First Student Rochester

[Mtnrider]

Maybe this list will help narrow it down.....

First Student Inc
1555 Lyell Ave, Rochester, NY ‎
(585) 458-8130 ‎ ·

First Student Inc
73 Bickford St, Rochester, NY ‎
(585) 254-5990 ‎

First Student Inc
455 Adirondack St, Rochester, NY ‎
(585) 328-8260 ‎ ·

First Student, Inc

Photo
1185 Main St E, Rochester, NY ‎
(585) 288-7730 ‎ ·

First Student, Inc

Photo
2458 E Ridge Rd, Rochester, NY ‎
(585) 342-7665 ‎

 

[w2csx]

I might be able to help explane why there is two main tg's.
The Main st location serves the city plus Brighton school district.

 

[k2hz]

I might be able to help explane why there is two main tg's.
The Main st location serves the city plus Brighton school district.

I think that is the answer. Both 0-01-036 and 0-01-042 were active this morning with 2 different dispatchers but
both were identifying as "Main Street"

There is a story on the local news about a First Student Brighton driver arrested for DWI yesterday. I think that
is the incident I heard on 0-01-042 yesterday with the driver calling for assistance.

 

[w2csx]

When you hear the man, that's Brighton

 

[k2hz]

It was a woman dispatcher early this morning and yesterday morning but it was a man in the afternoon on 042. 042 is definitely Brighton. I heard them mention Brighton several times yesterday and that incident I heard yesterday matches the DWI incident on the news.

The story is that the Brighton route driver, with no students on board, pulled into a gas station on Mt Read Blvd and then was unable to turn the bus when attempting to leave and struck a railing. Police responded and arrested the driver for DWI. The radio traffic I heard yesterday on 042 was for a situation at a location on Mt Read that matches the story. It also explains why there were messages about an incident in Rochester on Mt Read and sending assistance from Colfax St. on what turns out ot be the Brighton TG.

036 this morning was calling "Attention all Main Street routes..." and then giving safety messages. Addresses heard have consistently been in the City.


So, it looks like we still have heard no activity from Colfax. Could the "Main St" City dispatcher TG 0-01-036 also be handling the Colfax routes? Or, maybe Ridge and Colfax are combined on 0-03-011? 0-06-036 has very consistently been strictly Bickford activity

 

[w2csx]

I heard Colfax probably at least 6 times. But I was already shot down for the tg number. There is no cross dispatching meaning every location has their own tg. Has been stated, towers are in Brighton and Bristol.
There is also a separate tg for supervisors. They have single car numbers.

 

[k2hz]

I heard Colfax probably at least 6 times. But I was already shot down for the tg number. There is no cross dispatching meaning every location has their own tg. Has been stated, towers are in Brighton and Bristol.
There is also a separate tg for supervisors. They have single car numbers.

Have you been monitoring the Bristol system at all? I have run LTR analyzer on it for several hours and no activity by any users. Only Station IDs on LCN 1 & 3.

The Rochester TG activity I have observed so far is:
0-01-036 "Main Street" communicates with 4 digit bus numbers. City School District locations.
0-01-042 "Main Street" messages that could be identified to a District all involved Brighton. Could be supervisors? Not much traffic on this TG
0-03-011 "Ridge" communicates with what appear to be buses but a lot of first names or run numbers instead of bus numbers.
0-06-036 "Bickford" fairly busy definitely communicating with buses 4 digit numbers.

I suppose 0-01-042 could be supervisors since most communications heard yesterday did involve the DWI incident.

I have not heard 0-05-027 at all recently so that could have beeen reassigned to Colfax for the new system.

I will set up to specifically monitor 0-05-027 tomorrow and see what I hear.

 

[w2csx]

The 0-01-042 is Brighton

When you hear 3 digits thats is usually route number and when you hear 4 digits the the unit number of the bus.

I'm not clear on the site numbers and what site it's hitting. I did hear some radio techs but to busy to see the tg's

 

[k2hz]

I'm not clear on the site numbers and what site it's hitting.

Do you have the Flower City Bristol system also programmed in your scanner?

It is a totally separate system from Pinnacle Hill and has different LCN frequencies. The First Student radios must have the ability to select between two zones if they are going to be able to use both sites. I don't know how the Motorola radios are set up but most LTR radios have a zone select in addition to the group select switch if they operate on more than one site. This is a very basic LTR system so there is no automatic roaming capability like Passport or LTRNET.

That supervisor TG is probably going to be tough to catch since I don't imagine they talk very much.

 

[k2hz]

I have been monitoring 0-05-027 for over 3 hours and there is very little activity and it does not sound like any of the other First Student operations.

All I have heard is:

Base to 66, Lanny. (no response)

608 is clear (no response)

402 to County are you on this side?
This is City, County is on the other side.
OK I'll try the other side.

"Base" and "Wanda" talking about problem locating a student since address is an apartment building and didn't know the apartment number.

(This sounds like the special transportation operation that has been on that TG previous years)

 

[w2csx]

for such a big location and can't find colfax....

 

[k2hz]

I have been watching the Flower City Bristol system today for any First Student activity.

LCNs 2 and 4 seem to be out of service. The system is only showing LCN1 (461.575) and LCN3 (463.625) as available.

I have seen some activity from TG 0-01-15 and 0-01-20 but only somebody repeatedly keying a carrier with no audio. Maybe techs installing radios. TG 0-03-20 is active with occasional voice but it seems to be an unknown small business of some type, not school bus.

As I write this Bristol 0-01-15 just came active "Bickford to 7882" so they are also on that system. Bickford has been calling several units and nobody is answering. She switched back to Rochester and called the same units and they all answered so she must have selected the Bristol system in error.

 

[w2csx]

The only thing I can add, that the radios have both bristol and pinnical tg's. along with emergency channel,events (thinking simplex) channel.

 

[k2hz]

The only thing I can add, that the radios have both bristol and pinnical tg's. along with emergency channel,events (thinking simplex) channel.

I am still checking the 3 UHF channels on that new First Student license in case something turns up on there. That license lists Colfax St as the control point. Still nothing heard.

These radios certainly could have a mix of LTR, conventional and simplex channels so the LTR systems may not be the the whole story here.

I hope that next week when all the schools are open there will be more activity so we can catch the remaining TGs or frequencies.

 

[w2csx]

I have not heard anything except some noise on the 3 frequencies you mention. School starts next week, so they'll be more chatter.

 

[k2hz]

Still no activity from Colfax. Maybe it will be active tomorrow when more school districts open.

There has been activity on Bristol TG 0-03-045 and TG 0-03-050 with units calling Main St but no response.

The last unit that called on 0-03-050 then switched to Rochester 0-01-036 and Main St answered.

It seems like any use of Bristol so far has been accidental due to user selecting the wrong site.

I am hearing a new unidentified TG 0-03-003 on Rochester. It is first names or car numbers with mostly "What is your location?" and "Can you hear me now?" type transmissions. This could be the Supervisors TG but I have not yet heard anything related to school bus operations. I have heard them say a few times what sounds like "on PCS" when calling. There have also been some keying with no audio on 0-03-001.

 

[w2csx]

This morning I talked to one of the radio techs and he couldn't give any info other then it's private line system for First Student. It's very odd for 180 buses out of Colfax and still nothing. I've heard Colfax on an actual radio.

 

[k2hz]

I just found Colfax!

It is on 464.450 TG 0-04-012

But now it gets odd - 464.450 would be LCN04 on Flower City Rochester/Pinnacle Hill but it seems to be isolated from the rest of the trunked system. The LTR data sent on 464.450 when busy indicates it is LCN04 but it shows no associated busy or free LCNs. The other LCNs at the site all show the status of LCNs 1,2,3,5,6 but not 4.

I have never heard any activity on 464.450 in the past. It was apparently activated specifically for First Student.

I am going to have to consult with Chauffeur6 on how to add this to the RRDB.

This Flower City system is not standard LTR since it sends no data when idle and sends only the specific active TGID on a busy LCN along with a list of other free LCNs.

If it is not actually trunked with the rest of the system, it can be monitored as conventional 464.450 CSQ. There will not be the usual annoying idle pulses of listening to a LTR system in CSQ.

 

[k2hz]

I attempted to add LCN04 464.450 to the Flower City Rochester site but my PSR-500 will not properly trunk track it. It ignores activity entirely in Wildcard mode. When programmed for the specific TG0-04-012 it cuts in and out when the TG is active. You only hear a few brief bits of the transmission.

LCN04 is sending the LTR message "ATB" (all trunks busy) when it is active and the other LCNs don't recognize LCN04 at all. This seems to prevent it being tracked as part of the system. It looks like it would have to be programmed as a separate LTR system with only 1 LCN.

 

[k2hz]

My PSR-500 just plain does not like this odd LCN arrangement.

I programmed 464.450 LCN04 as a separate system with just the single LCN. Listening (not scanning) to
either TG 0-04-012 or this system in Wildcard mode it still cuts in and out and only gets small bits of activity.

The only way I can listen to it is either with that LCN in TSYS/ANALYZE mode or as conventional CSQ receive.