Castrol Raceway Edmonton

[Nerds2You]

I read an old thread in here about Castrol Raceway and I am still interested in figuring out their radio system as I race there a few times a year and it's nice to hear comms while waiting for something to clear up on the drag strip.

The last post in the old thread stated

"Using Motorola XPR 6580's so they are likely MotoTRBO and not scannable by me "

If that is the radios they are using the spec says 800/900 MHz operation. I did a geographic search on the ISED website using GPS co-ordinates of the race track and could not find anything registered in that frequency range within 2 km other than things specific to the airport.

I am thinking that likely means they are using rental / leased radios on a trunked system such as the Westcan DMR or GOTRBO. I am going to listen to some of these systems during the first event of the season and hopefully hear some transmissions.

I hope I am on the right track with this ( pun intended ), if anyone has any suggestions or ideas or other systems they could possibly be on it would be greatly appreciated

 

[Muffin]

Motorola XPR-6580s are MotoTRBO and are definitely scannable! Sounds like you need to upgrade your scanner to have the ability to scan DMR. This way you can Close Call the radios and get the Color Code/Slot Number/Talkgroup ID which is akin to a "channel" number. Hope this helps.

 

[Muffin]

I neglected to mention that these radios can do either DMR or regular CTCSS and are sometimes using a mixed mode. For example - if "private" conversations are required they may switch to channel 3 which is on DMR but channels 1 and 2 may be utilizing CTCSS tones. The Motorola XPR-6350 and XPR-7350 are both capable of this (I know firsthand as I use both at work).

 

[kayn1n32008]

Motorola XPR-6580s are MotoTRBO and are definitely scannable! Sounds like you need to upgrade your scanner to have the ability to scan DMR. This way you can Close Call the radios and get the Color Code/Slot Number/Talkgroup ID which is akin to a "channel" number. Hope this helps.

Close call won’t work on DMR subscribers.

Not sure why they would be using 800MHz. The closest infrastructure makes using them on one of the commercial networks not very likely.

They may be using them simplex under a communications company license like Westcan or WCI etc.

 

[harryshute]

Could they be on the ED Electronics 800 MHz site in Leduc? Not sure if those radios support LTR. Seems also that WCI or Westcan had some Nisku area site tied with their Edmonton systems.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Could they be on the ED Electronics 800 MHz site in Leduc? Not sure if those radios support LTR. Seems also that WCI or Westcan had some Nisku area site tied with their Edmonton systems.

They do not support LTR.

 

[Muffin]

Close call won’t work on DMR subscribers.

Weird - my scanner has no issue with it. Picks up Slot number, Color Code and Talk group in Close Call mode

 

[harryshute]

Weird - my scanner has no issue with it. Picks up Slot number, Color Code and Talk group in Close Call mode

I remember reading about that when DMR was first introduced in the 436 and 536. My impression was it was fixed in a firmware upgrade very quickly. Any way my SDS 100 and 200 work well on DMR Close call.