New Motorola TypeII system in the Columbus area??

[jkm]

Hello to all,

Does anyone know for certain what system is represented by the control channel on 860.8125? Neither my Pro-97 or my BCD396T displays any system ID, and I never see any talk groups come up on it.. A seach of the FCC database at

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&action=fcc&cs=WNRL657

yields:

Anderson Concrete Corp

with three frequencies assigned, all licensed for trunking usage. Looks like the transmitter location is at that big tower just off of Rt. 3 north of Polaris/Maxtown Rd. in Westerville.

Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks!

Justin/W1IX

 

[FPO703]

I believe that's one of the old B & C systems.

 

[16b]

Hi Justin,

This is actually a Motorola Type I system, and probably of the "Privacy Plus" variety. It has been around for a while, and as you have noticed it is still on the air.

FPO703 might be right in that it could be an old B&C communications system that has changed hands.

The last time I listened to it, I heard some activity, but I never bothered to figure out the Type I fleet map or anything like that.

 

[jkm]

Anderson Concrete - Motorola Type I system in Columbus area

Ahh, OK, so this makes much more sense now! That certainly explains why I heard the dispatcher moving around on different talkgroups in the same conversation. I thought my radio was broken! I had never heard a Type I system before so I didn't understand what was going on. A little reading up on the RRWiki (http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=22) explained it all

Armed with this knowledge, I've tried to figure out the fleet mapping for it, and this is what I've come up with:

B0 - S0
B1 - S0
B2 - S0
B3 - S0
B4 - S0
B5 - S0
B6 - S0
B7 - S4

Listening to the control channel, I watched the talkgroups as if they were a Type II system. Nothing below 57856 ever came up, so that rules out B0-B6. From the RRWiki article, it suggested that the most common size codes are S3, S4, and S11. So I did the following:

Tried S3 (8 fleets/8 subfleets/128 IDs) and found conversation TGID mismatches:

62128 - 704-5
62240 - 704-6

and

61248 - 703-6
61312 - 703-7

Tried S11 (2 fleets/16 subfleets/256 IDs) and found conversation TGID mismatches as well:

62128 - 701-2
62352 - 701-3

and

61616 - 701-0
61776 - 701-1

so I'm assuming by default that S4 (1 fleet/16 subfleets/512 IDs) is the right size code. And there is conveniently a preset for it on my 396 (Preset 12) so I think we've got a winner

Here are the frequencies used that I found:

855.0125
855.5375
858.8375
860.8125 * Control Channel

and here are the fleet-subfleets I've found listening today:

700-1
700-7
700-8
700-9

If nothing else, it's nice to know where concrete is getting poured in town! ;-)

Thanks for all for your input and help!

Justin/W1IX

 

[wa8pyr]

Hi Justin,

This is actually a Motorola Type I system, and probably of the "Privacy Plus" variety. It has been around for a while, and as you have noticed it is still on the air.

FPO703 might be right in that it could be an old B&C communications system that has changed hands.

It is an old Nextel system, formerly owned by B&C. As they did in many places around the US, Nextel acquired 800 MHz SMR systems through the simple expedient of buying the shops that owned them, keeping the systems and then selling the shops again. They then dumped the systems but kept the sites and frequencies (or most of them). If I recall correctly, the E1P8 preset fleet map works fine. Many Motorola-owned systems used that fleet map.

I don't recall all of the frequencies formerly used by that particular system, but it was at least 5 and possibly 10. At least one of the B&C systems in Columbus had a few fascinating users at one time, including "escort" (read: call girl) services and a couple of other adult-type fun and game operations. They certainly went over to Nextel when the system was removed from service and Nextel made them a sweet deal they couldn't refuse (or maybe it was the other way around????).

Tom WA8PYR