LCRA needs updating!

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kd5dga

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What is strange is the Leander and Seward Junction locations are only 5 miles apart. I would wonder why they would need tower locations close to eack other.
 

Russell

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That seems a little weird. But look at Elgin and Elgin 2, downtown Austin and Lake Austin/Buchman Mtn/antenna hill. Perhaps it's a fill in for the lower elevation of the lake area?? There are several sites that are actually pretty close.

We definitely need a new map. I'm using the lat/lon info from license info to identify the closest sites. From my terrible location in NW Austin (Mopac & Wells Branch) I can pick up Sites 15 and 8 with nearly 100% on Unitrunker. I can hear no other sites at all from here.

Russell
 
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Russell

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I did some traveling today and captured some good info. I went to the Georgetown site and ID'ed it as site 20 (w/14 LCNs). It is actually on University (formerly Chandler) 2.5 miles east of I35. This site is directly across from the Round Rock Higher Education Center (part of Texas State University). This is not the Westinghouse Rd antenna site which is actually a couple of miles further north and closer to I35.

Sunday afternoon is a terrible time to try to ID the LCNs for this site as the radio traffic was very minimal and I only got two unconfirmed LCNs. I took the antenna completely off the scanner to make sure I was not picking up any other sites. IDing it as site 20 confused me since the Seward Junction site, just 12 miles to the northwest at US183 and Hwy 29 is also ID'ed as site 20 (920) in the DB with the same control channel. I'm going to put Georgetown in the DB as site 820 until I can make it out to Seward Junction to verify it's site ID.

I also went to site 3 (903 in the DB) on Guadalupe near the UT campus. I verified this as site 3 and got 14 of the 15 LCNs (it has grown a bit). I did not find an LCN 12. The DB has been updated. This site was very busy with CapMetro traffic and quite a bit of Hays SO traffic (TG 777).

I could hear site 904 with a control channel of 936.9125, but it was only decoding about 35%, so it's some distance away. I'll save that one for another day. I could also hear Creedmoor quite well from this location.

Maybe we could do little transmitter hunt with an RDF or yagi antenna tuned for 935 mhz. Any ideas?

Russell
 
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FlashSWT

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That site on University (820) is actually in the city of Round Rock. Being on the north side of the road it may technically be just outside of the annexed area by 20 feet, but either way it is much closer to Round Rock then Georgetown.

Not sure if this matters or not but I figured it was at least worth mentioning.
 

Russell

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Pegged site 904 as Cedar Valley, confirmed LCNs. Updated DB (removed site 140).

Russell
 

pacrat551

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I'm heading down to Victoria this weekend. I don't' have etrunker capabilites, but I'm going to attempt to gather more info on the hallettsville and concrete sites.

Doin it the old fashioned way....2 scanners and lots of paper...LOL :D
 

SCPD

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pacrat551 said:
I'm heading down to Victoria this weekend. I don't' have etrunker capabilites, but I'm going to attempt to gather more info on the hallettsville and concrete sites.
Doin it the old fashioned way....2 scanners and lots of paper...LOL :D
Aaron ... we need to get you upgraded. Are you lacking a tapped radio or is it because you're mobile and don't have a laptop (yeah these toys can get expensive) ?
-rick
 

pacrat551

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Well......

I do have a tapped BC895 that i'm currently keeping at the fire station. I'm runing trunk88 with a GTX 800 monitoring my 800 system in Lockhart. I've just been too busy lately to sit down and get the proper wiring to play with the 895 and etrunker or unitrunker. I do have a laptop that usually tags along with me everywhere.

Main problem is that my '01 explorer is already full of other radio gear that I don't have anymore room to fit anything. (800 spectra, VHF maxtrac, UHF CDM1550ls, RS pro-2055, yaesu FT-8800, and another VHF maxtrac for my tinytrak)
 

RenMan51

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1st half

RenMan51 said:
Okay. Looks like this might take longer than I thought. I'm just beginning page 6 of 19 in the FCC search results. I probably won't have it finished 'til next week (weekends are busy around here).

Sorry for the delay.


Have the first half of the listings from the FCC search finished. Couldn't find a photo area here, so uploaded it to the Yahoo groups photo area: http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/HoustonScan/photos/browse/a039?c=

Just found out we're moving, and everything's in a rush here, so it might take a little longer to finish than expected. If someone's in a rush, I'd be happy to provide info on where I found the info, and how to mark up your GoogleEarth.
 

rbarker

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LCRA licenses a lot of frequencies and sites - not all are being used

What I have found with LCRA is that they have a lot of "sites" licensed with a lot of frequencies but it does not mean that this site or all the frequencies at that site are acutally transmitting. It is almost impossible to determine what sites are active and what frequencies make up the LCN order unless you have actually monitored it.
 

Russell

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rbarker said:
What I have found with LCRA is that they have a lot of "sites" licensed with a lot of frequencies but it does not mean that this site or all the frequencies at that site are acutally transmitting. It is almost impossible to determine what sites are active and what frequencies make up the LCN order unless you have actually monitored it.

Yes, I found this out, too. I tried to peg Jarrell last weekend and simply got overloaded. They licensed every possible frequency and also had the Lat/long wrong. Sooo, I showed up at the site to find a nice little farmhouse and no tower. The closest tower was the TXU Jarrell tower about a mile away. At least I got that info.

After reviewing the ULS info on the license (http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&action=fcc&cs=WPJX854), I discovered that the status is listed as CANCELLED.

I "think" (assume, guess, ponder) that when they plan for a new site they license everything, then once it's settled in they actually go back and correct the licenses. I know there are plenty of glaring errors in the FCC database, but for most part, it is correct.

Also, I've discovered that the sites are "generally" twenty miles apart. There are also plenty of fill in towers based on terrain, radio traffic, etc.

Russell
 

Russell

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kd5dga said:
What is strange is the Leander and Seward Junction locations are only 5 miles apart. I would wonder why they would need tower locations close to eack other.

I just spent a few hours out that way (Leander, Seward Jct, Liberty Hil, and south Burnet Co) and have the following;
- I concur that Seward Junction and Lago Vista/Leander are the same site. While there are a couple of boss towers at Seward Junction none of them is broadcasting LCRA EDACS.
- The Liberty Hill site that LCRA shares with Williamson County (according to FCC records) is also not broadcasting LCRA EDACS.
- The site listed as "920 Seward Junction" is actually the Georgetown/Round Rock site.

The only thing I could hear from Seward Junction was the Georgetown and Leander sites. I traveled a further north and picked up Council Creek. I also picked up several TXU sites.

Russell
 

pacrat551

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I found some information on the Concrete tower. I actually only got 3 LCN's for this site that I will be posting as soon as I get the info downloaded from my scanner.

I couldn't really hear the hallettsville site very well, so I don't have anything to add to it.

If someone is in and or around the lockhart area (or Austin area on Thursday), shoot me a pm or email at pacrat551@yahoo.com I'd like to meet up and see if I can get unitrunker and my bc895 running so I can get these site numbers for LCRA south of the Austin area.

thanks,
 

pacrat551

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I've actually had some extra time tonight and finally got Unitrunker working!!! Thanks Rick for offering to help me out of this (Got tied up at the Region 49 700 MHz meeting)

Anyway, I fixed a wrong frequency in the database for the Creedmoor site. I'm monitoring site (937.900) which in the database shows Bastrop/Luckenback here as site 24. However, there are only 6 channels showing up and Unitrunker says it's site 11. I've confirmed LCN 2-5, but I can't quite hear the system well enough from lockhart to peg 1 and 6. There are many UNID talkgroups showing up on this site. 166, 259, 350, 381, 617, and 1042 just to name a few.
 

pacrat551

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pacrat551 said:
I'm monitoring site (937.900) which in the database shows Bastrop/Luckenback here as site 24. However, there are only 6 channels showing up and Unitrunker says it's site 11. I've confirmed LCN 2-5, but I can't quite hear the system well enough from lockhart to peg 1 and 6. There are many UNID talkgroups showing up on this site. 166, 259, 350, 381, 617, and 1042 just to name a few.

Added new site as site 911 for Bastrop confirmed all 6 LCN with unitrunker.
 

SCPD

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pacrat551 said:
I've actually had some extra time tonight and finally got Unitrunker working!!! Thanks Rick for offering to help me out of this (Got tied up at the Region 49 700 MHz meeting)
Glad to hear. As it turns out, I was also tied up. If you have any pending 700 mhz news for Texas, we'd love to hear it (I've gotten one "hit" on a 700 mhz channel on the Austin/Travis Co. P25 system but I think it was a fluke).

Added new site as site 911 for Bastrop confirmed all 6 LCN with unitrunker.
Awesome! Confirming LCNs on a wide area system like LCRA is a royal pain in the antenna. The same talkgroup appears concurrently on multiple sites. Just when you think you've nailed a particular LCN, turns out the channel belongs to a neighbor site. At least the FCC data helps.

-rick
 

pacrat551

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Is there anyone using unitrunker in the Bastrop, Smithville, or Lagrange (Fayette) county area? We have 3 listings for the Lagrange area sites. I can barely get the control channel for site 827. I picked up 6 channels for this site. I could also barely get the Flatonia site 918 and confirmed a new control channel. This site is only using 4 channels. I am just to far to get confirmed frequencies.

I tried tuning in on the other sites listed, but I could not get a control channel for any frequencies in the line up (except for those site closer to me ie: 936.450 which is the new braunfels site)

I'm close enough to get concrete, (936.400) but the current control channel for Kingsbury (936.4125) is too close and I can't get a good lock on it.
 

Russell

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What's the scoop with the Fredericksburg (909) site? I can't find any callsigns or freqs listed for that site in FCC records. The only site close is listed as Morris Ranch with a cancelled license. I see a site listed as Fredericksburg (New) as site 109.

Is site 909 actually alive? Where is it? Has the Fredericksburg (New) site replaced it?

Russell
 
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