable could be used in those two districts. If the Trooper traveled outside the geographic area of his district they are instructed to use the TG for their geographical location. For the vehicular repeater to work outside the assigned District the Trooper was required to navagate to a different menu to access the correct vehicular repeater frequency.

The confusion associated with having to change the mobile and portable to different TG and menu meant many users never used this capability. The simplicity of the new dual band portable and VHF Hi band vehicular repeater will be an officer safety improvement for Troopers assigned to rural areas or having to work in a different district.


I suspect that the 155.505 Frequency will be used statewide with the possible exception of District 15 (Toll Way). District 15 is supposed to have portable coverage capability on SC21 and was not using vehicular repeaters to my knowledge. I heard the ISP portable/veh rptr in northern Illinois but I suspect the same digital tone will be used statewide. Back when ISP used VHF Hi band repeaters they were paired to Low Band VHF mobiles on the same 155.505 frequency but with a ctss tone.

 

[catbird]

Last year the Illinois State Police started transitioning to Motorola APX8000 hand held portable radios. My understanding is APX are dual band and the ISP model is VHF Hi band and 800 MHz. I also heard ISP was changing vehicular repeaters at the same time the portables were being issued. I suspected ISP was going to use VHF Hi band vehicular repeaters integrated to work with the 800 MHz SC21 mobile.

The ISP previously used an inband Motorla vehicluar repeater which required a monthly user fee on the STARCOM 21 system. Not every patrol car was issued a vehicular repeater to reduce cost. Under the SC21 system an Agency incurs a monthly fee for every portable, mobile, vehicular repeater on control point transmitter.

By using the dual band VHF/800 APX8000 portable a Trooper has access to agencies still using VHF Hi band plus legacy VHF Hi band ISPERN, HF4, IREACH, HF2 (District high band).

I finally heard a ISP portable and vehicular repeater today on frequency 155.505, DSC 152. The portable was transmitting on analog with a digital code. The previous in band vehicular repeaters were analog 700 MHz but the frequencies were duplicated. As an example if a Trooper was away from his home District he needed to use the correct setting/District for his physical location. Normally at least two Districts used the same vehicular repeater Frequencies and were not adjoining districts geographically. The portable would display Rptr 19/7 indicating the portable could be used in those two districts. If the Trooper traveled outside the geographic area of his district they are instructed to use the TG for their geographical location. For the vehicular repeater to work outside the assigned District the Trooper was required to navagate to a different menu to access the correct vehicular repeater frequency.

The confusion associated with having to change the mobile and portable to different TG and menu meant many users never used this capability. The simplicity of the new dual band portable and VHF Hi band vehicular repeater will be an officer safety improvement for Troopers assigned to rural areas or having to work in a different district.


I suspect that the 155.505 Frequency will be used statewide with the possible exception of District 15 (Toll Way). District 15 is supposed to have portable coverage capability on SC21 and was not using vehicular repeaters to my knowledge. I heard the ISP portable/veh rptr in northern Illinois but I suspect the same digital tone will be used statewide. Back when ISP used VHF Hi band repeaters they were paired to Low Band VHF mobiles on the same 155.505 frequency but with a ctss tone.

Thank you sir for the information.

 

[VASCAR2]

The last sentence in the second paragraph should read “or control point transmitter”. It’s a typo original post said on instead of or. I missed it when I proof read the post but now can’t figure out how to edit my intial post.


Oh well, basic information is the same, you want to pick up ISP vehicular repeaters, program 155.505.

I get entirely to long winded. I could have put the pertinent information in two sentences.

 

[WD9GHG]

I've heard the District 13 cars on 155.505 with a DSC 155 code. I always have that frequency in the scan list as it let's me know if a unit is within eyeball range!

 

[VASCAR2]

Thanks for the info, sounds like ISP might be using different DSC codes since I got 152 up north. Curious if ISP is using a different DSC code for each district or for each region.

Back in the late 80’s I listened to District 15 via the mobile extender/vehicular repeaters since my scanner was not 800 capable. There were very few times I wasn’t within range of a car while commuting on the Tollway. Many Troopers back then left their repeaters on continually.

Basically did the same thing as the Bearcat Bear Tracker.

 

[kevino]

Any idea which district the car using D152 was from?

Thanks

Last year the Illinois State Police started transitioning to Motorola APX8000 hand held portable radios. My understanding is APX are dual band and the ISP model is VHF Hi band and 800 MHz. I also heard ISP was changing vehicular repeaters at the same time the portables were being issued. I suspected ISP was going to use VHF Hi band vehicular repeaters integrated to work with the 800 MHz SC21 mobile.

The ISP previously used an inband Motorla vehicluar repeater which required a monthly user fee on the STARCOM 21 system. Not every patrol car was issued a vehicular repeater to reduce cost. Under the SC21 system an Agency incurs a monthly fee for every portable, mobile, vehicular repeater on control point transmitter.

By using the dual band VHF/800 APX8000 portable a Trooper has access to agencies still using VHF Hi band plus legacy VHF Hi band ISPERN, HF4, IREACH, HF2 (District high band).

I finally heard a ISP portable and vehicular repeater today on frequency 155.505, DSC 152. The portable was transmitting on analog with a digital code. The previous in band vehicular repeaters were analog 700 MHz but the frequencies were duplicated. As an example if a Trooper was away from his home District he needed to use the correct setting/District for his physical location. Normally at least two Districts used the same vehicular repeater Frequencies and were not adjoining districts geographically. The portable would display Rptr 19/7 indicating the portable could be used in those two districts. If the Trooper traveled outside the geographic area of his district they are instructed to use the TG for their geographical location. For the vehicular repeater to work outside the assigned District the Trooper was required to navagate to a different menu to access the correct vehicular repeater frequency.

The confusion associated with having to change the mobile and portable to different TG and menu meant many users never used this capability. The simplicity of the new dual band portable and VHF Hi band vehicular repeater will be an officer safety improvement for Troopers assigned to rural areas or having to work in a different district.


I suspect that the 155.505 Frequency will be used statewide with the possible exception of District 15 (Toll Way). District 15 is supposed to have portable coverage capability on SC21 and was not using vehicular repeaters to my knowledge. I heard the ISP portable/veh rptr in northern Illinois but I suspect the same digital tone will be used statewide. Back when ISP used VHF Hi band repeaters they were paired to Low Band VHF mobiles on the same 155.505 frequency but with a ctss tone.

 

[VASCAR2]

The unit I heard on the vehicular repeater was from District 16.

When I programmed my Uniden BC996XT I set the system to search for the DSC code. The only real purpose of the code is to activate the vehicular repeater mobile transmitter. When the vehicular repeaters were used with VHF Hi band portables to work with the low band mobiles we could switch the code off to talk portable to portable without transmitting on low band. This was a handy feature if multiple Troopers were working a crash, road side safety or other event.


The ISP portables were programmed where channel 1 was ISPERN/Priority, channel 2 (District HF2), channel 3 IREACH, channel 4 HF4 statewide, channel 5 portable to portable, channel 6 vehicular repeater.

It was easy to quickly change channels because there was a stop at channel 1 or channel six. Later when portables were purchased that were synthesized and had the capabilty to add additional frequencies the first four channels and the last two channels in each bank were the same as the radios that were 6 channel portables.

If you progam the DSC code on 155.505 receive side you might miss traffic from a unit out of his assigned district/geographic area. I see no reason to do this unless you want to label an individual channel so you might be able to identify an out of district/geographic area unit by the different DSC code.

The ctss tone code was only on the transmit side on the ISP portables and the receivers were open. The District High Band HF2 had a tone on the transmit side of the mobiles to help eliminate skip interference at the base stations and through the microwave links to voted remote transmitter sites/towers.

 

[Starcom21]

D155 has been heard in use at SC-32, the Scale south of Litchfield on I-55 (in the last 6 months)

NAC 293 was also heard last August at the Illinois State Fair, in addition to D155 (D9, but could be a unit from anywhere)

Had no idea why I was hearing activity here again

 

[Starcom21]

Also, 154.95 was modified earlier in the year add a 9K30F1D emission. KA5825

ULS Application - Public Safety Pool, Conventional - 0008074045 - ILLINOIS, STATE OF - Transaction Log

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154.7025 was added to KA2864 which is DNR frequencies (150 units)
151.25, 159.375 and 159.42 was also modified replacing Narrowband with 9K30F1D emission
This license also has 171.425 mobile extenders (150 units)

ULS Application - Public Safety Pool, Conventional - 0008125225 - ILLINOIS, STATE OF - Transaction Log

9K30F1D signifies a wireless radio which transfers data over a modulated wave using Digital, on-off or quantized, no modulation signal. This signal transmits at a 9.30 kHz [9K30] maximum bandwidth .

----
172.275 is still licensed for mobile extenders (150 units) on
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WPIW484

 

[apco25]

I've been out of Illinois for a while but the in-band repeaters used by ISP were simply 800mhz conventional and didn't incur any extra cost on SC21. The multiband APX8000 portables will still be on SC21 as will the mobile and still incur user fees. Going back to cross band repeating is far simpler RF hardware wise over an 800mhz in band repeater when your mobile radio is also 800/700mhz.

 

[mws72]

If you progam the DSC code on 155.505 receive side you might miss traffic from a unit out of his assigned district/geographic area. I see no reason to do this unless you want to label an individual channel so you might be able to identify an out of district/geographic area unit by the different DSC code.

The ctss tone code was only on the transmit side on the ISP portables and the receivers were open. The District High Band HF2 had a tone on the transmit side of the mobiles to help eliminate skip interference at the base stations and through the microwave links to voted remote transmitter sites/towers.

If you do no code on 155.505 along the northwest border with Iowa you might hear Iowa State Patrol units. this is known as AIR and was used for speed enforcement or details. While Post HQs have Base stations i have not heard anything for a long time. It was reported that the mobile side was transmitting a 127.3 tone.