Broome County P25 Phase II TRS

[jwas23]

Test from this morning. Just a lot of Harvard sentences.

Now as an aside, my question doesn't have anything to do with this P25 topic but does anyone know of DRM signals that are receivable in the Broome/Tioga county areas? Since all of you are probably from the region here I figured it was the best place to ask.

 

[k2hz]

Test from this morning. Just a lot of Harvard sentences.

Now as an aside, my question doesn't have anything to do with this P25 topic but does anyone know of DRM signals that are receivable in the Broome/Tioga county areas? Since all of you are probably from the region here I figured it was the best place to ask.

If you mean DMR (DRM is used for shortwave broadcasting) there are 2 trunked DMR systems listed for Broome County in the RRDB:

State University of New York Binghamton Trunking System, Binghamton, New York

State University of New York Binghamton Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Town of Union Trunking System, Union, New York

Town of Union Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Also 2 conventional DMR:

451.73750

456.73750

WQON517

RM

CC 1 TG 100 SL 1

SUNY Transport

Off Campus College Transportation

DMR

Transportation

151.30250

154.89750

KD29682

RM

CC 1 TG * SL *

Triangle Hwy

Highway Department

DMR

Public Works

 

[bcrmc]

Actually, it was "The cheese is old and moldy and I cannot eat it for lunch."

 

[bcrmc]

Harvard Sentences maybe? Harvard sentences - Wikipedia

Samples: “The cheese has been moving so I can’t have it for lunch”
”Lucille Ball was born in 1911 just outside of Jamestown, NY”

For several days we were using phrases that we came up with on our own. We began using actual Harvard phrases to change it up, thanks to the post by Thunderknight. Testing will continue next week.

 

[mshumeyk]

Actually, it was "The cheese is old and moldy and I cannot eat it for lunch."

Maybe I need my hearing checked! Seriously, the audio sounds great. I'm also impressed with the reception on my Unication fairly deep inside a couple of large buildings in Binghamton and Johnson City.

 

[ripper607]

I am an old time scanner enthusiast. Can someone tell me what current radio will be able receive and follow the new system? Thanks

 

[AuntEnvy]

You will need a digital scanner.
I can't tell you which one is best but uniden and whistler are the two most common, with a couple different models and price points.
Be prepared to spend a good chunk of change either way though.

 

[W1KNE]

I am an old time scanner enthusiast. Can someone tell me what current radio will be able receive and follow the new system? Thanks

Phase II Trunked Simulcast. The only scanner that will properly decode it will be the Uniden SDS series. Prosumer and professional receivers, such as the Unication pagers will also. Any other model is merely a crap shoot despite what some others may say, due to the system being PII Simulcast.

 

[mshumeyk]

I am an old time scanner enthusiast. Can someone tell me what current radio will be able receive and follow the new system? Thanks

I second W1KNE's comment. The SDS 100 or SDS200 are the only common scanners you can count on to receive all transmissions on P25 phase 2 system clearly. I have an SDS 100 and also have a Unication pager which performs superbly on P25 phase 2 systems but does not have the flexibility of regular scanners.

If you do have a" P25 phase 2 capable" scanner like the Uniden HP436 you could try monitoring the system just to see how well you receive the system at your location. On a whim I programmed the system into my HP436 and found it almost matches my SDS100 in reception. However, I live just 0.7 miles from the nearest system site with line-of-sight to the tower. In other areas like NJ and Atlanta I have found the HP436 P25 Phase 2 reception was poor or even unable to lock onto a control channel while the SDS 100 worked fine. Location, location, location.

BTW, there is enough activity on the talkgroups used by Cole, Dorchester and Greenwood Parks to judge how well you can receive the syste. Good luck!

 

[bcrmc]

Seriously, the audio sounds great. I'm also impressed with the reception on my Unication fairly deep inside a couple of large buildings in Binghamton and Johnson City.

The contracted guaranteed coverage is minimum 95% of the County of Broome on-street from a portable worn on the hip. Our testing in June proved above 98% coverage.

We worked hard on the design of the new system to provide 20dB increased signal in the “urban core” to provide better in-building coverage. That is, the Susquehanna River Valley from Vestal and Endicott east through Johnson City, Binghamton, Conklin and Kirkwood. Also the Chenango River Valley from Binghamton north to Chenango Bridge. This also proved better than we hoped for.

 

[NYSW3636]

The contracted guaranteed coverage is minimum 95% of the County of Broome on-street from a portable worn on the hip. Our testing in June proved above 98% coverage.

We worked hard on the design of the new system to provide 20dB increased signal in the “urban core” to provide better in-building coverage. That is, the Susquehanna River Valley from Vestal and Endicott east through Johnson City, Binghamton, Conklin and Kirkwood. Also the Chenango River Valley from Binghamton north to Chenango Bridge. This also proved better than we hoped for.

Man, to be able to talk to Delaware off my APX4000 would be a dream! I'm excited to see how this system goes, and if neighboring counties(Excluding Tioga) follow behind.

 

[bcrmc]

After many delays, installations of mobile radios will finally begin the week of September 19. Town of Maine Highway Dept will be first, followed by Town of Union and Broome County Transit. Focus will be on the county, town, village and city public works and highway departments at first, then move to public safety agencies. Endicott Police will be on via portables only in a few weeks. A few other agencies will be sprinkled in as we have time to get them ready.

 

[mshumeyk]

Just an FYI, for the past few days the Broome County Sheriff Channel 154.80mHz has been patched to Talkgroup 27210 on the Broome West Simulcast. If you have a scanner that can have difficulty with P25 Phase II systems like the HP436 it is a good opportunity to determine how reliable your scanner is at receiving the system at your particular location, especially if you have a second scanner with which you can simultaneously monitor 154.80.

 

[rufust]

I heard some of this over the weekend.Quality appears to be very good but is the downside everything is a group # now instead of a name.You won't always know who is talking.

 

[AuntEnvy]

I heard some of this over the weekend.Quality appears to be very good but is the downside everything is a group # now instead of a name.You won't always know who is talking.

I'm guessing the names will be matched and posted to proper depts/users once it's determined. You'll just have to keep watch and upload or program your TG's accordingly.

 

[bcrmc]

Talk Group 27210 is Broome Sheriff and will remain that name.

 

[mshumeyk]

I heard some of this over the weekend.Quality appears to be very good but is the downside everything is a group # now instead of a name.You won't always know who is talking.

We have been fortunate to have someone on Radioreference with inside knowledge of the system provide us with the identities of many of the talkgroups of the system. However, it can be fun trying to identify unknow talkgroups of a system as they come online. I spend a fair amount of time in South Jersey where most agencies are on the New Jersey Interoperable Communications System, a statewide P25 Phase 2 system like the new Broome County System. I was able to identify the PD talkgroups of a couple of towns that had just joined the system and then able to submit the info to the RR database.

I've found one way to seek out and identify new talkgroups, at least on my SDS scanner, is to create a second copy of the system on a different favorite list, set all known talkgroups to "Avoid", and enable "ID Search". Set the scanner to "Record" and check it later. Running virtual control with logging on PROSCAN or Butel ARC if you have it allows you to determine how busy a talkgroup is at a glance.

 

[K2ERI]

Any new updates to the County Talkgroups for Broome? I see the new list online but was not sure on one thing, for the FD setup who is Batt 1-4 and how will they be assigned onto the broome west and east? I was also curious if anyone else will be going on the system for like squads and other PD agency's?

 

[K2ERI]

have any other TG been added to the system? I was curious how far will broome west reach once you cross over into tioga county?

 

[wilcom132]

My observations from monitoring the new Broome P25 system 24/7 for the past several weeks.

1. Broome Sheriff (TG 27210) has had their old frequency 154.80 patched into the new system for several weeks. I'm not sure that any units are actually transmitting on the new system yet.
2. The Town of Maine/Nanticoke DPW (TG 27358) has been using it for the past few weeks.
3. The Town of Union Hwy (TG 27363) and Refuse (TG 27362) has been using it for the past couple weeks.
4. The Endicott Police Dept (TG 27212) switched over this week. I haven't heard any transmissions on their old frequency 155.13 the few times that I listened to it when they were being dispatched on the new system.
5. I occasionally hear Onondaga county units on some of the system wide Law and EMS talk groups, especially today when President Biden visited Syracuse.

I'm using a $30 RTL-SDR (Software Defined Radio) dongle attached to a Raspberry Pi 4 running the Linux based 64 bit Raspberry Pi OS. Free open source OP25 software is used to monitor the Broome P25 Phase 2 truncked system. I use Liquidsoap and Icecast2 to send the audio to my private internet stream.

OP25 includes software that will read the OP25 log file to generate a report of transmissions since the last time the report was run. This is the report from this morning of transmissions from the previous 1 1/2 days:

# Talkgroup Frequency Analysis
# PCT Count TGID Description
85.702 48382 27210 Broome Sheriff 5
7.266 4102 115 Law Wide
6.109 3449 27212 Endicott PD 2
0.469 265 27363 Union Hwy
0.319 180 27362 Union Refuse
0.078 44 27358 Maine/Nanti DPW
0.053 30 15 EMS Wide
0.004 2 27021 BC Emergency

OP25 allows talk groups to be assigned priority numbers with lower numbers having a higher priority. A transmission by a talk group with a higher priority than the one currently transmitting will interrupt the lower priority transmission. All talk groups are given a priority of 3 by default. I set Broome Sheriff to 5 so everything else will interrupt their frequent transmissions. I set Endicott PD to 2 so they will interrupt everybody else because they're new and I was interested in how they were using it. If a new talk group transmits that I don't have entered in the OP25 database only the TG # will appear in the log until I can determine who it is and add it to the database. Using this method I have determined that TG 27141 might be Chenango Forks Fire Ops and TG 27188 might be Maine EMS Ops 2 (85 OPs 2).

Broome County has user guides available online at Broome County Interoperable Radio System | Broome County. These are being used for training users on proper use of the available talk groups (channels) and is interesting reading. I found a very blurry map of the new Broome County Fire/EMS Batallions. I'm working on getting a better copy from the Vol Fire Dept that I belong to.