New Ontario RCMP system waking up...

[Jay911]

I sent myself a message with some more info and apparently lost it promptly after doing so, but I did see a couple of sites and can't recall the frequencies. I had another site very strong just south of Innisfil, on 421.475, and can't recall the site number. I may be able to pick it up again coming south, if we go that way. I had the same thing with 422.4375.

I may try to have Unitrunker running on my laptop in the back seat while on the move so that I can capture some more of this kind of stuff.

 

[mikewazowski]

The site around Innisfil would probably be the Cookstown site.

Next site north of there would be Edgar.

 

[unlisted]

I guess I will ask the stupid question..

Are they "piggybacking" their system off the fleetnet towers? (not using the actual fleetnet network, but using the tower pre existing...)

 

[mikewazowski]

Perhaps in some cases they might share tower space but it's not very common with the sites built so far.

 

[Jay911]

All the sites I've seen this weekend are 3 digits, i.e. 109, 103, 117, 124, 125, etc., as far as the display on my 396XT is concerned.

There were no signals toward Killarney and across the 141 to Minden yesterday. I will be slightly east of the GTA most of the day today and tomorrow so I should be able to run Unitrunker and get some good capture.

 

[mikewazowski]

The first digit is the Zone and the next two are the actual Site ID.

 

[Jay911]

The first digit is the Zone and the next two are the actual Site ID.

Wonder how that behaves on systems with site numbers that are three digits long (PPSTN comes to mind). Poorly, I suppose.

All the stuff on the RRDB download as Zone 95 and the LCNs download as "00-0001", "00-0002" etc instead of their actual LCNs, so the site/freq info on the RRDB does not work.

Here's what Unitrunker provided with some low-strength signals today.

Bandplan:
Base 403.000
Lo 00-0000
Hi 00-4095
Spacing 12.5
Slots 1

Base 420.0000
Lo 01-0000
Hi 01-4095
Spacing 12.5
Slots 1

Site 001-003
Ch 00-1478
Freq 421.47500

Site 001-006
Ch 00-1528
(Not monitored, only seen as a neighbor site - see below)

Site 001-007
Ch 00-1473
(Not monitored, only seen as a neighbor site - see below)

Site 001-009
Ch 00-1587
(Not monitored, only seen as a neighbor site - see below)

Site 001-016
Ch 00-1444
(Not monitored, only seen as a neighbor site - see below)

Site 001-017
Ch 00-1480
Freq 421.5000
Ch 00-1488
Freq 421.6000
Neighbor Sites:
001-009 ch 00-1587;
001-016 ch 00-1444;
001-023 ch 00-1453;
001-024 ch 00-1480 (421.4750)

Site 001-023
Ch 00-1453
(Not monitored, only seen as a neighbor site - see below)

Site 001-024
Ch 00-1480
Freq 421.47500
Neighbor Sites:
001-009 ch 00-1587;
001-016 ch 00-1444;
001-017 ch 00-1488 (421.6000);
001-023 ch 00-1453

I'm not so sure about the data I got for site 003 since the frequency vs the LCN is incorrect (note the freq/LCN for site 001-024 and neighbor/peers data for 001-017 in comparison).

All of these were monitored in weak fashion in various places in Durham Region.

The above LCNs and band plan insinuate that the other frequencies shown for the site/freq data currently in the RRDB would be as follows:

001-001    00-1442    421.025000
001-001    00-1450    421.125000
001-001    00-1458    421.225000
001-001    00-1466    421.325000
001-002    00-1446    421.075000
001-002    00-1454    421.175000
001-002    00-1462    421.275000
001-002    00-1470    421.375000
001-003    00-1455    421.187500
001-004    00-1470    421.375000
001-005    00-1449    421.112500
001-006    00-1528    422.100000
001-007    00-1524    422.050000
001-009    00-1587    422.837500
001-010    00-1444    421.050000
001-011    00-1488    421.600000
001-011    00-1597    422.962500
001-017    00-1453    421.162500
001-017    00-1580    422.750000
001-018    00-1480    421.500000
001-024    00-1480    421.500000

One more chance to get some data on this thing tomorrow on the way back to Hamilton to head back west. I'll try to get what I can.

If anyone wants the ensuing Unitrunker (1.0.0.16) file, let me know. I'm willing to share/trade/exchange any such data I gather from my monitoring.

 

[DaveH]

I may try to have Unitrunker running on my laptop in the back seat while on the move so that I can capture some more of this kind of stuff.

BTW J, what did you do to get UniTrunker working on P25?

A while back I tried two versions of UniTrunker (recent one and "legacy") on two different
computers with two different OS's (XP and '98), using different tapped radios on two
different systems (RENIR and Gatineau Que.). Nothing worked, other than a bit of false
decoding. Any secrets you can pass on?

Dave

 

[Jay911]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.743 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107)

I'm running UT .16 (newest) on Win7 Ultimate 32bit with a GRE PSR500 using its CC Dump feature. The system is set up as P25 Auto. Even when I get 98% decode showing on the scanner's screen, the UT screen shows a yellow "strength" icon (in the upper left corner) of roughly 67%.

 

[mikewazowski]

Unitrunker is the pickiest (and hardest) software to use.

I can have great signal strength but it will refuse to decode.

I tried a newer version but it refused to find my USB sound device. Older versions work fine except they have a hard time with decoding.

I've started to use Pro96Com instead.

I'm hoping that Andrew might add 9k6 decoding to Trunk88 at some point using the control channel output mode of the newer scanners. That would be the best decoding solution.

 

[Jay911]

Back in Alberta now, and I didn't get too much after my previous post on the way down to YHM, except to write down a couple of times where certain signals got strong(er).

As I drove along the 401 from Whitby toward the 403, I noticed the following:

Site 9 (001-009) (freq 422.8375, LCN 00-1587) was somewhat strong near the 400, as was 001-023 (freq 421.5000, LCN 00-1480). 001-024 (freq 421.6000, LCN 00-1488) was exceptionally strong in this area.
Site 17 (freq 421.0500, LCN 00-1444) was strong at Kennedy (on the 401) and also when I was on Highway 7 near McCowan.

Peers, bandplan, etc., is as was mentioned before.

No users nor groups were ever detected on the system.

I never saw (directly monitored) sites 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. Sites 3, 6, 7, and 16 came up as peers to other sites I did see (the ones mentioned above).

Interestingly enough, NAC was 366 for 17, 367 for 23, and 368 for 24. The first two digits of a NAC (on a trunking system) will always have pertinence to the system ID, and the last digit is usually - in my experience - the site number, but obviously this is different here. Not sure why. On my local Smartzone 3.1 system, the sysid is 753F, and the NACs are 3F1 for site 1, 3F2 for site 2, and etc.

Good luck hunting this one out! Gave me some good practice for when Alberta's system comes online - if it ever gets off the ground.

 

[mikewazowski]

The last digit of the NAC is the analog connect tone of the site.

 

[Jay911]

I knew it was something like that. Life has been unkind to my thinking processes and knowledge base these days. Thanks.

 

[bglatour001]

I doubt us yokels up here in the north won't be hearing too much of this system.

 

[VE3JSO]

just wondering if sarnia will be getting a tower for the new p25 system

 

[exkalibur]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.862 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/332)

Unitrunker is the biggest POS ever. I would put it up there along with Windows ME.

I would love to see another option out there for 9600 stuff. Sadly, it looks like we're stuck with Unitrunker. I really wish the author would improve it some. When it works, it works well, but that isn't very often it seems.

 

[mikewazowski]

I was hoping that now that Andy has made use of the data stream coming off the 996xt/396xt for Trunk88, he could easily adapt the program for 9k6.

Nothing would be better then Trunk88 for 9k6 systems.

 

[DaveH]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.862 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/332)

Unitrunker is the biggest POS ever. I would put it up there along with Windows ME.

So you don't like it, but no good reason to gratuitously trash it...

I use UniTrunker, Trunker, Etrunk, Treport, LtrTrunk, Trunkview, and
Trunk88, finding them all useful to differing degrees. So UniTrunker has
P25 decode issues... it is one of the trickier areas to tackle. Still, it
does a good job on EDACS, and is the only soundcard utility to do so.

Dave

 

[Forts]

I've given up on UniTrunker with EDACS for the time being... I can't get past all the Limbo Sites popping up, even with the Site Lock option turned on. Plus it doesn't log affiliations (yet at least). I've gone back to ETrunk for Windows (which works thru the soundcard). Does the job nicely, just doesn't have any bells and whistles (it's also a bit of a resource hog).

Anyhow, trying to stay on topic... RE: Sarnia, yes I would imagine both Windsor and Sarnia (plus other border cities) will get tied in eventually. I'll hafta fire up Pro96Com on the London sites and see whats happening there, I haven't checked them in quite some time. Had a few transmissions on talkgroup 11 a few days ago that were ITC, but they were mainly just keyups with dead air... someone tinkering with a radio I presumed.

 

[roots]

Wirelessly posted (blackberry tour (9630): BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.692 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

Any news for the Ottawa region?

Not sure where I got this frequency but I have 421.1375 and nothing yet, site if not even up (no reception at all)!

Thx,