Austin 700Mhz P25 SID 200/ WACN 92571

[Russell]

Russell,

I also wanted to see if we were catching the same RadioIDs: 5123011 & 5123016.

Yes, those were the RIDs I was catching. I also found/added new voice channels (VC) to site 101.

Very interesting technical details on 1001. I can't wait to see this system in use. So far, all the 700 MHz sites I've monitored (SAUA and TxWARN) are very strong (high power). The approach seems to be be higher power and fewer sites.

Russell

 

[texasemt13]

Yes, those were the RIDs I was catching.

I figured they would be. It's anyone's guess as to the physical location of the radio techs at the moment of testing then.

So far, all the 700 MHz sites I've monitored (SAUA and TxWARN) are very strong (high power). The approach seems to be be higher power and fewer sites.

davidbond21 and I were discussing this on our way in to work this morning. I noticed when the control channels first started appearing that I could pick up the Hays County site and 2 of it's peers when I tuned to the frequency. David could do the same from his house in New Braunfels. One thing I have noticed though is that during any sort of precipitation event (rain, fog, hail, etc.), it is extremely difficult to get a good signal on the sites from any distance away.

 

[texasemt13]

wiki

I've overhauled the wiki for this trunked system. I'm linking it here.

If you have any extra information, please add it, or pm it to me so I can add it myself.

 

[Russell]

Huge WAG here, but if you draw a little map with peer info (using the info in the Wiki), it looks like ...

Site 104 is west of Austin and Hays Co, possibly north of New Braunfels
Site 113 is east of Austin and Hays Co, possibly north of I10

Russell

 

[texasemt13]

Site 104 is west of Austin and Hays Co, possibly north of New Braunfels

David and I were trying to figure this out on our way home yesterday. I get Site 104 awesome at I-35 and Watson Lane (exit 195ish). I also get it decent in south Hays County. I'm wondering if this is in northwest Comal County. It can be received from about I-35 at Cibolo-Hubertus (exit 179ish) on the south side. I'm heading out to eastern Canyon Lake tonight and I'll try for a signal report out there as well.

Site 113 is east of Austin and Hays Co, possibly north of I10

We started recieving this site with a decent signal at I-35 and 1604, and received it for awhile into Comal County. I-10 is definitely needing coverage (for an evac route) and that's all LCRA territory, so it's likely that Guadalupe County has a site.

With a little spare time this weekend (.. and a little Shiner) I'll do some investigating. I can personally recieve 3 sites at my house in San Marcos, I've only run UniTrunker on Site 102, so I need to run it on 104 and 113 to see who their peers are.

 

[Russell]

Yes, Site 101 is reporting 102, 104 and 113 as peers. That's why I'm thinking East and West of I 35 and North of I10. I think 101 may be on antenna hill near Lake Austin. I can hear 102 sometimes in North Austin with an outside antenna and I get hits on another freq but can't lock on or decode anything due to a very weak signal.

Russell

 

[texasemt13]

Well I'm determined to make a 700MHz yagi this weekend. I'll be doing some travelling throughout Travis, Hays & Comal counties this weekend so I'll make sure to do some signal reports on all these sites from some major intersections.

To whoever submitted Site 105: Can you provide a general area and signal report for "Near San Antonio?" I still haven't heard this one.

I noticed that the first frequency for Sites 103 (New B?) and 105 (Near SA?) are identical- this surprises me, if in fact they are the control channels and are supposed to be no further than 40-50 miles apart (North New B to South San Anto). Under ideal conditions, that could cause some problems.

 

[Russell]

Larsen YA5-740W. If you've got the $80.

 

[texasemt13]

I prefer the DIY method ($15), but thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Russell]

I can hear site 113 from North Austin - but only while mobile. I'd like to get Pro96Com/UniTrunker on it, but I'll have to set up and go mobile to get that done. I'm committed this weekend so it'll be tough to work that in.

I'm interested in your DIY Yagi - how are building that one?

Russell

 

[Russell]

From my apartment in North Austin all I can hear (right now) is Site 101 (I'm in a serious radio hole). However, from MoPac and Parmer, I can hear Site 102; I can also hear Sites 104 and 113, both about the same signal strength and a lot weaker than 102, but audible and the radio decodes the WACN, SID, Site, etc.

Russell

 

[texasemt13]

I can also hear Sites 104...

I tested 104 a little bit today and last night. Reception reports:

Loop 337 @ SH46 (New B): 90%, 4 bars on the signal meter

River Rd (basically the Guadalupe River basin from New B to Canyon Lake): no reception, no signal

FM306 @ Purgatory Rd.: 99%, full bars

Ranch Road 32 @ Ranch Road 12 (South Hays County): 90%, 4 bars

Ranch Road 12 @ FM 1102 (San Marcos): 99%, full bars

I was loosing this site on Purgatory Rd heading north and didn't regain it until I got some height in Hays County. I feel that this (Purgatory Rd) is the western edge of this site. I could not get this site at all on the eastern side of Canyon Lake (around the dam).

 

[texasemt13]

Site 104 Peers:

Site 102- (suspected Hays County Site)
Site 103- (suspected New Braunfels Site)
Site 107- (suspected North San Antonio Site)

I stopped at the old Hillcrest Antiques store at I-35 and Watson Lane (29 degrees 46' 39" N; 98 degrees 2' 10" W), hooked up a 2m yagi. The signal still saturated the yagi. I attenuated the receiver and still it saturated the antenna. This site was 5 bars and decode stayed solid at 99%.

I also tested Site 102 from this location, with the same attenuation and antenna. It clearly had the strongest signal from the San Marcos (I-35 corridor) direction. When I rotated away from the approximate bearing of 45 degrees (at the antique store) I loss the signal gradually. Pointing 180 degrees away I had no reception.

Site 104 must be close, if I have time tonight I'll retry these techniques from a building here in San Marcos. If I can get general headings from a few locations we might be able to narrow this down.

If I can still get Site 107 from San Marcos I'll run it through Pro96Com next.

 

[texasemt13]

Site 107 Peers:

Site 102- (suspected to be in Hays County)
Site 103- (suspected to be in New Braunfels)
Site 104- (unknown location)
Site 106- (unknown location)

This site is decoding 99% with 5-bar S-Meter in San Marcos also. I'm impressed how many sites I can receive at once.

Wiki has been updated. Anyone hearing any testing in their areas?

 

[Russell]

I haven't heard much since last week's testing but I've been kind of busy. I see Site 101 is still reporting 102, 104 and 113 as neighbors but some of those sites don't report Site 101 as their neighbor. I've seen this on Site 113 which I was briefly able to get UniTrunker on over the weekend. Very strange.

113 is also reporting 106 and 111 as neighbors which supports the "east side theory". I, too, wonder about 105, no sites report 105 as a peer and no new info unveiled there. But drawing a WAG map could put 105 somewhere around or on the way to SAT. I figure 113 is still to the east and north and 106 is somewhere south of that.

So far, all these sites appear to be on the evacuation routes.

Russell

 

[samson512]

Im hearing some comms on TGID 1025 today, Im listening to the Austin tower, site 100-001.
Sounds like some sort of police dept, can't really confirm that yet. Not much traffic heard in the 15 or so minutes I got a chance to monitor it.

 

[texasemt13]

This morning on my way in to work:

Sites 103 and 105 (maybe more, I caught these two) carrying talkgroup 1001, with two radio techs doing a little range check. They were discussing the nice P25 audio quality, while talking about how the 900MHz analog EDACS has only gotten noisy since the band got crowded. They were hoping that this 700MHz band didn't go the same way. Then they said something to the effect of "I hope OpenSky is this nice" [/I](as tcolgan mentioned in this thread, that they would transition to OpenSky). They then tried to do an individual call, and couldn't figure it out (saying maybe the switch wasn't configured for it).

 

[davidbond21]

OK guys, thanks to John alerting me this morning about hearing voice on site 103, I set up my computer to run Unitrunker on the control channel and this is what I found:

4 Voice channels: 769.66875, 769.95625, 770.41875, and 770.70625.

I also had 3 RIDs come up: 5123001, 5123008, and 5123017, but most all of their communications happened on TGs 1001 and 1003 which we've already seen. And interesting tidbit is that my Unitrunker user list shows me a 4th RID of 3013, and looking at the log, it shows me that 5123008 made 2 I-Calls to this RID, but there was no voice contact made.

As far as talkgroups though, 5123008 treated us to something quite interesting; immediately after ending an extended conversation with 5123017, he flipped his channel selector knob through all it's programmed channels, which Unitrunker dutifully logged for me. Here are all the talkgroups that are programmed into at least one tech's radio, and I would therefore hazard a guess to say we might eventually being hearing activity on these: 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005, 1006, 1011, 1012, 1015, 1016, 1019, 1022, 1023, 1025, 1028, 1034, 1038, 1043, 1046, 1050, 1051, 1063, 1065, 1066, and 1067.

Oh, and the voice comms started back up around 10am from what John heard this morning, and in those few hour fixed whatever it was so they could I-Call one another, as my log bears out.

 

[texasemt13]

3013 is in the range of the 900MHz LCRA Radio Tech LIDs, and I'd bet they were trying to I-Call across systems, from the 700MHz system to the 900MHz EDACS. Pretty neat if you ask me.

 

[Russell]

3013 is in the range of the 900MHz LCRA Radio Tech LIDs, and I'd bet they were trying to I-Call across systems, from the 700MHz system to the 900MHz EDACS. Pretty neat if you ask me.

I heard a pretty good explanation of this the other day. The LIDs on the LCRA system are in the 4 digit range while the LIDs on the P25 side include '512' as a prefix, called a "region code". To "talk across" systems using ICall, the region code must be used. All radios on both systems will have the same last four digits, they aren't supposed to repeat.

Russell