There's been some submissions to the 800 MHz system in response to this thread, so I thought I'd drop some historical perspective in here. The 800 MHz system city simulcast site is indeed site 002, and here's why:
The SD 700 MHz and 800 MHz systems are on the same Motorola ASTRO 25 Zone Controller. The city went through the motions and upgraded the zone controller a couple years ago (maybe more at this point?) and that's when the site change would have happened. This included upgrading all the dispatch consoles from Centracom Gold Elites to MCC 7500s, and all the dispatchers got slightly more digital sounding. This was due to parts availability and Motorola ceasing support for the older SmartZone zone controllers (I believe the RCS went through similar pains as I recall
).
The remaining analog Motorola Type II Smartzone 800 MHz sites are actually on the ASTRO 25 system, but they're being broadcast as Type II Smartzone sites for backwards compatibly purposes thanks to SmartX converter boxes at those sites.
https://www.motorolasolutions.com/c...les/r3-26-2006_smartx_siteconverter_final.pdf
This allowed San Diego to only have to pay for upgrading the P25 "core" prime site, without having to buy millions in new P25 radios all at once. 800 MHz rebanding was just another thing that happened during this time, and presumably the system user radios weren't caught up enough to also make the switch to P25 at the same time.
Here's a current snapshot of the two systems thanks to Unitrunker:
San Diego City 800 MHz System
Motorola Type II Smartzone
System ID: 2B2E, CT: 138.46
856.1875 control channel (LCN 207),
Site 2 - Citywide Simulcast
Neighbors:
LCN 167 (855.1875 unverified), Site 3 - This shows up in the neighbor list for Site 2. I suspect it's the Point Loma wastewater intellirepeater, but it needs to be verified (along with the freq, which is based on assuming site 2's bandplan).
I suspect the San Pasqual (Valley) site was rolled into the Site 2 city simulcast system years ago, and nobody noticed. Still, I'd like confirmation if possible before we delete it for good.
Right now both Point Loma and San Pasqual (Valley) sites have been moved to site 003 until the bogus one can be deleted. If these duplicate sites break anyone's scanners let us know and we can make the appropriate changes.
San Diego City 700 MHz System
Motorola P25
System ID: 375, WACN: BEE00, NAC: 370
771.48125 control channel - Site 001-001 - Citywide Simulcast
Neighbors:
Site 001-004 - LCN 01-1480 (Freq 771.25625 MHz)
Site 001-005 - LCN 01-1480 (Freq 771.25625 MHz)
I find it peculiar that both neighbors are announcing the same control channel frequency, but they must be very small fill-in sites covering small enough areas that it allows them to re-use the freqs. I've heard that one of these sites may be at the SD Sheriff detention center complex in Otay Mesa (Bailey Detention Facility, Facility 8, East Mesa Re-Entry), but not sure about the other.
Combining the two systems above, here's what the ASTRO 25 zone controller sees:
Site 1 (001-001) - SD 700 MHz P25 System - City 700 MHz Simulcast Site
Site 2 - SD 800 MHz Smartzone System - City 800 MHz Simulcast Site
Site 3 - SD 800 MHz Smartzone System - Point Loma?
Site 4 (001-004) - SD 700 MHz P25 System - ?
Site 5 (001-005) - SD 700 MHz P25 System - ?
You can bet that the city has been gradually paying for P25 capable user radios. At some point in the not too distant future they'll be able to throw the proverbial switch, remove the SmartX converters from Sites 2 and 3 and convert the whole city to the 700 MHz system. Or perhaps they'll keep the rebanded 800 MHz frequencies on the P25 system? Time will tell I guess! As far as the central core zone controller is concerned, SD is already a P25 system.