Listening to NYSEG's Trunked system on a conventional LMR HT

Status
Not open for further replies.

rja1

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 14, 2004
Messages
156
Location
Enfield, NH
Ok, so I'm using an ICOM F70DT to listen to NYSEG's trunked system. I didn't want to get involved with a trunking HT, as I don't have a system key, don't want to end up with a bricked radio, etc. NYSEG has sites in many different locations across NYS. In the database, I see that in one location they use a specific frequency for a CC, while in another location that frequency is used as a voice channel. Right now , I have all the voice channels from the entire state programmed into one zone. Once I figure out how to make this HT scan, I'm pretty sure it will work reasonably well.

What I'm wondering is: Are these voice channels & CC's that are assigned to each site be utilized at a different site, say, if there was an weather incident that caused lots of outages & the one or two voice channels assigned to that area were insufficient to maintain the high volume of calls? Do I need to load all the CC's in addition to the voice channels, in case they decide to use a designated CC as a voice channel in a different site? I don't even know if their trunking system has the capability to do something like that. I do have many crossover frequencies (used as CC's & voice channels in different sites) programmed in & the F70DT's P25 vocoder works great........I don't hear any data bursts at all. On my R2500 & AR-DV1 I hear data bursts on the voice channels all the time.

And, yes, I know a trunking scanner would take care of this, but I don't want to run afoul of VTL 397. I do not want to risk losing my unrestricted carry permit. I I'm a ham & have a zone programmed with many 2 Meter repeaters. The law is poorly written, and open to all sorts of interpretation. The way I read it, anyone who has a VHF / UHF HT or mobile rig in their vehicle (except the Rat Shack HTX-202 & HTX-204) is in violation. Read the last sentence of 397, seems like they wrote this law when receivers were crystal controlled. I took the route I did because most LE see 397 & immediately think SCANNER. Sure would be cool if someone came out with a dual band HT that had P25 and trunking capability.

Bob

I'm not trying to start another thread about 397, as that has already been beaten to death here. I would appreciate any hints or tips about trying to make this work reasonably well.
 

Thunderknight

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
2,216
Location
Bletchley Park
CCs can rotate, meaning at a particular site, what is a CC one day might become a VC (voice channel) another day, with a VC becoming a CC. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including inbound interference, maintainence, wear balancing.

Some systems allow what's called voice on control, meaning a control channel becomes a VC when the VCs are fully loaded, and the site temporarily has no CC for the duration of the voice spurt, but the system has to be configured as such, and I think that is only supported as sites with a max number of 3 channels.
 

jeepsandradios

Member
Feed Provider
Joined
Jul 29, 2012
Messages
2,005
Location
East of the Mississippi
Sure would be cool if someone came out with a dual band HT that had P25 and trunking capability.

They do its called an APX7000 Portable....

In regards to NYSEG I think you will be fine. I have the control channel locked out in my area and has never changed in 3 years of having it in my scanner.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top