Montana Statewide Interoperable Public Safety Radio System

[Jay911]

The activity on 855 was definitely highway patrol but rather vague in location. It was carried on the Mt. Royal tower - that's the best I could do, sorry.

 

[blantonl]

Having said that, there are a handful of 161.825 freqs in the FCC license data, three in Butte and one in Big Arm. I would suggest that Big Arm (Lake Co) is a more likely candidate for being a neighbor of a Lincoln Co site. The other one, the 161.8625 - I have no idea. The FCC data just has an auction "blanket" license for that frequency in MT - no specific site data.

The Montana PSSB map I mentioned in an earlier thread calls the Lake Co site "Jette" (WQMK540), which appears to be the closest town to the geographical coordinates.

I'm going to confirm this one as being the Jette / Big Arm site in Lake County - I'm getting it pretty good now and based on the talkgroups it is serving it's almost a certain. I've added it to the database and updated a few other sites with updated control channel assignments.

 

[kb7ado]

I may be traveling across Montana this fall from I-90 at the ID border to Glasgow via hwy 12, I-15, and hwys 87 and 2. I have a BC796D and am wondering what the best way is to program it for listening to Montana Highway Patrol. Where I live in WA there hasn't been much of a need to set it up for trunking so I don't have much experience with those settings. I programmed one of the banks with several VHF frequencies I knew of in western MT from my last visit a number of years ago, but it sounds like things have changed quite a bit since then. Can I just add the additional VHF frequencies for areas such as Helena, Great Falls, Havre, etc., and scan those as normal, or do I specifically have to set up trunking on primary and secondary control frequencies?

 

[Jay911]

I'm in Kalispell for a public safety conference for the balance of the week.

All the sites I can access right now - Big Mountain, Kalispell, and Mt Aeneas - are reporting 001-029 as a neighbor with a CC of 161.8625 (09-2069). Also, from earlier in my drive down from Alberta, Big Arm/Jette (001-022) is also a neighbor of 001-029. Can't find a license in the FCC database nor the RRDB for that frequency, except an FCC license that lists all the frequencies in the system.

If one looks at http://www.arcgis.com/apps/Legend/main/index.html?appid=af98c7eb44a84b7b9e9cc982c3785f40, it is possible it could be a site at Marion FD.

If I extrapolate the location of 001-029 by averaging out the lat/long of the known neighbor sites... I get Columbia Falls. That doesn't mesh with what I have found here, but you never know. (This method worked well for me when trying to locate new sites in Newfoundland, Canada, but maybe I don't have all of 29's neighbors.)

For what it's worth, other neighbor data is as follows:

For 001-014 Kalispell:
001-012 Blue Mountain
001-013 Pinkham Mountain
001-015 Blacktail
001-016 West Polson
001-022 Big Arm/Jette
001-024 Mt Aeneas
001-029 ?
001-042 Desert Mountain
001-044 Big Mountain

For 001-024 Mt Aeneas
001-012 Blue Mountain
001-013 Pinkham Mountain
001-014 Kalispell
001-015 Blacktail
001-016 West Polson
001-022 Big Arm/Jette
001-029 ?
001-044 Big Mountain

 

[MT911]

site 29

pretty sure site 29 is King MTN

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Two quick Pro96Com logs from my road trip stop in Judith Gap & Harlowton, Montana area.

If anyone wants the Montana Pro96Com site logs, It's in this folder.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e0fndkomp5xeu3k/AADnw7A7BMYKFRN9CVFfcseAa

_____________________________________________________________________
FileVersion:7
-TowerInfo
System ID : 16E
System Name :
WACN : BEE00
Tower Number (Decimal): 1-39
Tower Number (Hex) : T0127
Tower Description :
Control Capabilities : Data,Voice,Registration
Call Sign(s) :
Timestamp : Sat Sep 20 15:41:35 2014

Site NAC: 169

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"02-0458","c",151.34000,"02-1369",155.89500,1,0
"12-3782","a",173.82500,"02-1670",157.40000,1,0

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency
130,"T011E",16e,"02-1273",155.41500
133,"T0121",16e,"09-2077",161.96250
141,"T0129",16e,"02-1204",155.07000
143,"T012B",16e,"15-0841",151.15250
_____________________________________________________________________

FileVersion:7
-TowerInfo
#This section is here for information only. With the exception
#of the Call Sign(s), This data is not Read back into the program at all.
System ID : 16E
System Name :
WACN : BEE00
Tower Number (Decimal): 1-41
Tower Number (Hex) : T0129
Tower Description :
Control Capabilities : Data,Voice,Registration
Call Sign(s) :
Timestamp : Sat Sep 20 13:54:34 2014

Site NAC: 160

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"02-1138","v",154.74000,"02-1960",158.85000,1,2
"02-1204","c",155.07000,"02-1957",158.83500,1,0
"02-1360","a",155.85000,"02-1951",158.80500,1,0

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency
118,"T0112",16e,"02-0476",151.43000
119,"T0113",16e,"02-0449",151.29500
120,"T0114",16e,"02-0986",153.98000
121,"T0115",16e,"02-0449",151.29500
128,"T011C",16e,"09-1498",154.72500
136,"T0124",16e,"02-1168",154.89000
137,"T0125",16e,"02-0962",153.86000
139,"T0127",16e,"02-0458",151.34000
143,"T012B",16e,"15-0841",151.15250

TalkGroups Seen:
823
4469

Radio ID's
6612201
6690554

 

[akuter]

Pick up a few TG 2321. Guessing somewhere in Cascade co. group.
9195 - Radio Test voice.

 

[jjwhite29]

Lost Creek site

I'm picking up 155.745c. Has to be this site since I'm in Philipsburg.

 

[jjwhite29]

154.7175 P25 now active Santa Rita,Glacier County. Still trying to figure out other frequencies on this. Would like to get this updated on RR though so I can use my HomePatrol to analyze the system.

 

[blantonl]

I'm going to be out in East Glacier tomorrow and the hike I'm going to do will easily put me in range of the Santa Rita site. I'll bring a radio and get the details on the site so we can update the database.

 

[PJH]

Ha. I'm south of you now doing the same thing. Finding that whoever did the rfss 17 sites just pulled FCC data

 

[jjwhite29]

Thank you all for looking into this I try and do as much as possible to help out. I just know a lot of Montana Databases are not accurate. I know a lot about Granite County and now that i am here in Cut Bank trying to help with Glacier.

 

[blantonl]

Climbed to the top of the scenic lookout above Two Medicine lakes and nabbed the Santa Rita site... it is Site 45. I've updated the database.

Next up is Butte MT - there are 3 sites in that area we haven't mapped out - and I suspect that the City of Butte is using the system

 

[PJH]

Butte is a no go. Sites in there ar based off FCC data. Licenses are showing as trunked but being used conventionally.

Boulder site should be active and needs to be adjusted.

Billings is a no go as well. City site is accurate but state system nothing.

Livingston area east is active. It's a really odd and strange way they have rolled out the system.

Sites around anaconda is also a no go (as well as Dillon)

 

[PJH]

Also check your email.

 

[blantonl]

Last summer in Butte I was able to pickup 2 control channels on VHF - however I didn’t have the equipment to decode them for data, site. Etc.

Are you positive Butte doesn’t have active sites?

 

[PJH]

I was in Butte Tuesday, and three in each freq listed in the database which matches FCC licenses. Nada. I then did a full VHF band scan and only heard analog traffic on a couple of those listed frequencies.

Boulder may be in ear shot with good band conditions over the mountains as well as Whitehall (I think).

 

[curtisdevault]

If one looks at http://www.arcgis.com/apps/Legend/main/index.html?appid=af98c7eb44a84b7b9e9cc982c3785f40, it is possible it could be a site at Marion FD.

Nice map! I do GIS for a living and it was a cool surprise to see.

For the rest of you, I just programmed the Bozeman and Bozeman EOC sites into my scanner...it is not finding the control channel for those sites listed in the database. Manhattan and Bozeman East are functioning.