Extremely unlikely that it would show up as a peer to Union County all the way up there. Also, it's not appearing on any adjacent site lists of any sites in the area, including Bowling Green, High Point, Walpack, Randolph, Netcong, etc.
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I agree that's what common sense would dictate. I'm just going by the stranger things have happened clause at this point after last week's explorations/decoding. It showing as a peer does mean that it's absolutely, definitely online somewhere though, right @GTR8000?
So far, no sign of it within the county from Plainfield to Elizabeth. I'll take a longer ride tomorrow to see if there's any sign of it to the North or further West.
Not necessarily. You can put whatever Site ID's you want in an adjacent list and they'll show up in the control channel stream, however they will not normally show as being online or in wide area mode in that scenario. I assume that you and @GM both saw Site 21 as being online/connected in whatever software you checked with?
Is it showing up as a peer on West Orange, or just Union County? I know @GM noted it wasn't showing up on any of the nearby sites to the south of Union County. I would suspect that if it is indeed on the air, or will be soon, that they purposely do not want radios roaming to it from any site other than Union County. Sounds like some testing going on, so if you know of any trouble spots in the county, might want to check those out. Could be operating at very low power.
Yes, I'm throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks lol.
Oh btw, is the control channel being announced the same as previous? 774.60625 or whatever it was?
Sometimes what sticks to the wall forms a map to the yellow brick road (shrug)...
Correct. I saw it listed as an active peer in Unitrunker, with the same CC being announced. It is not currently showing as one of the eight peers to West Orange.
I'm not receiving any RF on the CC within the county. I drove from one end to the other. I did not check up near I-78 in the Berkeley Heights/New Providence/Summit area however. I will tomorrow. I know there were complaints from New Providence about coverage, but those were allegedly solved, and it would be a total 180 from Union County's modus operandi to allow an agency in the county to be dispatched on a site not controlled by the county.
In terms of low power, from my crash course in the NJICS STR in Cinnaminson, you would have to be with 3-6mi without many obstructions to receive it. So valid point.
Correct. I saw it listed as an active peer in Unitrunker, with the same CC being announced. It is not currently showing as one of the eight peers to West Orange.
I'm not receiving any RF on the CC within the county. I drove from one end to the other. I did not check up near I-78 in the Berkeley Heights/New Providence/Summit area however. I will tomorrow. I know there were complaints from New Providence about coverage, but those were allegedly solved, and it would be a total 180 from Union County's modus operandi to allow an agency in the county to be dispatched on a site not controlled by the county.
In terms of low power, from my crash course in the NJICS STR in Cinnaminson, you would have to be with 3-6mi without many obstructions to receive it. So valid point.
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I drove the I-78 line today, and I was picking it up in the Berkeley Heights area and on Rt. 24 in Millburn. I'm starting to think that it's an additional test site for incorporation into Site 7 eventually, similar to what happened in Chatsworth with the eventual incorporation into Site 3. I also did not see Site 21 as a Peer to any other site, however I was not able to get a solid decode on Site 21 to report any peer sites.
Couldn't sleep, went for a drive. The STR is definitely at the Bell Labs tower site in Murray Hill, it's only peer is the Union County Simulcast (Site 7), it's identifying the license as WPTZ794, and it is only carrying State Park Police for traffic. No Union County traffic was seen on it during the 20mins I monitored it, but there was a denied UC affliation, and a strange Check/Ack affiliation I'm sure GTR can explain. As to signal...
In the outer parking lot of the facility, I had RSSI readings between -39 and -46, with S1-S2 on the meter with no antenna on the radio. Half a mile in either direction between WSW to N to NE it dropped to -65 to -69. The other way around it's like it's not even there. Directly under it on I-78, and I mean literally looking straight up at it, I had nothing without an antenna and broken signal with the mobile antenna. Same for the approach from Union on I-78 and it being in my wake towards Watchung. Over near Short Hills Mall the RSSI was -77 with a not entirely reliable decode, and by the Florham Park line on NJ-24 it was all static even with the antenna. So it appears to be set-up directionally to cover/test northeastern Berkeley Heights, southwestern Summit, and most if not all of New Providence. I didn't check to see how strong it was into Chatham.
The hard data for @GTR8000's OCD that I seriously respect and appreciate so much:
In the outer parking lot of the facility, I had RSSI readings between -39 and -46, with S1-S2 on the meter with no antenna on the radio. Half a mile in either direction between WSW to N to NE it dropped to -65 to -69. The other way around it's like it's not even there. Directly under it on I-78, and I mean literally looking straight up at it, I had nothing without an antenna and broken signal with the mobile antenna. Same for the approach from Union on I-78 and it being in my wake towards Watchung. Over near Short Hills Mall the RSSI was -77 with a not entirely reliable decode, and by the Florham Park line on NJ-24 it was all static even with the antenna. So it appears to be set-up directionally to cover/test northeastern Berkeley Heights, southwestern Summit, and most if not all of New Providence. I didn't check to see how strong it was into Chatham.
The hard data for @GTR8000's OCD that I seriously respect and appreciate so much:
Looks like the state has a NJT site up there: FCC Callsign WREP270 (NEW JERSEY, STATE OF)
The Check/Ack is simply the system polling to see if a previously registered subscriber is still out there. The first message is the system polling to see if 2026012 is still registered at that site, and the second message is the subscriber acknowledging that it is. If it were not still registered at that site, there would be no Ack message.
12 hours after the last activity (or previous Check/Ack), the system will send out the poll. Note that if a radio deregisters from that site (switches sites, changes to a conventional channel or different system, powers off after sending a deregister message, etc.) the system will not poll for it, as it would be aware of its status. If a radio abruptly disappears without deregistering from the site (power completely removed before deregister is sent), the system will check 12 hours later to see if it's still out there (unless it comes up on another site). If the radio does not respond, the system will consider it deregistered and no further polling will occur. Idle radios will also be checked every 12 hours, with the clock resetting if there is any activity like a voice or data transmission.
The Check/Ack is simply the system polling to see if a previously registered subscriber is still out there. The first message is the system polling to see if 2026012 is still registered at that site, and the second message is the subscriber acknowledging that it is. If it were not still registered at that site, there would be no Ack message.
12 hours after the last activity (or previous Check/Ack), the system will send out the poll. Note that if a radio deregisters from that site (switches sites, changes to a conventional channel or different system, powers off after sending a deregister message, etc.) the system will not poll for it, as it would be aware of its status. If a radio abruptly disappears without deregistering from the site (power completely removed before deregister is sent), the system will check 12 hours later to see if it's still out there (unless it comes up on another site). If the radio does not respond, the system will consider it deregistered and no further polling will occur. Idle radios will also be checked every 12 hours, with the clock resetting if there is any activity like a voice or data transmission.
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Nice work all.
A bit of speculation. I wonder if they are testing for Berkeley Heights? We’ve seen FD & PD go to 2400 but have remained on conventional repeaters. There is significant terrain that blocks both site 7 (Mountainside,Watchung) into BH. A good portion of BH faces north.
I would not consider Bell Labs as a new site. It will still have a RF shadow into the north and west facing portions of BH.
I would, in a split second consider locating at the Morris County Site TRS already constructed. It has a clear view up and down the Valley, Heck there is a road that the trailer could drive right up. It’s also LOS to both 7’s for a MW shot. I am a fan of “backfilling” RF. Take a look. 40.688 -74.465
Of course I have no say. We shall see.
A bit of speculation. I wonder if they are testing for Berkeley Heights? We’ve seen FD & PD go to 2400 but have remained on conventional repeaters. There is significant terrain that blocks both site 7 (Mountainside,Watchung) into BH. A good portion of BH faces north.
I would not consider Bell Labs as a new site. It will still have a RF shadow into the north and west facing portions of BH.
I would, in a split second consider locating at the Morris County Site TRS already constructed. It has a clear view up and down the Valley, Heck there is a road that the trailer could drive right up. It’s also LOS to both 7’s for a MW shot. I am a fan of “backfilling” RF. Take a look. 40.688 -74.465
Of course I have no say. We shall see.
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From what I found last night it appears more oriented towards New Providence. Summit has pretty solid coverage from the Mountainside subsite, and most of Berkeley Heights has really good coverage from the Watchung subsite. The section of town on the Murray Hill side is/was an issue. There was just that area on and to the north of Mountain Avenue that New Prov was having issues with (which is basically their whole town). Allegedly they had fixed it, but I guess they may have decided to add another really big nail in it's coffin.
I'm going to keep checking the site a couple times per week to see if it begins allowing UC radios to register/affiliate to the site, and if it starts at least rebroadcasting UC traffic. Again, last night it was not allowing/doing either.
At this point there does not appear to have been any modifications to the county's licenses to add a sixth site (Currently there's 3 active, 2 fallback).
Also FWIW...the RID it was polling 2026012 should be a Mountain Valley ECC console. Further evidence that this is probably related to New Prov.
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Switching gears slightly, the New Brunswick simulcast cell (Site 8) should be comprised of the following three subsites at Rutgers facilities:
- Clothier Hall - 584 George St, New Brunswick 40.503325, -74.448507
- CoRE Building - 96 Frelinghuysen Rd, Piscataway 40.521495, -74.461562
- Food Science Building - 65 Dudley Rd, New Brunswick 40.479378, -74.436131
Well, now I know exactly what I'm visually looking for. Sat under the STR at it's current deployment in Murray Hill for a bit. It's now carrying Mountain Valley ECC and New Providence Police traffic in addition to the various DEP/Parks law TG's.
A couple other observations...
1. STR-II doesn't appear to be a complete mobile site. It's really just a mobile tower and antenna array with the basics.
2. STR-II is likely deployed on what will be a permanent position of a new site based on how it is currently configured/deployed/cabled.
3. The location is definitely for the benefit of Berkeley Heights/New Providence/Summit.
4. I don't believe this will be a UC subsite, but rather a state site. Being only MVECC and state agencies are active, it doesn't violate UC's comms SOP.
5. Could be wrong about 2-4.
1. STR-II doesn't appear to be a complete mobile site. It's really just a mobile tower and antenna array with the basics.
2. STR-II is likely deployed on what will be a permanent position of a new site based on how it is currently configured/deployed/cabled.
3. The location is definitely for the benefit of Berkeley Heights/New Providence/Summit.
4. I don't believe this will be a UC subsite, but rather a state site. Being only MVECC and state agencies are active, it doesn't violate UC's comms SOP.
5. Could be wrong about 2-4.
So....I had a need to go the MH site this morning on the Nokia property ( site meet with vendors). Sorry to say...the STR is not at the tower or anywhere near it. Now in the back of one of their other lots, there are 2 erected towers and they have ice bridges going back to a building. They seem to be part of the 5G testing. I didnt see the STR trailer anywhere on the Nokia property. So it must be hiding someplace else if its on the property or it could be on another ridge.
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I saw the same folded up tower, right along the woods line on the East site of the big lot. I have not spotted the location yet. I have not checked the Tower (Circleview Way) at Runnels yet. (40.6671752, -74.4176698)
For me the signal is way way down today from the weekend. It even seems like it is on and off the air. Way different then signals I saw this weekend.Odd.
For me the signal is way way down today from the weekend. It even seems like it is on and off the air. Way different then signals I saw this weekend.Odd.
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Sigh. That makes no sense with the signal received in the upper lots without an antenna or with the RSSI readings driving the area. Every indication is it's on that property. I have an issue believing its up at Circleview based on the increase/fade of the signal around Bell Labs also.
On an unrelated note, they have made huge improvements in removing the abundance of obsolete junk on the Murray Hill tower. Trying to thread a certain stationmaster up through the mess that used to be up there was a nightmare.
Be right back, gone huntin'...
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My G5 when in vicinity of any site (not a trailer) will be -90 with no antenna. I did not see that. Seeing is believing. I too may try some RDF’ing. Still have a Yagi for that. The longest successful hunt I did was a 70 mile hop, but that was some time ago. This is getting interesting.
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