Any active Iowa City listeners?

[kevino]

Wondering if there might be any active Iowa City-area listeners on Radio Referenece. I did a little listening while there the other night and wouldn't mind confirming my observations with someone who is more familiar with the local systems before I pass my notes along to the database admin for Johnson County.

Thanks,

Kevin
Database Admin - DuPage County, IL

 

[ehepner]

Not an active listener, but I was just in Iowa City and it was totally dead as far as I could tell. On the Johnson County P25 system, I heard absolutely nothing and only while holding on the control channel on my 996T did I even notice a couple channel grants to the LE. Heard nothing else on RACom or the conventional channels listed here in the DB. Have things changed that significantly or did I just happen to catch a lousy night and day for listening? I'm going to be traveling there on a regular basis for the next several months as my daughter is seen at the University (eye problems) and would like to have an idea if I should even bother reprogramming for Johnson County?

Thanks

Eric

 

[timkilbride]

Wondering if there might be any active Iowa City-area listeners on Radio Referenece. I did a little listening while there the other night and wouldn't mind confirming my observations with someone who is more familiar with the local systems before I pass my notes along to the database admin for Johnson County.

Thanks,

Kevin
Database Admin - DuPage County, IL

I'm active in the Iowa City area.

As far as the Johnson County TRS goes, its a seven site simulcast that most scanners have a hard time decoding/receiving.

Tim

 

[kevino]

Thanks to Eric and Tim for the replies. Since Tim is a database admin for Johnson County, I'll just post my limited observations here.

1. Lots of encrypted traffic on the Johnson County P25 system. In the hour or so that I listened last Tuesday night, I believe one of the (if not the) only clear police talkgroups I heard was "Law 1" (TG 52150). In addition to the county sheriff and Iowa City Police, what other agencies are dispatched on that talkgroup? I noted encryption on "Law 3" (TG 52151), as well as on U of Iowa "Campus (Police) Dispatch" (TG 52351) and "Guard" (TG 52353). Unknown if these these last two talkgroups are on full-time encryption, but if I was hearing it on a Tuesday night, I'm guessing that the answer would be "yes". If that's the case, could it be noted in the listings for those talkgroups? Glad to report that the Iowa City FD talkgroups were in the clear.

2. I believe that I was able to confirm the University's Cambus campus buses using TG 12848 on the Iowa City 800 MHz analog trunked system. Heard comms between buses and references to "the barn". The voices I heard sounded fairly young. This would make sense for Cambus, since students drive these regular city transit-sized buses. I'm guessing that this talkgroup might provide more than a bit of entertainment on weekend nights and during special events (i.e. home football games, etc.).

3. I came upon a control channel on 858.7875 with a system ID of A40Eh. After a little digging on the FCC ULS website, I determined that it was part of a 4-channel trunked system licensed to the University of Iowa (callsign WPXG338). I don't see this system listed on the Johnson County RR page. Would it be possible for it to be added there?

4. Finally, I see that there are a handful of aeromedical/EMS talkgroups listed for the area on the Racom site at Iowa City. Would it be possible to add some kind of link to that site under the "Emergency Medical Services" section or elsewhere on the Johnson County page? I've seen a fair number of aeromedical helos landing at the hospital while visiting the campus and I figure that some of those Racom talkgroups might make for interesting listening.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[timkilbride]

Thanks to Eric and Tim for the replies. Since Tim is a database admin for Johnson County, I'll just post my limited observations here.

1. Lots of encrypted traffic on the Johnson County P25 system. In the hour or so that I listened last Tuesday night, I believe one of the (if not the) only clear police talkgroups I heard was "Law 1" (TG 52150). In addition to the county sheriff and Iowa City Police, what other agencies are dispatched on that talkgroup? I noted encryption on "Law 3" (TG 52151), as well as on U of Iowa "Campus (Police) Dispatch" (TG 52351) and "Guard" (TG 52353). Unknown if these these last two talkgroups are on full-time encryption, but if I was hearing it on a Tuesday night, I'm guessing that the answer would be "yes". If that's the case, could it be noted in the listings for those talkgroups? Glad to report that the Iowa City FD talkgroups were in the clear.

Law 1 includes Iowa City, North Liberty, Coralville Police and Johnson County Sheriff. Iowa City PD switches to Law 3 on like Friday and Saturdays for 2nd and 3rd shift. Its logged in the sub-category notes.

I changed the TG's in question to "E". They were at one point all in the clear, but since the beginning more and more is being encrypted. I don't monitor the system very much, my 996xt can't handle the 7 site simulcast very well.

2. I believe that I was able to confirm the University's Cambus campus buses using TG 12848 on the Iowa City 800 MHz analog trunked system. Heard comms between buses and references to "the barn". The voices I heard sounded fairly young. This would make sense for Cambus, since students drive these regular city transit-sized buses. I'm guessing that this talkgroup might provide more than a bit of entertainment on weekend nights and during special events (i.e. home football games, etc.).

Do you recall hearing anything else on the analog system? Since the switch over, I basically turned it off in my scanner.

3. I came upon a control channel on 858.7875 with a system ID of A40Eh. After a little digging on the FCC ULS website, I determined that it was part of a 4-channel trunked system licensed to the University of Iowa (callsign WPXG338). I don't see this system listed on the Johnson County RR page. Would it be possible for it to be added there?

Interesting find there. Radio service says "Trunking" but class says "FB4", which is a community repeater. Shows 12 people licensed for the "community repeater". I will follow up on this and get it added.

4. Finally, I see that there are a handful of aeromedical/EMS talkgroups listed for the area on the Racom site at Iowa City. Would it be possible to add some kind of link to that site under the "Emergency Medical Services" section or elsewhere on the Johnson County page? I've seen a fair number of aeromedical helos landing at the hospital while visiting the campus and I figure that some of those Racom talkgroups might make for interesting listening.

Thanks,
Kevin

Maybe I'm not following you on this last question, but RACOM is listed under the "University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics" sub-category.

Tim

 

[kevino]

It was quite late on a Tuesday night when I was doing my Iowa City listening, so I don't know how busy the Iowa City analog 800 MHz trunked system might be during 'normal business hours'. Besides the U of Iowa Cambus traffic on TG 12848 (it would be helpful if that could be added to the notes for that TG), I did hear U of Iowa Parking Control (as already noted on the Johnson County page) using TG 12944.

As far as the RACOM site at Iowa City, I now see that it is indeed noted under the "University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics" sub-category on the Radio Reference page. It is not shown, however, when you download a printout of the web page. I've been working off the printouts, sorry for the oversight on that one Tim.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[roninwarrior]

I live in Coralville and listen everyday. My young son actually got to my Pro-197 yesterday and was mashing buttons. Had to reset factory defaults and upload all the info again, now it scans like normal but I don't pick up anything....

Banging my head against the wall to figure out why.

Anyway, I usually only scan Fire/EMS but occasionally police on the weekends to hear what's going on downtown.

 

[roninwarrior]

Update:

Figured out that I had to program all the control freq's in my scanner from the database, not just the blue and red primary/secondary.

Anyway, got it all working.

 

[timkilbride]

Update:

Figured out that I had to program all the control freq's in my scanner from the database, not just the blue and red primary/secondary.

Anyway, got it all working.

The Johnson County system seems to use all the channels as control channels. While I have not confirmed that, that is what it seems like.

Tim

 

[bemyax]

A new listener, I received my HomePatrol1 a couple of weeks ago. I spent a few hours in Iowa City last night and heard very little activity. And not a thing from any police. Until I learn more, I'm pretty dependent on the RR database to provide a framework. I'm obviously very spoiled as a Black Hawk County listener. There's always something going on. Any tips to get more out of Johnson County on my occasional visit?

 

[radiowa]

I just bought a different scanner and am receiving all un-encrypted JCOM traffic. Uniden BCD396T with the RS 800mhz antenna. I had a Pro 106 and it didn't receive anything from JCOM; however it did in Cedar Rapids with their P25 system.