Loudoun County's new radio system

[freqhopping]

TG 2885 6L Tac 31

 

[VFN05]

Does anyone from one of the Northern VA public safety agencies know how this will work for interoperability with the other NoVa agencies? I can see lots of gateway headaches for some poor comm manager.

Jason

 

[JESSERABBIT]

I don't know about Northern Virginia but the other day they were testing with several agencies. I didn't pay much attention until they tested with Jefferson Co WV. Both them and Jefferson came in very clear.

 

[mikev]

I've been hearing Leesburg PD this afternoon. This will give me a chance to label RIDs. Sure would be nice if Animal Control, Jail and the Court could be heard at least once.

TG 2823... sounds like it's Court Holding, nearest I can tell. I'm sorta new to the identification process, so maybe someone with a trained ear can confirm. It's been fairly active since just after 9:00a this morning.

 

[mikev]

TG 2823... sounds like it's Court Holding, nearest I can tell. I'm sorta new to the identification process, so maybe someone with a trained ear can confirm. It's been fairly active since just after 9:00a this morning.

Actually, listening a little more, it sounds like it may be the Jail, not Court Holding.

 

[mike_s104]

Actually, listening a little more, it sounds like it may be the Jail, not Court Holding.

I agree, it's the Jail or Adult Detention Center.

I know Fire and EMS is on the new system now, but I'm surprised at the amount of traffic I've been hearing. I hope it stays like this until a new scanner comes out that can monitor it better.

 

[mikev]

I know Fire and EMS is on the new system now, but I'm surprised at the amount of traffic I've been hearing. I hope it stays like this until a new scanner comes out that can monitor it better.

There might be a reason for this...

Using Pro96Com, it looks like one transmitter site is using TDMA, while the other isn't.

I'm not going to post a screen shot, but here's a basic idea of what I'm seeing...

Channel    Frequency
00-2493    866.58750
...
02-2492    866.58750/0
02-2493    866.58750/1
...

So those of us receiving the Ashburn site might be able to hear everything going through that site (which doesn't appear to be everything on the system, but it's more than I was expecting to be receiving!). But if you're in Sterling, you'll likely be hearing silence.

 

[freqhopping]

There might be a reason for this...

Using Pro96Com, it looks like one transmitter site is using TDMA, while the other isn't.

I'm not going to post a screen shot, but here's a basic idea of what I'm seeing...

Channel    Frequency
00-2493    866.58750
...
02-2492    866.58750/0
02-2493    866.58750/1
...

So those of us receiving the Ashburn site might be able to hear everything going through that site (which doesn't appear to be everything on the system, but it's more than I was expecting to be receiving!). But if you're in Sterling, you'll likely be hearing silence.

It doesn't have anything to do with sites, there is only one. It is simulcasted from multiple towers though. It's all relative to what radios are affiliating with that talkgroup.

I just hope there's a bunch of FDMA-only radios in operation this weekend so I can hear everything going on.


Last night I heard the Fairfax City fire chief on 6A reporting an accident. I guess all the surrounding jurisdictions work just fine the way they are. The radio ID was 3###### on this system.

Good to see I was right about 2823 being the jail. I expect 2827 to be Court Holding.

2804 is Sterling Tac 2. This is the channel mall units use.

 

[w4hyi]

hey how do I program my 996t to hear this

 

[freqhopping]

hey how do I program my 996t to hear this

If you use UASD or another program that can import .usd files, you could load this file. Loudoun usd file

 

[joedame]

I am not having any luck receiving Leesburg PD with my BCD396T. Is anyone else having the same trouble? Thanks.

Joe

 

[freqhopping]

I am not having any luck receiving Leesburg PD with my BCD396T. Is anyone else having the same trouble? Thanks.

Joe

You're not going too until an old radio is used on that channel. Happens sporadically throughout the day.

 

[j2brown]

I got a look at one of the LCSO radios. Here's what they have programmed in their primary zone:


1. Sterling
2. Sterling Car to Car
3. Sterling Tac 1
4. Sterling Tac 2
5. Dulles
6. Dulles C2C
7. Dulles Tac 1
8. Dulles Tac 2

This pattern continues with 4 Brambleton channels and then 4 Round Hill channels

This might help fill out some of our lists.

jeff
sdg

 

[joedame]

You're not going too until an old radio is used on that channel. Happens sporadically throughout the day.

Thanks for the info.

 

[mikev]

I got a look at one of the LCSO radios.
...
This pattern continues with 4 Brambleton channels and then 4 Round Hill channels

This might help fill out some of our lists.

Should help... however, I haven't seen any additional talkgroups in Pro96com, aside from one adjacent to LCFR 6L (probably 6K) and one that is believed to be court holding, but still needs verification.

I'm REALLY left wondering about all the smaller town PD's in the western part of the county though... Purcellville, Middleburg, etc... What are they using now? I haven't seen a single sign of them on the new system!

 

[freqhopping]

Purcellville and Middleburg are on the Dulles channel. P-ville are 7## units, Middleburg 8##. P-ville still uses their UHF frequency too.

 

[mikev]

Ok, so of course, as soon as I make that last post, I flip back to Pro96com and have found these (and what appears to be an incident, due to a sudden large number of LCFR 6D affiliations) ...

2821
2822
2825
2876
2878
2879
2881
2884
2894
2902

2884 is the one I was thinking was 6K, since it's next to 6L numerically... however, going through consecutive numbered TG's from the other end (since that's how they seem to be organized on this system), 2884 would end up being 6M, not 6K. That's why I didn't put possible LCFR channel numbers on any of the other TG's in that range.

With the exception of 2876 (which has 3 affiliations), all of these TG's have been single affiliations. Also, none of them kicked off my wildcard scan, so they may have only been affiliations, but at least it signifies the existence of these TG's.

 

[freqhopping]

I've logged hits on every channel from 2801 to 2905 with the exception of 2840, 2883, 2895 and 2896. I'm sure they've built in a bunch of channels for future use. Like if/when that new hospital is ever built.

I have 16 hits on 2884 and 28 hits on 2876 on UT alone and I haven't been running it lately. Logged them with Pro96com too but it hasn't been logging hits. . I have 33 TGs with just one hit.

 

[ACU1000]

Does anyone from one of the Northern VA public safety agencies know how this will work for interoperability with the other NoVa agencies? I can see lots of gateway headaches for some poor comm manager.

Jason

As stated before in this thread, the MOTO "x2" (pre-true-PhaseII) system can be configured to let roaming FDMA subscriber units from other agencies affiliate to a TG - this will allow interop.

(And when this happens, the entire TG is FDMA and monitoable!)

 

[byrddog27]

There might be a reason for this...

Using Pro96Com, it looks like one transmitter site is using TDMA, while the other isn't.

I'm not going to post a screen shot, but here's a basic idea of what I'm seeing...

Channel    Frequency
00-2493    866.58750
...
02-2492    866.58750/0
02-2493    866.58750/1
...

So those of us receiving the Ashburn site might be able to hear everything going through that site (which doesn't appear to be everything on the system, but it's more than I was expecting to be receiving!). But if you're in Sterling, you'll likely be hearing silence.

i was messing around with my scanner while we was getting hit by these snow storm and i found the main channel for loudoun county and it it 866.8000