Oncor East

[SCPD]

Hello All

Our Field Day is being held in Honey Grove Texas this weekend, (Fannin/Lamar County Line) and while out there I am going to put up a 900Mhz yagi and see if I can hear the Oncor towers in Windom (Fannin Co.) and Paris (Lamar Co.). Both sites are really old in the database and currently I get no trunking from either which leads me to believe neither site is accurate.

What software is recommended for monitoring and establishing correct LCN's on EDACS? I will be using a BCD996XT, NOT TAPPED but with a high end audio card on a Win-7 laptop.

Thanks

 

[nd5y]

About half of the Oncor sites in the database have never been confirmed.

I can tell you how to do that with Unitrunker and two receivers but I don't have any experience with any other software.

Unitrunker can't do it automatically by itself. You would need one reciever with either a discriminator tap or data output for Unitrunker and a second receiver, which doesn't need to be tapped, to scan or search for active frequencies in conventional mode.

On EDACS systems Unitrunker only shows LCNs. It doesn't know what the frequency is until you enter it. You have to sit there and continuously watch Unitrunker and have the second receiver scan all the licensed frequencies for a particular site or search the 935-940 band. When a particular LCN is active hopefully the second receiver will stop on that frequency before they stop talking. If you are going to do this on a weekend on a little used site in a sparsley populated area with little traffic you may not be able to even find how many channels the site has.

 

[SCPD]

Thanks for the reply Tom

This doesn't sound fun. I never even heard a CC on the Windom (Honey Grove) Site and was just a few miles from the tower. Talked to an Oncor guy that said they system out here never has worked well and that they use cellphones and the MDC, the only time they use radio is for repair and they have some simplex channels for that.

I guess I'll scratch Oncor East at least till I get a tapped scanner.

 

[bpckty1]

If you can borrow a Radio Shack Pro-97, program the frequencies in a bank, and it will tell you where a frequency belongs for the LCN. Too bad subsequent scanners don't have that capability. This works for LTR systems. I have not tried it on EDACS systems.

 

[bpckty1]

Update since last edit:

Not too many EDACS systems in my area, but I did a test on the one I can receive, and the Pro-97 can decode the control channel slot , but not the LCN when in manual mode. Sorry. It's been a while since I've monitored EDACS, since just about everything to listen to in my area are either conventional, Motorala Types I and II (can't do the TDMA yet), and LTR standard. All the other LTR-type systems are not monitorable with a Pro-97.
;^(

 

[SCPD]

If you can borrow a Radio Shack Pro-97, program the frequencies in a bank, and it will tell you where a frequency belongs for the LCN. Too bad subsequent scanners don't have that capability. This works for LTR systems. I have not tried it on EDACS systems.

Actually .... I have Win97 AND a compatible scanner (PRO-163) Great suggestion, will give that a try Thanks.

 

[hiegtx]

The LCN finder, for EDACS systems, is part of the Analyze features of the Home Patrol Extreme Upgrade. Once released in a firmware update (maybe along with the Siren app for the 536hp), that function would also be available in the x36hp scanners.

 

[SCPD]

I can absolutely confirm ONCOR Windom does not transmit anything. Its either a dead site or a future expansion site but it is not active currently.