Headin to New Hanover County

[Robbyboy]

Howdy Everyone

I am heading down to New Hanover County to help a friend program his radio. If anyone wants to get a hold of me while I am down there send me a message via my nextel 9103760334@dontspamme.messaging.nextel.com (Remove the dontspamme part).

Cheers

 

[JerGoTV3]

have fun down here. it's been busy lately, so some good stuff to scan.

 

[Robbyboy]

Updates to Database

Everyone --

After getting to Wilmington I realized that the New Hanover TRS system is currently in shambles. I have done some editing to it this evening and need assistance in updating it further. If anyone has any ideas or knows of additional talkgroups, please submit them, it would be appreciated! The text tags that are associated with the talkgroups are my creation and not official just so you know!

Thanks Everyone!

 

[wrngnmbr6]

No Control Channel !!!

I just turned on my scanner and I'm hearing nothing. It seems I do not have a lock on the control channel anymore....Anybody find anything yet?? I just moved to Wilmington and now have nothing to listen to....I hope they didn't go digital....I don't have a digital scanner yet but will get one if I need to.....Everything has been working flawless until today....

 

[wrngnmbr6]

Disregard Last Post....

I found the control channel....It was changed but is in the same group of frequencies....It is now 860.9875...not sure if there is an alternate and what it is...I guess thats what I get for control channel only trunking....lol

 

[JerGoTV3]

Robby-
I sent a couple of updates in but the database was never updated. Whenever I find or hear something new I always send it in. But it just doesn't seem to make it for everyone to see.

 

[wrngnmbr6]

Control Channel Change again...

It seems they changed control channel again.......860.4875 is what it is now...I guess I should really stop control channel only trunking and just enter all the frequencies....lol but anyone know why they are jumping control channels I've been monitoring Wilmington for months now and never had any issues....

 

[JerGoTV3]

They are in the middle of moving the 911 Center to a new facility. I heard over the air the other night they were moving some stuff. It could be related to that.

The county has also been doing some things to the system overall as well.

 

[drew6553]

robby are these off of the seabreeze tower or off the main system? also does any know what the heck these med tac channels are?

 

[JerGoTV3]

i do. my scanner is out in my car right now, so i'll post them day-time wednesday.

my updates haven't been posted under the database. are any database folks reading this or my updates i've sent it.

 

[jeffmulter]

>> It seems they changed control channel again.......860.4875 is what it is now...

Keep in mind that any interference on a Motorola control channel can cause the system to automatically change to another of its predesignated control frequencies for a specified period of time.

Being on the coast, the New Hanover system is susceptible to the normal coastal inversions, and another trunked system north or south of Wilmington may be audible in your area with sufficient signals to interfere with the New Hanover system.

Ducting can also enhance signals from the west (inland), but signals can travel large distances over bodies of water with minimal reduction in strength.

>> I guess I should really stop control channel only trunking and just enter all the frequencies....lol but anyone know why they are jumping control channels I've been monitoring Wilmington for months now and never had any issues....

Typically, you should be safe with control-channel-only scanning, as long as the system frequencies do not change ... and you have the four designnated (if they programmed all 4 slots) control frequencies programmed.

Why now ? April / May and October / November are good periods for tropo-related conditions related to inversions. Stable high pressure systems during the summer can also make for good conditions.


Jeff Multer

 

[JerGoTV3]

17904 - Med Tac 1
17680 - Med Tac 2

Drew- how are you receiving the seabreeze tower down in supply? i've been doing some work at the station with our scanners (pieces of poo) and can't pick it up. i also can't pick up brunswick with the one scanner we scan it with...an old bearcat from back in the day. but my pro95 picks it up somewhat better.

i'm going to suggest pro-2055. see if i can get them to spend some $$$ on it and give me something new to play with. hehehehe.

 

[drew6553]

the only problem with the seabreeze towers is that some of the Id's arent quite the same i am picking up county traffic on what was the county fire marshal on the 1st tower also jer it may be better with the 2055. i havent plugged it into my 95 yet, shes showing her wear and ter i had to hook up an external speaker to hear it better. I plan on buying a 2052 or saving up and buying another 2055 or 97 for my house to use solely with new hanover 800 and horry 800

 

[JerGoTV3]

yeah. the tg's aren't the same from seabreeze to the other tower. that's the only downfall. so sometimes it gets a little confusing. but once i got it all txt tagged it made it a lot easier.

 

[jeffmulter]

>> the only problem with the seabreeze towers is that some of the Id's arent quite the same i am picking up county traffic on what was the county fire marshal on the 1st tower

>> yeah. the tg's aren't the same from seabreeze to the other tower.

Which of the trunked sites is considered the "Seabreeze" site. There are 4 sites in the system ... all in Wilmington, according to the system license.

I'm also a little curious about the comments regarding the talkgroup I-Ds not being the same at each site location, or an I-D being used for a completely different use from one site to another.

I-Ds might vary for forced site selection, status bit variations, or alerting purposes (day vs night for a fire dept).

But New Hanover is supposed to be a SmartNet system, and you should be seeing an I-D being used for the same purpose across all sites broadcasting it.

The implication, otherwise, is that the sites are not part of a system (separate systems unto themselves).

Or, thinking to the previous comments about the control channel changes, that you are getting enough tropo that your scanners are sometimes locking onto another trunked system. If you are using a Pro 96 or Uniden 396, you might want to confirm that the system I-D still matches New Hanover's when you hear a variance on the Seabreeze site.

I don't know if you are using control-channel-only scanning for your monitoring of the New Hanover system, but I would recomend that:

- if doing CCO, make sure the primary control channel for the system (the frequency tyically used for control data) is in the first entry slot for the site, and that only confirmed control frequencies for the site are in that list

- if you're letting the scanner scan all the site frequencies for the control channel, make sure the primary control channel for the site is in the first memory position of the bank, and any identified control frequencies for the site are directly after it

- put each site in a separate bank, and do not have any other trunked frequencies in that bank

- occasionally step manually through the bank, and listen for other control channels your scanner might be receiving


Jeff Multer

 

[JerGoTV3]

the "Seabreeze" tower is the one listed in the RR Database. it's a tower for the system installed on the southern end of the county. it has 15 or 16 new freq's.

talkgroup id's from the "Seabreeze" tower do not match the rest of the system on the other towers.

so it seems these are two different systems.

 

[52to12]

JerGo: Before you invest in a Pro-2055 read the Radio Shack forum. There are a lot of problems with the 2055. I purchased one and returned it as soon as I read all the threads.

 

[KG4KHQ]

Seabreeze tower

The way I understand it, the setup on the Seabreeze tower is a temporary arrangement to resolve coverage issues in the southern end of the county until the new Smartnet system can come on-line. Prior to it's implementation, the only tower on the system was the one in Flemington in the northwest area of the county off of US 421. The Seabreeze site operates as a totally seperate system with different frequencies and different talkgroup ID's but the talkgroups I have found so far on my last couple of visits appear to be simulcasts of ones on the Flemington tower but with different ID's. For example New Hanover SO dispatch on Flemington is 49616 and on Seabreeze it's 1936 but it is the same traffic on both. It seems like it is some type of hard patch between both systems but not one done at the console level where status bits would come into play. So far I have identified control channels on Seabreeze as 858.2625, 859.2625 and 860.2625.

There is a lot of information about this and other information concerning future plans on the New Hanover system (like going digital) on the New Hanover Co website under the 911 Center section. Go to http://www.nhcgov.com/911 , click on the Statistics link and at the bottom, you will find meeting minutes for the Communications Policy Board meetings, pretty interesting reading.

 

[JerGoTV3]

yeah. they are planning to go APCO-25.

if anyone is down this way Saturday the county is having an open house at the new 911 and Emergency Operations Center in the county.

pretty cool stuff.

The only tg's that aren't simulcasts are Carolina/Kure Beach PD and the specific tg's for Carolina/Kure Beach Fire. Fire has their own tg's, but I've been unable to confirm them yet.

Like KG4HQ said, SO/County Fire/EMS can be heard on both.

 

[jeffmulter]

Thanks, Steve, for pointing me in the direction of the meeting notes. Very good information.

For clarity of other non-locals who might read this thread, here's how the local names for the sites match up to the FCC ULS locations:

Flemington site - Frederickson Road near Hwy 421 N / Wilmington
Holly Shelter site - Wilmington North / Castle Haynes (Progress Energy)
County Government Center site - Market Place Drive / Wilmington
Seabreeze site - Hill Valley Drive near Hwy 421 S and Myrtle Grove Road / Wilmington

>> It seems like it is some type of hard patch between both systems but not one done at the console level ...

In the meeting notes for March, mention is made of the NCHP plans for Viper sites at Flemington and Seabreeze, and the NCHP's wishes to use the microwave link that the county already has between these two sites.

I think it's interesting that the county is planning on migrating to digital talkgroups by site - rather than by agency or talkgroup (the Seabreeze and Flemington sites will initally remain analog).


Jeff Multer