I could hear the Okotoks peace officers both sides of the conversation around 1600 on both Springbank and Southland Plaza. Didn't hear any beeping (but that may have been because I was going 110 with the windows down).
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AFRRCS - Alberta First Responders' Radio Communication System - INFO HERE
I'm 99% certain the dispatcher for Okotoks Municipal Enforcement is in Black Diamond. Most of the other peace officers in the Foothills Municipal District and in other areas around like Willow Creek MD, Vulcan County, etc., are dispatched out of there.
Having said that - I don't know why you are not picking up both sides of the conversation. This is a trunked system, so comms are going to be originating from a single tower site, not from different places like a dispatcher's point and a field unit's point separately.
Like I said, I was hearing both sides on at least two different sites today (Southland in the morning and Springbank in the afternoon).
I would be surprised if you could pick up Coalhurst in Calgary because they are likely going to be on the Lethbridge City, Lethbridge Rural, Monarch, or Nobleford towers. Only if a trunk system radio (scanners don't count) tuned to a Coalhurst talkgroup was on a Calgary tower would you hear Coalhurst traffic on that tower. That's the way trunk systems work - traffic for a talkgroup is only routed to a certain tower if a radio is logged onto that tower and tuned to that talkgroup. Some talkgroups like MA11 are the exception, and are configured to open up on all (or many) towers regardless if there is a radio on that channel.
One possibility for why you're not hearing one party in a conversation is that they are encrypted. I know for a fact this is not the case (or at least hasn't been so far) on Okotoks Municipal Enforcement. I have heard this on some other groups where either the dispatcher has been in the clear and the field unit is coded, or vice versa, and the scanner just stays muted when the coded party is talking. Off topic for here but I would be surprised if Calgary Transit was running partial or full encryption. I heard a transmission just now on "Channel 2" that sounded like it was probably a dispatcher replying to someone, but I didn't hear the original transmission and I think the most likely reason is that the scanner was monitoring some other channel and came into the conversation late.
You can try holding on that talkgroup for a period of time (not holding on a site - just a talkgroup - if your radio is capable of that) and waiting to see if you hear full conversations. If you don't, there might be something else at play. I don't recall if the GRE radios behave this way, but maybe you have the radio IDs for one part of the conversation locked out/skipped. Or, in the case of the CMRN system, maybe you have the Motorola status bit to ON, which would mean the dispatcher might show up as a different talkgroup value than what's in the database. (The proper setting is to have the status bit set to IGNORE)
Intellgence2008
Member
AFRRCS scanner problem...
Well thanks to all who replied to my AFRRCS issue, still working trying to resolve the one side of conversation with Okotoks MD, and also I want apologize for my geographical error I was thinking Foothill MD which has an office in Calgary NE, and not Okotoks MD. So I found the error of my way but not sure if what I have done to troubleshoot the problem,but there were few things I was not aware. First I checked my firmware version and it was showing vers. 1.7 again, I did the firmware upgrade to 2.1 four months ago,so I am not sure why it reverted back to this version. I also done a delete of all objects, since I only have AFRRCS on the PSR-500 it was not a big deal doing a reset of freqs and TGID. I put the Okotoks MD on manual mode for the day and put my recorder on to record and transmision from this a.m. 07:00 to 17:00 Aug 17th, I just finish reviewing the recording,but I still have not hear any activity in this timeframe, I also rechecked the firmware version and it is 2.1 vers. still quiet this evening. I have also two Whistler 1088 that I am using so I am going to add the AFRRCS freqs and TGID to the Whistler to see if thing work ok on those radio.Again, thanks all for the info, will update if I still have the problem.
Well thanks to all who replied to my AFRRCS issue, still working trying to resolve the one side of conversation with Okotoks MD, and also I want apologize for my geographical error I was thinking Foothill MD which has an office in Calgary NE, and not Okotoks MD. So I found the error of my way but not sure if what I have done to troubleshoot the problem,but there were few things I was not aware. First I checked my firmware version and it was showing vers. 1.7 again, I did the firmware upgrade to 2.1 four months ago,so I am not sure why it reverted back to this version. I also done a delete of all objects, since I only have AFRRCS on the PSR-500 it was not a big deal doing a reset of freqs and TGID. I put the Okotoks MD on manual mode for the day and put my recorder on to record and transmision from this a.m. 07:00 to 17:00 Aug 17th, I just finish reviewing the recording,but I still have not hear any activity in this timeframe, I also rechecked the firmware version and it is 2.1 vers. still quiet this evening. I have also two Whistler 1088 that I am using so I am going to add the AFRRCS freqs and TGID to the Whistler to see if thing work ok on those radio.Again, thanks all for the info, will update if I still have the problem.
There is no such thing as Okotoks MD. Okotoks is a town within the Municipal District of Foothills. Okotoks' municipal offices are in Okotoks; M.D. Foothills' municipal offices are in High River (and its dispatch center is in Black Diamond).
There is a Rocky View County public works building in north (central) east Calgary, but they're in the processes of vacating it as their new county offices were established in Balzac a couple of years ago.
There is a Rocky View County public works building in north (central) east Calgary, but they're in the processes of vacating it as their new county offices were established in Balzac a couple of years ago.
Spent most of yesterday [12 hours] traveling throughout east central Alberta. Not a peep on a scanner that was just monitoring AFRRCS in that time. At least heard air traffic and some amateur satellites on another scanner. But that is a boring place if one wants to be a scanner listener.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ
Most of rural Alberta is boring to scan. Very low population density, means very few radio users. As you get closer to the population centres the radio traffic increases greatly.
When the emergency services have two-digit call volume per year, you're not going to just stumble across an incident on the go - you'll have to monitor their channel for days just to hear a mic click.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ
Pretty much, or be there at the right time for a pager/radio check.
I know my department does radio checks in the morning 6 days a week(about a dozen of us have take home portables), out call volume is less than 50 incidents a year, with this year being particularly low.
This is why Unitrunker is particularly useful for figuring out systems like AFRRCS. "Oh, someone turned on a radio on talkgroup 12345, and their portable is in the 1230000 range... let's match that range to that TG for future reference"
I'm going to my mother's hometown (tiny village, just over 200 pop) next month in Newfoundland. They established a volunteer FD a bunch of years ago. Over six years of monitoring their comms 24 hours a day for a week every September I've yet to pick up their signal.
TG 103 in the clear with RIDs in the same neighborhood as Okotoks Mun Enforcement. Stands to reason there is a TG 102 then in that case.
Okotoks field units appear to use a different radio every shift. I assume it's the same kind of arrangement as other LE agencies where you just sign out the next available radio.
Figured out the Foothills combined events talkgroup from recordings, will submit. Also heard a couple of guys on the testing groups from some fire agency, marveling about the clarity of the signal.
Okotoks field units appear to use a different radio every shift. I assume it's the same kind of arrangement as other LE agencies where you just sign out the next available radio.
Figured out the Foothills combined events talkgroup from recordings, will submit. Also heard a couple of guys on the testing groups from some fire agency, marveling about the clarity of the signal.
Lethbridge EMS in the Clear
Did I read the database correct that the first four channels of Lethbridge EMS are in the clear?
Did I read the database correct that the first four channels of Lethbridge EMS are in the clear?
I think that is a typo. I know I haven't heard any of them on my scanner. Then again I am probably out of range of the towers they'd be using...
thundermedic
Database Administrator
The Lethbridge channels are for when they are outside of their EDACS system, it's a combined Fire/EMS with their own dispatch. It was submitted in the clear until we can confirm otherwise.
On a side note, most combined services fall back on firefighter thinking so it might be...
Have to wait until their next trip to the Foothills Medical Centre to confirm.
On a side note, most combined services fall back on firefighter thinking so it might be...
Have to wait until their next trip to the Foothills Medical Centre to confirm.
thundermedic
Database Administrator
I just got confirmation from someone using Unitrunker that they are encrypted. Will update the database later today
Chatting with a Calgary AHS member who did a stat transfer from Lethbridge to Calgary last night confirmed
Those are AHS dispatch TG groups and encrypted not shared with Lethbridge Fire
thundermedic
Database Administrator
I have updated the RRDB and am starting to separate the EMS talkgroups into where the dispatch zone is.
Brechtd, do you know if they stayed on the same channel the entire way?
Brechtd, do you know if they stayed on the same channel the entire way?
Yes but but on aTG not listed here
Switched to Leth TG while waiting
thundermedic
Database Administrator
That's good to know for the coverage zones, no matter where the dispatcher is the TG is very wide area
Was just watching unitrunker and the edacs here. The Afrrcs 1031 talk group showed up as encrypted but on talk group 280 on the edacs you could hear the Lethbridge ambulance 3 clear from foothills hospital and is returning home. In the data base it showed it as iden link it's now clearly the Afrrcs link.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
thundermedic
Database Administrator
That's too funny, encryption on AFRRCS but not local... makes sense to me in a EMS kinda way...
