bchris
Member
About a year ago (04/2009) I downloaded from the FCC web site all public safety frequencies for all agencies in Utah. I wanted to be able to travel all around rural Utah and hear what’s going on around me. This huge .csv file was something like 10-20,000 lines due to there being 6-10 types of records for each license, with each record containing different information and being in different formats. This is an overwhelming amount of information!
I imported the file into Excel and sorted every which way to identify duplicate, redundant, or non-relevant lines and deleted them. I combined information from the resulting multiple lines into 1 line per frequency per call sign. I sorted by frequency – if one frequency had transmitter sites in 4-6 or more counties, I put it into the ‘Statewide’ category and deleted the other lines in order to minimize the total amount of entries needed in the scanner.
I imported data from the RR database and Gary’s web site and sorted again. The RR database description was the default, unless the FCC record clearly stated a different intended use. I always tried to use the most specific information available as the description. For example: Sometimes the FCC record states that the freq will be used by the Fire Dept. Other records do not state the use, but the mailing address might say ‘Attn: Fire Chief’. Others might just say ‘Used by the City’ or ‘County’.
I sorted by county and tried to package everything so it would fit into the banks in an older scanner, such as my BC780. It uses 10 banks of 50 channels each. This caused me to keep the entries that looked most interesting, and to possibly delete some that I shouldn’t have deleted. It was obvious that I would not be able to fit all the rural counties into that scanner at the same time, and this project was really starting to wear me down. I finished with only the counties along I-15 south of Utah County to St George, which filled up all 10 banks. I lumped everything else into ‘Rural Utah Other’, which did not fit into my scanner at the same time as the others, and I just left it at that for the time being.
Since then I have made about 10 trips to St George, staying for 1-4 nights each. I took pretty good notes during the drive down and back, although I spent relatively very little time in each area while driving. Since the purpose of my trips did not include playing with my scanner, I was not able to keep perfect records while there. I did, however, keep some notes and I left a laptop and a scanner running for about 10+ days in February using ID Tracker to record all the voice traffic during that time. I locked out the 3-4 most active (and already known) freqs such that I would catch more of the other ‘unknowns’. This was done with an indoor antenna on the North-West side of St George, very near Santa Clara, so I could not hear anything from the East side, such as Hurricane or Washington. I listened to the recordings afterwards and identified or confirmed them as best as I could.
About a month ago (06/2010) I started over with a different approach. I searched the FCC database 1 county at a time. Then instead of downloading a huge .csv file, I copied and pasted each screen and other relevant information as needed. This was still a lot of work, but much less overwhelming than a year ago. I think it was also easier and had better results because I knew a little better what info to look for before I started. I merged this new info with that from last year and deleted duplicates. They actually matched pretty well, but not exactly. This time I did not include any UCAN trunking data, nor any conventional freqs for counties where UCAN has been fully deployed, because these are already well known and up to date in the RR database. I did still include non-trunking for 800Mhz and all other conventionals for the rural areas.
I have not yet completed areas directly North or West of the Great Salt Lake or Cache and surrounding counties. I am not sure if these areas are still worth the effort, because UCAN is in transition and they are pretty well known already. I did include all counties South of and including Juab, Sanpete, Carbon, Duchesne, and Daggett. I still cannot fit all of this into my BC780, so I might need to reprogram it for different trip destinations. It does fit into my BR330 hand held if I remove most of the UCAN systems, but that will still require reprogramming for different areas (because I would prefer UCAN when available). It just barely fits in my BCT15 along with all of UCAN, but almost no room for anything else. I just ordered a new Uniden BC346XT. Hopefully it will fit everything at the same time, with some wiggle room left over.
I do not consider my current data ready to submit to the RR database. This project was done for myself to verify and/or update every possible freq that might be in use for Public Safety in Southern Utah. I would be glad to share, but I doubt that more than a few people would want my personal opinion of the 700 most-likely-to-be-active frequencies for Southern and Eastern Utah. Nor do I want tons of people to be critical of my methods or results. (Questions, corrections, and positive comments are absolutely welcome and appreciated.) I think the existing RR database would be best for most people. However, If anyone lives in these areas or is planning a trip and wants to help identify and verify this data, just let me know and I will send the spreadsheet in whatever format works for you.
Brent Christensen
July 12, 2010
I imported the file into Excel and sorted every which way to identify duplicate, redundant, or non-relevant lines and deleted them. I combined information from the resulting multiple lines into 1 line per frequency per call sign. I sorted by frequency – if one frequency had transmitter sites in 4-6 or more counties, I put it into the ‘Statewide’ category and deleted the other lines in order to minimize the total amount of entries needed in the scanner.
I imported data from the RR database and Gary’s web site and sorted again. The RR database description was the default, unless the FCC record clearly stated a different intended use. I always tried to use the most specific information available as the description. For example: Sometimes the FCC record states that the freq will be used by the Fire Dept. Other records do not state the use, but the mailing address might say ‘Attn: Fire Chief’. Others might just say ‘Used by the City’ or ‘County’.
I sorted by county and tried to package everything so it would fit into the banks in an older scanner, such as my BC780. It uses 10 banks of 50 channels each. This caused me to keep the entries that looked most interesting, and to possibly delete some that I shouldn’t have deleted. It was obvious that I would not be able to fit all the rural counties into that scanner at the same time, and this project was really starting to wear me down. I finished with only the counties along I-15 south of Utah County to St George, which filled up all 10 banks. I lumped everything else into ‘Rural Utah Other’, which did not fit into my scanner at the same time as the others, and I just left it at that for the time being.
Since then I have made about 10 trips to St George, staying for 1-4 nights each. I took pretty good notes during the drive down and back, although I spent relatively very little time in each area while driving. Since the purpose of my trips did not include playing with my scanner, I was not able to keep perfect records while there. I did, however, keep some notes and I left a laptop and a scanner running for about 10+ days in February using ID Tracker to record all the voice traffic during that time. I locked out the 3-4 most active (and already known) freqs such that I would catch more of the other ‘unknowns’. This was done with an indoor antenna on the North-West side of St George, very near Santa Clara, so I could not hear anything from the East side, such as Hurricane or Washington. I listened to the recordings afterwards and identified or confirmed them as best as I could.
About a month ago (06/2010) I started over with a different approach. I searched the FCC database 1 county at a time. Then instead of downloading a huge .csv file, I copied and pasted each screen and other relevant information as needed. This was still a lot of work, but much less overwhelming than a year ago. I think it was also easier and had better results because I knew a little better what info to look for before I started. I merged this new info with that from last year and deleted duplicates. They actually matched pretty well, but not exactly. This time I did not include any UCAN trunking data, nor any conventional freqs for counties where UCAN has been fully deployed, because these are already well known and up to date in the RR database. I did still include non-trunking for 800Mhz and all other conventionals for the rural areas.
I have not yet completed areas directly North or West of the Great Salt Lake or Cache and surrounding counties. I am not sure if these areas are still worth the effort, because UCAN is in transition and they are pretty well known already. I did include all counties South of and including Juab, Sanpete, Carbon, Duchesne, and Daggett. I still cannot fit all of this into my BC780, so I might need to reprogram it for different trip destinations. It does fit into my BR330 hand held if I remove most of the UCAN systems, but that will still require reprogramming for different areas (because I would prefer UCAN when available). It just barely fits in my BCT15 along with all of UCAN, but almost no room for anything else. I just ordered a new Uniden BC346XT. Hopefully it will fit everything at the same time, with some wiggle room left over.
I do not consider my current data ready to submit to the RR database. This project was done for myself to verify and/or update every possible freq that might be in use for Public Safety in Southern Utah. I would be glad to share, but I doubt that more than a few people would want my personal opinion of the 700 most-likely-to-be-active frequencies for Southern and Eastern Utah. Nor do I want tons of people to be critical of my methods or results. (Questions, corrections, and positive comments are absolutely welcome and appreciated.) I think the existing RR database would be best for most people. However, If anyone lives in these areas or is planning a trip and wants to help identify and verify this data, just let me know and I will send the spreadsheet in whatever format works for you.
Brent Christensen
July 12, 2010
