| 2020 | Is there anyone monitoring washington county?

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xxbubziexx

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Hello. I am looking for anyone that can help me identify new sites in washington county mainly in the potosi area. Im in suspicion that potosi pd has switched over to digital. The sheriffs office and fire/ems might have switched over also. The database page is incredibly outdated and it would be awesome if someone can assist updating it. I look forward into reading your responses. Thank you!
 

kruser

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It's pretty simple, monitor MOSWIN for us and let us know what you find out. We'll update it.
I'm not sure they will be on Moswin Terry other than the normal All and Travel type listings but who knows.
First, I'm out of range unless I travel so I'll likely not be much help on this one anytime soon. But... looking at Washington Counties two primary FCC licenses for WRPB788 and WPWR986 WRBP788 (WASHINGTON COUNTY CENTRAL DISPATCH 911) FCC Callsign Details and WPWR986 (WASHINGTON COUNTY CENTRAL DISPATCH 911) FCC Callsign Details
It looks like they requested new or modified licenses for both back in 2018 or so that Adds about every common Emission type used for LMR!
I did try getting signals from a few of the listed frequencies but heard nothing so far to confirm if they are NFM, DMR, P25-P1 or P2 or NXDN going by their license's permissible emission types so it's anyone's guess.
The licenses almost look like they are setting up a countywide VHF trunked system using four tower sites.

I know we have users in that area of the state so maybe somebody will chime in with updated info or better yet, do a user submission for the RRDB. If you look at the license data, it sure does look like a change to one of the digital formats is in the works or has been completed.

EDIT: While typing, I did pickup WRBP788 on 154.860 in Analog NFM mode which is listed as Washington County Sheriff Disp 1. The traffic and locations heard confirmed that as accurate. Possibly an analog simulcast of a digital signal I can't hear or maybe law is still analog while fire/ems has moved to a digital format. Who knows!

I can copy Moswin traffic from that area and have not logged any unknown talkgroups indicating anyone in Washington County is using Moswin.
I'll keep an eye out for that.
 

xxbubziexx

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I'm not sure they will be on Moswin Terry other than the normal All and Travel type listings but who knows.
First, I'm out of range unless I travel so I'll likely not be much help on this one anytime soon. But... looking at Washington Counties two primary FCC licenses for WRPB788 and WPWR986 WRBP788 (WASHINGTON COUNTY CENTRAL DISPATCH 911) FCC Callsign Details and WPWR986 (WASHINGTON COUNTY CENTRAL DISPATCH 911) FCC Callsign Details
It looks like they requested new or modified licenses for both back in 2018 or so that Adds about every common Emission type used for LMR!
I did try getting signals from a few of the listed frequencies but heard nothing so far to confirm if they are NFM, DMR, P25-P1 or P2 or NXDN going by their license's permissible emission types so it's anyone's guess.
The licenses almost look like they are setting up a countywide VHF trunked system using four tower sites.

I know we have users in that area of the state so maybe somebody will chime in with updated info or better yet, do a user submission for the RRDB. If you look at the license data, it sure does look like a change to one of the digital formats is in the works or has been completed.

EDIT: While typing, I did pickup WRBP788 on 154.860 in Analog NFM mode which is listed as Washington County Sheriff Disp 1. The traffic and locations heard confirmed that as accurate. Possibly an analog simulcast of a digital signal I can't hear or maybe law is still analog while fire/ems has moved to a digital format. Who knows!

I can copy Moswin traffic from that area and have not logged any unknown talkgroups indicating anyone in Washington County is using Moswin.
I'll keep an eye out for that.
Thanks for this information this is very helpful much appreciated! And for terry, im running a mobile bcd996p2 receiver. Would i use the close call mode when trying to discover new frequencies? Or would i be better off entering the new fcc frequencies that kruser mentioned. Im gonna make a trip to potosi just to scan the waves and i wanna have all the information i need before.
 

xxbubziexx

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The listed frequency for potosi pd hasnt been active in a while. But sheriffs dispatch is still active. But i do wonder if pd and sheriffs dispatch are just on the same frequency. Who knows!
 

AC0RV

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Hey let's hookup and discuss this. Where we can figured something it out. I am in Park Hills.
 

xxbubziexx

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Im in potosi right now. I have tried programming the scanner to recieve 155.5500 and 154.8600 to output dmr but i hear nothing. In conventional mode it decodes 155.5500 using slot1 or slot2 but no audio. I don't have nxdn capabilities at the moment.
 

xxbubziexx

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I can confim that pd is on Sheriff’s frequency. The weird thing is that i hear analog and digital on washco 1 but that could be potosi pd on digital because they have the same frequency listed.
 

kruser

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I can confim that pd is on Sheriff’s frequency. The weird thing is that i hear analog and digital on washco 1 but that could be potosi pd on digital because they have the same frequency listed.

About an hour after my earlier reply the other day, I was able to pickup weak signal DMR on both 154.860 and 155.550.
Both had identical signal levels and both showed Color Code 10. Some of the UIDs I saw were also the same.
I never could confirm if this was in fact Washington County however so I never said anything about it.
DSDPlus was showing at is a DMR Tier III system and I did see signs of encryption flags but that could have been false considering how weak the signal was here.
I also could not recover any voice from the DMR signals on either frequency. I hope that's not an indication they are testing encryption.
One more thing, the DMR signal levels were about the same as the analog signals when they are talking on analog. That makes me think it was indeed Washington County on DMR I was hearing.
I heard the DMR signals for several hours before retiring.
If the above is true, they may be switching to a trunked Tier III DMR system using the existing frequencies.

I do find it interesting they modified their license to Add P25, NXDN and DMR emission types in addition to Analog on four frequencies. I wonder if they are testing different technologies at their tower sites and will pick whatever works best for them. It's still unusual they would modify the license to include all those emission types though.

I also noticed one of the two licenses is close to being terminated for failure to buildout the system. Both licenses pretty much cover the same areas and sites though with a few small exceptions. I don't know if this license will be fully terminated or just the modifications to add the digital emission's like they did on the other license will be dropped and the license will revert back to analog only. I guess time shall tell.

I've not heard any more DMR that I could decode since that one day. I did hear what was probably DMR on another day for a few moments but I could not get DSD+ running fast enough.
Now I leave DSD+ running all the time on at least the above two frequencies but any transmissions heard have been analog only.
The PL's listed in the RRDB for the county do match with what I decode here when I hear them in analog so at least I know it's Washington County I'm hearing in analog. I also heard landmark references that confirmed the analog signals I hear are that county.

All I have for now.
 

xxbubziexx

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Thank you for the valuable info! I really do appreciate it. I wouldnt be surprised if they were using encryption. I have heard and confirmed that the frequency 154.5400 is encrypted. Im still not sure what the county is using this frequency for but it is broadcasting scrambled gibberish on dmr. It still could be the school but it has been active during the covid outbreak when schools are closed. I can only do so much with my bcd996p2. If you want to monitor 154.5400 thatll be great.
 

nd5y

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I do find it interesting they modified their license to Add P25, NXDN and DMR emission types in addition to Analog on four frequencies. I wonder if they are testing different technologies at their tower sites and will pick whatever works best for them. It's still unusual they would modify the license to include all those emission types though.
I have seen a lot of licenses like that.
Whoever filled out the applications did that. Maybe they can charge more for each line. The County probably had nothing to do with it.
I don't think it's likely that they are testing different equipment.
 

AC0RV

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Hey Kruser was curious what type of scanner you are using to monitor the Washington County Frequencies into the 436hp to see what I get.

Thanks
73
 

kruser

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Hey Kruser was curious what type of scanner you are using to monitor the Washington County Frequencies into the 436hp to see what I get.

Thanks
73
Hey David,

I'm not using scanners for this due to the distance. I'm using a pair of Icom R8600's and an Icom R9000. The Icom's offer a bit better sensitivity and selectivity which helps recover the distant signals.
When signals are good enough, I'll use older 996XT's that feed Pro96com and newer x36HP's and both SDS models which are all logged by ProScan.

If you are hearing any digital signals from Washington Cnty, try putting the frequencies in as One frequency trunked types as that will show the most info on a 436. At least for DMR and probably NXDN.
 

AC0RV

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Thanks what I am doing. Since what I am doing for Madison County (running each frequency as site, is working). I have both of the frequencies in two different sites.

Oh, how's the SDS working the Simulcast system in the St Louis area.

Ok 73 for now.
 
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