NYSEG P25 VHF

[jgorman21]

Hello.
I used to monitor This system years ago on my old PSR 500 without any difficulty.

i tried putting in the “most local” control channels (I live just south of Albany), and I’m getting “Out of range” on my Unication G5.

Suggestions? Any help is appreciated.

 

[GTR8000]

Do you have another receiver/scanner/dongle you can use to check the signal? That's where I'd start, make sure that you actually have reception of those control channels at your location. If the G5 allows, program them in analog conventional mode just to make sure that something is on the air and receivable at your location.

 

[jgorman21]

Yes. I still have the PSR 500. It was hard To tell so I went down in my basement and took the three I could hear “rumbling!” I took the sites for Rennselaer, Clifton Park, and Columbia. Three passes. Heard nothing. Then the ones I actually heard (escapes me now)!

Conventional maybe a good way to go. I’ll also do some PSR “wildcard” searches too.

Thank you.

 

[GTR8000]

Program the system into the PSR500 and see if it locks onto the control channel and decodes P25.

 

[jgorman21]

The answer is: 152.055, 152.640, seems to be it. I’ll try just these first. May already bein there. I’ll also do wildcard searchon the PSR 500 Where I used to hear them. May have to wait for some “bumpy” weather though.

Thanksfor the suggestions.

 

[k2hz]

I can't say for sure for your area but NYSEG P25 system activity in the Geneva district is now mainly mobile data. There is voice activity in the early morning with units calling in service and calling out in the late afternoon. Other than that, it depends on situations that are not dispatched via MDT. When you get into a major storm situation, a lot of activity is via cell phones rather than radio.

 

[jgorman21]

I can't say for sure for your area but NYSEG P25 system activity in the Geneva district is now mainly mobile data. There is voice activity in the early morning with units calling in service and calling out in the late afternoon. Other than that, it depends on situations that are not dispatched via MDT. When you get into a major storm situation, a lot of activity is via cell phones rather than radio.

Thank you for the info. It used to be very active here. But, that was many years ago. That’s what I. Rant about “bumpy” weather. We have been having some sever storms.

 

[rja1]

I can't say for sure for your area but NYSEG P25 system activity in the Geneva district is now mainly mobile data. There is voice activity in the early morning with units calling in service and calling out in the late afternoon. Other than that, it depends on situations that are not dispatched via MDT. When you get into a major storm situation, a lot of activity is via cell phones rather than radio.

Since when is NYSEG using MDT's? I'm a utility buff & have been listening to them since 79. Never seen an MDT in any NYSEG vehicle. Their vehicles have Motorola VHF P25 trunking rigs. Here's the essence of a call from yesterday: Main to 3357........3357........Got a call for a tree on wires in Somers, can you take that?........Yes, just let me pull over so I can take the information.
Why would they do that if they had MDT's?
Anytime we have a weather event, they are quite busy on their P25 trunking system. I use a DPD Omni X omnidirectional antenna and a Laird 6 element Yagi cut for 152.5 Mhz to listen to them. From my qth, I can hear The following sites: Shandaken, Ellenville, LIberty, Woodstock, Austerlitz (Sometimes), Brewster & Putnam Valley. All get very busy during any weather event.
I know a guy that works for them out of the Brewster plant.......I'll find out from him.

 

[bryank104]

I pick them up on the north Hebron tower in Washington county. There frequency is152.2025 and 152.5175, and 153.500. This covers Saratoga county and some of Rensseleer county and of course Washington county

 

[k2hz]

As I said in my post, I can speak only for the Geneva district where about 90% of transmissions on the "voice" channels are data. Other than the "good morning" and "good night" calls on and off duty, the few voice transmissions are mostly units calling the dispatcher with a question or problem with an assigned job.

I am not surprised that other districts are different. The districts west of Geneva never went P25. With severe cost cutting by the present foreign ownership of NYSEG many upgrade projects have been put on hold. NYSEG had indicated it was going to replace the P25 system with DMR but I don't see that happening.

 

[GTR8000]

As I said in my post, I can speak only for the Geneva district where about 90% of transmissions on the "voice" channels are data.

Those data calls are AVL, not MDT.

 

[k2hz]

Those data calls are AVL, not MDT.

If the data on the voice channels is just AVL, then they must use cellular data to dispatch the jobs since there is no voice dispatch. It seems odd they would use separate P25 AVL unless that was a legacy system before they went to data based dispatch. Also, these data transmissions last 10 seconds or more and that seems excessive for just AVL data.

There is a similar situation with Monroe County Water Authority on the Monroe/Ontario Harris P25 system. They have MDTs in their vehicles, there is a lot of data activity on voice channels and there is no apparent voice dispatch of jobs, just very rare voice inquiries from mobiles or discussion about a job.

 

[GTR8000]

Further research required I guess.

 

[jgorman21]

Yes indeed. Thank you all for the feedback and discussion. I think I’m going to take GTR 8000’s suggestions when the next storms come in. I’m also going to program the two loudest I hear first on the G5.

 

[chrismol1]

Anyone know what 152.210 along with 152.510 in granville/hebron? Its licensed DMR only. Then again, theres a site in stillwater still listed as wideband on 173.350 but Ive heard P25 come out of it, I believe its a talkaround repeater but rarely used

 

[jgorman21]

Well...hopefully I’ll have an update soon.

I tried putting the frequencies I “heard“ in...nada. Out of range.

i then went back to the PSR 500 software and put those frequencies in the G5...out of range.

This morning I will monitor the system on the PSR 500 because I heard traffic on there the other morning. So it’s working on there.

I guess I need tire-check my programming. Most likely operator error and hopefully something simple. And if I get a look at the CC on the 500, I may just take GTR 8000’s suggestion of doing that frequency as conventional with a “wildcard“ NAC!

 

[jgorman21]

Further research required I guess.

I am now receiving the NYSEG system again! Same “tips that helped me on the MTA system. So far just the Mechanicville TG. But I will keep listening.