I can add some information on two of the Industrial Electronics Nexedge 9600 sites in northern Pennsylvania.
My monitoring location is in Elmira, NY (Chemung County), which is just a few miles north of the Pennsylvania border, adjoining Bradford and Tioga counties.
Monitoring equipment includes an RSP1A SDR, running SDR Console and DSDPlus Fastlane, and a recently-acquired Uniden SDS200 scanner - both fed by a roof mounted discone antenna
The data was derived from an initial analysis of the CCs with DSDPlus, followed by an LCN search on all licensed channels for each site using the SDS200.
I worked as a Motorola LMR tech in this area from 1982 to 1990, and am very familiar with most of the hilltop tower sites in both Tioga and Bradford counties. The two sites detailed below also host county fire and EMS base stations which are easily heard at my location
The first site is in Sayre, PA. (Bradford County), located on a hill known locally as "Roundtop".
CC is 451.750, identified as "L264-17", with an NL of: "4, 5, 18, 24, 25". The associated FCC license is: WPQJ229.
The second site is in Tioga County, in Jackson Summit, which is known locally as "Tower Hill".
CC is 461.9375, identified as "L264-5" with an NL of: "4, 17, 21, 24, 25". The associated FCC license is: WQLR555
The results of a 24-hour LCN search on each site with the SDS200:
Sayre:
451.4250 LCN 739 RAN 17
451.7500 LCN 141 RAN 17 (CC)
461.1000 LCN 489 RAN 17
464.2250 LCN 231 RAN 17
Jackson Summit:
460.7875 LCN 464 RAN 5
461.9375 LCN 556 RAN 5 (CC)
463.4125 LCN 674 RAN 5
464.4125 LCN 754 RAN 5
There is one licensed frequency at Sayre that appears to be inactive, and 4 at Jackson Summit with no activity.
The traffic on both sites appears to be running in parallel.
My initial monitoring with DSDPlus showed many active talk groups and radio assignments. Once I had the LCN's and Talk group numbers, I set up the two sites in the scanner, and have heard a great deal of voice traffic on the following talk groups:
11
131
153
191
242
381
486
841
Virtually all of these talk groups appear to be associated with natural gas drilling operations (fracking), which is a major industry in northern Pennsylvania. Groups 131 and 381 in particular are being used by trucks hauling fresh water to various drilling sites. Fracking requires enormous quantities of water, and drilling operations go on 24-7. Even today (Easter Sunday), the talk groups are extremely busy.
Typical calls to "Base" include site location, time of arrival and departure, gallons of water offloaded, and total mileage.
I see in the FCC records for both counties that there are several other sites licensed to Robert J. and Thomas J. Conway in the two counties, including Monroeton (Kellogg Mountain near Towanda), Troy (Armenia Mountain) Canton, Wellsboro, Antrim and Little Marsh. These would be out of range for reception at my home location in Elmira, with the possible exception of the site in Troy.
Checking these other sites would require taking my SDR and a laptop on a road trip - something I might do in coming weeks if time allows.
Sayre (Site 17) and Jackson Summit (Site 5) are in each other's neighbor lists. I would assume that unknown sites 4, 18, 21, 24 and 25 include some of the above locations.
As it happens, the Conways have a site licensed here in Chemung County, NY WQWE370 (Horseheads), just 6 miles from here. This may be part of the same Nexedge 9600 system, but I have been monitoring the 4 licensed frequencies for several days, and have seen absolutely no activity whatsoever.
Jim Barrett
