154.130(strange transmisson)

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CrabbyMilton

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This for those new to this was the Milwaukee Fire Department's old SMT(data) frequency. I just noticed about every 5-20 seconds, a recorded voice comes on counting to 9 and then the transmission ends only to begin again and again. Could this be a test patch for the OPEN SKY system?
 

CrabbyMilton

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I'm surprised that I'm not picking up Chicago main on there on a day like today but maybe conditions have to be just so.
 

W9NES

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We hear Chicago when we have a band opening here in Indianapolis.If you have a band opening in Milwaukee you might hear Hendricks County Fire on 154.130 from Hendricks County which is the county west of Marion(Indianapolis,) Hendricks County has a automated Female voice that is dispatching the call. You also might hear Brown County,Indiana Fire Dispatch from Nashville, Indiana.
 

ToDaMax

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I am curious what the reason or purpose for the patch (if it is even a patch) is? I don't think I've ever heard voice over the Data channel, only morse code from time to time. Very Intersting
 

Tim

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I am curious what the reason or purpose for the patch (if it is even a patch) is? I don't think I've ever heard voice over the Data channel, only morse code from time to time. Very Intersting

Actually, 154.1300 use to be the dispatch frequency a number of years ago (Early 90's?). I am sure someone could chime in with much better information here. The PL for the strange radio transmissions was (123.0), I would be willing to bet the farm that is was originating from Milwaukee. The only other explanation would be skip coming in on the input frequency setting off the repeater, but I don't think it was that.

Tim
 

mkescan

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Maybe they were testing OpenSky to Analog for IFERN, and didn't want to tie up and drive everyone crazy doing the test on IFERN.
 

mkescan

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Ok, this might sound crazy but. Maybe the OpenSky radio is in a vehicle, maybe a radio shop vehicle. They have a talkgroup patched to 154.130, and that vehicle is all over the city testing for signal strength & drop outs. They are using GPS and some program that will show them the area the problems occurred..
 

ToDaMax

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Ok, this might sound crazy but. Maybe the OpenSky radio is in a vehicle, maybe a radio shop vehicle. They have a talkgroup patched to 154.130, and that vehicle is all over the city testing for signal strength & drop outs. They are using GPS and some program that will show them the area the problems occurred..

The question to me would then be, why are they using that frequency as a patch to test, and not a test talkgroup to another test talkgroup on the system itself....then again (to answer my own quesiton) it may be another way to test interopability. But then I would ask why wouldn't they use a previously used radio channel (Like MFD F1 for example) instead of using what was a data channel for voice?
 

radio50

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Actually, 154.1300 use to be the dispatch frequency a number of years ago (Early 90's?). I am sure someone could chime in with much better information here.Tim

Right. I have listened to these broadcasts since 1965, and Milwaukee Fire was on 154.13 for a long time. Can't remember when things changed, but I have a listing from 1976 verifying this frequency.

As a matter of interest, in 1976 Milwaukee PD used 158.85 to dispatch districts 1-3-5-7. And they used 159.15 to dispatch districts 2-4-6. If I remember right, in earlier times they used 159.15 for the whole city (see my avatar).
 
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CrabbyMilton

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I got into this wonderful crazyness known as scanning in 1980 and MFD was on 154.130 for main and 154.385 as the med channel. It seems that it was in the early '90's that they moved all voice to 154.385 and the new SMT's went to 154.130. Then in the late 1990's in the early 00's, they began to use 159.150 as F2 along with 154.385 now known as F1 until early this year when they went to OPEN SKY. I guess the order of the day is keep checking in to 154.130 and see what happens. I see in the data base that there are TG patches on the MCTRS for MPD but not MFD that I know of.
 

radio50

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... in 1976 Milwaukee PD used 158.85 to dispatch districts 1-3-5-7. And they used 159.15 to dispatch districts 2-4-6.

To be complete I should have mentioned that the transition to UHF was taking place, with 460 and 150 MHz freqs simulcast, with Dist. 1-3-5-7 on 460.075, and Dist. 2-4-6 on 460.225. Other MPD users were on other 460 MHz freqs.
 
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tencom

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Right. I have listened to these broadcasts since 1965, and Milwaukee Fire was on 154.13 for a long time. Can't remember when things changed, but I have a listing from 1976 verifying this frequency.

As a matter of interest, in 1976 Milwaukee PD used 158.85 to dispatch districts 1-3-5-7. And they used 159.15 to dispatch districts 2-4-6. If I remember right, in earlier times they used 159.15 for the whole city (see my avatar).

Yes and before 1959 MPD used amplitude modulation on a frequency of 2.422 Megahertz which had the best audio quality of any system used since then. and many radios could receive the PD on a Image frequency of around 1610 KHZ
 

ToDaMax

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There was a radio test over IFERN for the City (109) between themselves and the County
(107). I've never heard a City IFERN test since the excercise a while back, and never before that. Does anyone think the strange transmission is connected?
 

Gezelle007

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Ok, this might sound crazy but. Maybe the OpenSky radio is in a vehicle, maybe a radio shop vehicle. They have a talkgroup patched to 154.130, and that vehicle is all over the city testing for signal strength & drop outs. They are using GPS and some program that will show them the area the problems occurred..

When the county I live in did a major simulcast upgrade, they had a NOAA weather patch that would transmit for 5 seconds and then shutoff.. and then come back again. They have to drive around the county looking for bad spots.. roller coaster sounds.. volume levels and things of that sort. This was probably the same thing here.
 

mkescan

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There was a radio test over IFERN for the City (109) between themselves and the County
(107). I've never heard a City IFERN test since the excercise a while back, and never before that. Does anyone think the strange transmission is connected?

Did MFD say " Milwaukee County Fire" or "County Fire" ? If so, then they were actually testing with Mitchell International Fire
 
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