Eversource DMR

Joined
May 15, 2013
Messages
7
Location
Litchfield, CT.
Been doing a lot of listening on the the Litchfield Site over the past couple of months. (LCN's 4, 14, 24, 34 Color Code 3)

Programmed conventionally in a 996P2 with DMR upgrade and listening to all traffic I heard many crews doing day to day work and of course a lot more traffic during storm situations. Keeping hold and delay times at zero it very easy to follow and listen to all conversations completely. The system isn't that busy yet even during storm work. I'm not able to scan the control channel (LCN 14) conventionally because the scanner will just sit on it and not scan anything else. Because of this I'm assuming that I'm missing the ability to listen to 1 voice slot in this site. I'm assuming that the control channel uses 1 slot for the data stream and has 1 slot available for voice. (I'm assuming - certainly correct me if I'm wrong as I'm still learning about DMR systems) However it doesn't seem like the site uses this slot much if it exists. It seems to prefer LCN 24 and 34 for most voice traffic.

I did hear radio service checking levels of these channels directly a few days ago and they were called out by their channel numbers so the LCN's listed in the data base for the Litchfield site of 4, 14, 24 and 34 seem to be verified as correct. It does appear that in this system LCN 1 starts off with LSN 3&4 so the LCN is the even slot number divided by 2 minus 1.

For a while it appeared that traffic from this site was being simulcasted on the old low band 48.400. That seems to have ceased and most line trucks and station electricians vehicles appear to be fitted with new radios which are being used.

Lastly, I also programmed this system in a 2nd DMR upgraded 996P2 as a DMR tier 3 with the frequencies programmed into a "site" with proper LCN's and color codes and the talk groups properly programmed. I left the groups on search rather than scan to make sure I wasn't missing any undiscovered groups. When compared side by side to a 2nd 996 scanning the frequencies conventionally, the 996 scanning the system as a DMR tier 3 only receives around 10% - 15% of transmissions. it misses the rest. It does display the proper talk group. "Western Ops" seems to be the most used during storm work.

So it's definitely confirmed that Uniden scanners struggle to track this Tait DMR system when its actually programmed as such.
@JoeBearcat any idea if there will be any Uniden firmware upgrades coming that will solve this issue ?

If anyone has any more info or corrections to what I've observed feel free to follow up.
 

W1KNE

Owner ScanNewEngland
Database Admin
Joined
Feb 15, 2010
Messages
1,929
Location
New England
Question, will it trunk track it without the LCN entered? That works on some systems. (The PGA trunk for example). I've heard it's related to RAS, and if they are using it, the Unidens won't track with an entered LCN.
 
Joined
May 15, 2013
Messages
7
Location
Litchfield, CT.
Ive tried it programmed as a full DMR tier 3 both with LCN's and without LCN's.

I also tried each frequency programmed as a single channel DMR both in one system with different sites for each frequency, one system with with 1 site with all the frequencies and separate single channel DMR systems for each frequency. I've tried all of these options with the talk groups on both scan and search just to see if it would reliably receive anything.

When compared side by side listening on a 2nd radio scanning the frequencies conventionally, programming as any type of DMR results in only receiving around 10 percent of the transmissions.

When it's programmed as a full tier 3 DMR it behaves exactly like any other DMR tier 3 or trunked P25 system. It locks onto the control channel and scans. You can see the control channel data when connected to a computer. It looks like its going to work but then it fails to receive most of the time.

They're must be something proprietary that Tait does just a little differently that's not compatible with the current firmware. Because of the fact that it won't even receive any audio on a single voice channel programmed as a single channel DMR, I'm guessing it's something to do the with the way voice transmissions are configured or associated with a particular talk group or designated and digitally assigned to a particular slot. Scanning as a single channel DMR takes the control channel out of what could be wrong and it still can't receive. This is just a guess.

Apparantly people have luck scanning this system with Whistler equipment which in the case of DMR only looks at the talk group and slot data on the voice frequencies. I don't own any Whistler equipment so i can't verify.
 
Joined
May 15, 2013
Messages
7
Location
Litchfield, CT.
I'm getting some traffic on the voice channels of the Litchfield DMR site. Mostly from work being done in areas with no cell / data service. Sounds like they're using mostly cell phone and MDT in areas where they have service. There is some radio traffic from work in Goshen, Caanan, Cornwall and some areas of Litchfield.

That may change as cell towers without backup power start to go off line or if outages get more widespread with the wind.

There has been zero traffic on the old low band system. 48.400
 

Reconrider

Active Member
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
1,756
Location
EST
I'm getting some traffic on the voice channels of the Litchfield DMR site. Mostly from work being done in areas with no cell / data service. Sounds like they're using mostly cell phone and MDT in areas where they have service. There is some radio traffic from work in Goshen, Caanan, Cornwall and some areas of Litchfield.

That may change as cell towers without backup power start to go off line or if outages get more widespread with the wind.

There has been zero traffic on the old low band system. 48.400
I've noticed they rather use cell phone rather than radios. I find radios easier to use than the extra 5 steps using my phone.
I also haven't gotten any hits on eversource t3. As I'm typing this, they're using the 6019 talkgroup and chatted for 15 seconds
 

n1chu

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Oct 18, 2002
Messages
2,548
Location
Farmington, Connecticut
I talked to my contact at Eversource. I’m told the system is fully built out in Ct. with 50 some odd sites. (They are now concentrating on western Ma.) The VHF low band system is no longer in use, at least for the line crews. Most of the equipment has been dismantled and except for some rarely used voice and control channels, you may only hear a monthly test. The new DMR TRUNKED system consists of 6 channels, 5 of which are voice and one for data. That’s about all I was able to glean from my contact. I didn’t want to wear out my welcome so I didn’t press him for additional-I was fearful of a (perceived) concern by him that they wanted to keep the subject low keyed so I left it at that. But he has one of the portable radios and is very pleased with the voice quality and coverage. Hope this helps.
 

radioty

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
7
Location
CT
I’m down near kent area and I can only get the eversource trunk when I’m traveling because the signal is too weak down in Gaylordsville.
 
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