Experiment: Build Your Own Stream

[johnmoe1]

Hopefully Saturday. (My future dates keep getting closer to the present, at least. )

Saturday went well (reception is not quite what I was expecting; will try some more messing around with the antenna later this week).

I have a little work to do yet before it is available. (Probably today.)

Here is what it looks like in my usual display. Red and yellow radio names mean that I haven't supplied a name for that radio, yet. Yellow indicates that the previous named and next named radio ids both start with a common name. "encrypted" means at least transmission was encrypted.

 

[fwfdengine2]

Awesome! Can we get METACS added for the event at MOA tomorrow? Also Edina PD2 and car to car? Thanks!

 

[johnmoe1]

ME Tacs were added ... I failed to keep up. Was about 5 minutes behind and am now about 2 minutes.

There seem to be two methods for patching talkgroups:
1. send out patch message and then only transmit the audio on one frequency
2. send the same audio on multiple frequencies

#1 seems more common than #2 (and I prefer #1). When/why is #2 used?

 

[stmills]

If the Talkgroups have different home zones then you will have multiple repeaters in use.

 

[ofd8001]

Johnmoe1: Thanks for adding the ME Tacs - definitely interesting today.

 

[anthonymodrow]

What are ME tacs btw?

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[ofd8001]

They are interoperability talkgroups. Their primary use is when multiple agencies are involved with an incident or event where a common communications path is needed.

Depending upon the specific nature of the incident (foreseen/planned or "just came up") a patch between the primary agency's talkgroup and a TAC channel may occur.

 

[wogggieee]

They're interop talkgroups used in the metro.

 

[westhennepin]

This is awesome! Any chance you can add the L Tac channels?

 

[johnmoe1]

Rochester update:
Changed antenna. Looks much better. Looking at the first 5 hours, I have nearly perfect Olmsted, Troy-Utica, Wabasha, Goodhue, Elba and Elkton. 99% of control channel messages for Dodge-Steele and 71% for Alma.

I should be able to add at least Wabasha talkgroups.

 

[ryolsen8]

Rochester update:
Changed antenna. Looks much better. Looking at the first 5 hours, I have nearly perfect Olmsted, Troy-Utica, Wabasha, Goodhue, Elba and Elkton. 99% of control channel messages for Dodge-Steele and 71% for Alma.

I should be able to add at least Wabasha talkgroups.

When will Winona City and County Fire be added?

 

[DMENGFER]

Add Unit ID#'s

What you're doing is truly a game changer in listening to AMBER type systems around the county. Great Job!

Would you consider adding the Unit ID to departments which you've already identified. As you know right now "Woodbury PD" is displayed for Woodbury transmissions. Could you add the Unit ID's to the end of the text to look similar to "Woodbury PD (129550)". I'd like to map ID's for specific departments similar to what you've already done for a number of departments. Adding the ID to the end of the generic description would be great!

If you have time could you add Car to Car talk groups for Woodbury (#3706), Cottage Grove (#3672), Oakdale (#3686) & MSP Airport (#10012) in the East metro.

Also, second the request for the L Tac Talk Groups.

Thanks!!

 

[JT-112]

Very nice!

I have a request to add the Gold Cross EMS channels in Olmsted, although I don't know what's active since they switched over to ARMER...

Also, a feature request of sorts - can you add the ability to self-add TGs? Not sure if that works with the architecture you've chosen, but it would be great for non neophytes...

 

[DMENGFER]

Very nice!

I have a request to add the Gold Cross EMS channels in Olmsted, although I don't know what's active since they switched over to ARMER...

Also, a feature request of sorts - can you add the ability to self-add TGs? Not sure if that works with the architecture you've chosen, but it would be great for non neophytes...

One option I was thinking for user defined Talk Groups would be adding the unlisted TG's to the end of the URL. Each user would setup their own URL on their browser. (Like scanner.johnmoe.com/#123,456,789,xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx)

Not sure if that on-the-fly format is something that can be supported by the current software.

Thanks!!

 

[wogggieee]

What you're doing is truly a game changer in listening to AMBER type systems around the county. Great Job!

Would you consider adding the Unit ID to departments which you've already identified. As you know right now "Woodbury PD" is displayed for Woodbury transmissions. Could you add the Unit ID's to the end of the text to look similar to "Woodbury PD (129550)". I'd like to map ID's for specific departments similar to what you've already done for a number of departments. Adding the ID to the end of the generic description would be great!

If you have time could you add Car to Car talk groups for Woodbury (#3706), Cottage Grove (#3672), Oakdale (#3686) & MSP Airport (#10012) in the East metro.

Also, second the request for the L Tac Talk Groups.

Thanks!!

Which departments are you looking for IDs for? I might be able to help you out.

 

[fwfdengine2]

3rd for the LTAC s

 

[DMENGFER]

Which departments are you looking for IDs for? I might be able to help you out.

Thanks Matt for the note. Right now I'd like to get ID's for Washington County as well as the MSP Airport. I've got a good start for the south end of WashCo being I'm down in Woodbury. The challenge is to obviously determine which ID's are for portables and which ID's are for mobiles. Conversely on the State Patrol side each trooper as a assign a static squad and portable. I've started to append a or [P] to designate either a squad or portable for my ID lists.

Thanks!!
-David - WA0AAA

 

[johnmoe1]

I'm pretty sure I have linked to it before, but here is the file I am using:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/johnmoe1/ARMERData/master/radios.txt

How do you reliably figure out squad or portable? Wind noise?

 

[DMENGFER]

I'm pretty sure I have linked to it before, but here is the file I am using:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/johnmoe1/ARMERData/master/radios.txt

How do you reliably figure out squad or portable? Wind noise?

Yes, I downloaded that unit ID list from an earlier post. It’s great data which I’ve used fill in some of the blanks for assignment Unit ID blocks.

As far as I can figure there are basically three ways I can figure to reasonably determine a squad Id versus portable Id’s. It’s basically hard work like you’ve done building your list.

Here’s what I’ve seen works.

1) Listening for the difference in audio quality and as you mentioned. (Either wind or background noise) Squad radios typically have better audio quality then those of portables. Some portable it’s very obvious.

2) A bit more reliable is tracking the callsigns/badge# over a period of time against the Unit ID’s. (This is only really practical for smaller city agencies or departments.) Watch which callsign’s/badge#’s are using what Unit ID’s. As I’m sure you’ve already seen you’ll start to see some callsign’s/badge# devices are always using the same Unit ID’s. You’ll also see multiple different callsign/badge# using the same Unit ID. By default, a reasonable conclusion can be drawn which ID’s are squads and which are portables. That being said this solution fit even better with agencies who assign “take-home” squads to officers. Departments like MN State Patrol, DNR and many County Sheriff’s. In this case two primary Unit ID’s will appear for the same callsign/badge#. So a user really needs to understand how the applicable department operates.

Trying to track ID’s for Fire Departments is a completely different process than it is for Law Enforcement Agencies.

3) I really would like to have enough data to programmatically determine which Unit ID’s are most likely squads and which are most likely portables based on statistical usage patterns. (Time of day/transmission volumes/consecutive shift use/etc…) MSP Airport PD usage contradicts typical agency usage with most office on foot patrol versus in squads. So this is not the perfect answer either. The trick for this option is getting enough data to see the usage patterns over time.

Thanks again for sharing what you’ve done. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with. I’m in Woodbury/Washington County is you need a site on this side of town.

Thanks,
David – WA0AAA

 

[anthonymodrow]

Do you guys know the control and tgs for mndot plows

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