EDACS Question Unknown PLEASE HELP

[army_scanner]

Hey i found a control channel for a EDACS system in my town they use it at one of the plants in my county. My question is how do i find or how do i know what freq. to put in my scanner, what order LCN and so on what freq do i put into my scanner. Any help would be awesome thanks.

 

[captclint]

Hey i found a control channel for a EDACS system in my town they use it at one of the plants in my county. My question is how do i find or how do i know what freq. to put in my scanner, what order LCN and so on what freq do i put into my scanner. Any help would be awesome thanks.

There is a chance someone has already figured that out. If you tell us your state, county, and the name of the plant using this system, we can find out. Also, what scanner do you have?

 

[army_scanner]

New EDACS system in Port Lavaca Texas (Calhoun County)

Hey I leave in Port Lavaca Texas (Calhoun County Texas), and found the control channel for a edacs system at a local plant (Formosa Plastics) I have a 396T scanner. I have searched the radioreference website and the list for the FCC and cant find anything about formosa plastics freqs. and the only edacs system i have found for calhoun county texas on the radioreference website is for the local electric company. I have no idea on how to go about finding out what other freqs. and what LCN to put the freqs. in once i find the freqs. does anyone have any idea how i can go about finding how to go about finding out how i can program this new edacs system. Any Advice will help. Thanks

 

[mtindor]

It's not listed in the RRDB; However, here is the FCC license info:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/Uls...Loc=14884062&licKey=1927679&archive=&x=9&y=10

What type of scanner do you have? If you sit on the control channel, some if not all scanners that can monitor EDACS will reveal to you the actual LCN associated with the control channel. That is a start. However, there are 10 frequencies licensed for that system (see the link above). All of them may be in use on the system, or some may not be. Their LCNs could be in any order.

With your 396 you _may_ have an edge over other scanners. However, it will be no easy task to determine the actual layout of the system unless you are willing to monitor the system and make detailed notes about what you find.

Typically, when I'm trying to learn details about a new EDACS system I'll enter all of the known frequencies for it into the scanner conventionally (in a conventional bank if your scanner does banks, or just as conventional frequencies if that's how you program your scanner)... Then I'd sit on the control channel, monitoring with something like Unitrunker (which would require you to have a discriminator tap) and watch when Unitrunker shows activity on a channel. I'd note the channel that Unitrunker says is active and then I'd press 'scan' real quick so that it would start scanning the conventional frequencies that I entered in for that system - and whichever one came up with audio I would map to the LCN Unitrunker showed.

However, in your situation you don't have the luxury of doing that since I'm guessing you don't have a discriminator tap installed. So it's going to be more difficult.

Read this (general principles apply - requires a second scanner capable of receiving 800 mhz audio):

http://web.archive.org/web/20070826122624/http://www.scanningusa.com/trunked_info/tipsandtricks.html
- scroll to the bottom where it says "Finding EDACS Logical Channel Numbers"

I may be putting the cart before the horse. You should first program all of the frequencies in conventionally into a conventional system - Then lock out the control channel. Scan the other channels and wait for audio. If audio comes up but it is digital, then it's likely ProVoice and you aren't going to be able to scan it. If audio comes up and its analog voice, then you have a chance. Make note of the frequencies that you happen to hear voice activity on since those will be the most important ones to map out first.

Read the following link thoroughly:

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/EDACS

- compare the audio samples of EDACS Narrow, EDACS Wide and ESK (encrypted) control channels. Once you determine what type of control channel you are listening to, you can figure out if you have a chance of monitoring the system or not. EDACS Wide is usually on 900 mhz but not always. EDACS narrow is the more common for 800 mhz. If it's an ESK CC then you are SOL I believe. I'm guessing its probably EDACS Narrow - I'm guessing you knew it was EDACS because the 396 reported it as such.

Perhaps somebody in your neck of the woods has already done the legwork but just hasn't submitted it to the RRDB.

Mike

 

[BaLa]

without a TAP or a 245xlt, you may be SOL.

If they rotate CCs a lot it may help.

 

[mtindor]

without a TAP or a 245xlt, you may be SOL.

If they rotate CCs a lot it may help.

I wouldn't say completely SOL. If he determines the proper EDACS system type to program in (probably EDACS Narrow if he is lucky), then he could create a new EDACS trunked system, enter a CC in it in the proper LCN position (which the 396 I think should tell him), and then he could scan the system and observe when it tried to switch to a voice channel... then if he was lucky and quick he could do some finger jockeying and have it scan the conventional system that I mentioned he make up beforehand. I think when the 396 would switch to the voice channel (even if it is not there) it would list the LCN that it is switching to. He could then figure that the LCN reportedly switched to should be mapped to the frequency that he heard the voice audio on and could then chalk that up as another LCN and add it in the system.

It's going to be a very tedious process, but it could be fine. Wish I had a system like that around here to play around with.

Mike

 

[BaLa]

I had to figure out the LCN for an EDACs system once, but it only had 3 frequencies, lol.
So only 2 of them were VCs.