FleetConnect Site 27?

[ATCTech]

Some interesting UHF propagation tonight. Of note is what DSD+ is showing as DMR system 158 Site 27 on 420.2625 which certainly should be FleetConnect. The only neighbor displayed is #10, Milton. A quick TAFL search shows RadioCo on that frequency on the CKCO tower at Edys Mills, WEST of London which would be a rebroadcast tower, not the local CKCO-TV Kitchener transmitter site. The database here has no site 27 at this point. Anybody west of me want to confirm what I'm seeing? The signal strength is unusually excellent for the direction from my location but it won't last.

Hamilton (Site 11) shares this frequency but that site CC is currently on 420.075.



Other frequencies on the same license that would seem to be affiliated with this new site at the same location are 420.0625 & 420.1625, which make sense.

 

[ATCTech]

As a follow-on, I see this frequency pattern matches Sarnia site 4, but as the screen capture shows that's not what DSD+ reports nor am I seeing any evidence of other reception on the 400 MHz bands this evening to my west. I suspect the "Edys Mills" location in the TAFL has nothing to do with FleetConnect and that there is in fact a new site 27 very near me. I admit I didn't check the emission type in the TAFL listing.

 

[gary123]

The CC doesnt match Sarnia either. Sarnia is CC1. If there is any patterning to the CC then CC5 is used over in the southwestern part of the province FleetConnect towers.

 

[ATCTech]

Wherever it's located in the Golden Horseshoe area it is in use in that I'm seeing a couple of the Union Gas talkgroups active on it this morning. I haven't been here to start narrowing down voice channel frequencies just yet.

 

[Muxlow]

I'm in the Lambton area. Did a search on the freq and nothing on it here.

21423 Union Gas Parkway OPS 1 is in use on the Sarnia site though. They have a bunch of talkgroups in use down here.

Also, RadioCo is the new name for KELCOM from Windsor

 

[ATCTech]

Hamilton (Site 11) CC is now on 420.2625, Site 27 CC now using 420.4750. Interestingly enough that too is a regular Hamilton site frequency, obviously separated by considerable distance to prevent interfering with each other. An early guess on my part would be in or around Brampton being that's there's no Peel region Fleetnet sites to date, and with the sole neighbor showing Milton. Signal strength on SDR# is about 15dB higher than Hamilton is from my location which makes sense given the effect of the escarpment for me to the south/southwest.

 

[slicerwizard]

It sounds like they're reusing frequencies out of necessity / shortage of other pairs. I don't think the two sites have appropriate separation.

 

[Muxlow]

Radio companies do this all the time. Reuse the same freqs but some KM's apart.
Thames Communication in Chatham did this with 2 EDACS systems. The Chatham-Kent police/fire system has 3 sites simulcast and a 4th that had a different set of frequencies.
Lambton fires old EDACS system used the same frequencies as Site 4 for chatham. Site 4 being located in Wheatley for the CK system and the 3 site simulcast system spread across Lambton County.

Bunch of times when the band was up even a little I would hear Lambton County pages or chatter come across the CK system. Running UT ID to see all the Lambton talkgroups also. Now that Lambton has ditched Thames thats no longer an "issue".

 

[ATCTech]

One week in and the only T/Gs active are Union Gas/Enbridge Parkway Ops. 1 and 2 plus one other of that same user group a few days ago. Parkway Ops. by the way is here in Halton County at Derry Road and 8th Line on the Mississauga border. I'm sure this is at least a wide-area talkgroup given the purpose of the Parkway operation as a major pipeline site from Sarnia to the GTA so hearing it active in Sarnia makes perfect sense. Site 27 still shows only Milton Site 10 as a neighbor so it's becoming more likely to me that it's located in the Peel region (Brampton/Mississauga) but I haven't gone for a drive yet.

 

[ATCTech]

I was in west Mississauga in the vicinity of the Parkway Compressor station and did some radio snooping for site 27. Using a handheld reveiver, an on-car 1/4 wave roughly cut to around 420 MHz then the scanner's own rubber antenna right down to no antenna the signal is focused on the Parkway site itself. The old handheld scanner on the floor of the car, under the driver's seat with no antenna produces an un-squelchable signal on Derry Road between 8th and 9th Lines of Milton, dropping in RF level very quickly when moving north of Derry on 9th Line or west of 8th Line on Derry. I drove down 9th from Derry to Britannia and west to Trafalgar. The signal was present, but easily squelched within the car and still receivable with the on-car antenna. This could explain why site 27's only neighbor is site 10 on the Niagara Escarpment at Milton and there's no user activity other than Union Gas operations.