EDACS 9600 with Unitrunker

[Airdorn]

Hey all.

Tonight, I stumbled onto a few EDACS control channels. I have never heard any of those before because there aren't any around here. But I'm using a nice yagi on a rotator now, and the propagation was excellent.

I'm wondering about Unitrunker's way of displaying an EDACS control channel and system information.

Here's that the top line reads:

EDACS96 System                  8  unnamed System                0  unnamed   Qual 100%

#         1    __
#         2
#         3

I never saw any activity because I think these are private systems and I found them late at night.

My questions are, since there's no unique system ID, how do I figure out what the system is? On the Unitrunker screen shown above, what does the '8' mean? How about '0 unnamed'?

Finally -- and this last question may best be answered by the EDACS people in another forum -- how would one go about 'mapping' out the system's frequencies? Does it involve FCC license searching and the like, as with LTR systems?

Thanks for any info!

 

[Russell]

Where is "around here"? The 8 indicates this is site number 8 and it is three frequency site. On EDACS systems you have "add" the frequencies in. Your scanner will indicate the control frequency. "Add" that frequency to Unitrunker on the line indicating the control channel - from this diaplay it looks like the one the "__". Do an FCC search on that frequency to attempt to locate the site (and the other two frequencies).

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

EDACS systems are similar to LTR systems when it comes to the LCNs. They can be any licensed frequency in the band.

EDACS does not have a system id like Motorola but does have site id for multiple site systems.

I had fun a few years ago figuring out some of the sites in VA for AEP (5xx sites) while on Vacation. http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=1871
When I was near Lynchburg I picked up some sites of Central Planning District which has similar site ids to the AEP sites in the area but on different frequencies. http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=177
So if I was on 856.28750 and Unitrunker indicated site 4 then I was listening to the Salem, VA AEP site.

You know the control channel frequency and what LCN it is. Some EDACS systems will rotate through control channels like Motorola systems so you can pick up one or two others over a couple of days. Each transmission will rotate through the non-control channel frequencies usually in ascending LCN order. Sometimes there are gaps in the LCN numbering. What I usually do is look up the licensed frequencies and put these frequencies in the voice scanner. I do not have the voice scanner under Unitrunker control. See what frequency becomes active on the voice scanner when Unitrunker indicates a voice transmission. After a couple of rounds of transmissions I enter the frequencies into Unitrunker, put the voice scanner under Unitrunker control, and see if it can track the system. That is how I found the LCN order of a couple of the VA AEP sites.

73 Eric