Iowa Statewide Interoperability Communication System (ISICS)

[MidwestRadioListener]

Any chance you were hearing training going on? The Patrol was doing training traffic stops and chases yesterday at Newton and it seems like TGs are not tied down too much yet to regions and allowing them to be carried to all towers. So I wondered if someone had radios affiliated on Atlantic on that TG maybe that was what you heard. I think it was 5007.

 

[WX9MDT]

Possibly? There is traffic on Analog system this morning as well. But they seem to be actual plates as they are coming back valid etc. I sent you a PM with a recording sample.

 

[radioboy75]

Is the Alton tower active? Maybe I'm just too far away to get a signal, but while the ISICSB says it's powered, I am not finding it in a search. I may have to take a little trip over there . . . Also, I am using a BCD 396 and a Home Patrol I. Neither is going to be able to monitor ISICS, but I am using them in search mode to find control channels. One channel comes up as "DAT" or data, but another one comes up as "LNK". What does that mean? The scanner manual says that "LNK" comes on when data is received on a voice channel. But how would it know if this is a voice channel? And if that is the case, why would there be continuous data on this channel? Is this how they test the system maybe?

 

[tfhphoto]

I was under the impression that the Alton tower was microwave only, with no voice on it.

 

[radioboy75]

That could be, I guess. Where do you find information like that? The icon on this map looks just like the icon for Sanborn, and that is a regular tower (with voice) from what I can tell.

 

[tfhphoto]

There is/was a map somewhere in the ISICS website that showed Alton with a different icon. I did not save a link to it. ADDITION: FWIW, I was up in that area Monday and there was no peep of a "new" CC to indicate the tower is broadcasting.

 

[radioboy75]

So as far as you know then Sioux will be covered by Sanborn and "Le Mars," (which looks more like Akron on the map)? It that's the case, these towers have a greater reach than I was led to believe. Someone said almost every county will have to have one. This seems more like the Matlock/Merrill/Terril/Storm Lake arrangement of the state patrol. Wonder why they didn't just use those towers . . . Oh well.

 

[burner50]

Is the Alton tower active? Maybe I'm just too far away to get a signal, but while the ISICSB says it's powered, I am not finding it in a search. I may have to take a little trip over there . . . Also, I am using a BCD 396 and a Home Patrol I. Neither is going to be able to monitor ISICS, but I am using them in search mode to find control channels. One channel comes up as "DAT" or data, but another one comes up as "LNK". What does that mean? The scanner manual says that "LNK" comes on when data is received on a voice channel. But how would it know if this is a voice channel? And if that is the case, why would there be continuous data on this channel? Is this how they test the system maybe?

And, again...


"Powered", does not mean powered on...

It means that the new site has commercial power run to it.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[kc0unh]

So as far as you know then Sioux will be covered by Sanborn and "Le Mars," (which looks more like Akron on the map)? It that's the case, these towers have a greater reach than I was led to believe. Someone said almost every county will have to have one. This seems more like the Matlock/Merrill/Terril/Storm Lake arrangement of the state patrol. Wonder why they didn't just use those towers . . . Oh well.

Also keep in mind the system is build to be 95% mobile coverage. Just because a mobile hits the tower doesn't mean a portable will. For scanner enthusiast, it'll be just fine. For people that use the system there might have to be two or three towers per county to get 95% portable coverage.

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[tfhphoto]

There is also a planned Lyon County tower that may cover it. I heard snippits chit chat among ISP units who were saying that dispatch was cutting in and out. Another responded that that would probably be resolved when the Lyon tower is up. I did not hear where they were, but I assumed up in @radioboy75 neck of the woods.

 

[MidwestRadioListener]

This is kind of a poor screen capture, sorry. This is from the October 11th video update. Kind of gives you another perspective. I thought there was another map that differentiated between microwave only and rf sites but couldn't find one on the last few videos.

This is a capture from the update earlier this month with the drive tests showing done in green. So Plymouth County as an example sounds like it's completed and done by utilizing 4 towers to provide the contractual coverage. They've also mentioned in some of the updates that the Rock Rapids tower has to be rebuilt or reinforced to be able to get it on the air so that will probably be a while and obviously provides some of the needed coverage to test those 4 counties.

 

[radioboy75]

Yeah, I should have mentioned I was aware of the Rock Rapids tower. Latest I heard is that they're doing a complete like-for-like tower replacement of the IPTV translator tower. I didn't quite understand that either. If they needed to replace the tower to make sure it could handle the new ISICS antennas, wouldn't they need to beef up the tower rather than replace it with "like-for-like?" I don't know, maybe that's not the whole story. At any rate, I do know about Rock Rapids, and I would imagine that will provide a portion of the Sioux County service. I just saw an Alton site and figured it would be a repeater site.

I did some frequency sleuthing the other day between Rock Rapids and Sioux Center. The Rock Rapids tower is not up yet, and the best signal I can get in Rock Rapids is on the Sanborn CC of 770.40625, which comes up as "DAT" on my scanner when it tunes it in, followed closely by 769.65625 which comes up as "LNK" on my scanner when it tunes it in. I've noticed by the database that the 65625 one often appears as a voice channel on systems like Sanborn that have the 770.40625 CC.

In Sioux Center, the active frequencies appear to be 769.65625 ("LNK") and Le Mars' CC of 770.45625. The Le Mars CC is definitely stronger. Like full-scale. The 769.65625 frequency is only three bars and appears to be active nearly but not quite all the time. It acts like a voice channel in this area. I did not write down what the strength of the Sanborn CC (40625) was here for some reason.

In the Perkins area (8 miles north of Sioux Center at Hwys 18 & 75), the strongest frequency is 769.65625 ("LNK"), with 3 to 4 bars. A very similar signal strength is observed on 770.40625 (Sanborn CC), and Le Mars' CC of 770.45625 is only about two bars.

So what I'm thinking is that 769.65625 and 770.40625 are co-located on the same tower, based on their similar signal strength. Not sure why one comes up as "DAT" and the other as "LNK," but maybe you guys know. My guess would be that the LNK one is actually a voice channel but is coming up as "LNK" either because I don't have a Phase II scanner yet, or because they're using it for testing or something. If it is a voice channel, they must have the whole state's traffic going through there for now. There's no way it would be that busy otherwise.

Thoughts?

 

[tfhphoto]

I had a work assignment Monday in Osceola County which took me past the Alton tower. There were numerous microwave, but no vertical antenna on the tower. In Alton I was able to receive the Sanborn tower at full bars, the Le Mars tower at half-bars and the Sioux City (STARCOMM) at 1 bar. Further north towards Sheldon and Sibley it was all Sanborn. No copy of the Estherville tower at all. In three hours of driving around, heard no voice at all on Le Mars, Sanborn or Cherokee (CC copied at 1/2 bars in Le Mars area). This is all with a 325P2 hooked up to an external "professional" 800 MHz mobile antenna.

 

[radioboy75]

Thanks tfhphoto! That's very helpful. Still don't know what's up with 769.65625 ("LNK") then, but that's all good information for tracking down the real info! By the way, where is the Alton tower exactly? How about Sanborn?

 

[nd5y]

LNK indicates you are receiving data but not a control channel or voice channel.
I have seen this before on other systems when they first come on the air. It's either some kind of test pattern for making adjustments to the transmitter or for coverage testing or it's just idle with no data like repeater hang time on a conventional P25 repeater.

 

[radioboy75]

LNK indicates you are receiving data but not a control channel or voice channel.
I have seen this before on other systems when they first come on the air. It's either some kind of test pattern for making adjustments to the transmitter or for coverage testing or it's just idle with no data like repeater hang time on a conventional P25 repeater.

Thanks! Yeah, that's what I assumed. But being that I don't have a Phase II scanner I thought it also could be voice. But the testing thing was my first thought as well.

 

[tfhphoto]

The Alton tower is right along Highway 60, in town, on the west side of the road. I think the Sanborn tower is about a mile east of the town and about a mile north of Highway 18 - at least there's a new tower there that looks like every other new ISICS tower.

Also, Scott, even though your scanner isn't Phase II, I'd still program it up. All of the ISP testing I've heard has been in Phase I. Sioux City Fire is currently all Phase I and Sioux City PD (yes, it's all encrypted) jumps between Phase I and II depending on who is affiliating.

 

[eightmillimeter]

ISP District's 5 and 3 (mostly 5) are using the new system intermittently depending on who is working. The facility at Storm Lake State Radio only has one operator station working right now on the new stuff. The most common talkgroup you will hear right now is DPS LAW 2-B

 

[rdelao_16]

Any news on when ISP will be officially be switching to ISICS? I was told they should've been on by the end of December which clearly hasn't happened from what I've heard. I hear them quite a bit on Merrill and Storm Lake analog when I'm in those areas.

From what I've heard from pretty reliable sources, ISP will be Phase I and NOT encrypted due to the amount of money it would've cost to encrypt every radio in the state for daily ops. I would assume they will have Secure channels for sensitive information and things like that.

 

[newsman04]

The Centerville tower showed Phase II while it was in site-trunking mode, but recently switched to Phase I when it was put online (partially) with the system sometime in the last week or so. Wasn’t sure though if that was just for testing purposes or what. I haven’t seen the latest Motorola update but I believe the area is still needing coverage testing done.

From what I had read earlier only the Westcom and folks like that would be Phase I until equipment could get ready for Phase II down the road.