Site 93's band plan has been adjusted down so that the base is now 770.14375 instead of 771.11875. The new band plan puts all the licensed frequencies across the province into a valid LCN value now.
AFRRCS - Alberta First Responders' Radio Communication System - INFO HERE
So I was driving in downtown Calgary today when I noticed the signal strength indicator on my HomePatrol flickering while on the AFRRCS system. I figured maybe one of the in-city towers had been finally switched on.
Nope! Radnor. This is the site northwest of Cochrane (not the Cochrane site itself) with one 700 MHz frequency and, at least on paper, one VHF frequency. 771.59375 has been chugging away steadily all afternoon, albeit in Site Trunking mode (no neighbors).
No activity noted on the VHF frequency or on any sites nearby. Observation: Radnor would be the westernmost site in integration area 6 (Calgary & area) - maybe they're working west to east.
NAC is 30B. Data has been submitted to the RRDB.
Reception: As I said, I was in downtown Calgary when I noticed this signal. I had between 0 (but still detectable signal) and 3 "bars" (out of 5) on my HP1 display all the way from 17th Avenue x 10 Street SW, along 17th westbound to 101 Street. I went up to Old Banff Coach Road and got instantly 5/5 signal from there (intersection with 101) all the way west on Highway 1 x Jumping Pound Road. There were a few minor drops in signal strength in places like the interchange at 1 x OBC (which is in a small bowl) and the base of the hill on 1 east of 22 (signal obscured by terrain). Southward towards home, the signal remained 4/5-5/5 until the forested area begins south of Highway 8 on Highway 22, and 2/5-3/5 strength was obtained from there almost into Bragg Creek. 0/5-1/5 (again, 0 but still detectable signal according to the HP1 analysis tools) from within Bragg Creek itself all the way to my house. My other HP1 in the house is getting 1/5 signal, and the PSR600 that is multicoupled to the same antenna (cheap magmount on a bookshelf) has 3/5 bars on screen and is delivering 40-70% decode rate to PRO96COM.
The bandplan has a base of 770.14375 as mentioned in the post above for Crossfield.
Nope! Radnor. This is the site northwest of Cochrane (not the Cochrane site itself) with one 700 MHz frequency and, at least on paper, one VHF frequency. 771.59375 has been chugging away steadily all afternoon, albeit in Site Trunking mode (no neighbors).
No activity noted on the VHF frequency or on any sites nearby. Observation: Radnor would be the westernmost site in integration area 6 (Calgary & area) - maybe they're working west to east.
NAC is 30B. Data has been submitted to the RRDB.
Reception: As I said, I was in downtown Calgary when I noticed this signal. I had between 0 (but still detectable signal) and 3 "bars" (out of 5) on my HP1 display all the way from 17th Avenue x 10 Street SW, along 17th westbound to 101 Street. I went up to Old Banff Coach Road and got instantly 5/5 signal from there (intersection with 101) all the way west on Highway 1 x Jumping Pound Road. There were a few minor drops in signal strength in places like the interchange at 1 x OBC (which is in a small bowl) and the base of the hill on 1 east of 22 (signal obscured by terrain). Southward towards home, the signal remained 4/5-5/5 until the forested area begins south of Highway 8 on Highway 22, and 2/5-3/5 strength was obtained from there almost into Bragg Creek. 0/5-1/5 (again, 0 but still detectable signal according to the HP1 analysis tools) from within Bragg Creek itself all the way to my house. My other HP1 in the house is getting 1/5 signal, and the PSR600 that is multicoupled to the same antenna (cheap magmount on a bookshelf) has 3/5 bars on screen and is delivering 40-70% decode rate to PRO96COM.
The bandplan has a base of 770.14375 as mentioned in the post above for Crossfield.
Not surprising, you can see downtown Calgary from Radnor. It's line of sight.
There's some interesting microwave licenses (in the South LMR license, oddly enough) that have recently appeared for Edmonton (including Sherwood Park and St Albert), Red Deer, and Lacombe. I've put them in the Google Map - I would suspect the 700 sites would correspond (georgraphically) to these MW links eventually, so you have a place to start looking.
If the base on the newest sites (and on at least some of the older sites that were part of prototype 2) is 770.14375, I would say a search range lower than that is probably pointless, and of course higher than 775.99999 is also meaningless since you'll just be into simplex and input frequencies after that. So, if you want to look for control channels, those limits would be ideal to use in your search.
If the base on the newest sites (and on at least some of the older sites that were part of prototype 2) is 770.14375, I would say a search range lower than that is probably pointless, and of course higher than 775.99999 is also meaningless since you'll just be into simplex and input frequencies after that. So, if you want to look for control channels, those limits would be ideal to use in your search.
The latest batch of licenses showing up on Spectrum Direct have one interesting one - a VHF channel in Fort Smith, NT.
VE6BRW
Member
Well alrighty then, after the laitest AHS EMS report there was alot of input and recommendations on radio communications.... so lets see if there is any movement towards getting this (almost outdated) system into operation cause like geezwizz it started like what 4 or more years ago (I can`t remember when I attended the meeting here in Grande Prairie) and its become such a mismashed VHF/UHF/700Mhz system with all sorts of towers "being set-up". Haven't heard one thing about what frequency were going to be on but I see VHF towers set-up and when they're into operation I would still have to take my portable in to have reprogrammed. But wait when I'm on a transfer into Edmonton then how do I communicate on the 700 syst??????
My understanding of the UHF frequencies, from what I can tell from the licenses, is that they will connect the 700 system to the VHF frequencies, much like UHF frequencies currently operate as bridging/backhaul frequencies for Firenet.
I'm operating on the assumption that if you want full coverage in an area where there are VHF and 700 sites intermixed, you'll need either two radios or a dual-band radio.
As for where you are, remember that you're in the "second half" of the province which isn't scheduled to begin building out until this year. "Last year" was supposed to be building out the eastern side of the province. It's not a big surprise to see VHF frequencies on the west side of the province to have shown up in licenses during the "first half" build, we were told that they would work on the VHF stuff in "both" build cycles. In other words, I would expect a lot more to show up in your area before things are done.
Personally I'm hoping that the budget doesn't hamper the system, but seeing as how it's already underway and in Harris' hands to get done, I'm thinking that it's considered money already spent. I'm also hoping that the AHS EMS announcement recently will help give things a nudge.
I heard from a colleague recently that saw system infrastructure installed at "his" town/agency's tower site, so buildout appears to be progressing, albeit slowly (and I guess nobody should be surprised at that given the history of this endeavor).
I'm operating on the assumption that if you want full coverage in an area where there are VHF and 700 sites intermixed, you'll need either two radios or a dual-band radio.
As for where you are, remember that you're in the "second half" of the province which isn't scheduled to begin building out until this year. "Last year" was supposed to be building out the eastern side of the province. It's not a big surprise to see VHF frequencies on the west side of the province to have shown up in licenses during the "first half" build, we were told that they would work on the VHF stuff in "both" build cycles. In other words, I would expect a lot more to show up in your area before things are done.
Personally I'm hoping that the budget doesn't hamper the system, but seeing as how it's already underway and in Harris' hands to get done, I'm thinking that it's considered money already spent. I'm also hoping that the AHS EMS announcement recently will help give things a nudge.
I heard from a colleague recently that saw system infrastructure installed at "his" town/agency's tower site, so buildout appears to be progressing, albeit slowly (and I guess nobody should be surprised at that given the history of this endeavor).
Some new 700 sites are going live in the area around Calgary. If you're in build season 1 areas (check the wiki article for a list of which counties that includes), check to see if you have active 700 signals.
Licenses for Build Season 2 areas are now showing up in TAFL/Spectrum Direct. There's a ton of new data (all for now in pending license status so I doubt it's actually active at this point), including for Cypress County, Red Deer, Stettler, Innisfail, Lacombe, Taber County, Wetaskiwin County, Leduc, Vermilion, Camrose, St Paul, Cardston, and Rocky Mountain House, among probably a dozen others at least.
Still waiting on activity in the Integration Area 6 area. For a while some of the site control channels were active and the voice repeaters were sending 1000 hz tone on NAC 293, but the voice repeaters appear quiet now at least from where I am. PRO96COM still reports the sites as having no neighbors, so they don't appear to be linked up yet.
Still waiting on activity in the Integration Area 6 area. For a while some of the site control channels were active and the voice repeaters were sending 1000 hz tone on NAC 293, but the voice repeaters appear quiet now at least from where I am. PRO96COM still reports the sites as having no neighbors, so they don't appear to be linked up yet.
bruce1225
Member
getting at ctrl ch on 771.910.715 mhz p-25 nac 30b sat 10 pm ran on unitrunker i get
apco-p-25 660c5-05a
lcn 00-0226 freq 771.906.250 mhz
lcn 00-0260 freq 772.331.250 mhz
lcn 00-0436 freq 774.513.250 mhz
lcn 00-0464 freq 774.881.250 mhz
signal was 43db and im in the hobbema area. tune to your 700mhz and start scanning to see what you find:0
apco-p-25 660c5-05a
lcn 00-0226 freq 771.906.250 mhz
lcn 00-0260 freq 772.331.250 mhz
lcn 00-0436 freq 774.513.250 mhz
lcn 00-0464 freq 774.881.250 mhz
signal was 43db and im in the hobbema area. tune to your 700mhz and start scanning to see what you find:0
bruce1225
Member
and voice? on 772.33125
I'm going to suggest that that's Ponoka 1 (no indication why they added a number to that site as there's not yet a Ponoka 2)... but are you sure that it's sysid 05A and not 05B? Everything else has been 05B so far.
And was the RFSS and Site 140-140 by chance?
I've been slacking a little on keeping the Google Map updated. I'll try to do that in the next couple days.
Thanks for sharing!
bruce1225
Member
confirimed sysid 660c5-05a what i got was site 004-004
bruce1225
Member
ill fire up and see if its still there 
bruce1225
Member
yes still confirmed at 850am sunday morning.
bruce1225
Member
if you are on gmail i can give u my user name and add me. i can send more info faster. it is zermah2012@gmail.com or just zermah2012 i can send logs.
bruce1225
Member
Ponoka 05a nac 30b
heres attached logs
rename to zip
heres attached logs
rename to zip
bruce1225
Member
rar
Could Northern Alberta be 05A if the system is broken into two areas?
