KSICS Anchor Thread

[khphighwayman]

Anyone familiar with LifeStar, specifically the east (Lawrence) repeater?

I have not heard any traffic on the analog freq in a couple weeks. Been scanning on KSICS for a wildcard but, so far nothing found. The database here shows a TG for Topeka, but nothing for Lawrence.

I do not have the best luck scanning anything KSICS outside of KHP Troop A. I can barely hear Troop B and KTA. Completely unreliable as far as Leavenworth County KSICS.

Current plan is to upgrade my antenna when Douglas County decides what they are planning on doing as far as KSICS or the rumor of joining the Johnson County 700 system.

Lifestar is talkgroup 1661. You say you dont hear alot of traffic other than Troop A? which towers are you monitoring? not sure where you live.

 

[MadSpleen85]

Lifestar is talkgroup 1661. You say you dont hear alot of traffic other than Troop A? which towers are you monitoring? not sure where you live.

Did LifeStar combine Topeka (west) and Lawrence (east) repeaters when they switched to KSICS?

I am in north central Johnson County and mainly monitor Olathe (Johnson County) and Mission (Wyandotte County) towers on this system.

I can monitor Paola (Miami County) with great results.

Lawrence (Douglas County) is very hit/miss. Sometimes I can pick up KTA, while other times I can't pickup anything.

Leavenworth County's Simulcast I have a very hard time catching much of anything from. The scanners seem to pickup active talkgroups but don't seem to be able to give any audio, like I just missed the transmission.

 

[kenabos]

I have the same problem at my desk, every time something comes up on the scanner that would help identify my phone seems to ring.
Today on 2460 on the Wichita tower I heard "We need to make sure ??ason Bentley is on bus one" and then ??ason Bently is not on bus one" then "Cottonwood 2" and then my phone rang.

I reset my hit counter sometime middle of last week and have had 31 hits on 2460 on the Butler County Simulcast towers. I usually only have that turned on when I am at home after 5:00pm and when I am in northern Wichita during the day (which I was Thursday and Friday of last week).

Havent seen a 2459 on my scanner yet.

Late last week and today it seemed like I heard a lot of testing on TG's that are documented in the DB but I have never heard anything on. TG465 had Burns duty officer and some other units testing today.

Yesterday I had some time to listen to 2460. Central Dispatch was mentioned and all the traffic had to do with Andover HS and MS.

Tonight I am hearing 2458. All of the traffic has to do with a highschool football game somewhere. I dont have anything to identify the location yet.

Note: The 2460 stuff was on the Wichita tower all around 3:00pm. 2458 traffic is at 6:44pm on the Butler Simulcast.

 

[jasonkw]

Hutchinson encryption

I have been noticing that some traffic is now being encrypted on the Hutchinson PD talkgroup. I found out tonight that they are looking at going full encryption with no reason given. Fire and EMS will stay in the clear. I heard this from a RS employee. This guy is one of the few RS employees that actually knows what he is talking about.

If this is true, this is a complete 180 from what officials said when they switching to digital. They made it clear they want the public to know what is going on.

 

[jasonkw]

I have been noticing that some traffic is now being encrypted on the Hutchinson PD talkgroup. I found out tonight that they are looking at going full encryption with no reason given. Fire and EMS will stay in the clear. I heard this from a RS employee. This guy is one of the few RS employees that actually knows what he is talking about.

If this is true, this is a complete 180 from what officials said when they switching to digital. They made it clear they want the public to know what is going on.

I also checked the live feeds page for Reno county. The official feed from Reno County appears to work, but there is no traffic on it. There is another feed for Reno county that is working normally. I wonder if there is a new person in charge.

 

[MadSpleen85]

Leavenworth County/NEKS issue

I am in north central Johnson County (Shawnee) and while outside using this 800MHz 2.5db Gain Antenna on my RS pro-106 I am unable to reach anything on the Leavenworth County simulcast system.

Olathe (Johnson County) and Mission (Wyandotte County) towers are crystal clear both inside and outside the house. Lawrence (Douglas County) is fairly reliable outside and nearly impossible to hear inside.

I can't figure out how I am picking up Douglas County, with the site being on the west side of Lawrence (nearly 29 nautical miles W) but, Leavenworth County with the nearest site being about 8.5 nautical miles NW in Bonner Springs and another about 10 nautical miles WSW. I have a little simulcast experience from Johnson County's P25 system, which can be a PITA to monitor and I am smack dab between towers for it.

I am already planning on upgrading my rooftop antenna, once Douglas County sets a better idea for what their new radio system will be and I would like to be capable of monitoring Leavenworth County as well. My issue comes with only having space for one antenna on the roof.

Anyone around the same area having a similar issue or have a rooftop antenna they would recommend for KSICS monitoring?

 

[CWR]

Just asking , but are you sure you've got the right frequencies for the Bonner Tower ?
851 .30 & .85
852 .065 , .3125 , & .725
853.475 , .65 . & .9375

 

[DptyNIVEK3]

I've been reading your posts. Are you talking about listening to Lawrence police and Douglas County Sheriff? Since they switched over, I have not heard a thing when in Lawrence or at my home in Topeka. I used ProScan software to download frequencies on my BCD396XT digital scanner from Radio Reference.

 

[mancow]

Switched over to what?

 

[firefive76]

Switched over to what?

Kind of what I was thinking. Maybe he is talking about the rebanding.

 

[DptyNIVEK3]

Rebanding

It is my understanding that Douglas County Sherrif and Lawrence PD is now operating with a digital system and it is encrypted and no scanner can receive it. Is this true?

I've listened to many cities and the OHP in Oklahoma that have digital system and can hear them, but I cannot hear their encryptions.

I can hear from Topeka nearly all KHIP as far west as Wichita, McPherson and Salina. Often they go digital and I can still hear them. I can also hear all of the Kansas Turnpike - Oklahoma to Kansas City.

So I guess I don't understand what is going on in Douglas County. There was also an article in Topeka's Capital Journal not too long ago that Shawnee County wants to go to the same system as Douglas County.

So I am confused.

 

[MadSpleen85]

It is my understanding that Douglas County Sherrif and Lawrence PD is now operating with a digital system and it is encrypted and no scanner can receive it. Is this true?

Douglas County Sheriff, Lawrence Police and University of Kansas Public Safety remain on the same analog system.

Depending on how recent your programming is, the system was rebanded over the summer. RadioReference Database - Douglas County

The county is still in the early stages of putting together a new radio system.

April 20, 2012 - Douglas County Emergency Communications memo

September 4, 2012 - 911 overhaul plan to be presented to officials today / LJWorld.com

September 5, 2012 - Emergency communications upgrades moving ahead / LJWorld.com

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My earlier posts in this thread were referring to the Douglas county KSICS tower. My issue is with monitoring KSICS, not the Douglas County Type II analog system.

---

Just asking , but are you sure you've got the right frequencies for the Bonner Tower ?
851 .30 & .85
852 .065 , .3125 , & .725
853.475 , .65 . & .9375

It was my understanding that only the primary CCs needed to be programmed for the system to work... Is this not the case?

 

[CWR]

It was my understanding that only the primary CCs needed to be programmed for the system to work... Is this not the case?

Yeah , it is , BUT , I'm "Old School" I put em all in just in case.........

 

[MadSpleen85]

Anyone familiar with LifeStar, specifically the east (Lawrence) repeater?

To answer my own question. It appears LifeStar has merged all of their repeaters into one talkgroup, 1661.

---

I seem to be having much better luck lately monitoring the Douglas County tower. I am able to clearly hear KTA, Troop B and LifeStar.

I reprogrammed the system, excluding the Olathe (Johnson County) tower, which seemed to be keeping my scanner too busy to pickup anything other than traffic going off of the Olathe site.

Still no luck with Leavenworth County's simulcast. I catch brief bits and pieces, just seems like the scanner is having a difficult time locking on long enough to receive a full transmission. Basehor PD, Tonganoxie PD, and several County TG's have all had hits in the passed few days, with none being completely intelligible. It is a work in progress for me.

 

[cinsu]

There was also an article in Topeka's Capital Journal not too long ago that Shawnee County wants to go to the same system as Douglas County.

I would like to see that article. Shawnee county is in process of building an independent 6-site P25 system with completion expected in June 2013. It may or may not be linked to KSICS which will coincidentally be the rumored system Douglas County is piggy backing off of.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

 

[KSDeputy]

Wish I knew, I listen to Jeff county on a vhf scanner.

 

[rankin39]

1) I still hear occasional Life Star transmissions on their UHF Lawrence repeater.

2) Lawrence PD and Douglas Co. are not encrypted and are still on their old system, although it was rebanded recently. So the new frequencies need to be programmed AND rebanding adjustments need to be made to Uniden scanners.

3) The Leavenworth Co. digital simulcast system uses 10 repeaters and is a PITA to receive if you're mobile between sites. You get constant loss of audio when signals from different sites conflict and cancel each other out. The over all signal level gives you 5 bars but often with no audio recovery at all. You need an overwhelming signal from just one transmitter in order to ger good audio recovery. Luckily I live about a mile from the Tonganoxie tower, but if I'm mobile, "fuggetaboutit". My county HT gets perfect audio, but scanners have a lot of catching up to do with these digital simulcast systems.

In addition to the Bonner tower there is a LV Co. transmitter site at the JO Co. fire station just south of Desoto. Maybe a beam pointed at either Bonner or the fire station would give clear reception down there. One thing for sure, it's not a signal strength problem; it's strictly multi-path reception.

Bob, WoNXN

 

[KSDeputy]

Thank you for the information. I have been using my BC250D for years, and I understand it won't accept the rebanded freqs. I have a BC895xlt & BC 8500xlt at home. Rather than fool with the rebanded freqs now I plan on selling the three scanners and waiting until the digital systems are on line. Then I will buy the new Handheld digital scanner. Hopefully Shawnee & Douglas will go digital at about the same time. I usually listen mostly when I am in my suv going to Topeka or Lawrence. I only want to have to do the programming once.

 

[MadSpleen85]

For those keeping track of the medical helicopter talkgroups. I had the database admins update LifeStar and add LifeFlight Eagle.

LifeStar (TG 1661) was in the database at LifeStar Topeka. That TG covers the old east repeater as well as the old Topeka repeater, so I had that updated to just LifeStar Dispatch.

I just discovered LifeFlight Eagle on Sunday afternoon. Eagle 4 from Children's Mercy in Kansas City, MO was bound for Topeka and told their dispatch that they would make contact on "Kansas Statewide." I was picking them up on both the Olathe (Johnson County) and Lawrence (Douglas County) towers.

1) I still hear occasional Life Star transmissions on their UHF Lawrence repeater.

2) Lawrence PD and Douglas Co. are not encrypted and are still on their old system, although it was rebanded recently. So the new frequencies need to be programmed AND rebanding adjustments need to be made to Uniden scanners.

3) The Leavenworth Co. digital simulcast system uses 10 repeaters and is a PITA to receive if you're mobile between sites. You get constant loss of audio when signals from different sites conflict and cancel each other out. The over all signal level gives you 5 bars but often with no audio recovery at all. You need an overwhelming signal from just one transmitter in order to ger good audio recovery. Luckily I live about a mile from the Tonganoxie tower, but if I'm mobile, "fuggetaboutit". My county HT gets perfect audio, but scanners have a lot of catching up to do with these digital simulcast systems.

In addition to the Bonner tower there is a LV Co. transmitter site at the JO Co. fire station just south of Desoto. Maybe a beam pointed at either Bonner or the fire station would give clear reception down there. One thing for sure, it's not a signal strength problem; it's strictly multi-path reception.

Bob, WoNXN

I noticed the same about LifeStar on UHF. Sometimes it is just the alert tone, other times it is the alert tone followed by a dispatcher's voice. I do not believe I have heard anything from the pilot or med crew on UHF since the digital switch.

I mapped out all of the towers for Leavenworth County in Google Earth. I seem to be having better luck with the system now. I am about 10 miles from the Bonner Springs site and closer to 12 miles from the De Soto site. No idea which site I am hitting but in the NW corner of my house I can reliably maintain enough signal to have clear audio. Hearing lots of Lansing PD this morning.

It is probably a long shot but, I hope Douglas County's planned multi-site system cooperates a little better than Leavenworth County seems to.

 

[rankin39]

Mission tower question.

I have all six of the listed frequencies programmed in my 996 for the Mission KSICS tower for when I drive in the metro area. On a recent trip I could receive nothing on those channels while driving on I35 and 435. All I could hear was the Olathe tower. So my questions are: (1) Is the Mission tower currently on the air and active? (2) Are the 6 listed frequencies in the RR database correct?

Or is this just one of the many quirks in Uniden's programming that I need to iron out? And, yes, I have rebanded the whole system. I have no trouble with other sites/towers.

Thanks for any info you guys over in the Big City have.

Bob, WoNXN near Tonganoxie.