PA Statewide P25 Phase 2 System

IStebleton

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I'm surprised there isn't a site around Greensburg. Every time I'm in that area, I get very poor reception off of the WEST03 Simulcast tower and the WEST30 tower.
 

bearcat

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It appears that the DCNR still has the old repeaters programmed in the Starnet radios. The law enforcement vehicles at Pymatuning all have the new multli-band Starnet antennas. The OpenSky antennas are gone and they are active on 151.445 analog which is the freq which has been in use for years. The non-law enforcement vehicles still have an OpenSky antenna and a 1/4 wave antenna. I should note they also have a low profile UHF antenna which I believe is for Crawford Co. Some of the converstations over the radio back this up as they mentioned the "County Radio" several times. Also absolutely no activity from them on Starnet. The Crawford and Mercer sites are very weak and in some locations in the park the sites cannot be heard at all, at least on a portable scanner. This maybe the reason they are not using the new system yet.

Also PennDot has the MURS freqs (at least some of them) programmed in their HTs both as analog and P25 phase 1. They appear to use these for flaggers. I have had a few close call hits while waiting at lane closures.
 

scnrfrq

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It appears that the DCNR still has the old repeaters programmed in the Starnet radios. The law enforcement vehicles at Pymatuning all have the new multli-band Starnet antennas. The OpenSky antennas are gone and they are active on 151.445 analog which is the freq which has been in use for years. The non-law enforcement vehicles still have an OpenSky antenna and a 1/4 wave antenna. I should note they also have a low profile UHF antenna which I believe is for Crawford Co. Some of the converstations over the radio back this up as they mentioned the "County Radio" several times. Also absolutely no activity from them on Starnet. The Crawford and Mercer sites are very weak and in some locations in the park the sites cannot be heard at all, at least on a portable scanner. This maybe the reason they are not using the new system yet.

Also PennDot has the MURS freqs (at least some of them) programmed in their HTs both as analog and P25 phase 1. They appear to use these for flaggers. I have had a few close call hits while waiting at lane closures.

No changes here in Erie County for DCNR at Presque Isle State Park. No new antennas on vehicles and the lifeguards used the old radios all summer. Looks like it will be slow adoption of the new system for DCNR.
 

redbeard

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Also PennDot has the MURS freqs (at least some of them) programmed in their HTs both as analog and P25 phase 1. They appear to use these for flaggers. I have had a few close call hits while waiting at lane closures.
LOL that’s not legal at all. My county did the same thing for a fire police channel. There are 100W mobiles running around on MURS here...
 

HM1529

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LOL that’s not legal at all. My county did the same thing for a fire police channel. There are 100W mobiles running around on MURS here...

It's a free for all right up until someone gets into trouble for it.

On a related but not quite the same thing note...I recall seeing 159.285 listed in one of the recent reports as an input frequency for one of the newer tower sites. To me, this us utterly foolish. That is an interstate common frequency for wildfire air to ground comms. It is used in analog mode throughout the eastern US and definitely in PA...certainly something that shouldn't have P25 noise popping up on it to interfere with air to ground comms. When those helos are in the air, you can pick up traffic from quite a distance. If that use as an input is accurate, I think that's a really bad idea.
 

GTR8000

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On a related but not quite the same thing note...I recall seeing 159.285 listed in one of the recent reports as an input frequency for one of the newer tower sites.
In addition to TIOG42, 159.285 is also one of the inputs for the Lawrence County cell of ICORRS, licensed at 50 watts for control stations and mobiles.

EDIT - Was writing this as HM posted lol

EDIT #2 - 159.285 is licensed in Tioga County as an input frequency, P25 emissions, WQUW992
 
Last edited:

scan-pa

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Just a reminder to all our submitters of info, You must submit the confirmed info via the submission system. Please do not ask us to update the DB with info posted to the Wiki. Were not able to do that.

Thank you,
 

smorris

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It appears that the DCNR still has the old repeaters programmed in the Starnet radios. The law enforcement vehicles at Pymatuning all have the new multli-band Starnet antennas. The OpenSky antennas are gone and they are active on 151.445 analog which is the freq which has been in use for years. The non-law enforcement vehicles still have an OpenSky antenna and a 1/4 wave antenna. I should note they also have a low profile UHF antenna which I believe is for Crawford Co. Some of the converstations over the radio back this up as they mentioned the "County Radio" several times. Also absolutely no activity from them on Starnet. The Crawford and Mercer sites are very weak and in some locations in the park the sites cannot be heard at all, at least on a portable scanner. This maybe the reason they are not using the new system yet.

Also PennDot has the MURS freqs (at least some of them) programmed in their HTs both as analog and P25 phase 1. They appear to use these for flaggers. I have had a few close call hits while waiting at lane closures.
Wait, it’s not legal to use P25 on MURS, even if you are a state agency. Right?
 

GTR8000

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Seeing some DCNR affiliations this morning on the Forest District 19, Promised Land SP, and District 19 Rangers Tac talkgroups. 13843xx subscriber IDs. No voice traffic as of yet.
 

wa8pyr

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LOL that’s not legal at all. My county did the same thing for a fire police channel. There are 100W mobiles running around on MURS here...

High power is definitely a no-no, but is P25 even legal for the MURS frequencies?
 

GTR8000

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High power is definitely a no-no, but is P25 even legal for the MURS frequencies?
Nope, and of course you're only supposed to be using type approved radios. Since no type approved Part 95 radios would have P25 capability, it's normally not a factor...except when Part 95 frequencies are programmed into a Part 90 radio. :rolleyes:


More specifically, P25 is F1E emission, which is not one that is permitted on MURS.
 

wa8pyr

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One13Truck

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PSP uses DVRS in their vehicles. The portables go through the cars. Mobile coverage is quite good from what I understand.

Very interesting. Well hopefully it works out for them. It seems like the 2 sites will leave a coverage gap but I really haven’t heard much activity on the 2 existing sites to get any kind of gague. Guess we’ll see soon enough.
 

scnrfrq

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I noticed lots of DCNR TG's have been added to the Wiki Research page and the database. When it says "bold" indicates confirmed TG's on the research page, does that mean voice traffic was actually heard, or is it confirmed by information from the state or other agency?
 
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