PECO Energy goes P25

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EricCottrell

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Hello,

While heading south on the NJ Turnpike east of Philly I picked up a P25 control channel on 859.1625 MHz. I heard some voice traffic and unitrunker logged some voice channels. A FCC search shows the frequencies are licensed to PECO Energy so I submitted it to the database as PECO's new system.

MA/Com may have supplied the P25 equipment but PECO Energy did not go with ProVoice.

73 Eric
 

ctrabs74

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I'm not so sure about that...

Exelon's other major utility - Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) in Chicago has a Moto TRS; PSEG (which is about to be bought by Excelon) has a Moto TRS. I'm wondering if the equipment is actually Motorola to get PECO in line with Exelon's other operating division(s).

In any case, it should make for some interesting listening once this new system comes on-line. The weird thing is that the few times I do monitor PECO's EDACS system, I can get better hits off the Delaware County site than the Chester County site at home in West Chester.
 
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Peco

The Peco Motorola Trs phase 1 system just went live on july 18. The system is a Motorola 9600 buad smart zone with full time ADP secure.
 

wa3ysu

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For Phila city, it looks like PECO licensed these added freqs for the trunking system (in additional to those already licensed for their current Phila City EDACS system) at 2301 Market Street and 216 Paoli Ave:
855.9125
854.0875
856.6625
857.1875
858.1875
859.1625
856.3375

For Bucks County, it looks like PECO licensed these added freqs for the trunking system (in additional to those already licensed for their current Bucks County EDACS system) in Bensalem, New Britain and Lambertville:
856.1625
857.1625
858.1625
859.1125
860.5375
 
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At this time we have only Put up 4 sites. Market street ( Main Site) , Rt 1 and Woodhaven Rd,New Britain and Roxbourgh.
 

Audiodave1

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Hello,
So I read that ADP secure means encrypted full time on all TG's?

I also assume this will be system wide when build out is complete to the west.

Dave
 
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The system will be full time encrypted, they also will be sending data over in the last phase
 
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ctrabs74

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Bummer...

MotoSystemsTech said:
At this time we have only Put up 4 sites. Market street ( Main Site) , Rt 1 and Woodhaven Rd,New Britain and Roxbourgh.

I was on West Chester Pike and was able to pick up a control channel as far west at Newtown Square; I'm guessing that was off of either the Market St or Roxborough site. I did pick up at least 5 ENC tgs - 5226, 5227, 5233, 5235, and 5236. Not that I'll ever know which groups they are, since this will be full-time ENC...

Well, at least I'll be able to free up some memory once this new system goes online.
 
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Boomeranger

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EricCottrell said:
Hello,

While heading south on the NJ Turnpike east of Philly I picked up a P25 control channel on 859.1625 MHz. I heard some voice traffic and unitrunker logged some voice channels. A FCC search shows the frequencies are licensed to PECO Energy so I submitted it to the database as PECO's new system.

MA/Com may have supplied the P25 equipment but PECO Energy did not go with ProVoice.

73 Eric


Eric,

Thanks for the breaking news.

That so upsets me! PECO had always been a premier system to listen to in Delco during outages and through the winter!!!

Why they're going all encrypted is beyond me. The service they perform isn't excactly sensitive.

Another knife in the hobby. Dammit!

Andy
Scannist (retired). :(
 

FPO703

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My question is this, why does an energy company NEED full time encryption? Or, encryption at all, for that matter? If the company has $$$ laying around, try upgrading/updating power substations, transformers, wiring, etc...
 

Audiodave1

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FPO703 said:
My question is this, why does an energy company NEED full time encryption? Or, encryption at all, for that matter? If the company has $$$ laying around, try upgrading/updating power substations, transformers, wiring, etc...

They don't "need " encryption but in the post 911 world infrastructure providers are on edge to say the least adn can easily justify the added cost which will be more than paid for after this heat wave ends.

I think it is BS. I would understand encrypting their security groups for the nuke plants and generations stations...I guess but lline crews goes too far.

Dave
 

FPO703

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They'll scream bloody murder when they have a crew out on the fringe of coverage area and their radios can't hit the nearest tower. I think full time encryption just complicates matters a bit more in that aspect.
 

Boomeranger

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Audiodave1 said:
I think it is BS. I would understand encrypting their security groups for the nuke plants and generations stations...I guess but lline crews goes too far.

Dave

Two weeks ago for the first time in years the power went out at my house. The PD comms told me so. I turned on the PECO bank in my scanner. Without having to call the 800 repair number, I knew exactly where the problem was, and "toughed it out" in the heat wave for 2 hours. The Pro-97 alive the whole time, picking up the repair comms and progress estimates, when I heard the line crew OK the work (I forget their nomenclature). Five seconds later, the house came back to life. That's happened one other time in the past.

It was a relief being in the know!

It was strange hearing an absolute silent house.

Andy
 

Theo

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Peco Edacs

Lost the control channel hear in New Hope. The EDACS system gone ? Do I add those 5 new channels ? Have they switched to the new system already ?
 
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PJH

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They can go encypted because they can. Plain and simple. The cost of ADP encyption in the new radios (for a system that size) is pretty negligable.

In addition, encyption on systems like this does not have any effect on range or the sort. If anything, you more useable voice in the digital mode than analog. However when the voice drops, it drops like a brick.
 

standinby

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PECO Encryption

As both a scanner devotee and a PECO employee I too was disappointed about the move to encryption. I hate to take the party line but, as was mentioned previously, there is a pretty substantial infrastructure that could be attractive to some evildoers. Just remember the Northeast blackout from several years ago. We were spared but, New York and that metro area was in bad shape. We have to think that some one or group may want to purposely do that. Also, there is the periodic transmission of customer info that is inappropriate for the public. It's unfortunately, a sign of the times. And it really has no effect on the cost of maintenance to the facilities now.
 
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