AFRRCS - Alberta First Responders' Radio Communication System - INFO HERE

harryshute

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I can now see an intended use of the "Turn off Encryption" icon on RCMP Harris Dispatch consoles. Last night EPS NW pursued a vehicle into Parkland County. They did a patch to the RCMP on 2776 and the only clear mountie transmission was from NAOCC. All EPS units were in the clear so most likely they could be received by Parkland units. So at least NAOCC could relay messages and communicate with the encrypted RCMP units.

I do know EPS Air 1 has the Edmonton area RCMP talk groups in it's radio and does communicate encrypted with RCMP.
 

kayn1n32008

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I can now see an intended use of the "Turn off Encryption" icon on RCMP Harris Dispatch consoles. Last night EPS NW pursued a vehicle into Parkland County. They did a patch to the RCMP on 2776 and the only clear mountie transmission was from NAOCC. All EPS units were in the clear so most likely they could be received by Parkland units. So at least NAOCC could relay messages and communicate with the encrypted RCMP units.

I do know EPS Air 1 has the Edmonton area RCMP talk groups in it's radio and does communicate encrypted with RCMP.

I believe we will eventually see some encrypted inter-police agency talkgroups to avoid what you just described.
 

harryshute

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I believe we will eventually see some encrypted inter-police agency talkgroups to avoid what you just described.

Well I hope so but they already do in the 3000 range of talk groups. In a pursuit they don't want to have to search and change to another group so they patch. As long as the RCMP refuse to share encryption codes with their partners you will have this problem. Another example of this was when the Cross Iron Mills shooting occurred RCMP called in CPS and they patched to Calgary 5 in the clear.
 

harryshute

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RCMP Strathcona migrated to AFRRCS this morning and PACS A7 is very quiet. The new Strathcona talk group is 2772. Previously traffic operations with Enforcement Services were on Tac 7 now on AFRRCS Simplex 1.
 
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I have a 325P2 and have programmed it using the RR Database and ARC Butel with the AFFRCS data for Alberta. I have locked out a few locations that are distant. I am getting hits in the clear with location info and UID's that don't seem to make much sense. I am getting EDSON & Villenueve hits and also some obviously city transit UIDs showing up with locations that don't seem to make any sense.

I have the City Transit and Public Works locked out and yet for some reason I am still getting them showing up as Villenueve..or Edson sometimes. Not sure what I have done wrong. I am still getting the occaisonal call for plate inquires, etc.. but again not always seeming to match up.

If anyone has any info that will help me progam my scanner effectively I would appreciate it. ( I just got a hit that comes up as EDSON -154 with a UID that I missed.)
Not sure what I am doing wrong, but I need to prune some of the data so that I am only getting the relevant locations and TG showing up
 

omrail

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TG 154 would make perfect sense to be broadcast on the Edson tower as it is the central CPO TG. Tower name info has nothing to do with the agency your hearing necessarily. Just means that there is a radio associated with that tower at the time of the broadcast. For example I get Strathcona quite a lot on the Leduc tower
 

harryshute

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From your previous posts I see you are west of Edmonton and perhaps Villeneuve is your main tower. Even if you lockout the transit talk groups you may be getting Edmonton transit buses in individual mode so make sure your scanner isn't scanning individual messages. The highway buses go to Spruce Grove so are often on Villeneuve. Keep in mind Edmonton Fire also seem to splatter into the towers surrounding Edmonton.

Could there be a duplication of frequencies in the Villeneuve and Edson towers? You really shouldn't hear Edson if receiving just west of Edmonton. But as the previous poster said it's not uncommon to hear 154 near Edson.

How is your radio working at receiving Edmonton Simulcast? I haven't heard any reports positive or negative connected to your particular model.
 

kayn1n32008

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This week there was quite the inversion that was causing 700/800MHz enhancement.

A friend was hearing Edmonton/Ft Sask business trunk systems down in the Red Deer area off the back of a yagi indoors.
 

Jay911

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One of the reasons you might be seeing "Edson" while in the Edmonton area is that tower sites re-use frequencies. Edson's site has 772.19375, 772.55625, 773.79375, and 774.58125, and two of those frequencies are re-used on the Leduc and Devon sites. Only the newest Uniden scanners (the SDS models) are smart enough to reject a site if it's not "the right" site for that frequency, and even then they have to be programmed to recognize if a site is right or wrong. Your scanner is receiving a signal on one of those frequencies and it identifies itself as an AFRRCS site - that's the limit of its knowledge. You could be in Fort McMurray or Lethbridge and if you were getting a good signal on a frequency listed in the Edson site, it'd still tell you it was receiving Edson. The best way to get around this is to either lock out sites you know are not in your area (or don't program them in in the first place), or if possible, use GPS or location control to have them automatically disabled by the scanner.
 
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You’re post is confusing. With out TGID’s and radio ID’s it is pretty meaningless.
Sorry...I am confused as well, I get the names showing up..and then I am hearing voices and calls that are not matching up with what my scanner is displaying. I am running a log from the base station antenna for the next 24 hour period to try and make some sense of it all
 
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One of the reasons you might be seeing "Edson" while in the Edmonton area is that tower sites re-use frequencies. Edson's site has 772.19375, 772.55625, 773.79375, and 774.58125, and two of those frequencies are re-used on the Leduc and Devon sites. Only the newest Uniden scanners (the SDS models) are smart enough to reject a site if it's not "the right" site for that frequency, and even then they have to be programmed to recognize if a site is right or wrong. Your scanner is receiving a signal on one of those frequencies and it identifies itself as an AFRRCS site - that's the limit of its knowledge. You could be in Fort McMurray or Lethbridge and if you were getting a good signal on a frequency listed in the Edson site, it'd still tell you it was receiving Edson. The best way to get around this is to either lock out sites you know are not in your area (or don't program them in in the first place), or if possible, use GPS or location control to have them automatically disabled by the scanner.
I am still getting my head around the software. I locked out the Edmonton Transit Frequencies and yet I still am getting Transit Operators in the clear showing up as Villenueve which is a bit of a drag. I am ok to delete this scanner and start again. ARC BUTEL is making it easy and hard at the same time. Thanks. I was hoping someone had .RSF file that I could use.

Locking out the Edmonton Transit did not seem to help as I get them Signal Strength 5 out beyond Wabamun showing up as Villeneuve!
I wanted to hear Villeneuve not transit...so..what to do. The scanner is optimised with zero duplicates (so the software says) but I am still getting Transit calls showing up..so...what to do...City Transit is absolutely locked out..and yet..still getting bus calls...
 
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TG 154 would make perfect sense to be broadcast on the Edson tower as it is the central CPO TG. Tower name info has nothing to do with the agency your hearing necessarily. Just means that there is a radio associated with that tower at the time of the broadcast. For example I get Strathcona quite a lot on the Leduc tower
Thanks, I am trying to monitor the Yellowhead Traffic Corridor/Evansburg/Wabamun/Spruce Grove Stony Plain/Excliusively as I travel back and forth along that road a lot.
In an ideal world I would set up a Close Call group (even if its an encrypted channel) so that my scanner locks up if there are local to me transmissions as I drive along..getting definitive UID's would be perfect as well..If the radio is active then the member is active and on patrol..etc. Still trying to find a practical way to use the scanner.

From your previous posts I see you are west of Edmonton and perhaps Villeneuve is your main tower. Even if you lockout the transit talk groups you may be getting Edmonton transit buses in individual mode so make sure your scanner isn't scanning individual messages. The highway buses go to Spruce Grove so are often on Villeneuve. Keep in mind Edmonton Fire also seem to splatter into the towers surrounding Edmonton.

Could there be a duplication of frequencies in the Villeneuve and Edson towers? You really shouldn't hear Edson if receiving just west of Edmonton. But as the previous poster said it's not uncommon to hear 154 near Edson.

How is your radio working at receiving Edmonton Simulcast? I haven't heard any reports positive or negative connected to your particular model.
I have the simulcast frequencies in the scanner, and when I am driving into the west end I get some distortion. I did the Pro Voice Upgrade for some reason I thought it might help. (It helped me not to buy the SDS 100 for now but I am going to seriously look for one anyway)
Freescan and ARC say I have no duplicate frequencies..how accurate that is I dont know.

I have tried a whip & a base mobile antenna instead of the rubber ducky. My next step I think is to mount a Discone up on the roof and maybe build a DF antenna rig because...I dont know..it might be fun to do some DF work with the SDR Dongle.

I am going to keep logging overnight and see if I can make sense of the hits I do get. I am experimenting with the UBC-XLT 125 a scanner I bought for airband in the UK..it has 2 Bandplans..right now I am using BP1 and getting good hits from the Airport and Enroute traffic. Its 2am and I have not logged a hit in a few hours.

I have been fighting a bit with the software so I am going to leave this alone for now and see what gives on Monday. 73s
 

harryshute

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The ProVoice upgrade won't help with the Simulcast distortion only the SDS 100 and 200 will. ProVoice will allow you to hear the EPS actvity on PV channels on their EDACS system. Not sure how long they will keep EPS on EDACS alive.

I tried to find in your manual how to turn the individual call off to eliminate the bus i-Calls but couldn't find it. It may be a change you need to do in settings rather than on software. Are you xcanning and searching? This could be a cause of you hearing the i-Calls. Page 47 of your manual describes how to do that.
 
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