PA Statewide P25 Phase 2 System

[u2brent]

From my location I can not receive any of the current listed sites from the Eastern portion of Montco and the only Berks site listed is Port Clinton, which is no good for me either.

Im on the Berks/ Montco line and occasionally when the wind blows , I can grab a Chester VHF site but that’s it.
I know there was a broken sky site on Mt Penn and one at the Penndot shack in Limerick right off 422 by the outlets and either of those would be perfect for me, but I can’t seem to locate anything else I can decode based on listings here.

Based on your location Site 80 would be your best bet.

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Graterford (MONY50)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Graterford (MONY50) Details

www.radioreference.com

Site 76 to a lesser degree.

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Morgantown (CHES01)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Morgantown (CHES01) Details

www.radioreference.com

Sites 70/75

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault (CHES02)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault (CHES02) Details

www.radioreference.com

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault 800 (CHES02)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault 800 (CHES02) Details

www.radioreference.com

And Site 79

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Hibernia Park (CHES33)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Hibernia Park (CHES33) Details

www.radioreference.com

That seems to be it for now..
A Site at Mt Penn would be ideal.

 

[GTR8000]

Can anyone verify if any additional existing broken sky sites in Montco and Berks have been transitioned over to the new system yet?

The majority of OpenSky sites will not be "transitioned" to P25. I never bothered to do an exact count of how many of the P25 sites were also OpenSky sites, but I'm sure it's a pretty high percentage, along with some new sites in the mix. Overall it's still just a fraction of the total amount of OpenSky sites, however.

Having hit the cap of 150 sites per zone (RFSS), the state is in the process of acquiring and implementing a second zone controller (RFSS 2), so there are additional sites coming in the future. It will still pale in comparison to the total amount of OpenSky sites (1,000+)

 

[cavmedic]

Based on your location Site 80 would be your best bet.

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Graterford (MONY50)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Graterford (MONY50) Details

www.radioreference.com

Site 76 to a lesser degree.

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Morgantown (CHES01)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Morgantown (CHES01) Details

www.radioreference.com

Sites 70/75

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault (CHES02)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault (CHES02) Details

www.radioreference.com

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault 800 (CHES02)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Devault 800 (CHES02) Details

www.radioreference.com

And Site 79

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Hibernia Park (CHES33)

PA-STARNet: Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network Site: Hibernia Park (CHES33) Details

www.radioreference.com

That seems to be it for now..
A Site at Mt Penn would be ideal.

Unfortunately, I’m completely blocked by the tallest hill in Montco in my back yard , so nothing to my East is doable.
My OP25’s are setup in my basement work shop, (4) so I fished some RG 6 from the scantenna that feeds the upstairs shack down to the work bench and I can use one of the Chester VHF sites on one of my
Dongles and still use the other 3 800 sites using my APX stubby and LNA that feeds a 4 port sma splitter.

 

[cavmedic]

Unfortunately, I’m completely blocked by the tallest hill in Montco in my back yard , so nothing to my East is doable.
My (4)OP25’s are setup in my basement work shop, (underground ) so I fished some RG 6 from the scantenna that feeds the upstairs shack down to the work bench and I can use one of the Chester VHF sites on one of my
Dongles and still use the other 3 800 sites using my APX stubby and LNA that feeds a 4 port sma splitter.

 

[One13Truck]

I guess that does pretty much explain why things went dark here in Luzerne the last few weeks. Tomorrow I’ll load the 800 stuff into the squawk box and see if I start hearing things again.

 

[GTR8000]

I guess that does pretty much explain why things went dark here in Luzerne the last few weeks. Tomorrow I’ll load the 800 stuff into the squawk box and see if I start hearing things again.

The majority of the users in NEPA are using VHF radios. This 800 site is almost certainly going to be for PSP/Air-Ground purposes, not for general usage. If you're not hearing anything on your local site(s), then the users are simply not that busy this time of year.

What are you not hearing that you believe you should be?

 

[One13Truck]

Really all I’ve ever heard is the Game Commission but even on slow weeks they still all sign off at the end of their shifts. I haven’t even heard that in a week or more.
Not really a big deal for me. I only had the state system loaded to keep the spare scanner busy while I waited for the new Luzerne system to start testing. Now that that seems to be happening I’ll be focusing more on that anyway.

 

[hundeesport412]

The Allegheny Regional (Tarentum site seems to be off line) 161.800 control channel not seen.

 

[druhe]

WEST30 now showing ICORRS site as a neighbor

 

[IStebleton]

I always used to be able to pick up WEST03 700 A/G from my house with full signal strength, but now that I just got back home, I'm not picking up anything.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I always used to be able to pick up WEST03 700 A/G from my house with full signal strength, but now that I just got back home, I'm not picking up anything.

Site down perhaps?

 

[IStebleton]

Site down perhaps?

That's what I'm thinking. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it comes back online

 

[GTR8000]

I always used to be able to pick up WEST03 700 A/G from my house with full signal strength, but now that I just got back home, I'm not picking up anything.

That's what I'm thinking. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it comes back online

You might want to search 851-860 looking for a control channel for the site, in case it has also switched to 800 MHz.

 

[W7FDX]

Very interesting. I actually haven’t heard anything on this system in Luzerne County in a week or two. All I ever hear is the Game Commission and they’re not always crazy busy but it’s been even quieter than normal here lately.

Which is strange considering it's hunting season. The NC and NW regions have been fairly busy for me especially the last few days.

 

[W7FDX]

I haven't done a deep dive into the 800 frequencies used at every site, but so far it seems that they have licensed new 800 frequencies at these sites rather than reuse the same OpenSky frequencies in the area. Probably because OpenSky is technically still an active system.

By the way, the 800 MHz site at Mt Pocono suddenly makes sense. Not sure why I didn't realize earlier that it's probably intended as an Air-Ground site.

That makes sense now that I think about it but what's the purpose of the single UHF site in Hazelton (LUZE60)?

 

[scnrfrq]

Heard TG 40186 in Erie County today. Not in the database and I couldn't ID it. Anyone have ideas?

 

[druhe]

Heard TG 40186 in Erie County today. Not in the database and I couldn't ID it. Anyone have ideas?

Area Transportation Authority

The WIKI is your friend

 

[scnrfrq]

Area Transportation Authority

The WIKI is your friend

I actually did look there first. Funny thing is that the Area Transportation Authority is in North Central PA, not Erie County. Not sure why I'm picking it up here.

 

[druhe]

I actually did look there first. Funny thing is that the Area Transportation Authority is in North Central PA, not Erie County. Not sure why I'm picking it up here.

Apparently there is an ATA radio affiliated with the site you are monitoring. It happens all the time just the nature of the beast

 

[HM1529]

Apparently there is an ATA radio affiliated with the site you are monitoring. It happens all the time just the nature of the beast

Those mobile radios can reach out and grab far away towers as long as they can see them and reach back. Given the large area ATA covers, it is possible that the tower you are hearing covers a bit of it with RF and so the talkgroups are allowed to roam there. Or, they may just limit the talkgroups to a specific region that goes beyond the counties where ATA operates and Erie Co is part of that region. Regardless, like Dan said, if you're hearing it, a radio using it was affiliated to the site.