Hearing Data Bursts Near Boston, MA ...

[Mikejo]

3/19/2024

I've been hearing Data Bursts in the Boston,MA area on 160.8000 & 160.8150 over the last few days?

Any Idea's?

 

[Kitn1mcc]

Bay colony has a licenses in mass

could also be hearing state of maine's vhf p25 system

 

[wtp]

from 160.7925 to 160.8225 all i see is for trains.

 

[ecps92]

3/19/2024

I've been hearing Data Bursts in the Boston,MA area on 160.8000 & 160.8150 over the last few days?

Any Idea's?

Nothing heard from the South Shore area of the past few days for monitoring

 

[N9JIG]

Like Kitn1mcc said the State of Maine has P25 sites on the state system that use rail channels in an inter-service sharing protocol; On 160.8 they have sites in Augusta, Cooper Hill and Whitten Hill. I suspect if you are hearing Maine it would be the Whitten Hill site. I don't see any noted sites on 160.815 nut there are several other rail channels used.

Since it is P25 they sound like data bursts on an analog scanner.

Beyond that it could also be NXDN or DMR activity. While railroad mainline activity is (and will remain) analog for the time being some yard, mechanical and other uses of NXDN have been noted. There could also be DMR used by shortlines in the area, and these operations occasionally operate without benefit of licenses. It is also not uncommon for business users to use railroad channels, again licensed or not.

Do you have a scanner that will do P25, NXDN or DMR? If so try these modes and see if the scanner decodes them.

 

[ecps92]

Like Kitn1mcc said the State of Maine has P25 sites on the state system that use rail channels in an inter-service sharing protocol; On 160.8 they have sites in Augusta, Cooper Hill and Whitten Hill. I suspect if you are hearing Maine it would be the Whitten Hill site. I don't see any noted sites on 160.815 nut there are several other rail channels used.

Since it is P25 they sound like data bursts on an analog scanner.

Beyond that it could also be NXDN or DMR activity. While railroad mainline activity is (and will remain) analog for the time being some yard, mechanical and other uses of NXDN have been noted. There could also be DMR used by shortlines in the area, and these operations occasionally operate without benefit of licenses. It is also not uncommon for business users to use railroad channels, again licensed or not.

Do you have a scanner that will do P25, NXDN or DMR? If so try these modes and see if the scanner decodes them.

VHF has not been that open in the past few week, not ruling Maine out, but I do tend to have a good shot from my QTH and as said silence has been the word

 

[kudzu_kid]

I'm not familiar with your area, but wondering if maybe you're hearing DPU's (Distributed Power Units) or EOT's communicating? I think SoftEOT (Google it) might help (it's free, albeit a little clunky to get on the list, last I checked).

Have you tried decoding it? Does it sound like packet bursts or DTMF (Touch-tone)bursts? Can you perhaps record a few samples of it?
If it's DTMF, there are some cheapo LCD decoders on eBay (I think I paid less than $20 {maybe around $10, I can't remember!}). Packet might be a little more fun but not impossible. That's not to say you'll see it in clear text - maybe, maybe not. It could still be encrypted, so you might still see "hamburger"/garbage text. There's decoding the protocol, and then decrypting the message!

Let us know if you figure it out.

 

[iceman977th]

A recording would be very helpful. That's AAR 046/047. If you're hearing on both, it's possible it's something on a channel in the middle. DPU wouldn't live in VHF. EOT might if they're older units, but that's unlikely. I presume whatever line you are on would not have CTC for any reason, some shortlines use VHF for proprietary wayside control. Only thing I can assume would be DTMF for controlling crossing or certain switches.

Mike