Bristiol County IC&E Vs Comtronics and Onevoice TRBO Sites

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KEWB-N1EXA

Acushnet Heights Radio 740
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Hello Bristol County.
With My 996P2 Located in New bedford I loaded and had Great success with the Industrial Communications and Electronics DMR TRBO Sites in Kingston,Falmouth,Fall River and Freetown and no luck with Barnstable and Taunton though on the coverage maps they show i'm in range.

I loaded in the Comtronics DMR site in Mashpee and get signal but no traffic and Onevoice seems like
dead Duck in the area.

Is there something different about these 2 DMR vendors that i'm missing in the setup?

Im treating them in the 996P2 As DMR TRBO Systems with Frequncies in the LCN Order with open ( Any )
Slot and CC.

Peter N1EXA New Bedford
 

W1KNE

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So if you didn't know, Taunton is a very large city geographically. The Industrial tower is on the far west side of the city, within a couple of miles of Dighton. The hills in Freetown/Fall River also do a nice job of blocking this part of Taunton to New Bedford. As it is, where I am, I can hear a lot from Fall River, but hardly anything from New Bedford, both in the same direction. (For the record, I am about 5 miles from the IC&E tower).
 

KEWB-N1EXA

Acushnet Heights Radio 740
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So if you didn't know, Taunton is a very large city geographically. The Industrial tower is on the far west side of the city, within a couple of miles of Dighton. The hills in Freetown/Fall River also do a nice job of blocking this part of Taunton to New Bedford. As it is, where I am, I can hear a lot from Fall River, but hardly anything from New Bedford, both in the same direction. (For the record, I am about 5 miles from the IC&E tower).
Seeing that your in Taunton and have a good shot at Freetown can you hear the Stop and Shop Warehouse DMR system in Assonet?
I have nothing here in New Bedford So
I’ll assume they must be pretty low in power from that site.

Peter N1EXA
 

garys

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What software (if any) did you use to program the radio?
 

KEWB-N1EXA

Acushnet Heights Radio 740
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What software (if any) did you use to program the radio?
I Know RR Loves to grinde on about the 996 series but Its pretty easy to hand load the information.
I guess all that Hand loading of software through the 1980s and 90s makes the 996 series A cake walk for me
and along with the Chinese Baofeng uv5 which is pretty easy to load too...

Freescan works pretty good to load the State Police groups in but for the DMR seeing Freescan was never
written for it and probably will never be updated unless a dedicated software writer wants to spend some
time leaving that option pretty much Mute for now.

So yes I'm thumb bumping in the DMR stuff from the keypad and LCD screen and No i'm not buying
any software.

Im asking about these DMR sites Because Yes I got it to work in the radio ... It just seems that TRBO
is to be range limited and though companies like Brewster Ambulance seem to the encrypted.
I still would think the City of New Bedford would betalking more on their system.
The IC&E System works good but some other DMR systems seem to be dead to me.

Peter N1EXA
 
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garys

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I was asking because I was looking at the DMR trunk options in ARC-XT. Since you're doing this by hand, I'd recommend that you drill down into the menu on the scanner. Go to the ICE and Commtronics systems and then the individual sites. At least on ARC-XT there is an option for "Control Channel Only." I don't know if that's in the Uniden menu system, but if it is make sure it is unchecked.

You need to put the frequencies in the correct LCN order and with the correct Color Code.

Commtronics, as you probably know, has a much smaller system. In addition, many of their sites are on smaller towers than ICE uses. You might have better luck if you enter their Fall River site frequencies.

The ICE Freetown towers should reach New Bedford, as should Fall River. I'm in Stoughton and can get the ICE Fall River tower quite well as well as Freetown.

You didn't mention where in NB you are, but if you are down near the waterfront, that might be part of what's going on. As well as what type of antenna you're using.

Brewster is encrypted, but only on the dispatch side. For whatever reason, the field units are usually in the clear. At least on some TGs.

The City of New Bedford trunk site is located on Melville Towers. Last year when I was down there it was not particularly busy.
 

KEWB-N1EXA

Acushnet Heights Radio 740
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Well
The DMR Upgrade on the 996P2 pretty much comes with no bells or whistles..Basically you get
3 DMR choices Signal Channel Trunk, TRBO and Conventional...I find Conventional basically lets the radio
sit on a channel and gamble the Software decodes something but it will stumble on data bursts so seeing
Single channel trunk is a better option and set the Group ID search for something... Slots and Color Codes are set to
"ANY" and it works like that ...Once you detect the Slot and CC you can enter them in...Frequencies are entered in
in the Site section and it asks for the LCN but no option in DMR for Control Channel only like with Motorola Smartnet 2
and such. Seeing New Bedford services and IC&E are TRBO I set them for that Option.
Im picking off IC&E 930mhz to the North Freetown - To the South Falmouth - to the West Fall River and the East Kingston.
I was using the list from the SCAN NE site to pick Off the Group Numbers... I made catagories like Bus, Waste Pick ip
Ambulance in the group section under each site. I see A number like 332 the list says ABC disposal I put that in the
Waste Pickup group....Finding Tripple AAA pretty busy along with School Buses and TAXI's.

For antennas im using Diamond RH 901s with the Ground plane kit.. I have a bunch of them..

I'm on the high end of County street ( Acushnet Hights) so that 100+above sea level according to the GPS.
maybe a mile at the most from Melville towers.

Im good for Harbor coverage and the Train yard...Acctually can't wait for the MBTA to come in...This should get
busy on the RR Frequencies...Dont think the T will be on NXDN down here though like in Boston.

Peter N1EXA
 

garys

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The T is Pro Voice in greater Boston, but that won't extend down to New Bedford. They'll use RR frequencies like they do for all commuter rail trains. You'll be able to hear the Transit Police on the MSP analog trunk, but not their UHF channels.

As to the rest my only suggestion is to put in the LCN and Color Code for each site, even though it's a PITA by hand.

I've never had all that much luck with any Diamond antenna, but that's just me. An outside antenna would likely help, but that might not be an option.
 

KEWB-N1EXA

Acushnet Heights Radio 740
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Jan 1, 2020
Messages
416
Well
The DMR Upgrade on the 996P2 pretty much comes with no bells or whistles..Basically you get
3 DMR choices Signal Channel Trunk, TRBO and Conventional...I find Conventional basically lets the radio
sit on a channel and gamble the Software decodes something but it will stumble on data bursts so seeing
Single channel trunk is a better option and set the Group ID search for something... Slots and Color Codes are set to
"ANY" and it works like that ...Once you detect the Slot and CC you can enter them in...Frequencies are entered in
in the Site section and it asks for the LCN but no option in DMR for Control Channel only like with Motorola Smartnet 2
and such. Seeing New Bedford services and IC&E are TRBO I set them for that Option.
Im picking off IC&E 930mhz to the North Freetown - To the South Falmouth - to the West Fall River and the East Kingston.
I was using the list from the SCAN NE site to pick Off the Group Numbers... I made catagories like Bus, Waste Pick ip
Ambulance in the group section under each site. I see A number like 332 the list says ABC disposal I put that in the
Waste Pickup group....Finding Tripple AAA pretty busy along with School Buses and TAXI's.

For antennas im using Diamond RH 901s with the Ground plane kit.. I have a bunch of them..

I'm on the high end of County street ( Acushnet Hights) so that 100+above sea level according to the GPS.
maybe a mile at the most from Melville towers.

Im good for Harbor coverage and the Train yard...Acctually can't wait for the MBTA to come in...This should get
busy on the RR Frequencies...Dont think the T will be on NXDN down here though like in Boston.

Peter N1EXA
The Diamond RH901S with the Ground Plane kit is An outside antenna for my applications.
The MBTA is Provoice in Boston but The RR band 160MHZ and 450MHZ is Analog and or Moto NXDN...Depending who is on the channels. I even have On 160.305 the Old Bay Colony channel somebody using a voice shift scrambler in the Train yard in New Bedford.
Melville towers does not have any 2 way antennas on it only some old signal channel TV stuff. The apartment House across the street has UHF and Microwave and the Old New Bedford Hotel has some stacked UHF arrays on it. The city Yard has a tower with some Glass Sticks on it. Don't know what band though. They
look like Old Phelps Dodge VHF Stuff.

Peter N1EXA
 

jvaillancourt

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Fall River, MA
Seeing that your in Taunton and have a good shot at Freetown can you hear the Stop and Shop Warehouse DMR system in Assonet?
I have nothing here in New Bedford So
I’ll assume they must be pretty low in power from that site.

Peter N1EXA


I live in FR and can not hear them at all. The only time I've heard S&S was when I was traveling on 24N in Freetown.
 

jvaillancourt

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Fall River, MA
I was asking because I was looking at the DMR trunk options in ARC-XT. Since you're doing this by hand, I'd recommend that you drill down into the menu on the scanner. Go to the ICE and Commtronics systems and then the individual sites. At least on ARC-XT there is an option for "Control Channel Only." I don't know if that's in the Uniden menu system, but if it is make sure it is unchecked.

You need to put the frequencies in the correct LCN order and with the correct Color Code.

Commtronics, as you probably know, has a much smaller system. In addition, many of their sites are on smaller towers than ICE uses. You might have better luck if you enter their Fall River site frequencies.

The ICE Freetown towers should reach New Bedford, as should Fall River. I'm in Stoughton and can get the ICE Fall River tower quite well as well as Freetown.

You didn't mention where in NB you are, but if you are down near the waterfront, that might be part of what's going on. As well as what type of antenna you're using.

Brewster is encrypted, but only on the dispatch side. For whatever reason, the field units are usually in the clear. At least on some TGs.

The City of New Bedford trunk site is located on Melville Towers. Last year when I was down there it was not particularly busy.

If you wouldn't mind sharing, I'm from FR...what exactly can you pick up from the ICE FR tower? Where is it located?
 

KEWB-N1EXA

Acushnet Heights Radio 740
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Messages
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I don't know the exact location of the FR tower. As to what you can hear, here is the list of known users. Industrial Communications and Electronics MotoTrbo Systems - Scan New England Wiki and sites.
The Tall Tower next to Walmart in Fall River has the IC&E DMR Site

Good signal in New Bedford pretty much you will get AAA Car Association,ABC Disposal,Contractors, School Bus Traffic and Ambulances like Alert

The Freetown Site has some other Vendors on it. I also have Falmouth and Plymouth and get their local traffic.

Peter N1EXA
 

KEWB-N1EXA

Acushnet Heights Radio 740
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Messages
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I live in FR and can not hear them at all. The only time I've heard S&S was when I was traveling on 24N in Freetown.
I pretty much gave up on Stop and Shop because of their low power.
The Amazon Warehouse in Fall River DMR seems to be low power too.
The Best catch on DMR is the IC&E System for Traffic.

Peter N1EXA
 
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