NC Viper and talkgroups?

[musson]

How are talkgroups assigned to sites? I assume that they are only on sites within reasonable distance of their geographic location with the exception of "statewide" things like patient transport and statewide agencies? Is there anywhere to find this information? I can get a sense of what's on a site by using UniTrunker but it would be nice to understand how they are assigned.

I ask in particular because the site i am interested in monitoring (Eno Mtn.) doesn't come in as well as Laws ad my house but the Laws site doesn't seem to have most of the traffic I am interested in (Hillsborough Police, Orange County Sheriff and Fire).

 

[RaleighGuy]

Other than the RR database, there is no "Official" list of talk groups or where they are assigned. The database will only tell you who they are assigned to not which towers. Typically TG is issued to the county, and then assigned to an agency. They are usually assigned a home tower (sorry if my terms aren't correct, but I think you'll understand), and may be affiliated with other towers as they travel through different areas.

I live in Raleigh near the NCSHP Training Center and hear a wide variety of traffic from across the state because agencies or units are in Raleigh and have the radio on the home talkgroup, thus becoming affiliated with our local towers.

 

[musson]

Ok thanks

 

[IcomIcR20]

Typically individual county agencies are given full access to any towers that cover any part of their county from my experience. Sometimes though, you will hear traffic further away if a unit is out of their normal district and affiliates with a site in your area. For instance, I heard Wake Med PD the other day for a few minutes which I had never heard all the way over here in the Triad. Shortly after, I stopped hearing them.

 

[reconrider8]

As a general action for new users not saying you are or anything but I say set your radio up on wildcard and let it ride to really see what traffic is coming across the tower. It may be alot more traffic coming across then is in your scan list but you dont know it. Also this is when programs like unitrunker come in great to let it monitor all traffic in the sites then you can build a scan list accordingly

 

[musson]

As a general action for new users not saying you are or anything but I say set your radio up on wildcard and let it ride to really see what traffic is coming across the tower. It may be alot more traffic coming across then is in your scan list but you dont know it. Also this is when programs like unitrunker come in great to let it monitor all traffic in the sites then you can build a scan list accordingly

Yea I am new and I did use unitrunker and I did find a lot of other stuff to listen to. Thanks.

 

[KE4ZNR]

Typically TG is issued to the county, and then assigned to an agency. They are usually assigned a home tower (sorry if my terms aren't correct, but I think you'll understand), and may be affiliated with other towers as they travel through different areas.

Correct with a caveat: local talkgroups are assigned a "home" county then have access to that home county and in 1 neighboring
county each direction. Example would be a Wake County talkgroup would obviously work in Wake County plus Johnston Co, Chatham Co,
Durham Co, Granville Co and Franklin Co. There are always exceptions to the rule and many talkgroups need a wider coverage pattern
than the home county+one county each direction.
Coverage is an imperfect science so you never know what you might hear on any given day.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[Eugene]

Marshall: Greetings. You seem to have a pretty good handle on NC monitoring, esp. VIPER...Thanks. In reference to the above.....I notice that NCHP district talk groups will be heard on adjacent county/district talk groups (i.e.: Have heard cars calling Raleigh on Greensboro talk groups and Newton calls on Ashville talk groups). Is this pretty much an example of what you are describing? I also have noticed, using a BCD436HP that it takes about a minute for the radio to acquire the CC's on VIPER, esp. on Ashville VIPER and Buncombe County TRS. Once acquired it does fine. But when I turn it off and back on....it does the same thing. Any ideas?? Thanks for all the good work too by the way.

Eugene KG4AVE

 

[Flyham]

Marshall: Greetings. You seem to have a pretty good handle on NC monitoring, esp. VIPER...Thanks. In reference to the above.....I notice that NCHP district talk groups will be heard on adjacent county/district talk groups (i.e.: Have heard cars calling Raleigh on Greensboro talk groups and Newton calls on Ashville talk groups). Is this pretty much an example of what you are describing? I also have noticed, using a BCD436HP that it takes about a minute for the radio to acquire the CC's on VIPER, esp. on Ashville VIPER and Buncombe County TRS. Once acquired it does fine. But when I turn it off and back on....it does the same thing. Any ideas?? Thanks for all the good work too by the way.

Eugene KG4AVE

Eugene,

What you've described is indeed accurate and is the result of merged NCSHP comm centers. Around the later half of 2013, for reasons that still make no logical sense, the below NCSHP comm centers were shut down and merged...........

Williamston (NCSHP TRP A) and Greensboro (NCSHP TRP D) were shutdown and merged into the Raleigh (NCSHP TRP C) comm center.
Asheville (NCSHP TRP G) was shutdown and merged into the Newton (NCSHP TRP F) comm center.

Trp B/ Elizabethtown, Trp E/ Salisbury, and Trp H/Monroe, remain in solo operation.

 

[Eugene]

That explains a great many things.......thanks for the reply.

Eugene. KG4AVE

 

[Cyborkop69]

Question about Statewide receiving VIPER, is it possible to monitor NC Forestry talk groups as I travel through out the state? After programming all the talk groups, which frequency or frequencies get programmed to monitor the talk groups as I travel from one County to another?

 

[RaleighGuy]

Question about Statewide receiving VIPER, is it possible to monitor NC Forestry talk groups as I travel through out the state? After programming all the talk groups, which frequency or frequencies get programmed to monitor the talk groups as I travel from one County to another?

@Cyborkop69 any/all Viper towers in the areas where you are traveling.

 

[drayd48]

From what I understand and see, the county talkgroups are assigned to that specific county and can roam one county outside their "home" county, with the exception for the mutual aid channels which have statewide access. As for Highway Patrol, I typically see them roaming the towers in the Troop and just outside the troop, but I am not sure about that. As for all the statewide channels, they will be on any tower across the state. All of this above only works if you have a radio is affiliated on that specific channel to get that channel to "roam" to that specific tower, and if you are listening on a scanner, then it is just what happens to come over the tower based on who is affiliated to it.

 

[RaleighGuy]

From what I understand and see, the county talkgroups are assigned to that specific county and can roam one county outside their "home" county, with the exception for the mutual aid channels which have statewide access. As for Highway Patrol, I typically see them roaming the towers in the Troop and just outside the troop, but I am not sure about that. As for all the statewide channels, they will be on any tower across the state. All of this above only works if you have a radio is affiliated on that specific channel to get that channel to "roam" to that specific tower, and if you are listening on a scanner, then it is just what happens to come over the tower based on who is affiliated to it.

There are always exceptions to this, but basically that sounds correct.