Somerset County 700 P25 Expansion and Changes

rr60

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Let’s use this thread to keep track of changes to the 700 System. We know thanks to @GTR8000 the number of sites and frequencies have been expanded. Not seen yet are MW path applications. My guess is path studies are underway and then licensing.

I do know that a move of equipment up at Zion is planned or has occurred to a County tower nearby. This may explain some signal issues some have been reporting.

Anything else please report it here.

The CH 19 tropo problem will likely hasten this along.
 

rr60

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Bernards has a 700 site that I confirmed is OTA. I was at Monopole by Bernards Police HQ, full scale no antenna. I have not been by Vollers Tower. Also noted Morris MIRS has a site there too. You may be getting 700 LTE de-sense.
 

richee2000

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Bernards has a 700 site that I confirmed is OTA. I was at Monopole by Bernards Police HQ, full scale no antenna. I have not been by Vollers Tower. Also noted Morris MIRS has a site there too. You may be getting 700 LTE de-sense.
I am just in a poor location for that site. Basking Ridge FD/EMS on 154.415 is barely readable. But, as I said, the 500 part of the system is 100%, 700 no signal. I dont think its de-sense . Nothing directly in my area could be causing this, and the 700 was 100% up until a few months ago.
 

rr60

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Somerset County 700 P25 Expansion and Changes
 

RadioDitch

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I have not been by Vollers Tower.

I'm not all that familiar with Somerset County. Where would Vollers be? Vollers Recycling/Construction in Branchburg next to the gun shop?
 
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rr60

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I'm not all that familiar with Somerset County. Where would Vollers be? Vollers Recycling/Construction in Branchburg next to the gun shop?
The existing site location is east northeast of the intersection of 287/78. This tower has been called Vollers forever. I do not know who owns it. The County has leased space here for years. It appears SC is also vacating some leased sites for its own towers, such as Zion. I have been told the lessee has limited antenna height to 85’ at Vollers. Much work is going on to make the Somerset 700 TRS even better. Stay tuned.
 

RadioDitch

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The existing site location is east northeast of the intersection of 287/78. This tower has been called Vollers forever. I do not know who owns it. The County has leased space here for years. It appears SC is also vacating some leased sites for its own towers, such as Zion. I have been told the lessee has limited antenna height to 85’ at Vollers. Much work is going on to make the Somerset 700 TRS even better. Stay tuned.

Ahhh, the Old Stage Coach site. Thanks dude.
 

RadioDitch

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The existing site location is east northeast of the intersection of 287/78. This tower has been called Vollers forever. I do not know who owns it. The County has leased space here for years. It appears SC is also vacating some leased sites for its own towers, such as Zion. I have been told the lessee has limited antenna height to 85’ at Vollers. Much work is going on to make the Somerset 700 TRS even better. Stay tuned.

From my brother:

"I actually had to go up that way anyway to swap the polyphaser on the repeater hardline so I swung up to the tower site. RSSI of -51 at best backed up to the fence, -79 antenna off, and the contractor is on-site with our Motorola buddy. Safe to say Vollers is not on the air yet."
 

rr60

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Funded. Maybe old lease expired and equipment off air waiting to be moved. Here is the verbage. My guess this site will then provide new MW shots to North and South County.

”upgrades from Motorola 7.13 to 7.17, replace/install Equipment update to Tower Sites, relocate equipment to new Tower at North Zion Rd, Construct and outfit New Radio Tower Stagecoach Rd“
 
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The existing site location is east northeast of the intersection of 287/78. This tower has been called Vollers forever. I do not know who owns it. The County has leased space here for years. It appears SC is also vacating some leased sites for its own towers, such as Zion. I have been told the lessee has limited antenna height to 85’ at Vollers. Much work is going on to make the Somerset 700 TRS even better. Stay tuned.
I belonged to a ham radio club that owned & operated a UHF repeater that was located within a stone's throw of "Vollers." The legal address of the "Vollers" site is N/N Washington Valley Road, Bridgewater, NJ. An aerial photo of the site is attached. I believe the property is owned by either NJ American Water (Block 901, Lot 11.01) or the County of Somerset (Block 901, Lot 11.02). Prior to the installation of the tower, the nearby water tank was home to several antennas. There may still be antennas on the water tank; I haven't been to that location in ages as our ham repeater is now defunct. Our ham repeater was located on a tower owned by a cable TV company. We were the only 2-way antenna on the tower. I'm not even sure that tower exists any longer. It was located within the Hills at Bedminster complex. You could work the repeater easily from Mount Hope, PA. A great location for coverage to the south and west.SomersetCountyTower.jpg
 

richee2000

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rr60

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The county has filed a slow growth application, requesting a delay of this expansion until 2025, due to COVID and other issues.


Well that is interesting. When I read that letter, this is my takeaway. Delays Delays and more delays are possible bringing expanded capacity to the Somerset 700 P25 system.

Some grants date back to 2016, so perhaps a buildout might occur almost 10 years after the initial grants on 700 MHZ. Even “new sites” old news. Many licensed not built around for a long time.

Fire and EMS in Somerset County have been relegated exclusively to the 500 MHZ portion of the system. These subs are not permitted on the 700 side under any circumstances, not even temporarily during 500 system outages caused by TROPO.

UHF TV under FCC mandates changed TV channel assignments (repacking). Those changes have impacted the Somerset 500 TRS making the system unusable during tropo band openings. This now occurs more than a dozen times per year. The core of tropo starts in a few weeks and lasts for a few months. Get ready for yet another BONK,no service, season, Somerset Fire and EMS users.

TV 19 occupies all of 500-506 MHZ. When the band opens, all land mobile receivers using 500-506 are overwhelmed as a result of the massive rise in RF noise floor and rendered useless, ie no radio service at all.

Some of these new TV stations on RF 19 are transmitting a million watts from a thousand feet above sea level. Somerset County’s TRS is now impacted at times by one or all of the following new TV 19 locations. Portsmouth Va, Pittsburg Pa, Worcester Ma, Amsterdam NY, Syracuse NY and lastly Lynchburg Va.

As a point of reference all this began in the spring of 2020.

It is nice to see other peers such as Morris County fast tracking their 700 systems as they too have had tropo problems. It appears to me as if Morris will be done this year. Nice job Morris. Copy that?
 
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rr60

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This thread was started August 19, 2020. Seems as if an update might be appropriate.

Somerset has licensed (13) 700 Site locations, (14) sites if you count Bernard’s (no paper). Site 4 (700) has been running with 5 frequencies of the 13 licensed.

Many Emergency Services are not permitted on the 700 cell (even though the 500 shuts down TV 19) because of “capacity” concerns for many years now.

Below are the 700/500 Sites and frequencies that are actually operating, compared to those licensed.

Meanwhile in the past year, Morris 700 MIRS has begun to be built out.

Additions or deletions welcome to this first draft.
140F219A-2732-41E5-91A3-15D03875B74D.jpeg
 

richee2000

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This thread was started August 19, 2020. Seems as if an update might be appropriate.

Somerset has licensed (13) 700 Site locations, (14) sites if you count Bernard’s (no paper). Site 4 (700) has been running with 5 frequencies of the 13 licensed.

Many Emergency Services are not permitted on the 700 cell (even though the 500 shuts down TV 19) because of “capacity” concerns for many years now.

Below are the 700/500 Sites and frequencies that are actually operating, compared to those licensed.

Meanwhile in the past year, Morris 700 MIRS has begun to be built out.

Additions or deletions welcome to this first draft.
View attachment 108709
interesting, 4 sites in bernardsville, but the PD still operates on their Low band repeater. (and a tac channel on the p25) Any news on their possible move to the P25 system full time? (those sites say "none", meaning no actual transmitter at that location?)
 

lynchy135

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Not sure if this is the spot to post this, but I was using Unitrucker today and it looks like 774.40625 is no longer a control channel.

Screen Shot 2022-01-22 at 11.17.59 AM.png
 
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