Charleston, AR PD & FD

[poppafred]

Suddenly, I am hearing a trunking control buzz on the conventional PD & FD frequencies here in Charleston. The SO still uses those frequencies and doesn't apparently hear the racket so I am wondering what is going on. Makes it a pain in the backside to monitor and I am wondering if it is some scheme to discourage scanner listeners.

 

[03msc]

Suddenly, I am hearing a trunking control buzz on the conventional PD & FD frequencies here in Charleston. The SO still uses those frequencies and doesn't apparently hear the racket so I am wondering what is going on. Makes it a pain in the backside to monitor and I am wondering if it is some scheme to discourage scanner listeners.

The SO probably doesn't hear it because they are using a CTCSS/DPL tone and only hear the traffic using the same tone.

Many agencies are switching to DMR or NXDN systems, which are digital, and will sound like a diesel engine / motor boat when trying to monitor on a scanner.

 

[INDY72]

What County is Charleston in? I can check the FCC Data and see whats crackalackin!

 

[poppafred]

Wow, I knew I was busy but that was crazy! 6 days to get back to this...

Charleston is in Franklin Co. Arkansas. They have recently (within the last 6-9 months) added a digital repeater for the south county users. It's been a big brewhaha over south county not hearing dispatch and dispatch not hearing south county departments. Almost came to a lawsuit. They use 155.495 I think. Or is it 155.445? Regardless, I am hearing the control tones on 155.070 SO channel and on 155.835 fire dispatch.

The PL tone idea makes sense. My digital scanners use PL tones to filter what I hear and I am only hearing the tones on an old Pro 2004. No PL capabilities there.

Wonder if I could decode the trucking buzz some way and see if that could ID the source?

 

[INDY72]

County SO uses DMR, CPD is licensed for analog Narrowband FM.

Franklin County, Arkansas (AR) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

The buzzing is the digital signal. They hear beautiful crystal clear audio. You hear BUZZZ BZZZZ BUZZZ GROWLLLL.

Unless you run an tapped feed into your computer and run DMR Decode, and DSD Plus, that is all you will hear. And if they run Enhanced Security (Encryption), you will never hear them.

 

[poppafred]

Yep, that's it.

The digital scanners have no problem, the old analog Pro 2004 is the only one affected.

Thanks...

 

[INDY72]

NO digital scanner can hear DMR, or NXDN. If your digitals are hearing the CPD on analog, and the old one is not, then there is an issue with the old scanner. May be fixable.. may be time to tap it and make it an analysis toy, or if the thing is having massive issues on other freqs too, maybe trash can time.