Ppl

[richardfaloney]

Does anyone in central PA. know if PPL,the regional power company, still uses the antiqueted 37MHz simplex system and if they have any plans to modernize their communications system??? Thanks

 

[Mattsenft]

They still use 37 mhz. From my experiences with them it appears that they conduct most of their business over cell phones.

 

[popnokick]

They're still very active here in NE PA on their 37 mHz channels. However, I know for certain they have some other channels. Reason is that I was parked near a PPL truck with all of the workers outside on poles, etc. They had the truck radio up very loud. I recognized the dispatcher's voice as the same I always hear on 37 mHz. But the scanner in my car was picking up nada. So I went into search mode up/down around 37 mHz, 450-460 mHz, and some 800 mHz. Still nothing. Unfortunately, I did not have my Close Call capable scanner with me, just my BCT-8 in the car.

 

[captclint]

I also can confirm fair amount of traffic in Luzerne, Lycoming & Columbia Counties on:
37.6600
37.7400
37.8200
37.8600
37.6200
37.6400
However, they also use 153.5150 Simplex, but this is also the input to 158.1750 Rtr (mostly used for the Nuke Reactor plant)
I have observed some simulcast of 37.6600 on 153.5150.
Perhaps they were using 153.5150 since you did scan that band, but I also think there is a lot of cell phone comms, because many emergency line repairs requested by PD & FD do not get dispatched on any of the above channels.

 

[scan-pa]

Here in the hershey pa, dauphin county area PPL use In truck 900mhz voice / MDC w/ Data printers for all dispatches from the office.

Was inside one of there trucks when we had them out replacing a 3 phase line at work.

all work orders are printed out via a little printer. if they have any questions, they use there (looks to be GE equipment) 900mhz radio / MDC system, or nextels. from what the forman told me, they only seem to use vhf low band / vhf high band for portable usage now at a work site or as backup. those radios look very old and out of date.....

 

[richardfaloney]

ppl

Thank all of you very much, now I know!!!!!! Thanks (Incidently, I'm also here in Hershey Pa. at present)

 

[Mattsenft]

I'm a little bit curious Peter, as to where you got the 900mhz info. I think it may have been incorrect, which is a good possibility if you got it from a lineman. I did a pretty extensive search on 900 mhz stuff in Dauphin, Lebanon, and Lancaster counties. There were no 900mhz frequencies licensed to PPL directly, and I couldn't find anything licensed to a communications provider for an SMR system of something of the like they would be using. The only other possibility that I thought of is if they are using a service from a cell provider. I'm interested if you have any other info on the system that you saw or if you could identify the radio so we could pinpoint it as an EDACS radio or something of the like. It would be nice to be able to listen to both sides of PPL comms as opposed to usually just the base on 37 mhz.