PRO96COM vs PRO96 Dump Utility

[ChrisP]

Does PRO96COM require that it detect a tower ID before it displays any system data?

I ask because of a system I'm trying to research in my area that is apparently still being set up, as many of the 9600 baud control channels are not advertising a system ID or tower ID. The PRO-96 locks on to these control channels but only displays the decoding percentage, no ID's.

However, if you run the PRO-96 Dump Utility, there is plenty of other system information being broadcast, including base and offset updates and adjacent site information.

Is there a way to get PRO96COM to display system info that it is reading even without system or tower ID's?

-Chris

 

[mikey60]

Pro96Com will not decode until it has sucessfully recieved a system ID (The packet that this is extracted from also has the tower ID) and WACN from the control channel.

I would be interested in the dump information from that site though if you have a way to get it to me.

Mike

 

[ChrisP]

Here is a dump from one of the towers I've been monitoring today. I have about 6 towers that are like this one. Three or four other towers I've found are advertising all normal system info and decode fine...

- Chris

 

[mikey60]

Hmm, The format of the system status message is odd...

37 FD 00 00 07 15 81 3B 00 00 75 50 Network Status Broadcast

Normally that second byte is 00.

My read of that line is sysid: 715
Control channel: 8-13b with no capability bits.

Is the control channel actually on 139.9375?

Mike

 

[mikey60]

Actually, I take that back... These packet types are not properly handled by Pro96com. These are packets that are chained together. I'll see what I can to to handle these correctly.

Mike

 

[ChrisP]

Just to confirm - The control channel is indeed on 170.6375 Mhz and the system ID is 715.

Only 4 sites out of 15 have been showing a tower ID, but yet they seem to be using the sites with no ID for testing. Strange...

- Chris

Hmm, The format of the system status message is odd...

37 FD 00 00 07 15 81 3B 00 00 75 50 Network Status Broadcast

Normally that second byte is 00.

My read of that line is sysid: 715
Control channel: 8-13b with no capability bits.

Is the control channel actually on 139.9375?

Mike

 

[mikey60]

Ok, it could be some odd testing being done. The format of the OSP still looks odd to me though.

Mike

 

[ChrisP]

I have some dump files of the other sites if you want to have a look...

- Chris

 

[SCPD]

That may be a multi-TSBK OSP message. I haven't seen a live system use these (mostly because single packet messages are more reliable) The follow-on TSBKs will likely be rejected because they don't conform to the format of a single TSBK message.

The main difference (besides the message being too big to fit inside a single TSBK or packet) is the use of a 32 bit CRC at the end of the last packet as opposed to a 16 bit CRC at the end of each packet.

-rick

 

[kikito]

Only 4 sites out of 15 have been showing a tower ID, but yet they seem to be using the sites with no ID for testing. Strange...

That's the way it was up here on our system, most of the time a new tower was activated, it would be on with no SysId.

The Pro-96 would decode the CC from 60% to 99% but nothing else. Weeks later the SysId would magically appear. The Pro96Com program wasn't available at that time to check what kind of packets it was sending.

 

[ChrisP]

That's the way it was up here on our system, most of the time a new tower was activated, it would be on with no SysId.

The Pro-96 would decode the CC from 60% to 99% but nothing else. Weeks later the SysId would magically appear.

Thanks, that's good to hear. I guess I'll keep watching for more progress on the system. BTW, the BC-796D tracks this system just fine, even the sites with no system ID...

- Chris