Iowa Statewide Interoperability Communication System (ISICS)

[MCWKen]

From the signal strength and knowing the terrain I would say its somewhere in eastern Muscatine Co / Southwest Scott County. Haven't seen any traffic come across the site yet. But it is the scanlist since it won't have simulcast problems.

I did try several locations, got no signal at all from it. But of course, given it's small tower, coverage is limited.

 

[thatoneiowan]

Is anybody using a yagi antenna for ISICS? I know it would be a compromise, but I'm tempted by all the cheap prices on wifi/cellular yagis that claim to have 700MHz coverage. I'm guessing they're complete crap at ISICS frequencies, but I'm curious if anybody is trying one. For some reason, my workplace is unable to pick up the ISICS tower 12 miles away. Granted, it's a VHF antenna, but at only 12 miles away, I'd think you could pick it up on a wet noodle. Guess not. Funny thing is, it used to work fine. Guessing they turned it down or changed the pattern when another tower was put up.

I use one of these to pick up Des Moines/Westcom site in Huxley in my ground floor apartment. Wilson 301111 - 800 MHz Yagi Antennas

 

[rdelao_16]

Update on Sac County. I ran a frequency search on my bcd436hp and here's what I found. I'm a real novice to this whole scanner thing so I'm not sure if this is helpful to anyone but it's what I found.

Frequencies:
774.7937c pretty sure wherever the tower is, this is the control channel. It comes in full. NAC is 4C2H.
774.3187 this is the next most common frequency my scanner is hitting in search mode.
769.9562 the next most common frequency.

I have no idea if this helps anyone who knows where towers are being built. I live in Ida and work in Sac and I can tell you the coverage between the two counties is insane.

 

[rdelao_16]

Is anybody using a yagi antenna for ISICS? I know it would be a compromise, but I'm tempted by all the cheap prices on wifi/cellular yagis that claim to have 700MHz coverage. I'm guessing they're complete crap at ISICS frequencies, but I'm curious if anybody is trying one. For some reason, my workplace is unable to pick up the ISICS tower 12 miles away. Granted, it's a VHF antenna, but at only 12 miles away, I'd think you could pick it up on a wet noodle. Guess not. Funny thing is, it used to work fine. Guessing they turned it down or changed the pattern when another tower was put up.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm surrounded by towers and barely pick them up. I have the Cherokee tower to the north of me, Woodbury Simulcast to the west, Denison to the South, Storm lake to the NE and whatever Sac County is doing and I still can't get coverage in Holstein.

 

[MCWKen]

From the signal strength and knowing the terrain I would say its somewhere in eastern Muscatine Co / Southwest Scott County. Haven't seen any traffic come across the site yet. But it is the scanlist since it won't have simulcast problems.

I might also assume because of it's location, this acknowledges the dead areas of Muscatine/Scott simulcast coverage areas.

 

[mws72]

I might also assume because of it's location, this acknowledges the dead areas of Muscatine/Scott simulcast coverage areas.

With the extra traffic of the RABGRAI. 70/82 needs the extra channels/ Plus even though the route is on IA 22 which would be along the river. some areas might be shaded from the Muscatine site in my opinion..

 

[VASCAR2]

I don’t live in the area of Muscatine and Scott Counties Iowa but used to visit that area occasionally. Reading your thread got me curious to the ISICS simulcast site for the Muscatine/Scott county simulcast system. I did an antenna search for the area along Iowa 22 near the Mississippi River and found a site licensed to the Iowa State Patrol and the ISICS governing board. The site is located at Wildcat Den State Park on New Era Rd at 181st Street on the northeast corner of the T intersection for the park entrance. This location would fill the coverage gap from the other sites in the area. The coordinates for this tower are (41.4666218, -90.8862311). If someone in the area could check you could determine if this is the correct location.

Here is a screen shot of the tower. This photo is older and probably doesn’t reflect any new equipment. This just a guess on my part but I’m to far away to check it out.

 

[VASCAR2]

Here is a link to the Antenna Search website searching the address of this tower at Wildcat Den State Park.

AntennaSearch - Search for Cell Towers & Antennas

Search for the locations of cell towers and antennas to determine cell reception.

www.antennasearch.com

 

[mws72]

Wildcat Den Park Tower site was the Muscatine site for the old VHF DPS/LEA repeaters. ISICS' site is up on US 61 to the north. Not sure what is still operational at that tower.

 

[radioboy75]

I use one of these to pick up Des Moines/Westcom site in Huxley in my ground floor apartment. Wilson 301111 - 800 MHz Yagi Antennas

Yeah, that should work great. The ones I was looking at were like $30. That was why they were so tempting.

 

[rdelao_16]

Sac County: Here's what I think might be happening in Sac County. Still don't have all the frequencies figured out but their control is definitely 774.79375.

Searching antennasearch.com, I found a tower most recently built in 2021 at 95 West 5th Street in Lake View. 270 ft. tall Filing No: 2021-ace-7219-oe

Searching FCC licenses, I found 3 microwave applications under Sac County. WRPE336 , WRUL519, WRPE334. So maybe they're building their own sites and microwaves?

The Microwave map also shows it transmitting off the new tower in Lake view to the communications center tower in Sac City.

 

[Guldnerk]

On the Williamsburg and Linn/Johnson County Simulcast I can receive State Patrol Region 11, 12 and 13 but I never receive anything from the Independence Tower which I find weird because I am closer to that than Williamsburg. Any tips or tricks on how I can receive broadcasts from Region 9 and 10? I have Bremer/Black Hawk as well as Independence programmed as well as Linn/Johnson and Williamsburg.

 

[Guldnerk]

4212 has been broadcasting today through Linn County Simulcast with dead air and it isn't loaded in the database.

 

[timkilbride]

Sac County: Here's what I think might be happening in Sac County. Still don't have all the frequencies figured out but their control is definitely 774.79375.

Searching antennasearch.com, I found a tower most recently built in 2021 at 95 West 5th Street in Lake View. 270 ft. tall Filing No: 2021-ace-7219-oe

Searching FCC licenses, I found 3 microwave applications under Sac County. WRPE336 , WRUL519, WRPE334. So maybe they're building their own sites and microwaves?

The Microwave map also shows it transmitting off the new tower in Lake view to the communications center tower in Sac City.

This site was booming into my HT in Fonda with a signal of -88. The tower is likely located in the NE quadrant of Sac County.

Tim

 

[radiowa]

Does anyone have any updates for the tower being built in Dickinson County? It seems like the Clay/Dickinson county area is a big hole in coverage for ISICS.

 

[rdelao_16]

This site was booming into my HT in Fonda with a signal of -88. The tower is likely located in the NE quadrant of Sac County.

Tim

I think it's in Sac City actually unless they have multiple being built which they probably do. I noticed while going to work earlier this week that there was a tower company working on a tower in Sac City. I did a little looking and took a drive after I got off this morning. and this is on the North-west end of town just west of the Subway if you've been in town (just north east of the DOT shop in Sac). owned by Corn Belt Telephone but Sac County is renting tower space on there for at least 1 microwave dish.

Tower Registration No: 1278148
Call Sign for Sac County microwaves that are placed on this tower: WRPE336 and WRPE334

I've never done tower searching before so if I'm WAY off someone tell me. LOL I don't want to be talking out of my behind!

 

[mws72]

When the Site on Wheels is activated at a site. Can be it limited to a certain roster of talkgroups amd RIDs? reason I ask is during the time it was on the air here for RAGBRAI i never heard anything on it. Even the Region 6 calling or the Patrol TGs.

 

[mws72]

Related to my earlier post. There is a new license for Muscatine County at the old DPS Tower at Wild Cat Den State Park for several 800 MHz channels. I wonder if it means that Muscatine is closer to moving to ISICS from Starcom21.

<A NAME="081423_WRYI250"></A>
MUSCATINE, COUNTY OF
312 EAST 5TH ST - PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING
MUSCATINE IA 52761
<A HREF="http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=4802705" TARGET="_blank">ULS FCC View</A HREF>

Callsign: WRYI250
Radio Service: YE-Public Safety/Special Emergency and Public Safety, National National Plan, 806-817/851-862 MHz, Trunked

RADIO COMMUNICATIONS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY USE

Action: ISSUED


Area of Operation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 FIXED 412759.1N 905310.7W MUSCATINE MUSCATINE IA
2 MOBILE MUSCATINE IA
3 UNKNOWN 6 MUSCATINE IA

Pwr ERP # of # of (A)nalog
Ref Class Freq Out Out Units Pagers (D)igital (X)Unknwn
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 FB2 851.65000 100 325 1 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),9K80D7W (D)
1 FB2 852.11250 100 325 1 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),9K80D7W (D)
1 FB2 852.63750 100 325 1 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),9K80D7W (D)
1 FB2 853.62500 100 325 1 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),9K80D7W (D)
2 MO 806.65000 030 030 493 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)
2 MO 807.11250 030 030 493 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)
2 MO 807.63750 030 030 493 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)
2 MO 808.62500 030 030 493 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)
3 FX1 806.65000 030 030 3 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)
3 FX1 807.11250 030 030 3 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)
3 FX1 807.63750 030 030 3 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)
3 FX1 808.62500 030 030 3 0 8K10F1D (D),8K10F1E (D),8K10F1W (D)


IA Grants 8/15/23

 

[Guldnerk]

Is the Linn/Johnson simulcast down? I haven't received anything since 6am this morning.

 

[ISW376]

Is the Linn/Johnson simulcast down? I haven't received anything since 6am this morning.

Working fine on our work radios, I know yesterday they went into cc scan briefly but recovered fast no issues today that I can tell. (Iowa City)