Southern Alberta updates

[Jay911]

Hey all,

Road tripped with my new PSR500 and some other stuff today, learned a few things of note.

1. The Suffield EDACS stuff is definitely military and has been renamed "CFB Suffield" in the database. Today I could hear 2 distinct control channels, and lots of new voice channels. They've been added to the DB. Unfortunately, I forgot to take along my PSR's cable, so I had to rely on a tapped BC245 to do my Unitrunker work - and UT couldn't pick up this system at all. I have the feeling they might be using ESK, because one of the CCs sounds 'weird' to me. All voice continues to be in analog - heard "ammo point 1" report in today that he was in position.

1a. The military just got a metric buttload of tracked vehicles delivered by train. I was stopped at the intersection of the 800-series highway (I forget which) and Highway 1, playing with the EDACS systems, when they started offloading some of them and escorting them across the highway with MP vehicles. Oddity: The train also carried, in the middle of the entire military load, one compact car that looked like a Citroen or Peugeot model (definitely not domestic). Bet they didn't have to go thru the red tape everyone else does...

1b. I think Afghan army types are in Suffield right now. In addition to the usual British voices, there were some voices with accents definitely belonging to that part of the world. Every now and then they would seem to lapse into their native tongue as well.

2. Medicine Hat FD and MHPS really do only have those four channels for ops. They're not using separate NACs to differentiate between various tasks, as I'd thought they would be. All the channels (except MHPS Tac, which didn't get used while I was in the city) report the default NAC of 293.

3. Taber Municipal Police use the same 10-codes as RCMP. They also have MDC pre-transmission IDs - I didn't have WinMDCd with me, either. FYI, if I've never mentioned it before - the short quack of data you hear when an RCMP officer uses his RTT button is also MDC.

4. Lethbridge Public Safety runs just fine on a Unitrunker installation, at least as far as determining talkgroups and channels and such. I found a bunch of talkgroups, but seeing as how they're all ProVoice, they're largely irrelevant right now. However, if one was so inclined to sit around all day, they could, for example, watch a fire truck leave a station and see if the officer's use of the mic coincides with a burst of PV noise, and note which talkgroup is on the Unitrunker screen at that time, and label that as Fire... :twisted:

4a. By the way, Unitrunker reported eight channel slots while we only have 6 frequencies in the DB. I couldn't hang around to see which channels are firing in which LCN order, but that too could be an interesting project (even if it is futile due to the PV issue).

5. The next time I think about doing that kind of road trip, I'm going to remind myself of how tired I feel right now, and sit down until the urge to road-trip passes.

 

[smason]

Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing!

How do you like the 500 so far?

 

[Jay911]

How do you like the 500 so far?

I'm of mixed opinions. There are some things it does that I like a lot, and some that are kinda annoying, to tell you the truth.

I love the way it handles multi-site trunk systems compared to the 396. Monitoring the RSSI and switching to the favored tower is, IMO, the proper way to do it. That way, you're always working off the strongest signal.

That's not to say I still don't hear so-called "motorboating" or dropped/garbled audio, though. I would put the 396 with v2/3 firmware at the same level with the 500 in terms of its digital reception. If you're a good distance from the signal, you're going to get "motorboating", and that's all there is to it.

The "object-oriented" storage threw me for a loop at first. Once I got my head around the idea that the scanner is built around scan lists instead of systems (or older scanners with channels and banks), I find I'm getting the hang of it. There's still stuff that I'm not thrilled about - for example, I set my scanners up so that scan list (or group) 1 is Fire, 2 is EMS, 3 is Police, 5 is Public Works, etc. On the 396, I can put a system in for the RCMP, a system for Calgary Police, a system for some other police operators, etc. On the 500, unless I'm missing something, if I program all that stuff in, I have to live with hearing the mounties and CPS and everybody else - there doesn't seem to be a way for me to group some frequencies together as RCMP, other than to make different scan lists for Police, which goes against my numbering plans.

The ability to identify NACs is great, and the functionality that lets you leave determining the LTR LCN order to the scanner is just plain awesome. I already found one frequency in Calgary that was in the wrong place.

I want to spend more time screwing around with it vis-a-vis Unitrunker and its own Win500 software (and that's another thing - having the guy who wrote the firmware write the programming software is a brilliant idea, IMO).

 

[smason]

Yes the object oriented model takes some getting used to.
I like the idea of scanlists, but there needs to be more than 20.

I have all CPS in 1, all EMS in 2, all fire in 3, then in Favorites, I put the local stuff (south side) for all 3, plus the Radio ID for HAWC with an audible alert.
another list for Ham repeaters, etc. I still haven't quite got it optimized but it's getting there.
V scanners is a cool feature, you can have several different configs at your fingertips.

I've never heard motorboating on my 600, and I have a crap antenna, though it's line of sight to Fish creek, and line of sight, but a long way to Banker's

There are a few expert settings that are said to help with that, though I've never tried them.

Win500 rocks. I rarely actually touch or see my 600, it's in the basement with my Pro2006 (also remote controlled) I can even hear/control it via my cellphone, though I have some audio issues at the moment.

 

[HDMechanic]

Jay

I also have the 500 and found that it works out in your area with stock antena and inside a vehicle. Have had it working at your home yet?? Also a little tip I found that works great is only enter all the control chanels and alts in the freq colum. Then I set multi site to stationary. This will give you the option of setting the check all cc to on. These setting work awsome for me.

Later HD Mechanic.

 

[Pigshanks]

Hey all,

Road tripped with my new PSR500 and some other stuff today, learned a few things of note.

1. The Suffield EDACS stuff is definitely military and has been renamed "CFB Suffield" in the database. Today I could hear 2 distinct control channels, and lots of new voice channels. They've been added to the DB. Unfortunately, I forgot to take along my PSR's cable, so I had to rely on a tapped BC245 to do my Unitrunker work - and UT couldn't pick up this system at all. I have the feeling they might be using ESK, because one of the CCs sounds 'weird' to me. All voice continues to be in analog - heard "ammo point 1" report in today that he was in position.

Don't take the scanner with me to work, but might just program it and have a listen.

1a. The military just got a metric buttload of tracked vehicles delivered by train. I was stopped at the intersection of the 800-series highway (I forget which) and Highway 1, playing with the EDACS systems, when they started offloading some of them and escorting them across the highway with MP vehicles. Oddity: The train also carried, in the middle of the entire military load, one compact car that looked like a Citroen or Peugeot model (definitely not domestic). Bet they didn't have to go thru the red tape everyone else does....

That is the British army replacements. Most of their vehicles do a two year tour in BATUS(British Army Traing Unit Suffield) before heading back to the UK for overhaul. As I only deal with the military fleet, I usually don't pay attention to what personal vehicle are on the train, but I did notice a BMW motorbike due in. Not too much red tape for the military on a two year post to bring their personal vehicles over. The vehicle must pass inspection before it is allowed on the road, and it can't be sold unless the import paperwork and fees are submitted.

1b. I think Afghan army types are in Suffield right now. In addition to the usual British voices, there were some voices with accents definitely belonging to that part of the world. Every now and then they would seem to lapse into their native tongue as well.

That would be the Gurkhas over training. Brigade of Gurkhas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[MrVelvet]

Bump an older 500 thread.

I'm the proud new owner of a PSR500 and will hopefully receive it next week.

Would you guys mind posting up your Win500 files for me to take a look at?

Thanks

 

[smason]

I'll try to remember to send you a copy of mine tonight when I get home.

 

[MrVelvet]

Much appreciated - looking at Win500 for the first time is a little intimidating compared to my Win97.

 

[smason]

Did you get the file?

 

[MrVelvet]

Did you get the file?

Yes, thank you. Just need a scanner now.

I opened the file in Win500 and its sure a different layout - but your file definitely helps me understand it.

Thanks again.

 

[smason]

No problem. While I was waiting for my 600 to arrive, I imported the Calgary digital system, and manually entered all of my conventional stuff. Something to do during the unbearable wait