Cumberland County Fire (low band patch to Open Sky)

[dmg1969]

I am trying to figure something out regarding this channel. Cumberland County is now on Open Sky, but they still patch their old low band fire frequency (46.06 with a tone of 97.4) to the Open Sky system. I know that the tone is correct because if I program the frequency with the tone, it works.

Here is my problem. I live in Perry County. Perry County's Fire channel 2 frequency is also 46.06, but it is CSQ (no tone).

I have Cumberland County Fire 1 (46.06 with a tone of 97.4) programmed into bank 1 of my BC125AT. I have the Perry Fire 2 channel (46.06 CSQ) programmed into bank 3, but have the CTCSS/DCS set to No Tone. According to the manual, this means that the scanner will only break squelch if there is NO tone detected.

On the way to work this morning, there was a fire call and I STILL heard it on both of those channels on my scanner. I am trying to determine how that is possible. I heard the call both on the channel in bank 1 that was programmed with a tone AND the channel in bank 3 that was set to No Tone.

I don't know if it has something to do with being patched to the OpenSky system? Or am i missing something?

 

[popnokick]

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A channel that has no tone (PL/DPL) programmed at all will be OPEN and receive EVERYTHING. So if the fire call was Cumberland you'll hear it on both Bank 1 with the proper tone filter AND on the Bank 3 channel that has no tone programming.
You should only hear Perry on the channel that has no tone programmed, because the Bank 1 channel with the tone programmed will block/filter every signal unless it has the 97.4 tone (Cumberland).

 

[GTR8000]

A channel that has no tone (PL/DPL) programmed at all will be OPEN and receive EVERYTHING. So if the fire call was Cumberland you'll hear it on both Bank 1 with the proper tone filter AND on the Bank 3 channel that has no tone programming.
You should only hear Perry on the channel that has no tone programmed, because the Bank 1 channel with the tone programmed will block/filter every signal unless it has the 97.4 tone (Cumberland).

The BC125AT has a new feature that's known as "No Tone".

No Tone - indicates that the channel squelch will only open if no CTCSS/DCS is detected.

Essentially, it's a "CSQ Only" setting that keeps the squelch closed during the presence of any PL/DPL tone.

Not to be confused with "I didn't program a tone" or "PL/DPL is off".

 

[GTR8000]

DMG, have you tested the "No Tone" feature with a different frequency that you can receive both PL/DPL and CSQ on from two different agencies?

 

[dmg1969]

I see that Chauffeur6 beat me to the explanation. I should have been more clear in explaining the No Tone feature in the BC125AT. Chauffeur6 is right...the No Tone setting essentially acts as a CSQ only setting and will not open the squelch if it detects a tone.

Chauffeur6, I have not tried it with any others. Unfortunately, there are really not many other counties within my reception area that use the same VHF low frequencies as Perry.

I will try with the only one I can think of that I may be able to pull in. That is the Adams County Police West frequency of 45.10 with a PL of 186.2. That is the same as Perry County Police channel 3, which is never used. I do get bleed-over occasionally and I believe it is Adams. I will lock everything else out and test it for a day or two.

 

[dmg1969]

I programmed the 45.10 frequency into my unused bank 9 with the tone and into bank 10 with the setting to No Tone. I did the same thing with two other frequencies from some neighboring counties. They are VHF police dispatch frequencies from Northumberland (155.415 PL 103.5) and Snyder (155.370 PL 156.7) counties. The frequencies with their tones are in bank 9 and the frequencies with the setting at No Tone are in bank 10.

When I get a hit on any of the frequencies with a tone, I will hit scan to see if it lands on the same active frequency with the setting to No Tone. If the manual is correct, it should not. If it does, then something is up. If it works as it should, then it must be something with the way that Cumberland County is patched to their Open Sky system. I do know that they are using the tone.

 

[dmg1969]

I tried it on a few other frequencies and it worked the way it should. I heard a frequency with a tone and did not hear the same frequency if it was programmed for No Tone. Still, it does not hold true for CumberlAnd County. It must have something to do with the patch to Open Sky. So, I just lock out the duplicate frequency unless I would need it.