Did Loudoun change while I wasn't listening...?

[RDunham]

I can't seem to pick up anything from Loudoun Sheriff's dispatch anymore. I haven't listened in months - did something change? I have my control channel on 866.7750 but not picking up squat unless I manually scroll thru the listed frequencies (Uniden BC250D w/ card).

Thx.

 

[FPO703]

They may be using one of the alternate control channels for one reason or another.

 

[freqhopping]

I was about to post about Loudoun but not related to this. The control channel at this time is 868.9125.

What I was going to say is that the Sheriff's Office is now using different unit numbers. Monday morning about 6 a.m. I heard something about logging of MDTs and changing unit numbers, Ifigured it was related to shift change. Not until today did I notice a change in unit numbers.

Tonight on the west end I've heard 550a, 270c, 340a, 340c, 2326 (off-duty I guess), 520c, 79, 420a and 420c .

On the east end 370a, 220a, 230a, 470a and 290a.

Apparently they're no longer based on 1-14 sectors and the 3 shifts.

Does anybody know more?

I checked the GIS site. They have a new map.

 

[RDunham]

...The control channel at this time is 868.9125.

.

That did it - thanks!

 

[rbenn]

Here is what I have been able to work out so far regarding the new sector & unit assignments for the LCSO Patrol Division:

OLD UNIT IDs:
================================
1 - Sheriff
2 - 99 Command Staff
1XX - 1st Shift, XX = Sector
2XX - 2nd Shift, XX = Sector
3XX - 3rd Shift, XX = Sector

7XX - Purcellville PD
8XX - Middleburg PD

Suffix for 1XX - 2XX units:
If there were multiple units working in the same sector, the first unit would just be the 3-digit unit ID. Additional units in that sector would be designated with an alpha suffix. For example, 2 units working Day shift in sector 5 would be:
205 & 205A.


NEW UNIT IDs:
================================
1 - Sheriff
2 - 99 Command Staff
2XX - Sterling Area, XX = Sub-area
3XX - Brambleton Area, XX = Sub-area
4XX - Dulles South Area, XX = Sub-area
5XX - Round Hill Area, XX = Sub-area

7XX - Purcellville PD
8XX - Middleburg PD

Suffix for 2XX - 5XX units:
Adam - 1st Shift
Baker - 2nd Shift
Charlie - 3rd Shift

Not sure if they are still using the term sector or not, I haven't heard any specific references on the radio yet. Looks like the area assignments are a bit forward-looking in order to allign with the existing & proposed primary sub-station locations. Currently, patrol units meet for their daily briefing either at the Round Hill sub-station (west end units) or at the Ashburn sub-station (east end units) which is co-located with the NV Criminal Justice Academy near Rt 28 & 7. The Round Hill sub-station would obviously be the "Round Hill" area and the Ashburn sub-station is likely the "Sterling" area designation. As for future sub-station locations, I know there is a public safety center proposed to be built somewhere in South Riding off of Elk Lick Road; this would allign with the "Dulles South" area designation. I haven't heard of any such plans in the Brambleton area, but that area sure is growing fast.

One other observation is that the "East" vs. "West" boundary has changed. With the old sector layout, Rt 15 was essentially the
demarcation between east & west. That doesn't appear to be the case any longer with the new layout.

The designations for Purcellville & Middleburg appear to be unchanged. They are dispatched by the Sheriff's office on the same channels as LCSO using the 7XX and 8XX series radio IDs.

 

[adamleff]

Not sure if they are still using the term sector or not, I haven't heard any specific references on the radio yet.

They're using the term "station" -- in line with your prediction of sub-station breakouts. When you hear them split channels, you'll hear something along the lines of "All 200 stations stay on East end, all other stations move your traffic to the West end."

~Adam

 

[freqhopping]

So, has anybody had problems listening to them lately.

For about the last week, after a TG has been active on 867.0375 it will remain on the freq with some static instead of continuing to scan. I have a BC250D. If hit the resume button it will continuing scannng. Otherwise I will not hear anything until that freq becomes active again. I've tried different antennas and it doesn't matter where in the county I am.

It is set to detect the end code. Is just my scanner acting up?

 

[rbenn]

No problems monitoring Loudoun with my Pro96.

 

[adamleff]

For about the last week, after a TG has been active on 867.0375 it will remain on the freq with some static instead of continuing to scan. I have a BC250D. If hit the resume button it will continuing scannng. Otherwise I will not hear anything until that freq becomes active again. I've tried different antennas and it doesn't matter where in the county I am.

Whew... I thought it was just me.

I am experiencing the same, exact issue... BC250D as well.

~Adam

 

[jollyg83]

I can't seem to pick up anything from Loudoun Sheriff's dispatch anymore. I haven't listened in months - did something change? I have my control channel on 866.7750 but not picking up squat unless I manually scroll thru the listed frequencies (Uniden BC250D w/ card).

Thx.

I'm having the same problem even after I entered the right control channel, except I have a PRO 96. I got the frequencies off this website last night and unless they're wrong, I don't know what the problem is. Any ideas?

 

[jollyg83]

I think I figured out what my problem is, I just don't know how to fix it. Before I put the loudon freqs in bank 6 of my scanner I had it programed to listen to DC police dept. I had to change the base, spacing, and offset because they have a VHF/UHF trunk system. Now I just need to know how to return the base, offset, and spacing to their normal positions. Any tips? FYI I tried hitting Function, clear and just clear, and neither way worked.

 

[rbenn]

Base/Offset/Step defaults are: 406/380/25.

A couple of other things worth double-checking are the bank and channel settings for Type & RxMode respectively. Make sure both are set to 'MOT'.

 

[jollyg83]

Thanks for the help, Ill try it out today and see if it works.

 

[freqhopping]

Whew... I thought it was just me.

I am experiencing the same, exact issue... BC250D as well.

~Adam

Thanks, what a relief. I just entered it into my Icom R10 and sure enough I have a max signal reading with some low level static even when I don't hear the digital signal.

 

[fletch97]

Another data point

For what it's worth, I seem to be experiencing the same problem others have encountered using a Uniden BC296D. Not all the time, but some times when monitoring Loudoun county (doesn't matter if it's the sheriff, fire/rescue, Leesburg Police, etc.), when a transmission ends it will sometimes stay on that talkgroup and just transmit static. Sometimes, another transmission from a completely different talkgroup will then come across on that talkgroup (e.g. I heard fire/rescue 6A come across on Car-Car East). Sometimes the static will clear itself, but always if I hit the resume button it will resume scanning.

I certainly don't claim to know a whole lot about trunking, but if they added one or more frequencies would that cause this issue--that is, since it only happens some times is the trunking system telling the radio to look for a certain frequency that's not programmed?

And, of course, there are a number of other settings that I'm not 100% sure about--I had originally gotten them from someone nice enough to post their data file and it worked fine for quite some time, with the problems coming up more recently. For what it's worth, I'll post mine if anyone wants to look at it and compare with theirs. It's a SSD file as read by the software that comes with the BC296D (ver 1.01). Bank 1 should be for Loudoun fire-rescue and Bank 2 should be for Loudoun law enforcement. You can ignore the other banks.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[adamleff]

It just seems like something else is transmitting on the .0375 frequency, something outside of the Loudoun County system. I noticed while driving on Nokes Blvd past the Dulles Town Center, the signal strength was higher than when I was in Ashburn.

 

[freqhopping]

I've been experiencing this problem all over Loudoun, in central FFX Co and as far west as Berryville.

 

[RDunham]

Re: Another data point

For what it's worth, I seem to be experiencing the same problem others have encountered using a Uniden BC296D. Not all the time, but some times when monitoring Loudoun county (doesn't matter if it's the sheriff, fire/rescue, Leesburg Police, etc.), when a transmission ends it will sometimes stay on that talkgroup and just transmit static.

Yep, something is definately up. I'm observing the same "trailing static" issue when monitoring Loudoun. (BC250D).

 

[brownlab]

I was having the same problem with static on the Loudoun system until I deleted 867.0375 from its bank.

I guess now there is a possibility that I might miss something but the static is no longer driving me crazy.

 

[rbenn]

Interesting observation. I just checked out my Win96 configuration for Loudoun and I have all channels entered, but I've locked out all but the primary and alternate control channels, including 867.0375. I guess this explains why I have not observed this issue with my Pro96.

Initially, I was scanning all channels. After I learned that the Pro96 can follow the control channel, I locked out all of the extra channels. I figured this would help the scan rate since I have some non-trunked freqs in my Loudoun bank.