NoVA VSTARS online?

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Kumba

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Anyone know if VSTARS in Fairfax or Arlington are online and operational yet? I drive through that era every day and can pick up a signal on both systems, but have yet to see an actual talkgroup light up on them.
 

rfburns

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Hardly anything besides testing and that is either completed or suspended for the holidays.
 

HankFrank

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I've heard the following two talkgroups on a couple of occasions:

VSP RdTch H Radio Techs - "H Channel" or "AG Channel"?
Radio Mnt 1 Radio Maintenance 1

Both times just radio techs discussing random things like what sites they are headed to work on, where they are eating dinner, etc.
 

HankFrank

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The Fairfax site is connected to the Fork Mountain site now pretty much 24/7. Pro96Com lists Mount Weather, Arlington and Independent Hill as adjacent sites to the Fairfax tower but I have not seen any of those connected regularly. I've still only heard the radio tech talkgroups (6157, 107) active from time to time with radios affiliating for only short periods, probably when techs come up from Richmond.

Hopefully things will pick up soon.
 

richrowl

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STARS Fairfax tower

Have not been there but give this a try and let me know.

Site: 117- Fairfax (Fairfax County)
Location: VSP Area 9 Office, 9801 Braddock Rd. (Rt-620) 3.7 mi west of I-495 Beltway
 

HankFrank

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I believe that is correct richrowl.

I also believe general consensus is the Arlington tower (which does not yet appear to be operational) is located on S. Columbia Pike near Washington Blvd at the State Police/VDOT post. This location is just southwest of the pentagon and can be seen from 395.

Lately I am also seeing a lot of denied affiliations on the Fairfax tower. They are mostly from the Dept. of Game & Fisheries (3236, 3237, 3241.) 3241 is not confirmed as a Game and Inland Fisheries TG but it is in that range. Also from 4717 which is unknown.

The only Talk Groups I've seen granted affiliation are from VSP Culpepper (Division 2) and the Radio Tech Groups. I don't pull a data feed from it 24/7 but I usually do so while I am at work and log everything.
 

HankFrank

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The Fairfax tower appears to be down... I'm not picking up the primary control channel (or alternate) as of last night sometime.
 

jkahn

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Is anyone monitoring NoVA Stars activity with a Uniden (396 or 996 -old or XT)? Do you need to do anything special or just select APCO25 system in ARCxxxPRO program? I am not too far (Bethesda) and I hear conventional VSP transmissions, but have not gotten a hit at all on STARS.

Am I doing something wrong??

Thanks
 

HankFrank

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When did you start listening to the STARS system? I noticed that last week that the Fairfax tower (the one you would most likely hear from Bethesda) seems to be down. Remember that Division 1 (Richmond) and Division 5 (Chesapeake) are the only sites "officially" operational. The Arlington and Fairfax sites are still being tested.

I'm not familiar with the newer Uniden scanners, but if you only started listening at say the middle of last week this may be why you aren't hearing anything.

There is a ton of STARS information in this thread:

http://forums.radioreference.com/virginia-radio-discussion-forum/63634-stars-new-talkgroups.html
 

pogbobo

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heard about 5 min of chatter from the radio techs tonight on ID 107 ... there was mention of Division 2 ... I really hope they get the nova and Culpeper towers up soon! but I know they stay busy, and money is tight lol

can anyone confirm that the Fairfax tower is still down, I'm trying to figure out if its my distance or what that's keeping me from receiving it

thx
 

HankFrank

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I'm still unable to hear any control data (or anything really) on the Fairfax control frequencies. Ditto for Arlington.

Until it went down, I could get 99% decode of the Fairfax control channel, so if it were up I should be able to hear it.

I'm starting to wonder if they have shifted the control frequencies or something.
 

tglendye

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I heard radio tech's this afternoon on TG107. I heard mention that while they have the towers on line in the test mode, the only TG's that are associated w/ the site are the radio tech TG's. It sounds like they have a lot of work going by the activities they were talking about.

Todd
 

pogbobo

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I heard radio tech's this afternoon on TG107. I heard mention that while they have the towers on line in the test mode, the only TG's that are associated w/ the site are the radio tech TG's. It sounds like they have a lot of work going by the activities they were talking about.

Todd

I think we heard the same traffic ... did it sould to you like those guys were about to go to some training for a few weeks? anywho, at least we know there is some progression, I wouldn't want to be those guys though
 

tglendye

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I got distracted and I didn't catch all they said. I think I caught enough to interpret they were saying it was a pretty rough place, though.
 

HankFrank

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Hey guys, do you know which tower you heard the techs on? Any idea which ones they were talking about being in Test Mode?
 

tglendye

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I monitor the Fork Mountain tower, but they were making reference as they were driving that their radios were affiliated with the Cumberland tower. They were pleased w/ the tower's performance and one tech said he was 15 minutes outside of Charlottesville- I'm thinking he was east of it and traveling eastbound.

I'm not sure if they were referring to testing any tower in particular, but I did hear some other tech's testing one of the Fairfax VSP TG's yesterday. I haven't listened very much lately, but I haven't found any new active towers being tested.
 

pogbobo

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I'm still unable to hear any control data (or anything really) on the Fairfax control frequencies. Ditto for Arlington.

Until it went down, I could get 99% decode of the Fairfax control channel, so if it were up I should be able to hear it.

I'm starting to wonder if they have shifted the control frequencies or something.

I just started playing with Pro96Com ... sweet little program

connected to Fork Mtn, under adjacent site info it shows site 117-Fairfax as Failed ... so i think its safe to assume that the Fairfax tower is down completely for the time being
 
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