Calgarians - What will you listen to now?

[smason]

In light of losing CPS, I thought I'd ask people what you monitor now.

Jay made an excellent point in the encryption thread:
"If you throw away your hobby because one agency has become unavailable, you need to broaden your interests."

In my case, I'm a radio enthusiast first so yeah CPS was one of the more interesting things to listen to, and I'll miss it, but scanners gotta scan.

Post away, maybe it'll spark an interest in something we maybe didn't think of listening to before.
People's interests will vary, so no need to tell us you think Transit is boring, just post what you're monitoring, and we won't judge

I'm obviously re-thinking things, but currently in my scanners are:

CFD
Ham repeaters - I'm a ham so it does interest me, others might find it a snooze fest
FRS/GMRS/MURS
Aviation
I'll be adding Enmax - likely interesting during an outage or storm.
Will add local shopping mall security on my DMR capable radio.
Will re-read the list of unencrypted talkgroups on AFFRCS and see if I want to add anything from there.

 

[Jay911]

Excellent thread idea. Nice to see someone being positive for a change!

Here's what is in my favorites lists:

Inside Calgary:

Calgary Fire

Calgary Airport ground emergency airband frequencies - sometimes there is chatter on here that is interesting

ENMAX - locked out 99% of the time but during outages or problems it can be useful

Calgary Transit - I don't listen but it's in the scan list in case something major happens and I want to see if there's anything worth hearing

ATCO Gas - same as ENMAX, but also still trying to figure out which talkgroups are which

Sundance LTR - still a whole bunch of people renting/leasing radios on systems like this, various mildly interesting comms going on. I think there are several TGs for the new cancer centre construction, or possibly for the SW ring road project - lots of dump trucks talking about moving loads.

Prairie Mobile LTR - Frequencies licensed for use but nothing heard yet, still in the scanner in case they turn the system up and it becomes monitorable.

STARS Calgary - comms are still carried on their UHF repeater.

Alyth Yards - I don't listen to regular railroad comms but I do have the new NXDN frequencies programmed in so I can confirm their RAN and any user IDs etc.

School buses - First Student, Southland, and Willco are all on monitorable systems. Again I don't keep the day-to-day comms unlocked, but the safety channels are open and I can unlock the other stuff if something piques my interest.

Wi-Com Solutions - formerly Tac Mobility, this is their MotoTRBO rent/lease trunk. Tons and tons of users on here, some long-term like Palliser Hotel, a lot of seemingly transient (coming and going, one day/week to the next) users as well.

And there are countless DMR/NXDN systems or channels - everything from one-frequency trunks/simplex channels to multi-frequency trunk systems owned by various businesses and entities all over the city that I'm trying to discover the right codes for (i.e. color code, RAN, TGs, etc). A lot of them share the same frequencies because they are intended for low-power use in a small area (461.6125 is a good example of this, with dozens of users all over the city), so sleuthing out the right codes for a specific user is a real challenge. Some of the users that I am listening to or still figuring out include: the Drop-In Centre, Genco Distribution (Canadian Tire's warehouse facility), various Prairie Mobile sites/freqs, the Saddledome/McMahon Stadium, various Canadian Football League freqs (it seems every team has a frequency pair with DMR modulation - I presume this is coach-to-QB headsets), U of C, MRU, various rent/lease systems from two-way shops, Heritage Park, Air Canada, FedEx, and WestJet trunk systems, KGL (construction company building the SW ring road), and so on.

Outside Calgary:

RCMP - still able to listen to them for a period of time, but within 18 months or so that will go away.

Firenet - both AAF (Alberta Agriculture & Forestry) Wildfire ops and Conservation Officers are on here.

Fireline/Tankers - simplex and aviation freqs used by AAF Wildfire crews.

The ATCO Gas system mentioned in Calgary is also used outside the city.

Volker Stevin - maintains the highways in most areas I drive.

Fire Departments - surrounding Calgary there are a lot of departments that are monitorable. Not including the ones that are (only) on AFRRCS, you can hear Redwood Meadows, Cochrane, Nakoda, Tsuut'ina, Exshaw, Canmore, Kananaskis, Crossfield, Madden, Irricana, Chestermere (on NXDN), Langdon, and Wheatland County and Strathmore (on TRBO). Airdrie Fire is the only local one I know of that is encrypted (or plans to be). Kneehill County Fire is supposedly on DMR/TRBO, but I can't receive them from as far away as I am.

Like in the city, outside the city there are tons of businesses that are on both analog and DMR/NXDN systems to be monitored or figured-out. Some examples are: Spruce Meadows (licenses imply that there is a TRBO or NXDN system there, I forget which), Southland Transportation (mentioned above in the Calgary section, they have a wide-area NXDN system), City of Chestermere (NXDN which includes Fire as mentioned above plus at least their CPOs as well), Foothills School Division buses (new NXDN channel), a DMR Tier 3 rent/lease system run by Nextcom in the Okotoks area, a NXDN system of some kind that just showed up in the Cochrane area registered to Sundance Radio, various rent/lease frequencies for Turris, a NXDN frequency at the Grey Eagle Casino on the Tsuut'ina First Nation, various DMR systems at Walmart distribution centres inside & outside NE Calgary and Balzac, and virtually countless other businesses with as-yet-undescribed frequencies and/or systems.

And then, after all of the above, there's...

AFRRCS:

Lots and lots and lots to listen to on this system. Depending where you are, it may seem quiet or unused, but you have to remember that trunked radio systems only propagate conversations to tower sites where a radio for that conversation is registered. If there's a fire in Cremona, odds are good that you're not going to hear it on a Calgary tower site. (Due to the way radios roam, you might pick it up in Cochrane or maybe rarely on Spy Hill in Calgary - but most of the time the system will stick to towers nearer to the user.)

Here are the agencies I have logged just in the local/regional area in the clear on AFRRCS:

Okotoks CPO (Community Peace Officers)
Black Diamond Fire
Blood First Nation PD
Turner Valley CPO
Turner Valley Fire
High River Fire
Black Diamond CPO
Rocky View County Fire
Cremona Fire
Clearwater County CPO
Vulcan County Fire
Foothills County Fire
Okotoks Fire
AHS EMS (mutual aid channels)
Calgary Police
Airdrie City (possibly CPOs only)
Redwood Meadows Fire
Canmore Fire

There is lots more that I can't hear from my local area that is monitorable as well. Furthermore there are all kinds of agencies testing, either with radio shops' rent/lease radios, or using their own as-yet-unidentified agency radios and talkgroups. There's probably a dozen agencies I see every now and then both on my recordings and on PRO96COM or Unitrunker that have yet to be figured out.

 

[smason]

Great list, thanks.

I forgot I do have the UHF STARS in my favourites.
Also CHEARS on AFFRCS, mostly testing but likely to have some comms during a major event. Did hear some comms during the medical incident on the Stoney reserve.

I do have a couple of the other trunked systems, like the Caltronics LTR that has some security and traffic helicopters, I'll have to re-enable those and have a listen.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Excellent thread idea. Nice to see someone being positive for a change!

Here's what is in my favorites lists:

Inside Calgary:

Prairie Mobile LTR - Frequencies licensed for use but nothing heard yet, still in the scanner in case they turn the system up and it becomes monitorable.

What frequencies do you have for that system?

 

[wbswetnam]

As far as aircraft frequencies go, don't forget to monitor the frequencies assigned to individual airlines, too. Sometimes things go wrong on long flights (sick passengers, especially) and it can make for some interesting communications between the aircraft and company management as they discuss how to handle the situation.

 

[Jay911]

What frequencies do you have for that system?

Hmm. In my favorites list, I have 422.15, 422.475, and 422.8, but when I look for them in Spectrum Management now, they're not coming up. Maybe they're gone. Could explain why the system is so quiet.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Hmm. In my favorites list, I have 422.15, 422.475, and 422.8, but when I look for them in Spectrum Management now, they're not coming up. Maybe they're gone. Could explain why the system is so quiet.

There are 8 uhf channels licensed at the CBC site, although last time I was there only 4 were on air.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jay911]

Yeah, if you look at those licenses, the "unused" channels are all adjacent to the in-use ones. I am wondering if they're licensed simply to guard the existing channels from interference.

That system btw is a NXDN trunk with only Southland Transportation on it at the present time, from all outward appearances.

 

[DX-300]

I monitor everything else on my 436/536 hp’s database including the Air Band, Rail, STARS, RCMP (while I still can! ) Calgary and surrounding area fire departments, and of course some of the other users that are digital but monitorable now such as Calgary Transit, some Amateur Radio (D-STAR and Yaesu Fusion with the AOR AR DV-1), ATCO Gas, and some of the various property management frequencies to name a few as of course scanning technology has caught up with NXDN/DMR. There is also what appears to be a new busy single site DMR Capacity Plus system the Calgary Zoo has implemented for all staff on 460.6375 that I am trying to complete accurate sleuthing work on so I can submit accurate information .

 

[beeperboy]

Don't forget AHS POCSAG paging on 156.900 MHz

 

[robertmac]

The 2 prime things I monitored are now gone. Another one will soon be gone as well. STARS is one that is left that I have a real interest in listening. While aviation is there, there is little activity of real interest unless at airport watching or there is an emergency. Railroad, although I come from a rail road family, doesn't have much of interest. Although I did go and hear, watch the Holiday Train leave Ogden yard so special trains are of interest. School buses I can't really listen to as they seem to demean a lot of the drivers. Transit is not of interest to listen to most traffic for the one time you might here of a situation. Fire is OK. Rural Fire is quiet with the odd incident so I tend to ignore this unless in that area. Business frequencies are of no interest and the language is the same as one finds on LADD frequencies. Although Carmacks and Volker I will try and listen to more in the winter during a snow fall. Ham radio is OK especially during some public service events and the drive to and from work. But I have found this week without CPS that I have now become mostly inattentive to the scanner for the most part. There is just nothing that is of real interest to listen to now outside of fire and STARS on a day by day basis. As I stated in the other forum, the days of buying SDR, Scanners for me is now dead. I should add that I have found myself listen to 160 metres on the internet using some of the SDR radios that are accessible but am only listening to the ones in North America.

 

[smason]

Robert, thanks for replying. Sorry to hear that there's little of interest left for you. I agree with some of your post, I definitely have no interest in transit, school buses,but I'm sure others may have. I used to marvel at the fact that people traded drive-thru freqs. To each his own for sure. I'm sure I'll make do with what's on my list, and perhaps I'll find some new stuff.

Wow, I thought there'd be a bit more response.
Anyone else care to weigh in?

 

[technocardy]

Robert, thanks for replying. Sorry to hear that there's little of interest left for you. I agree with some of your post, I definitely have no interest in transit, school buses,but I'm sure others may have. I used to marvel at the fact that people traded drive-thru freqs. To each his own for sure. I'm sure I'll make do with what's on my list, and perhaps I'll find some new stuff.

Wow, I thought there'd be a bit more response.
Anyone else care to weigh in?

Police, Fire & EMS are what I enjoy, since we've lost two of those I'll continue to listen to fire.

In addition to fire I've got STARS and now Transit that I listen too. I don't mind Transit too much, and will probably continue to listen to them. I've tried other services that have been mentioned here but just can't get into it. I've tried but I just can't.

I may try tuning into air & rail.

 

[technocardy]

Don't forget AHS POCSAG paging on 156.900 MHz

Is this a troll suggestion? I have no real idea about how all this works, programmed this into my scanner and get weird noises. lol

 

[technocardy]

Excellent thread idea. Nice to see someone being positive for a change!

Here's what is in my favorites lists:

Inside Calgary:

Calgary Fire

Calgary Airport ground emergency airband frequencies - sometimes there is chatter on here that is interesting

ENMAX - locked out 99% of the time but during outages or problems it can be useful

Calgary Transit - I don't listen but it's in the scan list in case something major happens and I want to see if there's anything worth hearing

ATCO Gas - same as ENMAX, but also still trying to figure out which talkgroups are which

Sundance LTR - still a whole bunch of people renting/leasing radios on systems like this, various mildly interesting comms going on. I think there are several TGs for the new cancer centre construction, or possibly for the SW ring road project - lots of dump trucks talking about moving loads.

Prairie Mobile LTR - Frequencies licensed for use but nothing heard yet, still in the scanner in case they turn the system up and it becomes monitorable.

STARS Calgary - comms are still carried on their UHF repeater.

Alyth Yards - I don't listen to regular railroad comms but I do have the new NXDN frequencies programmed in so I can confirm their RAN and any user IDs etc.

School buses - First Student, Southland, and Willco are all on monitorable systems. Again I don't keep the day-to-day comms unlocked, but the safety channels are open and I can unlock the other stuff if something piques my interest.

Wi-Com Solutions - formerly Tac Mobility, this is their MotoTRBO rent/lease trunk. Tons and tons of users on here, some long-term like Palliser Hotel, a lot of seemingly transient (coming and going, one day/week to the next) users as well.

And there are countless DMR/NXDN systems or channels - everything from one-frequency trunks/simplex channels to multi-frequency trunk systems owned by various businesses and entities all over the city that I'm trying to discover the right codes for (i.e. color code, RAN, TGs, etc). A lot of them share the same frequencies because they are intended for low-power use in a small area (461.6125 is a good example of this, with dozens of users all over the city), so sleuthing out the right codes for a specific user is a real challenge. Some of the users that I am listening to or still figuring out include: the Drop-In Centre, Genco Distribution (Canadian Tire's warehouse facility), various Prairie Mobile sites/freqs, the Saddledome/McMahon Stadium, various Canadian Football League freqs (it seems every team has a frequency pair with DMR modulation - I presume this is coach-to-QB headsets), U of C, MRU, various rent/lease systems from two-way shops, Heritage Park, Air Canada, FedEx, and WestJet trunk systems, KGL (construction company building the SW ring road), and so on.

Outside Calgary:

RCMP - still able to listen to them for a period of time, but within 18 months or so that will go away.

Firenet - both AAF (Alberta Agriculture & Forestry) Wildfire ops and Conservation Officers are on here.

Fireline/Tankers - simplex and aviation freqs used by AAF Wildfire crews.

The ATCO Gas system mentioned in Calgary is also used outside the city.

Volker Stevin - maintains the highways in most areas I drive.

Fire Departments - surrounding Calgary there are a lot of departments that are monitorable. Not including the ones that are (only) on AFRRCS, you can hear Redwood Meadows, Cochrane, Nakoda, Tsuut'ina, Exshaw, Canmore, Kananaskis, Crossfield, Madden, Irricana, Chestermere (on NXDN), Langdon, and Wheatland County and Strathmore (on TRBO). Airdrie Fire is the only local one I know of that is encrypted (or plans to be). Kneehill County Fire is supposedly on DMR/TRBO, but I can't receive them from as far away as I am.

Like in the city, outside the city there are tons of businesses that are on both analog and DMR/NXDN systems to be monitored or figured-out. Some examples are: Spruce Meadows (licenses imply that there is a TRBO or NXDN system there, I forget which), Southland Transportation (mentioned above in the Calgary section, they have a wide-area NXDN system), City of Chestermere (NXDN which includes Fire as mentioned above plus at least their CPOs as well), Foothills School Division buses (new NXDN channel), a DMR Tier 3 rent/lease system run by Nextcom in the Okotoks area, a NXDN system of some kind that just showed up in the Cochrane area registered to Sundance Radio, various rent/lease frequencies for Turris, a NXDN frequency at the Grey Eagle Casino on the Tsuut'ina First Nation, various DMR systems at Walmart distribution centres inside & outside NE Calgary and Balzac, and virtually countless other businesses with as-yet-undescribed frequencies and/or systems.

And then, after all of the above, there's...

AFRRCS:

Lots and lots and lots to listen to on this system. Depending where you are, it may seem quiet or unused, but you have to remember that trunked radio systems only propagate conversations to tower sites where a radio for that conversation is registered. If there's a fire in Cremona, odds are good that you're not going to hear it on a Calgary tower site. (Due to the way radios roam, you might pick it up in Cochrane or maybe rarely on Spy Hill in Calgary - but most of the time the system will stick to towers nearer to the user.)

Here are the agencies I have logged just in the local/regional area in the clear on AFRRCS:

Okotoks CPO (Community Peace Officers)
Black Diamond Fire
Blood First Nation PD
Turner Valley CPO
Turner Valley Fire
High River Fire
Black Diamond CPO
Rocky View County Fire
Cremona Fire
Clearwater County CPO
Vulcan County Fire
Foothills County Fire
Okotoks Fire
AHS EMS (mutual aid channels)
Calgary Police
Airdrie City (possibly CPOs only)
Redwood Meadows Fire
Canmore Fire

There is lots more that I can't hear from my local area that is monitorable as well. Furthermore there are all kinds of agencies testing, either with radio shops' rent/lease radios, or using their own as-yet-unidentified agency radios and talkgroups. There's probably a dozen agencies I see every now and then both on my recordings and on PRO96COM or Unitrunker that have yet to be figured out.

I need to do a big update and get my handhelds all updated with AFRRCS! I've been delaying it for a while, need to just sit down and do it.

 

[mciupa]

Is this a troll suggestion? I have no real idea about how all this works, programmed this into my scanner and get weird noises. lol

Not at all.

Do you have an SDR dongle? If so, you may be interested in this.

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-pocsag-pager-decoding/

 

[smason]

Don't forget AHS POCSAG paging on 156.900 MHz

I forgot all about POCSAG. I used to be part of an on-call team. When I didn't have the pager, I'd keep tabs on callouts using a data slicer on an old scanner. Way easier now with SDR.
Cool suggestion.

 

[robertmac]

Well, one person who is happy with encryption is my wife. She now says my talking pockets are quiet. Sad!

 

[smason]

Well, one person who is happy with encryption is my wife. She now says my talking pockets are quiet. Sad!

Mine's unhappy. I'm used to her saying "I hear the helicopter, turn on the scanner!"

 

[beeperboy]

Is this a troll suggestion? I have no real idea about how all this works, programmed this into my scanner and get weird noises. lol

LOL Not a troll. You need a data slicer to decode the FSK data, and some freeware decoder software for your computer.