Montgomery County unknown talkgroups

[SpectrumKing]

Is the radio reference list of talkgroups complete? I’ve been getting frequent transmissions on unknown channels. Talkgroups decimal id doesn’t correspond to anything. I haven’t heard any chatter on these groups, it’s usually just a short burst of noise and then nothing.

 

[Mr_Boh]

Is it static-y sounding? Possibly the MOSCAD stuff?

 

[SpectrumKing]

Yeah it’s just static, then nothing. It got annoying and setting avoid didn’t do anything since new unknowns kept popping up at random so I just disabled MoCo.

 

[Mr_Boh]

Happen to get any TG IDs? They are in the middle of a conversion and have a P25 Core now with SmartX systems. If you look at other systems with that in RR DB you will see that it can mean the normal IDs may not line up depending on what monitor device you are using.

 

[maus92]

What are SmartX systems? My initial thought was he was experiencing new encrypted TGs, and the radio he was using was not detecting the encryption initially, and attempting to play some audio.

 

[jkahn]

When I use my PSR-800, it frequently stops on an unlisted encrypted talk group, (I know because of the "telephone busy signal" it gives on any encrypted talk group) and I just add it to the locked out IDs list so it doesn't happen again to annoy me. I always scan with the mode that scans every transmission, not just programmed talk groups. It seems that the techs may add a group for a special project every so often and then remove it when it is no longer needed.

 

[maus92]

Answering my own question (from Motorola):

The SmartX Site Converter provides the interface between the SmartZone system and the ASTRO 25 core. It translates SmartZone analog and digital audio into vocoded IP packetized audio, and then passes the audio on to the ASTRO 25 core.

One SmartX Site Converter and Motorola GGM8000 gateway are required per SmartZone Simulcast subsystem and/or per SmartZone Intellirepeater site.

• Allows a gradual migration from SmartZone to ASTRO 25
• Maximizes the reuse of existing SmartZone equipment
• Requires maintenance of only one core master site
• Provides full interoperability among existing SmartZone users and ASTRO 25 radios and dispatch consoles
• Retains important customer critical SmartZone features during migration

 

[Mr_Boh]

Yup so the thing with SmartX is that because P25 TG and Unit IDs are longer values if they are testing P25 stuff, it will be the same value if it’s linked to the SmartZone talkgroup or unit ID, just multiplied by 16 to get the SmartZone decimal ID from the P25 ID. The underlying hex values are the same (and why it’s a multiple of 16 - since hex is base 16)

That summary you pulled is pretty much self explanatory, but the sum of it is, SmartX lets a SmartZone system be run by a P25 core making it easier to transition - you can even power on the P25 system and let them run together so as the system is built and users added, and there is no need to do a hard cut or other linking of the new and the old system. Of course what determines that is if there are enough channels in the system to support both.

Now my assumption would be you need the control channel of the P25 system to be active to see the talkgroups with longer IDs, but they could be testing it on something linked using low power equipment, but not necessarily broadcasting over a wide area like it will be when P25 goes live.

 

[maus92]

Yup so the thing with SmartX is that because P25 TG and Unit IDs are longer values if they are testing P25 stuff, it will be the same value if it’s linked to the SmartZone talkgroup or unit ID, just multiplied by 16 to get the SmartZone decimal ID from the P25 ID. The underlying hex values are the same (and why it’s a multiple of 16 - since hex is base 16)

That summary you pulled is pretty much self explanatory, but the sum of it is, SmartX lets a SmartZone system be run by a P25 core making it easier to transition - you can even power on the P25 system and let them run together so as the system is built and users added, and there is no need to do a hard cut or other linking of the new and the old system. Of course what determines that is if there are enough channels in the system to support both.

Now my assumption would be you need the control channel of the P25 system to be active to see the talkgroups with longer IDs, but they could be testing it on something linked using low power equipment, but not necessarily broadcasting over a wide area like it will be when P25 goes live.

Interesting, something to watch.

 

[SpectrumKing]

Found out my issue. "ID Searching" was on by default. I changed it to "ID Scanning" and my issues went away.