Official Bucks County 700Mhz Phase II Radio System Thread

[phillydjdan]

I'm starting this thread in hopes that moderators will make it a sticky thread for all interested parties to follow. I recently became aware that Bucks County had turned on the first site of their new 700 MHz P25 Phase II trunked system in Ivyland. I went up there today and ran Unitrunker for about an hour. While there was no activity on the system, I was able to get the system parameters. I was using a rubber duck antenna on a PSR-800 and had a full 100% signal.

System ID: 4D3
WACN: BEE00

Control Channels:
774.65625 (Primary)
773.88125
773.23125
772.98125

Site 001 is Ivyland
System NAC is 4D1

It appears that the trunking tables are the same as all of the other P25 systems I've seen thus far.

The County has said that some other tower sites will be coming online in the next few months. I've heard a lot of testing by the radio shop on the old system the last few months, but was at work with a regular radio, so I could not track RIDs or anything. I am assuming those tests are the techs programming the new radios, which to my understanding are dual band APX portables on UHF and 700/800 MHz. I've talked to several firefighters who said they have begun receiving their new radios already, and I am aware of at least one police department who has also. It should be a seamless transition when it finally happens if they programmed the new system into the radios already. As for the channel lineup, from what I'm hearing it should be mostly the same, with only the addition of some channels that will have encryption for sensitive operations. I look forward to seeing when they start doing patches from the old system to the new one. But at least now we know the system info, right?

On a side note, I may be able to get all of the system talkgroups and other settings pretty soon if it's in the radios already. I will advise.

 

[HM1529]

You probably won't get this stickied, but I added a link to it in the sticky thread for all the P25 system upgrade threads in PA.

I don't do forums admin...just DB so that's all I can really do for you.

 

[phillydjdan]

That works, thank you

 

[HM1529]

The new system has been "in staging" for a while meaning it was added to the database but not yet publicly available.

With testing going on, I activated the system this evening.

 

[phillydjdan]

Thank you. Once more sites come online and they start using it we should start to see a flurry of information about it. I, for one, can't wait. I already have a spot reserved in my APX codeplug for it.

 

[HM1529]

The new system has been "in staging" for a while meaning it was added to the database but not yet publicly available.

With testing going on, I activated the system this evening.

Really, with all the sites not completed yet, I should keep the system in staging. Going to bed tonight, but I will probably take it back off the public access tomorrow.

 

[MotoSystemsTech]

" I heard Programming will start in May"

 

[Monoxide16]

Can we hear this system on the pro 106?? Or am I gonna have to spend more money on another dang scanner and I already have 3!! lol

 

[HM1529]

PRO-106 does not do Phase 2. I still really like my 106 for easy searching and programming on the fly, but it's days are numbered.

 

[Monoxide16]

Wow this stinks thank you for the info looks like another couple hundreds of dollars and true about the 106 it's still very good and really easy to program hey do u know how to take off the priority off? Everytime I take it out with me or walk around with it, it cuts in and out on the digital talk groups

 

[MotoSystemsTech]

Last time i heard in a meeting bucks county police will be secure. Not sure if that's the plan still..

 

[phillydjdan]

Monoxide, please learn punctuation. Your run-on sentences are very hard to understand. Moto, the final decision (and the letter from the County is posted online) clearly states that the normal "zone" channels (like the ones we hear on the existing system) will NOT be encrypted. They will have a set of tactical channels that WILL have encryption. Only law enforcement will have encryption in their radios, so I imagine they will have a couple of tactical channels for fire that aren't encrypted. To clear up any confusion, the normal police channels are not going away.

 

[Theo]

I programmed my BCD436HP I keep in my car and sat in Plumsteadville yesterday and picked up testing for couple hours on ID:101.

 

[phillydjdan]

That's interesting, thank you. I'll pop that one into my radio...

 

[wa3ysu]

I have been monitoring this system for a while. I have logged 19 frequencies in use so far of the 26 licensed for this system. The control channel has been sitting on 774.65625 and broadcasting an ID every 30 minutes (11 and 41 after the hour) on 769.50625. As noted above, there are 5 techs with radios working on the system using talkgroup 101 throughout the day. Interestingly the site is still broadcasting a callsign of "Changeme".

I also have heard what sounds like control channel data on two other Bucks licensed frequencies (769.50625 and 769.26875) while driving but it has been too weak to decode.

The 774.65625 control channel is covering all of lower and central Bucks which is pretty good if Ivyland is the sole location that is transmitting currently.

As expected, like the BCD436 above, the BCD536HP works great with this system and hearing the testing talkgroup so far.

 

[jcardani]

Hi Kel,

Thanks for keeping us posted on this!

And welcome back!

 

[phillydjdan]

Kel,

Thanks for the insight. It is possible that there are other sites online. The updates on the County website indicate several sites are installed but microwave work is being finished. I guess one of these days I will have to run Unitrunker at some different locations to see what results I get. I would find it hard to believe the Ivyland site would cover the entire lower end, but ya never know. I put the 101 talkgroup into my scanner and radio, so I should be able to hear anything when I'm up that way. I know they said before that they wanted the system in service by September, so they should begin the extensive signal testing (ala the new Philly system) in the next few months. I'm interested to see how they map out the new talkgroups. I talked to a couple of firefighters that said when the new system comes online the border for the "south band" is going to change to include Bensalem Twp. Not sure how true that is, as there are numerous rumors about this and that. In any case, between me, Kel, and a few of the other die-hards on here we'll have the system all figured out well before they switch! Can't wait...

 

[Septa3371CSX1]

Is it possible that the talkgroups for this system will follow the same band plan as the current system with the new P25 talkgroup being the existing talkgroup divided by 16?

 

[phillydjdan]

It might, but I think they are going to have some additional talkgroups, so it will be interesting to see...

 

[wa3ysu]

Here is some added insight I have gathered:

The system will have at least 24 sites and each of these are licensed for 26 frequency pairs.

In addition:
, there are 10 temporary incident repeater pairs (which could also be used as 20 simplex frequencies)