2019-STARCOM21 Thread Sites/Talkgroups

[VASCAR2]

I am visiting in Northern Winnebago County and I entered the frequencies for site 1-55. I’m getting an active control channel on 771.0312 on my BCD325P2. I’m only getting one or two bars signal strength on my scanner and so far I have only seen one TG, 1723 which is encrypted. I looked at google maps and there is a small tower at the Blackhawk Blvd address. I’ll try to drive by there tomorrow and get pictures of the tower.

SID: 0140h-0155

Most of the Fire Departments in Winnebago County are on VHF High Band and LE except for ISP is encrypted. I have trouble with LSM simulcast distortion at my location on the Winnebago simulcast site 111. I get the most reception on S Beloit site 143 and Pecatonica/D-16 site 135.

 

[VASCAR2]

Picking up frequent transmission on TG 1728 off the Rockton site but still encrypted. There is an active structure fire in S Beloit not sure if TG 1728 is Winnebago County Dispatch for local PD’s as most Talk Groups in Winnebago County are not identified in the data base.

Rockton Fire Dept. is responding Mutual Aid to S Beloit structure fire.

I have tried to see if any ISP TG affiliate with the Rockton site. So far haven’t heard any. I heard a Illinois Conservation Police unit go out of the car on a call near Rockton but his traffic did not vote on and was not transmitted on the Rockton site.

 

[VASCAR2]

I still haven’t heard any voice traffic off Rockton site but there have been several encrypted Talk Groups show up including Rockford PD. The first picture is the current antennas on the Rockton Township Garage the second photo is street view from google maps. The antennas on the second photo is a four loop dipole on top and a fiberglass whip below.

 

[kevino]

Do you feel fairly certain that Site 155 is at the Rockton tower, Larry? Guessing that, for as close as you were, you were able to tell whether or not the control channel was full bars - possibly even without an antenna on the scanner. Did you note any active freqs other than the control channel? Any of those other than the ones that are licensed to Winnebago County at Rockton?

 

[VASCAR2]

My scanner didn’t pickup any voice traffic while I was in the vicinity of the Rockton Township garage. I’m 99% sure this location is site 1-55 and the way the signal strength reacted I feel sure this is correct. The license show a tower height of 150 feet but this tower/antenna appears to be around 70 to 80 feet (counting 10’ Rohn tower sections). The VHF whip antenna previously on this tower has been moved to a short 30 foot Rohn tower on the west rear of the garage building. I suspect the VHF fiberglass whip antenna is for the Township VHF frequeny for the highway department (antenna/tower can be seen in first photo). I bet the four loop dipole antenna on top of the tower was a receiver for Winnebago LE communications when they were on VHF High Band.

I’m unsure if Winnebago County has plans to raise this tower to 150 foot. The antenna on the side mount is a little unusual and is not the typical directional antenna used by SC 21 sites near a neighboring state. The location I‘m staying would have reduced signal strength because the tower structure blocks the side mounted 700/800 MHz antenna towards my location.

After looking at other SC 21 sites maintained by local Agencies like St Clair county there appear to be different brands or models of antennas than those used by most SC 21 sites. Most SC 21 sites have two vertical fiberglass whips and if on a border one fiberglass whip and metal directional antenna pointed towards Illinois providing 120-180 degrees of coverage.

Adding site 1-55 should give good in building portable coverage for all of Winnebago county considering the simulcast sites in Rockford and other area SC 21 site locations. I was surprised site 155 wasn’t incorporated into the Rockford simulcast site/system. The S. Beloit site at the Toll Plaza 1 on I-39/90 is a stand alone site which is really better for me than simulcast LSM.

 

[kevino]

My scanner didn’t pickup any voice traffic while I was in the vicinity of the Rockton Township garage. I’m 99% sure this location is site 1-55 and the way the signal strength reacted I feel sure this is correct. The license show a tower height of 150 feet but this tower/antenna appears to be around 70 to 80 feet (counting 10’ Rohn tower sections). The VHF whip antenna previously on this tower has been moved to a short 30 foot Rohn tower on the west rear of the garage building. I suspect the VHF fiberglass whip antenna is for the Township VHF frequeny for the highway department (antenna/tower can be seen in first photo). I bet the four loop dipole antenna on top of the tower was a receiver for Winnebago LE communications when they were on VHF High Band.

I’m unsure if Winnebago County has plans to raise this tower to 150 foot. The antenna on the side mount is a little unusual and is not the typical directional antenna used by SC 21 sites near a neighboring state. The location I‘m staying would have reduced signal strength because the tower structure blocks the side mounted 700/800 MHz antenna towards my location.

After looking at other SC 21 sites maintained by local Agencies like St Clair county there appear to be different brands or models of antennas than those used by most SC 21 sites. Most SC 21 sites have two vertical fiberglass whips and if on a border one fiberglass whip and metal directional antenna pointed towards Illinois providing 120-180 degrees of coverage.

Adding site 1-55 should give good in building portable coverage for all of Winnebago county considering the simulcast sites in Rockford and other area SC 21 site locations. I was surprised site 155 wasn’t incorporated into the Rockford simulcast site/system. The S. Beloit site at the Toll Plaza 1 on I-39/90 is a stand alone site which is really better for me than simulcast LSM.

Thank for all the info, I will update Site 155 in the Radio Reference database as the Rockton location. Please feel free to advise if you're able to confirm any other freqs in use there other than the control channel. Perhaps someone will be able to use Pro96Com, etc. to confirm which freqs are active there at some point.

 

[VASCAR2]

I might try adding the site frequencies as conventional and see if I can tell what frequencies are active. Right now there is very little traffic on this site. I might only be able to verify one or two frequencies other than the control channel. I should be able to get the NAC.

 

[VASCAR2]

After looking at my pictures again the antenna on the short Rohn tower is the 4 loop dipole and the top antenna on the taller tower looks like a VHF fiberglass whip. I think the SC 21 antennas are on the side mount on the tall tower. It looks like there are two short antennas mounted vertically, one mounted straight up and one mounted straight down. I’ve seen similar installations on other SC21 towers with two vertical fiberglass whips mounted straight up and one mounted straight down. I really think they’re using a 1/4 wave antennas or lower DB gain 700/800 MHz antennas on the side mount because of the small foot print for coverage in northern Winnebago County. From my pictures there looks like two coax cables going to the side mount antennas. The side mount antennas look like small omni directional antennas. This might explain why the antennas are mounted at a lower height than many sites.

I still feel sure the taller Rohn tower is the correct location for the SC 21 site 155.

 

[kevino]

I might try adding the site frequencies as conventional and see if I can tell what frequencies are active. Right now there is very little traffic on this site. I might only be able to verify one or two frequencies other than the control channel. I should be able to get the NAC.

Looking forward to seeing whatever you find in the way of NAC and other active frequencies for Site 155, Larry!

 

[werinshades]

Was contacted off-line in regards to Site 1-030 (Christ Hospital). I inquired as to why I wasn't seeing a System or Site ID just a NAC code during an Analyze event on my SDS scanners (100 & 200). It was explained to me this is probably an "Autonomous repeater site". Some of the more advanced radio folks out here might know what this means, but I didn't..lol! The new site also provides improved portable coverage and repeats on Site 1-002.

As it was explained to me, even if it's carrying site traffic (OLREC), it is by all technicality a part of the main controller site (Site 1-002). This explains why certain talk groups are seen as Phase 2 on Site 1-030, and Phase 1 on Site 1-002.

In the event of a system controller failure, this site could convert to a "stand-alone site" which would result in seamless communications.

I do see others reporting new sites on line and I'm wondering if this is the Starcom plan for the future to provide better coverage and conversion to a "stand-alone site" in the event of a failure?

 

[MikeyC]

I was able to run Pro96Com for a few minutes last night coming back from Midway - basically from Midway down I-55 to the 294, provided the attenuator was active on the Pro-106 I use for Pro96Com It shows up like any other site for me with a control, 2 alt and 2 voice channels with a handful of neighbors.

All I picked up was Oak Lawn Central traffic, namely OLREC-1 in Phase 1. There were a handful of denied affiliations for Pace Bus units.

What there wasn't, however, is the constant flood of unknown packets like every other site I've monitored on StarCom have been spitting out for the past few weeks.

 

[VASCAR2]

Here is a picture of a SC 21 site with two vertical whip antennas, one standing straight up and one mounted straight down.



Here is a photo of another site where the two whips are mounted standing upwards but angled in different directions. The 700/800 whips are mounted just above the two microwave dishes.





The last picture is of the antenna configuration used near boarding states. The directional antenna is pointed away from the neighboring state to limit signal encroachment.



I assume the Rockton site small antennas perform in a similar manner as the antennas in the first picture but would provide less coverage.

 

[JohnnyGent]

ALL DUCOMM units are on back up channels until 11am central time, any members that can, and in range, please assist giving these proper names I only heard 1 proper name per DUCOMM thus far, but all the back ups are in full use, any help is appreciated. Thanks
Scan On!

 

[RoninJoliet]

Monitored Elgin FD Ops2 on T126 last nite was using Phase II on power lines down

 

[menkes]

Yeah, Ron I have noticed that a few times lately.
Off and on 2 will show up on my 1080.
I thought maybe a anomaly?

 

[menkes]

Another strange thing,
Last few weeks EFD has been testing tone outs on 1557, with computer voice.
Today they did it on regular Disp TG 1551, at the same time it came out on old SEFD freq of 153.32?

 

[RoninJoliet]

Today on il-grants T126 modified for Phase II legally now , TG1551 still Phase I.....

 

[TheAlmightyZach]

FYI, looks and sounds like Algonquin Dispatch TG #34102 and Huntley Dispatch TG #34103 have now gone into full ENC mode too. Ugh!

Late to the party, but confirming this.. This crushed me. Started listening in May and I would do anything to hear it all again. Things for people to note: Some of their TAC groups are not yet encrypted, and possibly will never be, likely because SEECOM doesn't own things like event talk groups.. Heard from Huntley PD that they never saw any reason to have their dispatch group encrypted, they only found having private TACs was practical. SEECOM decided differently.

 

[rsprin345]

Algonquin, LITH, Cary and Huntley. It appears all went the way of encryption. What a shame. Have owned a scanner for 45+years. Another hobby ruined by people that would use the transmissions for no good.

 

[TheAlmightyZach]

Algonquin, LITH, Cary and Huntley. It appears all went the way of encryption. What a shame. Have owned a scanner for 45+years. Another hobby ruined by people that would use the transmissions for no good.

Correct. It was a SEECOM move sadly... NERCOM agencies are currently still open, so are many in the area. Makes me upset. Obviously, it was done due to the fact that there is risk to have people with ill intentions listening but for me, I think public safety is really important. This one hurt to see happen..