New ALCO p25 system...

[ekrashola]

ALCO P25 System Is Up

Well I plugged in my scanner today and couldn't hear anything on the Alco trunk....I thought well I'll check for the data channel as I usually can hear some multipath distortion in the signal....and no Motorola data channel to be found. Its usually the strongest Motorola system in my area....so I found what I thought was Alco's data channel and then found it was San Francisco's system. I started scanning the range and did pick up some open-carriers that have the distinctive Motorola background hum. I'd known for some time Alco would be switching to a P25 system and expanding it to include Contra Costa County. So I guess it happened. I haven't determined yet if part of this system is using 700 Mhz or not for its simulcasting but its obvious the control channel data cannot be heard and I assume some type of subaudible tone encoding is taking place on the control channel muting the data audio behind the clear open-carrier I'm getting now. Guess that's the nature of P25 control signals...it would definitely sound like a multiplexed mess of data-voice channels....with a wide frequency spread....guess its gone subaudible to reduce that spread.

Now I have to buy a P25 scanner with a 700 Mhz bandplan.

 

[cousinkix1953]

Call KTVU. Maybe the scanners in their newsroom are dead too. If so; then it's a news story.

Check the FCC's ULS records. You'll find a list of frequencies and call signs licensed to Alameda county. They can't their new toys until those licenses go into effect. There is no such thing as using your initials and the zip code(remember the temporary CB licenses in the 70s?) until the new licenses arrive in the mail...

 

[ekrashola]

ALCO System Frequencies

Here is what I have and is currently working in the San Leandro area....eh it is a Sunday so there's probably not much load on the system from other agencies to discover other frequencies ATT.

851.1
851.3375
851.375

852.5875
852.7875

853.1125
853.15
853.4875
853.9125 Ctl

And that is my current working set, My Pro 433 immediately went to work with it so E2-800 should work just fine.

It would appear that every frequency in the old system is now dead. There are however some open carriers in the 866-868 range with the distinctive motorola background hum that you hear during a transmission or as a mic is unkeyed. They might possibly be interlinks to other systems and occasionally a voice transmission does occurr on them. Havent linked them to my current working set yet. Will update at a later time as I learn more.

 

[kma371]

Well I plugged in my scanner today and couldn't hear anything on the Alco trunk....

Its working fine. Check the DB for the rebanded control channels.

 

[WayneH]

Well I plugged in my scanner today and couldn't hear anything on the Alco trunk....I thought well I'll check...

Maybe check for other threads???

http://forums.radioreference.com/sa...iscussion/180657-have-lost-alco-trunk-cc.html

 

[Ben96cal]

new east bay system

When did AlCo (1) get the money for a new system, (2) get the freqs they need, and (3) get regional buy-in on the system? And aren't they gunning for a 2-county system?

East Bay Regional Communications System Authority

 

[kg6nlw]

What I find interesting is the few of us that already have digital scanners (read Marin County Scanner Buffs) already have it made for the new ALCO system from my understanding.

Thank god we were smart and went in the 480 range too!

Regards,

-Frank C.

 

[ricoverde]

Scanner being used?

I'm having trouble picking up some new talkgroups on my Uniden homepatrol scanner.

Is anyone having luck with this system using either the Uniden hp-1 or GRE PSR-800 models? My understanding is that these both are dependent on the radioreference db for downloading the system specs onto the SD chip that dictates the systems being scanned.

Thanks for reading.

 

[kma371]

I'm having trouble picking up some new talkgroups on my Uniden homepatrol scanner.

Is anyone having luck with this system using either the Uniden hp-1 or GRE PSR-800 models? My understanding is that these both are dependent on the radioreference db for downloading the system specs onto the SD chip that dictates the systems being scanned.

Thanks for reading.

Your post isn't clear. What is it that you are having a problem with?

 

[ricoverde]

Your post isn't clear. What is it that you are having a problem with?

I couldn't pick up any EBRCSA traffic (central COCO) with my new Uniden HomePatrol scanner which uses the radioreference db data exclusively for its definitions. I was able to pick up MERA traffic over in Marin, also an apco25 system. I was wondering about others' experiences because I wasn't sure what my problem was.

Update: Uniden recommended repair/replace when I opened an incident with their support. I did a merchant (Amazon) return/exchange since it was new. Yesterday I received the replacement unit and sure enough, started picking up EBRCSA traffic immediately. Turns out that it was a hardware problem with the HomePatrol scanner - resolved.