Rockbridge County - mix & match freq's and PL's

[n4jri]

There appear to be at least four repeater freqs in Rockbridge County that are mixed use with more than one PL:

453.525 - Has come up on 114.8 (typical for Fire & Rescue), and with 156.7 (same as sheriff).

453.600 - has come up with 114.8 with "County-1" going to quarters, and showed up with 103.5 at the 6:00p pager test.

453.325 - Morse ID's with no PL. Have heard fire or rescue traffic with 114.8, and also with 192.8. 114.8 was confirmed as Rockbridge with 192.8 being uncertain.

453.825 - Morse ID's with no PL. 82.5 confirmed as being Rockbridge, with 210.7 being heard in a pager test simulcast with 453.600 [103.5].

There were two pager tests at 6:00p.

First Group
460.575 [156.7] - Buena Vista FD
453.025 [156.7] - Buena Vista RS
460.125 [d 165] - Lexington RS
(I might've missed 453.35 [d031] for Lexington FD as well)

Second Group
453.600 [103.5] - unknown
453.825 [210.7] - unknown

Can anyone sort it out?

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[BoxAlarm187]

Allen, this is really intriguing! I have friend that volunteers at South River District VFD of I-81, and although he's not very radio-knowledgable, he might be able to shed some light on this for us. I'll see what I can do to help...

 

[tglendye]

... 453.525 - Has come up on 114.8 (typical for Fire & Rescue), and with 156.7 (same as sheriff)...

Allen,

Were you in Rockbridge Co. when you were picking up 453.525 (pl 156.7)? Harrisonburg Fire uses this frequency/pl for their channel 2. The repeater is located in Harrisonburg (on a water tower, I believe) and the frequency does not transmit with much power. I know you can pick it up in Augusta Co, but the signal is poor. I don't know if this signal could be received in Rockbridge.

I'm just wondering if you could confirm this is Rockbridge's traffic on that pl. If so, it's pretty close to Harrisonburg for the same frequency/ same pl. I have a friend that has a radio shop and I've seen some guys from Rockbridge in his store. I think he's done some programming for them. I'll see if he has any ideas.

 

[tglendye]

Disregard my previous posting. I just read my "Scan_VA" yahoo group mail where you said that 453.525 pl 156.7 sounded like sheriff or animal control. I didn't think H'burg would have carried quite that far... still seems a little odd for the same pl, though.

 

[n4jri]

I'm pretty sure that I was driving on I-64 east coming up on Lexington from Clifton Forge when I heard it.

Also, the conversation involved a situation that was on the border with Botetourt County, which for me nails it as Rockbridge.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

Harrisonburg can travel far, though. As far away as Natural Bridge, I was hearing a scratchy 460.35 [156.7]. Isn't that Harrisonburg PD?

I'm going to try and check some more stuff out when I get the chance. Am thinking of going to the All-State Band/Orchestra auditions at JMU, and this might be a good time to review what's in Augusta & Rockingham. Don't know if I'll every hear a peep out of Highland.

 

[tglendye]

That sounds like Harrisonburg PD. Both channels are not very high powered (I don't know the wattage) and you have problems receiving when you get a little ways out of the city. Kind of surpises me that you recieved it that far- but I'll take your word for it

I live in Rockingham. Highland's broken squelch a few times on the frequency in the rrdatabase (451.450). There's a company on the same frequency that comes in loud & clear hear. On my 780 I had to lock the pl out- but I think I have the whole channel locked out now. According to the fcc search it is probably Verizon-south.

Todd

 

[derekjmu]

i don't live in VA anymore, but spent several years in augusta / rockingham county area and volunteered in augusta county. my personal radio database for that area is pretty extensive, so i'll shed what light i can on this topic. here goes...

453.325 repeater, PL 192.8 = Rockbridge FD - North Tower
453.325 repeater, PL 114.8 = Rockbridge FD - South Tower

453.825 repeater, PL 210.7 = Rockbridge RS - North Tower
453.825 repeater, PL 82.5 = Rockbridge RS - South Tower

because of the distance and mountains across Rockbridge County, two repeater sites are used to communicate. for example, i know Fairfield Rescue Squad uses "Rescue North" repeater. Shenandoah County uses a similar system utilizing Zepp Mtn. Repeater as the "North" and Deerhead Mtn. Repeater as the "South". Augusta County uses 3 or 4 different sites, but with a simulcast/voting system, thereby utilizing the same PL. One of Augusta Counties sites for paging and County 1-4 is on Mass Peak. Their coverage across Augusta and Rockingham is really good.

453.525 repeater, PL 156.7 is indeed HFD CH 2 in Rockingham, but strangely enough, i believe a repeater is also up in Rockbridge on PL 156.7 & 114.8. because HFD CH 2 is located at a lower elevation and a lot of mountains are between the two, there is not much interference. HFD CH 2 and CH 3 (453.200 repeater, PL 156.7) are both located at Reservoir Hill on the water tower in Harrisonburg.

HPD CH 1 (460.350, 156.7) is also on Reservoir Hill. It's not unusual to receive them as far away as Rockbridge County on a regular basis. When i travel up I-81 N i can usually start to pick up HFD channels in Rockbridge on my Kenwood TK-370. With a mobile TK-880, i've heard them as far away as Lynchburg and Roanoke County.

i have a pretty extensive list of freq's/PL's for Shenandoah, Rockingham, Augusta, Rockbridge and Botetourt Counties. If you need more info, just PM me or email me.

hope this helps.[/b]

 

[K4APR]

Derek is pretty much on, I have the full list of freqs and PL's for the Rockbridge area. I am out of town tonight. When I get back tomorrow I'll post the full list including Buena Vista, Lexington and Rockbridge Sheriff. We service all of those agencies up there, so I keep a rather extensive and accurate list for when I have to work on one of their crazy profiles. For example, Lexington PD loves to have VMI freqs in their MT2000 portables. Gotta love cops.

The 4 repeater sites is correct. They have 4 main and four backups, each using different PL's The backups are brought up using DTMF tones.

I'll have some more info tomorrow.

 

[wm8s]

I noticed that the database still does not contain accurate info for the Rockbridge/Lex/BV stuff. Would one of you care to upload your data so we can get it right? Thanks!

...R