tvengr
Well Known Member
Sounds like someone has a lot of free time. Thanks for all of your hard work! It will be interesting to see your final list.
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Need help identifying unknown talkgroups in Howard County
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markgrutz
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Oh, no... I have a job that allows me a lot of "messing around" time. Plus I have it somewhat automated. I also have a slight advantage of knowing how all of our radios were set up so I can quickly eliminate the wrong ones. Now with a brand new system, they were not creative when the blocked out the IDs so fire seems to fit neatly between 2, PD fits between 2 and so on. So its actually very easy right now, it's 5 years from now when radios have been lost, or re-assigned that it becomes a PITA to maintain. I will certainly publish what I have when I get it more or less polished.
tvengr
Well Known Member
With dispatch, incident, and EMRC talkgroups, that is about all we need to monitor the fire system. There will be administration, interop, mutual aid, and some other talkgroups, but what we already have is pretty much all we need. Anything else is just icing on the cake. Now, we need to see which police talkgroups are monitorable.
Unfortunately I do not have a strong enough signal here in Annapolis to decode voice channels (it's good until about Rt 32 and I-97 / Crownsville,) but I can receive the cch well enough to decode TG and channels assignments. There are quite a few TGs that I've logged during pre-cutover testing that have not be ID'd yet, so any info is good info as far as I'm concerned!
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I don't think that they have anything to do with VHF, I believe they are more command / county general talkgroups.
ind224
Member
I thought Howard Co was already Phase II. Am I mistaken or are they changing again?
tvengr
Well Known Member
Howard Co was previously a Motorola Type II system. They are presently in the process of migrating to a P25 Phase I system.
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Technically it's a Phase 2 system operating in FDMA mode.
Any reason then to use the "V Tac" nomenclature? Could be a bit confusing if they are not actually crosslinked to VTAC channels.
Looking at your location are you thinking of the Howard county in Indiana?
We are talking about the Howard county in Maryland.
Are they in zone V and someone didn't think about the confusion between the two?
ind224
Member
DOH!!! Right you are!!
markgrutz
Member
TG 11041 was patched to old CROP (corrections operations). I don't yet know the specific name for the new TG, but I do know it is the Howard County Jail Operations. They used to have like 4 TGs, so it's safe to say that 11040, 11042 and maybe one north or south of that is also corrections operations.
Thanks, that's good enoungh for now. I'm making notes in my UT2 database.
Does the county sheriff have TGs on this system?
I'm assuming that TG10930 and 10931 are Fire TGs Golf 2 and Golf 3 - any ideas of their usage?
markgrutz
Member
The sheriff had 6 on the old system. I can't speak to 10930 and 31 yet. I have been having a heck of a time getting my PSR-800 and TRX-1 tuned to this new system. I think I finally have the DSP dialed in. Those are not ones I have caught recordings of yet. I have a few connections I am working on and hopefully this week I might be able to extract a bunch of TGs.... we will see 
Afterthought.... the sheriff TGs were all encrypted, so odds are they still are. I have about 21 that seem to be full time encrypted so far.
Afterthought.... the sheriff TGs were all encrypted, so odds are they still are. I have about 21 that seem to be full time encrypted so far.
I imagine you will have reception issues with GRE / Whistler radios on a P25 LSM simulcast system. Either you are in a sweet spot for reception, or you are not. You could try DSD+FL - a bit clunky but it works fine - just not very portable.The sheriff had 6 on the old system. I can't speak to 10930 and 31 yet. I have been having a heck of a time getting my PSR-800 and TRX-1 tuned to this new system. I think I finally have the DSP dialed in. Those are not ones I have caught recordings of yet. I have a few connections I am working on and hopefully this week I might be able to extract a bunch of TGs.... we will see
Afterthought.... the sheriff TGs were all encrypted, so odds are they still are. I have about 21 that seem to be full time encrypted so far.
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
I noticed that the new system is flagged as being Phase 1 in the db. If it's going to go to Phase 2, a correction is needed, otherwise I can see folks buying Phase 1 capable scanners that can't handle Phase 2, like the 396XT, HP1 or any of the clones of the old PSR-500 and 600....Mike
Howard County Trunking System, Various, Maryland
Howard County Trunking System Profile
www.radioreference.com
This is where we get into that weird it is, but it isn't issue. As of right now every talkgroup that we have seen on the new system is FDMA. My understanding is that to switch to TDMA and maintain the current coverage levels they would need to add more tower locations.I noticed that the new system is flagged as being Phase 1 in the db. If it's going to go to Phase 2, a correction is needed, otherwise I can see folks buying Phase 1 capable scanners that can't handle Phase 2, like the 396XT, HP1 or any of the clones of the old PSR-500 and 600....Mike
Howard County Trunking System, Various, Maryland
Howard County Trunking System Profilewww.radioreference.com
So right now you don't need a p2 scanner to listen to everything in HoCo.
But you are in Maryland, there are a number of p2 systems around and it will probably only increase. If you can swing it a p2 capable scanner would always be a better choice.
It would be nice if there was a way to mark a system as this advertises and could switch to using p2 talkpaths at anytime, but don't panic your p1 only devices will work for now.
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