Modoc County 155.6175

[avery_k]

Is anyone in the area familiar with this frequency? I live in Southern Lake County, Oregon and I've been picking up this frequency on both my SDR and scanner for at least a week. Dispatch responds to mobiles as "Modoc County" so I'm assuming it's from there. There's nothing in the RR database that I could find and an FCC search produced results for Sacramento and Santa Rosa, which are too far away. I've widened the search limits on my SDR to make sure it's not an image of something else. When first heard there were several mobile units doing radio checks at different mile markers though I didn't catch which highway they were on. Judging by the audio quality it sounds like it's been bounced around quite a bit.

 

[mmckenna]

Modoc County SO.

ULS License - Public Safety Pool, Conventional License - WRJZ828 - MODOC, COUNTY OF

 

[norcalscan]

They're spinning up a new radio system so you hearing mile marker radio checks sounds like testing. Good find.

 

[avery_k]

Thanks all, not sure how I missed that FCC entry! With the tower being on Grizzly Peak it makes sense that 14 watts ERP would come in so well in town. Comms are kind of sparse in these parts so it's nice having a more active frequency to scan!
Is it too early to submit it to the DB?

 

[norcalscan]

I should rephrase my previous statement, I believe they are expanding upon their existing "system" and not replacing. I was trying to find the report I ran into a while ago, and found some preliminary consultant reports of needing six additional frequencies licensed to the county. I can't remember if it was voting, or manual-change of the radio dial when moving around the county, but each site was a different freq if I recall. Can't remember if they were multi-casting across all sites, or just localized traffic to each. I'd assume multi-casting so everyone in the county knows what's happening. (shrug) I also know they were having all public safety dispatching on one local government channel, but not sure if these new freqs are just for Sheriff use now. So many questions, so rural, and so few listeners who are also on here. Avery-K I'd say submit what you here and try to interpret what kind of traffic it is, just sheriff or county fire as well?

 

[avery_k]

@norcalscan, from what I've heard so far I think it's mainly sheriff. It hasn't been really active today for some reason but I'll keep a listen for different agencies. I'm guessing it's probably regional, judging by the link to the FCC page that @mmckenna posted there's another tower at 154.1375 on Fortynine Mountain east of Cedarville. I can't receive that one from here so I can't speak to the multicasting aspect of it. I'll go ahead and submit what I have and go from there. RR has been such a great resource it's nice to contribute to it!

 

[mmckenna]

Considering they are both FB2 with no mobiles licensed, it sounds like they are just adding coverage. Maybe multiple receive sites on the same input frequency, with different sites with different outputs. Cheaper than simulcast, but requires either the radio to scan for the strongest output signal, or someone to manually change channels.

If I felt like looking up their other licenses, we could probably figure it out.

 

[avery_k]

Agreed. Probably not very active today in that case because no units close enough to trip the repeater.
No need to look them up, my curiosity for this one is answered!

 

[officer_415]

It looks like the DB for Modoc County needs to be revamped. I'm looking at the 2020 Cal Fire load and it looks like they use the same frequencies across many different sites, each with a different PL tone. 153.920 is the "Local Gov" channel and is shared by law, fire, and medical. 153.860 is the "Green" channel and is used as a secondary channel for incidents.

53 MODOC BARN 153.92000 146.2 158.83500 146.2 H N Barnes Tone 5
54 MODOC ADIN 153.92000 123.0 158.83500 123.0 H N Adin Tone 2
55 MODOC TIMBER 153.92000 131.8 158.83500 131.8 H N Timber Tone 3
56 MODOC SV 153.92000 110.9 158.83500 94.8 H N SV Tone 1
57 MOD TAC PAYN 153.92000 127.3 158.83500 127.3 H N Payne Tone 12
58 MOD TAC WID 153.92000 156.7 158.83500 156.7 H N Widows Tone 6
59 MODOC PAYN 153.86000 127.3 158.85750 127.3 H N Payne Tone 12
60 MODOC LIKELY 153.86000 107.2 158.85750 107.2 H N Likely Tone 10
61 MODOC WIDOW 153.86000 156.7 158.85750 156.7 H N Widows Tone 6
62 MODOC NEWL 153.86000 141.3 158.85750 141.3 H N Newell Tone 13
63 MOD TAC GRS 153.86000 100.0 158.85750 100.0 H N Grouse Tone 9
64 MOD TAC 49R 153.86000 151.4 158.85750 151.4 H N 49 Mtn Tone 14
65 MOD TAC TIMB 153.86000 131.8 158.85750 131.8 H N Timber Tone 3
66 MODOC GRS 154.18250 100.0 158.79750 100.0 H N Grouse Tone 9
67 MODOC 49R 154.18250 151.4 158.79750 151.4 H N 49 Mtn Tone 14
68 MODOC GRIZ 154.18250 136.5 158.79750 136.5 H N Grizzly Tone 4

 

[avery_k]

For the Grizzly site, it looks like they kept the same tone (136.5) and changed the frequency to 154.6175. Unless I'm reading it wrong. Which means Fortynine Mtn is probably different as well.

BTW I added the tone info to my DB submission.