New 700mhz Trunked System in Pittsylvania County

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djewel6

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Mesa, AZ
Just wondering if anybody has been monitoring it or know how the systems running so far. They were turning on LEO first and then moving Fire Rescue right around Thanksgiving. The issue of paging came up dont know if they will maintain a license on 156.135 their orginial fire/rescue dispatch channel or get a new license on a new digital vhf channel.. Used to run Fire/Rescue there back in the mid/late 90s so was surprised they'd gone up to the big leagues with a P25/II radio system
 

danceredt

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Jun 20, 2004
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Danville, VA
Pittsylvania County 700 System

I have heard both dispatch and cars in both the north and south sites. The mobile to mobile is working fine. I have heard several of the fd/rs on new system and it seems that the county is simulcasting on the old fire ground freq. I am doing this with a bcd996xt and a bcd396xt. The system is a phase 2 so I don't know with I am missing till the 539 is released.


;)
 

W4UVV

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Nov 9, 2002
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Prince George, Virginia--Central Va.
Harris trs

I have heard both dispatch and cars in both the north and south sites. The mobile to mobile is working fine. I have heard several of the fd/rs on new system and it seems that the county is simulcasting on the old fire ground freq. I am doing this with a bcd996xt and a bcd396xt. The system is a phase 2 so I don't know with I am missing till the 539 is released.


;)

The Pittsylvania Co. area trs is a Harris P25 system, not Motorola. When operational please confirm whether or not you receive unencrypted P25 Phase 2 comms ok.. Tnx.

John
 

K4NNW

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Bent Mountain, VA
The Pittsylvania Co. area trs is a Harris P25 system, not Motorola. When operational please confirm whether or not you receive unencrypted P25 Phase 2 comms ok.. Tnx.

John

I just noticed the Harris bit last week, when one of their first responders was in Dairy Queen. I'll see if I can get it the 700 stuff loaded into the 996 and listen on my way to work tomorrow. In my earlier post, I should've been more clear that I meant that I hadn't heard them on VHF lately.
 

K4NNW

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Bent Mountain, VA
Today, I got the chance to monitor a little.
I heard a few calls on 155.22, which I had listed as Cool Branch Rescue Squad.
I also heard some chatter on TGID 101 (Sheriff's Department). It wasn't encrypted, but the transmissions were short and I didn't figure out what was being said. This was on a 996XT.
 

brownlab

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Washington DC, Alexandria/Fairfax County /Loudoun
Today, I got the chance to monitor a little.
I heard a few calls on 155.22, which I had listed as Cool Branch Rescue Squad.
I also heard some chatter on TGID 101 (Sheriff's Department). It wasn't encrypted, but the transmissions were short and I didn't figure out what was being said. This was on a 996XT.

This is an interesting question because I have never encountered a Harris P25 Phase II TDMA system however from what I understand, the Harris P25 Phase I systems can be monitored on a digital scanner so a digital scanner capable of P25 Phase II should work. Now Motorola offers an option known as DDM (Dynamic Dual Mode) with their ASTRO 25 Phase II radio systems. This option allows talkgroups to switch between FDMA and TDMA depending on the capabilities of the radios affiliated with a talkgroup at any given time and this often results in you hearing TDMA transmissions on a Uniden 996XT scanner for example. However since this is a Harris and not a Motorola, I do not know what to expect from your 996XT but I am very interested to find out so keep us informed if you don’t mind. Thanks
 

danceredt

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Jun 20, 2004
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Location
Danville, VA
Pittssylvania County 700 mhz trs system

I am hearing more on the system, both cars and dispatch. The fire department's are not as active as they use to be. This could be the fact that they r on the Phase 2 system. The paper stated that both system would be in effect but no time frame was mentioned. What I am hearing in good and clear and a lot better then the old system for sure. The funding for this system was a loan of 10 million form Bank of America, to be paid out of county funds. No government grants for payment have been mentioned. The new bcd 539xt should pick up the other phase 2 units.
 

John

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Roanoke VA
I have been told this Harris system will also automatically switch from Phase II to Phase I on a per talkgroup basis. It will switch to Phase I if an older radio registers on that talkgroup. Of course with the limited number of voice channels this cuts back the capacity of the system. So you might hear some transmissions on 996 scanner but they also may stop even for the same talkgroup if an older radio leaves that channel or system.
 

scollier

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Dec 19, 2002
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Just wondering if anybody has been monitoring it or know how the systems running so far. They were turning on LEO first and then moving Fire Rescue right around Thanksgiving. The issue of paging came up dont know if they will maintain a license on 156.135 their orginial fire/rescue dispatch channel or get a new license on a new digital vhf channel.. Used to run Fire/Rescue there back in the mid/late 90s so was surprised they'd gone up to the big leagues with a P25/II radio system

dj,

I guess they're getting more and more people "migrating" from the north and more and more problems everyday! Getting more up to date! I know some pds were scrambled on the old vhf and the online feed is gone as well.

My father used to run Altavista Concrete back in the 70s and he can remember a different place!

shawn
 

K4NNW

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Mar 4, 2008
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Bent Mountain, VA
Update: still hearing the Sheriffs Dispatch traffic in the clear and am able to copy both sides of the call. I also heard Tunstall Fire and a few unidentified talkgroups:
11016 - dispatching a call to an unknown station.
11012 - requesting mutual aid from Halifax Co. Fire
11005 - unknown call, but in the clear with 100% copy.
All this I heard on the south site between 1400 and 1500 today on the way to work.
 

hill2jb

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Mar 4, 2013
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Location
Virginia Beach, VA
Put this system in my 996xt yesterday and wasn't able to pick up anything. Not even registering a control channel. I know I have it programmed right. Are they just in the test phase of this system or are they using it full time? Most of the local towns are still on 2m or 70cm still.
 

djewel73

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Oct 17, 2008
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As far as I know the system went live for LEOs back in November and was supposed to be live for Fire/EMS in December.. I have noticed looking into the FCC database it appears they maybe moving the VHF dispatch pager freq from the old 156.135 which was CeCOM channel 1 to the old Channel 2 which is Emerg Mgt 155.775. There is a license application for 1000 pagers listed on that channel which would easily coincide with the volunteer minitors in the county.

Also the 996XT isnt TDMA X2 compatable and if they are using that primarily on the LEO side and for the most part in Fire/EMS vehicles it could explain why your not picking up much.. The problem of course is the replacement of all the portables the volunteers have. Going from a 16ch VHF analog to even a low end Trunking portable isnt cheap and for some departments definitely a significant outlay (I dont know how much Pitt Co was offsetting the costs to the departments outside of response vehicles so that number may vary)
 

freqhopping

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Jan 5, 2004
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Lo Co VA/ FM19
I'm in the area this weekend, racing at VIR.

I've got my 396XT feeding Pro96Com. Surprised to see no WACN listed in the DB yet.
It's 657C8. Decodes as PITTZ.

I've got 771.63125 as the control channel for tower ID 1111 (T0B0B).
The other site is 101 (T0101) on 769.55625.

I've logged affiliations with new TGs 244, 247 and 259.
 
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freqhopping

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Jan 5, 2004
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Lo Co VA/ FM19
And there is no site 002. 1111 is the south site.

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"00-0012","av",769.08125,"00-0012",799.08125,0,20
"00-0252","av",770.58125,"00-0252",770.58125,1,14
"00-0420","c",771.63125,"00-0420",801.63125,0,0
"00-0576","av",772.60625,"00-0576",772.60625,1,14
"08-0024","v",769.08125/0,"08-0024",799.08125/0,0,164
"08-0025","v",769.08125/1,"08-0025",799.08125/1,0,5
"08-0504","v",770.58125/0,"08-0504",800.58125/0,0,184
"08-0505","v",770.58125/1,"08-0505",800.58125/1,0,16
"08-1152","v",772.60625/0,"08-1152",772.60625/0,1,175
"08-1153","v",772.60625/1,"08-1153",802.60625/1,0,9
 
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