New mystery FleetTalk NEXEDGE site (L219-6)

[IcomIcR20]

A new FleetTalk NEXEDGE site has appeared, and it is one that I have never noted before in my monitoring of the system over the years. It must have come online sometime in the past few months. The site in question is L219-6 CC=463.9875 (LCN 720). It is not very strong, but I can decode it in western Forsyth County. It is showing the following sites as neighbors: Pores Knob (Wilkes County, NC), Sauratown Mountain (Stokes County, NC), Winston-Salem GMAC (Forsyth County, NC), Fancy Gap (Carroll County, VA), and Green Mountain (Alleghany County, NC).



I looked for a candidate license, but did not see any obvious match on my first pass. The only license for Mobile Communications that turned up was this one: FCC Callsign WPNQ627 (Mobile Communications INC). However, that license is for the same location as the Green Mountain (L219-9) site, which would not really make sense. Plus, it was issued back in 2019. I also checked the border counties in VA to no avail. This would not be the first time that I have found a seemingly unlicensed Fleet Talk site. For example, despite knowing exactly where the tower site is, I have been unable to find a license for the Liberty Hill site. I am not sure why nothing turns up.

If anyone has any insight into a potential location for this new site, please let me know! If you are in the NW North Carolina area, see if you can copy a NEXEDGE control channel on that frequency.

I will also note that the Fisher Peak (L219-1) site seems to be offline, and it is not showing as a neighbor on surrounding sites. I am not sure if this is a temporary outage or not.

 

[jake_Braker]

Good catch!
I checked that frequency and it looks like the only one with a 4K NXDN emission is WRWB881 in Salisbury linked below.
I'm not sure if the distance from Forsyth to Rowan but I hope this helps.

FCC Callsign WRWB881 (Henkel US Operations Corporation)

FCC Callsign WRWB881 (Henkel US Operations Corporation)

www.radioreference.com

 

[IcomIcR20]

Thanks for doing some investigating! That would be pushing it in terms of what I can receive, but I suppose it is not completely out of the realm of possibility. However, the neighbors for the mystery site do not really make sense for a site in Rowan county. It would be odd for a site all the way up in VA to show up as a neighbor, but not the other FleetTalk sites in Rowan or its bordering counties.

 

[mtindor]

A new FleetTalk NEXEDGE site has appeared, and it is one that I have never noted before in my monitoring of the system over the years. It must have come online sometime in the past few months. The site in question is L219-6 CC=463.9875 (LCN 720). It is not very strong, but I can decode it in western Forsyth County. It is showing the following sites as neighbors: Pores Knob (Wilkes County, NC), Sauratown Mountain (Stokes County, NC), Winston-Salem GMAC (Forsyth County, NC), Fancy Gap (Carroll County, VA), and Green Mountain (Alleghany County, NC).

View attachment 175778

I looked for a candidate license, but did not see any obvious match on my first pass. The only license for Mobile Communications that turned up was this one: FCC Callsign WPNQ627 (Mobile Communications INC). However, that license is for the same location as the Green Mountain (L219-9) site, which would not really make sense. Plus, it was issued back in 2019. I also checked the border counties in VA to no avail. This would not be the first time that I have found a seemingly unlicensed Fleet Talk site. For example, despite knowing exactly where the tower site is, I have been unable to find a license for the Liberty Hill site. I am not sure why nothing turns up.

If anyone has any insight into a potential location for this new site, please let me know! If you are in the NW North Carolina area, see if you can copy a NEXEDGE control channel on that frequency.

I will also note that the Fisher Peak (L219-1) site seems to be offline, and it is not showing as a neighbor on surrounding sites. I am not sure if this is a temporary outage or not.

Not long ago (less than a few weeks) i found:

NL 1 4 11 12 20 23 26
Site 8 CH 148 451.8375
NL: 1, 4, 11, 12, 20, 23, 26

Similary can't find a sensible license/location for it.

I did think about the fact that they could be using one site's license for unused frequencies for another neighboring site. Could be the case for either of those sites. I don't know though.

 

[jake_Braker]

Thanks for doing some investigating! That would be pushing it in terms of what I can receive, but I suppose it is not completely out of the realm of possibility. However, the neighbors for the mystery site do not really make sense for a site in Rowan county. It would be odd for a site all the way up in VA to show up as a neighbor, but not the other FleetTalk sites in Rowan or its bordering counties.

Yeah some of these don't make sense. I found the Gaston Hospital site on DSD and it's only showing site 11 as a neighbor when there's a plethora of other sites that come to mind closer that aren't showing (CMC Main, S. Charlotte, Kings Mnt. Etc)

 

[mtindor]

Yeah some of these don't make sense. I found the Gaston Hospital site on DSD and it's only showing site 11 as a neighbor when there's a plethora of other sites that come to mind closer that aren't showing (CMC Main, S. Charlotte, Kings Mnt. Etc)

Gaston Hospital is now CaroMont Regional Health Center - Gastonia. And it wouldn't surprise me if Site 11 was CaroMont Regional Health Center - Mount Holly. The site 11 freq in the database is on a Charlotte Rock Communications license. And it would make sense that 11/12 might only list each other as neighbors, intended to be primarily for hospital communications. Just a guess. I can't believe that as close as Site 11 is (supposedly) to Charlotte, that somebody hasn't gathered more information on Site 11.

 

[jake_Braker]

It would make sense for them to be neighbors with one in MH and the other at Caromont Main. I'm also glad to see them upgrading from the analog frequencies after new hospital in Belmont opened up.
I'm assuming the site is in testing though, because it is stupidly low powered. I had to be coming up to Court Drive to receive the site. No talk group activity but I was only up there for about 10 minutes before continuing on my original journey.

 

[IcomIcR20]

After monitoring the site for a while this afternoon, all traffic and registrations have been from Carl Rose and Sons paving. Their facilities are located in Surry and Wilkes County. Given that the Fisher Peak site seems to now be offline, I wonder if this is a new site in Surry County designed to fill in the coverage gap. Perhaps somewhere like Turner Mountain? Unfortunately, I do not think I will have time to drive up there myself while I am in the area, but if someone up that way can see what the site’s signal level is like there, that would definitely be helpful!

It also looks like the site is single-frequency (voice on control channel) as the Fisher Peak site was.

Edit: right as I posted this, there was a registration on TG 572. Unfortunately, the user of that TG has yet to be identified.

 

[mtindor]

View attachment 175881
After monitoring the site for a while this afternoon, all traffic and registrations have been from Carl Rose and Sons paving. Their facilities are located in Surry and Wilkes County. Given that the Fisher Peak site seems to now be offline, I wonder if this is a new site in Surry County designed to fill in the coverage gap. Perhaps somewhere like Turner Mountain? Unfortunately, I do not think I will have time to drive up there myself while I am in the area, but if someone up that way can see what the site’s signal level is like there, that would definitely be helpful!

It also looks like the site is single-frequency (voice on control channel) as the Fisher Peak site was.

Edit: right as I posted this, there was a registration on TG 572. Unfortunately, the user of that TG has yet to be identified.

Being a single channel VOC, wonder if it's not actual located at Carl Rose & Sons and specifically put up for them.

217 Asphalt Trail · 217 Asphalt Trail, Elkin, NC 28621 -- Carl Rose & Sons, Elkins, NC. An antenna on top of one of those silos would serve the location itself. Granted, I imagine all the trucks have radios and so coverage is probably provided by something at a higher elevation. If Site 6 were actually near Elkin that would make sense, given the neighbors listed.

 

[mtindor]

It sure would be nice if somebody could copy the control channel of each of those 1xx sites, report current neighbors and neighbor CC LCNs (channel ids). Kind of get a glimpse of the current picture of things. I notice Site 107 is listed as Phoenix Mtn under callsign WPVC861 (Mobile Communications Inc) with a CC of 461.8125. The referenced license has 464.8125 licensed, but not 461.8125. So I have to wonder if Site 107 is really 461.8125.

 

[IcomIcR20]

Being a single channel VOC, wonder if it's not actual located at Carl Rose & Sons and specifically put up for them.

217 Asphalt Trail · 217 Asphalt Trail, Elkin, NC 28621 -- Carl Rose & Sons, Elkins, NC. An antenna on top of one of those silos would serve the location itself. Granted, I imagine all the trucks have radios and so coverage is probably provided by something at a higher elevation. If Site 6 were actually near Elkin that would make sense, given the neighbors listed.

That is a very reasonable theory, and I would not be at all surprised if the site is indeed in the Elkin area. Good sleuthing! Their trucks do indeed have radios, and they operate over a fairly wide area as I see their radios registering on just about all the towers within my listening area.

It sure would be nice if somebody could copy the control channel of each of those 1xx sites, report current neighbors and neighbor CC LCNs (channel ids). Kind of get a glimpse of the current picture of things. I notice Site 107 is listed as Phoenix Mtn under callsign WPVC861 (Mobile Communications Inc) with a CC of 461.8125. The referenced license has 464.8125 licensed, but not 461.8125. So I have to wonder if Site 107 is really 461.8125.

You are absolutely spot on regarding the Phoenix Mountain site... good eye. The correct frequency is 464.8125 as that is what I have in my personal notes. I must have made a typo when I submitted that site to the DB. No idea how I did not catch that.

I have updated neighbors for the following sites: Sauratown Mountain, Winston-Salem GMAC Building, Pores Knob, Green Mountain, China Grove, and Fancy Gap. Some of the more distant 1xx sites I have not checked since 2023 or 2022, but I have personally monitored all 1xx sites except for the newly submitted ones in the Tazwell County, VA area. I will shoot you a DM of my 1xx spreadsheet.

 

[IcomIcR20]

I know I am digging up an old thread here, but I was finally in the area to do some rudimentary RDF to try and locate this site as it does not appear anyone else has done so over the past year. Unfortunately, I was not able to pinpoint the transmitter site, but I was able to narrow it down.

I started by checking the Carl Rose & Sons facility in Elkin, but the site is not located there. In the Elkin area, when I was on the south side of some hills, the signal was rather weak, becoming much stronger as I crested the hill. That leads me to believe the site is located north of Elkin.

I was able to rule out a few other possibilities such as Tuner Mountain. As I circled the mountain, the signal fully dropped out on the E/NE side but was quite strong on the opposite side, implying that the site is W/SW of Turner Mountain. Indeed, I did get some strong signal spikes on I-77 north of Elkin and west of Dobson, but not consistent enough to pinpoint the site. The signal would be very strong at the crest of hills and then drop off as I descended. I believe the strongest signal I got was at the intersection of US-21 and C C Camp Rd (just north of Elkin) with other good signal spikes near Zephyr.

As I mentioned, there is a license for the Green Mountain site on this frequency. However, Site 9 should be Green Mountain, and the signal from Site 6 was still relatively strong in areas where Green Mountain should be blocked by terrain. The Fisher Peak site is back online too, so Site 6 is not there either. Fleet Talk licenses in this region have been notoriously unreliable with some sites operating without any license as far as I can tell, so that makes things difficult.

At this point, I suspect the site is up into the mountains in the general vicinity of where Surry, Alleghany, and Wilkes Counties meet up. It has a pretty nice footprint as it was still receivable in East Bend (Yadkin County) and even weakly in parts of western Forsyth County. A real mystery for now!

Edit: Maybe this site in Glade? It would line up with my observations. I will have to drive up there if I have time. FCC Callsign WPLW607 (Mobile Communications Inc)

 

[IcomIcR20]

After quite a bit of driving and trial-and-error, I finally found the transmitter. It is located atop Little Mountain in the far SE corner of Alleghany County. There is no Fleet Talk license for that site as far as I can ascertain.

 

[n4xdn]

After quite a bit of driving and trial-and-error, I finally found the transmitter. It is located atop Little Mountain in the far SE corner of Alleghany County. There is no Fleet Talk license for that site as far as I can ascertain.

Great investigative work on tracking it down! I live in sc but was curious and dug alittle. You are so right on the no license anywhere near the Roaring Gap community. i pulled up the license for the site at Green Mountain and there are multiple warnings and lower power restrictions on the license. I wonder if they simply got another frequency pool and are experimentally testing Roaring Gap to relocate. Here in SC the Caesars Head Site is weird, although its control channel identifies as Site 10 RAN 10 a voice channel on the site also identifies as Site 21 RAN 21. Im very curious about that.

 

[IcomIcR20]

Great investigative work on tracking it down! I live in sc but was curious and dug alittle. You are so right on the no license anywhere near the Roaring Gap community. i pulled up the license for the site at Green Mountain and there are multiple warnings and lower power restrictions on the license. I wonder if they simply got another frequency pool and are experimentally testing Roaring Gap to relocate. Here in SC the Caesars Head Site is weird, although its control channel identifies as Site 10 RAN 10 a voice channel on the site also identifies as Site 21 RAN 21. Im very curious about that.

Thanks! I really enjoy tracking down mystery transmitters and it gave me an excuse to spend the day in one of my favorite parts of the Southeast.

With regard to the Green Mountain site, it has an incredible coverage footprint, so you do not need much power to cover a wide area. I can receive it just fine indoors with an HT at 45+ miles away. Interestingly, I noticed that the location listed on the Green Mountain licenses is off by about 2.3 miles from where the transmitter actually is. I would not expect them to replace the Green Mountain site with Little Mountain, especially considering that both have been transmitting simultaneously for at least a year now, but who knows what the future may hold.

As for the voice channel having a different site number/RAN, it looks like you are probably receiving a voice channel from a different site. Maybe some frequencies got moved around and the database needs to be updated. See if you locate a control channel for a site 21. I saw your post in the South Carolina forums, and it looks like there are some new sites that need to be verified and submitted to the DB. One thing I have learned while mapping this system is to not trust the FCC licenses and verify site locations by visiting the transmitter itself if feasible.