Hickory Public Safety

[lands818]

I am trying to monitor the Hickory Public Safety trunked P25 system here in western Gaston County and am a bit stumped. I have acceptable signal (typically -80 or better), SDS100 & SDS200 both show as Site 1 (simulcast for Hickory), yet I have never heard a single peep of voice over the air. I’ve tweaked filters to no avail. Anyone here monitoring the HPS system and have any insight to traffic volume (I would think they would be reasonably busy) or anything I might have missed?

 

[tvengr]

The database does not have all of the frequencies. You may be missing the control channel. Enter these 8 frequencies:
856.4375
856.6375
856.9375
857.4375
857.9375
858.4375
858.9375
859.9375
If you still have problems after entering the frequencies, attach a hpe file of your favorites list and I will check it for problems.

 

[lands818]

The database does not have all of the frequencies. You may be missing the control channel. Enter these 8 frequencies:
856.4375
856.6375
856.9375
857.4375
857.9375
858.4375
858.9375
859.9375
If you still have problems after entering the frequencies, attach a hpe file of your favorites list and I will check it for problems.

Thanks tvengr! I've added the additional frequencies you listed and attached a screenshot of what I'm seeing this morning on the SDS100. I'll let it run a while and see what happens, but so far still silence. I'll send the hpe file tonight if she doesn't start making some noise.

 

[trumpetman]

A few things to note...

The Hickory P25 site is a single site, not a simulcast.

The single P25 site barely covers the city of Hickory, much less into Gaston County. The P25 site rarely sees traffic anyways, occasionally the HPD dispatch channel can be heard but it's been a while since I've made an effort to listen.

The other frequencies on the license are in use on a 2 site OpenSky system used by all Hickory public safety and public services except the fire department.

OpenSky cannot be monitored by any scanner. If you want to listen to Hickory fire they have their own dispatch channel on VIPER. You should be able to hear Baker Mtn from Gaston unless you live in a low spot and Baker tends to carry HFD talkgroups pretty consistently in my experience.

 

[lands818]

A few things to note...

The Hickory P25 site is a single site, not a simulcast.

The single P25 site barely covers the city of Hickory, much less into Gaston County. The P25 site rarely sees traffic anyways, occasionally the HPD dispatch channel can be heard but it's been a while since I've made an effort to listen.

The other frequencies on the license are in use on a 2 site OpenSky system used by all Hickory public safety and public services except the fire department.

OpenSky cannot be monitored by any scanner. If you want to listen to Hickory fire they have their own dispatch channel on VIPER. You should be able to hear Baker Mtn from Gaston unless you live in a low spot and Baker tends to carry HFD talkgroups pretty consistently in my experience.

trumpetman, that explains a LOT about my efforts! I do find it odd though that my pic of my SDS100 screen (see above post) agrees with the RR database for P25 parameters that are still listed in the database as current.

At any rate, the OpenSky piece of the puzzle would explain a lot. I'm blessed to be on a mountaintop here in Gaston (1050') and VIPER on Baker Mtn is in my list. Thanks for the info!

 

[tvengr]

From your screenshot, it appears that you are receiving the 856.9375 control channel that is in the database. There are a lot of talkgroups for Catawba County on the VIPER system. There is a patch for Hickory PD but I don't know how often it is active. I suggest that you check with someone on the NC forum for that info. Thanks trumpetman for your help.

 

[alanbNC]

Hickory PD went encrypted some time ago. You will not hear their traffic due to that.

 

[pboy]

HPD is on an OpenSky system. No need to encrypt because of the proprietary protocol in place.