Hillsborough County Question

[KB4MSZ]

I have a question regarding the Hillsborough County EDACS system that I monitor here in Tampa. First some background:

To monitor the system, I use a Yaesu VX-8DR HT that is mounted behind the seat of my truck. It runs full time and is connected to vehicle power. Due to it not being a trunked capable receiver it doesn’t follow a given conversation, it just moves on to the next busy channel when a transmission finishes. In a way, I prefer this. It allows me to hear more dispatches and car traffic rather than following just one conversation to its completion. My interest is in knowing what may be in my way rather than hearing the full details about any given situation.

I have two types of setups for this configured in the HT.

The first setup uses 35 memory channels with the assigned frequencies used in this system. This allows me to lockout the control channels so I don’t have to listen to computers scream at each other, in turn this allows the scan to be in “busy” or carrier operated mode so I can listen to the entirety of a transmission. Limiting the scan to just the channels involved in the county system also provides for quick scanning of the system.

The second setup uses the VFO band limit feature of the HT. In this scan the HT constantly scans between 851 and 854 MHz. At 12.5 KHz this covers the 240 frequencies between the two limits. In this setup I run the scan with a 10 second duration mode due to the control channels which never stop transmitting (when tropo conditions exist there can be additional control channels to contend with as well).

With the second setup I have noticed something odd, and this is where the question comes in:

During the VFO limit scan I can hear a given transmission as one would expect. But sometimes, within a minute or so, I hear the exact same transmission again. For some reason the original transmission is recorded and re-transmitted. What would be the purpose of this? It happens fairly often with both the Sherriff’s office and EMS. Being that I don’t hear this when only monitoring the 35 channels, I assume it is being done outside of the EDACS system. Why is this?

 

[CanesFan95]

Well, the way you're monitoring is a mess. You really need a trunking scanner. Does that Yaesu have a record feature? I've monitored this system for a long time and never heard any repeat transmission like what you're describing.

 

[radioman2008]

I travel to Tampa on a regular basis with all my 436HP unidens, all cover different areas of the system in discovery mode and i cant say i have heard a transmission rebroadcast again on same or another talkgroup,

I would encourage you to get a trunked scanner, the way you are doing it is how i did in back in 1992-1998 before trunked scanners existed.
the Hillsborough EDACS system went online in 1995. i remember hearing the control channel idle for about 2 weeks before they started using the system. Tampa PD didnt join until around 2008, up to that point they still used the old early 2970s UHF channels.

Back in the 90s, the EDACS systems would add the GE Jingle tones "GE We Bring Good Things To Life!" to the end of every transmission, the cops didnt hear it, but the scanner listeners did. i think they called it a scanner defeat tones. if the system was loaded down, the tones would slow down. if anyone has a recording of those old GE tones I would love to hear it again.

I am recording massive amounts of analog audio from the system for history preservation. in a year or so, the analog system will be gone forever.

 

[CanesFan95]

I've never heard the "GE We Bring Good Things To Life!" thing before. It's always just been a series of high-pitched tones after each transmission that were designed to make your scanner get stuck on that same frequency. GE / Ericsson was basically being very mean back then and they designed those obnoxious tones on purpose to prevent us from following conversations on a scanner. Then Uniden came out with trunking scanners and we beat those GE jerks at their own game.

But yeah, you should really get a trunking scanner. The way you're trying to scan now is bonkers and you will almost never hear complete conversations, much less all the noise and anti-scanner tones.

And I doubt our EDACS system will be gone in only a year. They've been "upgrading" for 5 years now with no end in sight.

 

[KB4MSZ]

I heard more of it today, Sheriff and EMS. I never hear it with the fire department. Not sure if it happens with TPD, can be hard to tell them from the county unless they make some sort of distinctive remark which ID's them.

 

[ke4crc]

Back in the 90s, the EDACS systems would add the GE Jingle tones

I remember those old tones I was told they were called scanner busters. a series of beeps & tones for 2 or 3 seconds. I didn't know they discontinued those tones.

 

[radioman2008]

I remember those old tones I was told they were called scanner busters. a series of beeps & tones for 2 or 3 seconds. I didn't know they discontinued those tones.

there were several versions, the earliest, i remember were on Clearwater PD's and Pasco county. was the GE we Bring Good Things To Life,
by 1995, they changed to a series of straight beeps, no jingle.

 

[tampabaynews]

You're going to hear "repeated" multi-site traffic since the EDACS system is divided into east and west. Some talkgroups carry over both sites just like other multi-site trunked systems. However, the transmissions would be simultaneous.

So unless your Yaesu buffers transmissions, I have no idea. I've never heard of rebroadcasts like you describe in the 20 something years of listening to this system. I also scan the spectrum often for anything new and never heard this either.

Can you post a video of your radio when this happens? What frequencies are you hearing the "rebroadcasts" on if they are outside the trunked system?

Not trying to shoot you down, but this is a strange way of monitoring. One could argue that since you're catching all of the county radio traffic, you're missing a lot compared to just listening to the talkgroups covering the specific area you're in.

Plus, your Yaesu won't work anyway once they switch to P25.

 

[batdude]

please continue discussion in this thread:

Hillsborough County (EDACS and P25 32D.1E306)

Turned on my G5 last night with the new antenna on County P25 and saw Tampa P25 back on the system at night. Can someone tell me if they are running 24/7 now on P25 and should I put in the other FD talk groups besides Dist. 1? Thanks Ed

forums.radioreference.com