Otoe County/NE City Surprise

[obijohn]

I have noticed a distinct lack of radio traffic recently on Nebraska Cities 154.740 Police frequency. I hear
some "B.S." type traffic on the frequency, but no dispatch traffic. Hmmmmm...

So I conducted an "investigation" last night.

To refresh everyones memory, Otoe County was granted licenses for 800 MHz several years ago.

I predicted at that time that they would never move to 800 MHz. Imagine my surprise when I searched the FCC database, and found that the 800 licenses were surrendered and cancelled in April! On August 7 the FCC granted a new license to Otoe County Sheriff for a number of 453/458 MHz. channel assignments.

Upon further searching, I determined that Nebraska City, and Otoe County EMA Both modified existing licenses in the last 4 months, all modifications involving new UHF channels at multiple sites throughout the county.

Tonight I listened to 460.2875 MHZ, and confirmed that this is where the police dep't is now, with a brand new Motorola repeater on Kearney Hill Rd. For those that need to confirm this, the callsigns that I am referring to are: WPKT461, WPTN743, and WQJD817.

I am confident that soon the Sheriff and all fire/rescue in Otoe County will be completely on UHF.
This was a much wiser choice than 800 MHz. So far, most traffic has been analog, but there has been some P25 traffic.

I will post updates as I can confirm more of the buildout.

 

[cellphone]

Great find Oibjohn! I will add this to the DB.

Currently, is Otoe County still sheriff on 39.900 or have you heard any of their traffic on 460.2875?

Cheers,

Joe

 

[obijohn]

Great find Oibjohn! I will add this to the DB.

Currently, is Otoe County still sheriff on 39.900 or have you heard any of their traffic on 460.2875?

Cheers,

Joe

Only the Nebraska City Police are using 460.2875. Otoe County Sheriff is still using 39.900.
They have a new license using other UHF frequencies but they haven't started building it yet.

The license was issued 4 days ago, and it covers multiple sites, with all sites licensed for the same frequencies! After I figure out what they are doing, I will post something. Regards, Obijohn.

 

[realgeo]

I have noticed a distinct lack of radio traffic recently on Nebraska Cities 154.740 Police frequency. I hear
some "B.S." type traffic on the frequency, but no dispatch traffic. Hmmmmm...

So I conducted an "investigation" last night.

To refresh everyones memory, Otoe County was granted licenses for 800 MHz several years ago.

I predicted at that time that they would never move to 800 MHz. Imagine my surprise when I searched the FCC database, and found that the 800 licenses were surrendered and cancelled in April! On August 7 the FCC granted a new license to Otoe County Sheriff for a number of 453/458 MHz. channel assignments.

Upon further searching, I determined that Nebraska City, and Otoe County EMA Both modified existing licenses in the last 4 months, all modifications involving new UHF channels at multiple sites throughout the county.

Tonight I listened to 460.2875 MHZ, and confirmed that this is where the police dep't is now, with a brand new Motorola repeater on Kearney Hill Rd. For those that need to confirm this, the callsigns that I am referring to are: WPKT461, WPTN743, and WQJD817.

I am confident that soon the Sheriff and all fire/rescue in Otoe County will be completely on UHF.
This was a much wiser choice than 800 MHz. So far, most traffic has been analog, but there has been some P25 traffic.

I will post updates as I can confirm more of the buildout.

Good find, Obijohn! As usual, your investigative talents are top-rate. You need to change your signature to be "Obijohn, FDI" - that's "FCC Database Investigator"!

The signal comes in VERY well here in Murray, and the PL tone is 118.8, just as it was on 154.7400. Also, it sounds like they're running MDC1200 ID information for the base and most of the mobiles, however I haven't yet decoded any of the IDs.

On another note - I believe Otoe County is doing some EMS/Fire paging on 453.6000, but not all of it. Tests run nightly between 1800 and 1815.

73's

 

[realgeo]

More info on NCPD and OC licenses

Howdy, once again, everyone!

Looking at the three callsigns that Obijohn was kind enough to supply, it looks like the old VHF and new UHF NCPD channels each have a single repeater transmitter site. It happens that the mobiles were also given "talk-around" licensure for the repeater output frequency.

However, the two "4x3" OCEMA and OCSO calls both feature licenses granted for multiple transmitter sites.

The OCSO license, WQJD817, has all four frequencies licensed to the same three sites - NC, Syracuse, and Douglas.

This one is very interesting - four channels licensed at all three sites. I wonder if this could become a TRS at some point. A good microwave system would link these three sites quite well, and if you steal one of the other 453 licenses that OCEMA currently has, you'd have a place to park the control channel.

Just some wandering ideas on a Monday night!

73's

 

[obijohn]

On another note - I believe Otoe County is doing some EMS/Fire paging on 453.6000, but not all of it. Tests run nightly between 1800 and 1815.

And on that note...I will add that a source told me today that UHF control stations are being installed in fire stations in the county.

 

[obijohn]

This one is very interesting - four channels licensed at all three sites. I wonder if this could become a TRS at some point. A good microwave system would link these three sites quite well, and if you steal one of the other 453 licenses that OCEMA currently has, you'd have a place to park the control channel.

I Don't think so George. I would have expected to see "FB5" station class for the repeaters if they were intending to do trunking. Then again-You could be correct, maybe it's no big deal to change at a later date.

Believe me...I noticed the multiple channels at all sites. I just don't understand yet what the master plan is.

Maybe I need to call Dick Jamrose from D&D and ask.

 

[crazyjimmy]

Hi all
i am with a vol fire department in otoe county. And yes they are moving every thing to the 400 MHz. right now our paging system is on the 400 MHZ but the trucks and all is still low band. here is a list of the frequency in a bitmap