Spokane: Couple of Questions

[commstar]

Chuck/Steve/Tom,

Great information! Thanks! I have oft wondered why David was chosen for Identifiers- District- how simple. Thanks for the SPD identifiers, adds alot of context- much appreciated.

There is a SCSO district map some kind soul submitted (not me & thanks kind soul) its dated 2003 and seems current based on my monitoring.

Steve I see you are a fool for searching also. What type of traffic are tyou hearing? is it consisant with the below?

per FCC lic data, 154.0250 (210.7) might be an input for 155.8350 R ? License here.

This not in the RR DB and I do have it on my unidentified list as
155.8350 (173.8 ) 154.0250 (210.7) Unknown WXK646- Notation of county extension office No notes as to any traffic content heard. Anyone know about this one?

Repeater is on Magnuson Butte in Readan and has Base Stations in Grant and Adams Counties. Street address Googles as COS/WSU extension office. Unless folks are raising snow out there, not much traffic right now (or ever) I suspect.

As for the 700mhz/STA traffic, will check I get back to Radio Ranch from the Salt Mines abit later.

Tom, if it is not an FOUO paradox, do you happen to know what is going on with 700mhz 'round here? I have no real clue what 'they' are even conceptualizing at this point. Sounded like a hybrid of VHF and 700 but having trouble envisioning how that would work and why.

Best,
Mike

 

[tmfok7]

Thats Interesting I didn't know that Jim Hill the mayor was Jim Hill the state trooper as well.

Funny you mention Deer Park used to have its own police department.
I have worked with a guy in the security field that use to be a PD officer
for Deer Park back then.

As for Liberty lake is now D880-89X
Liberty Lake has what I think is a new Car 2 Car on 155.4150 simplex 82.5 tone
I have heard the D88X series with work related chatter.

73
Steve

Thanks Steve! I will listen for that next time over as I have that frequency programmed (CSQ) into a group in my BCT15 that I listen to when traveling across the state. That is/was the primary frequency for Douglas County. Whats the name of the guy who worked there back when?

Take care and 73....
Chuck

 

[kd7kdc]

Your Welcome
I found the maps when I was searching for SCOPE District info because they mirror the
patrol districts.

Guys name is Gene Graham, he was also an officer for medical lake and primary security provider
for expo 74 with his own company Befahl Security Canines.

Yeah I have just been feeling like I may be missing something out there in the spectrum.

The Traffic I heard on 154.0250 sounded like a female dispatcher talking to a work release
crew supervisor at or something along that line it was all in simplex and the only side
I could hear is the dispatcher.

Thats another question I will have to ask the radio tech what the two repeaters 155.835 & 159.465
are supposed to be for. In the early 2000's 159.4650 use to be CCC Fire TAC BLACK which was
primary assigned tac for Dist 10 Airway Hgts


I found what I think is Cheney DPW on 155.6400 Rptr have to look up the input.

This Morning around 0400 I caught a couple officers talking on 151.955 D465 that I mentioned last
week. The signals were moderate to weak and most of the conversation was just banter
could not catch any locations.
I think this is a MURS freqency the old purple dot channel. Limited to 2 Watts out.

451.5000 R 167.9 Hearing a security operations, maybe Northern Quest.

 

[tmfok7]

Steve,

I didn't know District 10 had given up their Tac channel... or possibly changed it. I guess I might have to do a search and see if anything comes up specific to the district.

I have had 155.835 in my scanner in the past but as I recall, about the only thing I heard was the occasional "Ker chunk" of the repeater. I put it in long ago after I found it in "Police Call" and realized the vast area it covered. I thought it might be a discrete frequency used inter-county but never heard anything.

Is this repeater on 159.465 something new? I would be interested in who is going to use it! A check of the FCC Database still shows it licensed to Spokane County on Gardner Ave. w/a 5W ERP Max.

As for 151.955, it is in the vicinity but not actually a MURS frequency. There is 151.820, 151.880 and 151.940 though! There are several people licensed for 151.955. A couple of them are licensed for only 5W ERP but there is one of them licensed for 50W ERP which is fairly close to you around Newport Highway and Bridges Rd. A company called Spokane Rock Products!

Anyway....keep me updated and will catch ya later..

73...
Chuck

 

[commstar]

I show a license for Eastern Washington University/Cheney on 151.9550
151.9550 S ( ) wpkh910

Based on the advanced DUI detection conversation previously alluded to, I wonder if is not EWUPD midnighters conversing amongst themselves.

Great catch regardless.

Steve, is that even possible based on where you were monitoring from?

MS

 

[tmfok7]

I show a license for Eastern Washington University/Cheney on 151.9550
151.9550 S ( ) wpkh910

Based on the advanced DUI detection conversation previously alluded to, I wonder if is not EWUPD midnighters conversing amongst themselves.

Great catch regardless.

Steve, is that even possible based on where you were monitoring from?

MS

The one thing that gets me about the EWU license on this frequency is, they are only licensed for 5 Watts. But that doesn't mean that, since they are licensed for it, they didn't have it programmed in the Campus PD mobiles for a Chit-Chat channel as the original users at the school changed to something else and no longer use the frequency. I know this is unorthodox, but Cheney PD may even have it in their cars too!

I have a friend of mine who used to be a cop in Moses Lake. Having coffee with him one day, he took his portable and changed channels and called one of the other guys. He told me after their conversation that it was one of the Fire channels, he had no idea which one, that he said "No one ever uses"! I guessed later it was "Red Net"! The point being....anything is possible!..

Chuck

 

[kd7kdc]

159.4650 I am hearing a simulcast of the Spokane Sheriffs patrol channel 1
155.8350 I am hearing a simulcast of the Spokane Sheriffs patrol channel 2

EWU has a satellite campus here in the downtown part of Spokane so maybe there is a couple of them
assigned up here or they travel up here for some reason at that hour??
I have heard the sand and gravel place, I don't remember what the tone is off hand.

This morning while searching the spectrum I had my STX setting on the WA DOT 866.6375
status channel repeater and heard that the Viaduct units were using simplex, channel fourteen Two
not sure what frequency that would be I am too far away to pick up 800 simplex so I was not
going to try. Not sure if that is zone 2 channel 14 or visa versa.

Chuck, speaking of weak signals I was able to pick up what I would assume to be your medical lake
channel 155.0550 186.2 simplex with lots of chatter this morning but too weak to pick out enough words.

I think I may have found an Airway Heights channel that Chuck mentioned.
155.0250 DCS 131
I looked up the FCC data WNFU451 and it looks like it is supposed to be a RPTR
but the traffic I heard sounded like a simplex base mobile set up.
The input looks like it is 153.9200. The other frequency 153.7850 I have accounted for.
It could be WNKK735 - PINEHURST which is a base mobile setup, with the way my
propagation goes I would not doubt it.

460.7250 203.5 RPTR Unitied Airlines Spokane Airport. Weak signal at my location WNIM400

158.8500 94.8 RPTR Whitcomm Dispatching the Steptoe FD to a working fire. Whitman County WA

154.1150 88.5 RPTR Spokane Reservation in Nespealum

Kootenai County Idaho Plows have been busy plowing Post Falls and CDA roadways
453.2500 103.5 RPTR
453.4000 103.5 RPTR

150.9950 100.0 RPTR WPKQ914 PEND OREILLE Fire Rescue / Ambulance
150.9950 71.9 RPTR KJG991 POST FALLS Public works, commenting on a huge flash
early this morning in post falls due to a transformer explosion .
Both repeaters hit me really strong pretty much an even double when they are both going.

There is some of my observations from overnight and during this morning.

Chuck, I take it that name dose not ring a bell???

73
Steve

 

[Wilrobnson]

But that doesn't mean that, since they are licensed for it, they didn't have it programmed in the Campus PD mobiles for a Chit-Chat channel as the original users at the school changed to something else and no longer use the frequency.

One of the places I lived in the past had 154.600 as an in-school security freq. The local cops who had the SRO role also had that in their car radios, and as I understood it, the radio shop couldn't program them for 5 watts, only 100 or 35. So I got to listen to the SROs chatting as they moved from school to school, all over the city.

This morning while searching the spectrum I had my STX setting on the WA DOT 866.6375
status channel repeater and heard that the Viaduct units were using simplex, channel fourteen Two
not sure what frequency that would be I am too far away to pick up 800 simplex so I was not
going to try. Not sure if that is zone 2 channel 14 or visa versa.

This is what I've verified for WSDOT from a plow (3 years ago though):
866.5625 Simplex-1
866.1125 Simplex-2
867.2250 Simplex-3

I've also heard of these as WSDOT simplex channels, IIRC they were numbered 14-1, 2 and 3.
866.0750 (also used by King County roads dept in simplex mode)
866.1500
867.2500

867.6875 is also a likely candidate.

Lastly, check State-Ops 3 (867.5875); they've used it in Seattle in the past.

 

[commstar]

159.4650 I am hearing a simulcast of the Spokane Sheriffs patrol channel 1
155.8350 I am hearing a simulcast of the Spokane Sheriffs patrol channel 2

EWU has a satellite campus here in the downtown part of Spokane so maybe there is a couple of them
assigned up here or they travel up here for some reason at that hour??
I have heard the sand and gravel place, I don't remember what the tone is off hand.

158.8500 94.8 RPTR Whitcomm Dispatching the Steptoe FD to a working fire. Whitman County WA

Hmmmm what would be the purpose of simulcasting those channels? I have to wonder based on what these channels are/used to be/supposed to be if the county is not just loading these channels to prevent someone from licensing them away. Looking to licensing, both are just about sole access in Eastern Wa and Northern Idaho- especially in light of the new multi-county VHF system apparently being put up down in the Lewiston area.

As for the 151.9550, could be anyone i guess (common business freq 'purple dot') checked on the Riverpoint Campus and they do have Security Officers on-site but apparently not Police and are allegedly on a private UHF LTR systems here. I have heard the LTR beat evey few seconds but have never heard voice nor have I studied this system. Steve, depending on where you are Downtown (not asking) I think it is possible that a couple of 110w mobiles could be heard from Cheney. whatyathink?

And Brett, thanks for the bacon on those WDOT channels, good stuff.
Mike

 

[kd7kdc]

Yeah I suppose that a 110 W VHF mobile could be heard that distance even with a unity gain
spike antenna mounted right in between the elevated feed 800mhz MDT antenna and
the uhf LTR system antenna which are all on the trunk of the car

I am about 5 miles south of the city of Deer Park.

I forgot to add to my prior post that WSP was using 155.4450 Car 1 up here and lower Stevens County
for Idle car to car chit chat.

 

[tmfok7]

I forgot to add to my prior post that WSP was using 155.4450 Car 1 up here and lower Stevens County for Idle car to car chit chat.

I don't know if you knew it, but for a long time, the WSP south patrols used to use 159.075 for car to car and the north patrols used 154.695. So they have probably separated them again w/south using 5.460 and north using 5.445.

I have caught a new one that may be related to 155.7600. It is 154.0250 simplex with a 210.7 PL I can only hear the dispatcher

Steve, I did a search of 154.025 and finally found it licensed to Spokane County but listed under Lincoln County. Mike mentioned this in his post on 1/1. This is the rest of what the Db says:

Frequency Loc# Ant# Freq
ID Station
Class Units Paging
Rec. Output
Power Maximum
ERP
000154.02500000 1 1 1 FX1 3 110.000 400.000
000154.02500000 6 1 1 MO 30 110.000 220.000
000155.83500000 2 1 1 FB 1 110.000 400.000
000155.83500000 3 1 1 FB 1 110.000 400.000
000155.83500000 4 1 1 FB 1 110.000 400.000
000155.83500000 5 1 1 FB2 1 110.000 400.000

159.4650 I am hearing a simulcast of the Spokane Sheriffs patrol channel 1
155.8350 I am hearing a simulcast of the Spokane Sheriffs patrol channel 2

It is possible, however slight, they have set up a MR (Mobile Relay) system. I had all but forgotten about this but, years ago, when 155.130 was their only repeated primary dispatch freq, they had one set up using 155.685. Are you hearing both sides or just the cars? Wish I had kept some of my old Police Call Directories!

Chuck, I take it that name dose not ring a bell???

Which name are you talking about? It is escaping me right now!

Chuck

 

[kd7kdc]

Yeah I remember the old 154.695 north C2C for WSP.
When I was in high school around 2000 I did a ride along with WSP
and the Moto Syntor X9000 control head displayed the channel name
Hoquium, not sure if I spelled that right but its the same as the city on
the wet side of Washington. I remember the 075 air channel c2c for the
valley. I have heard them run air on LERN and State as as well, fun to listen
to the pilots commentary as they work.

On the 155.835, 159.4650 I am hearing both sides just like listening to the
main repeater channels and they both have a 173.8 pl output.
The 159.465 signal is pretty weak at my location even on the base antenna.
I got to thinking last night that maybe the 159.465
may still be Tac Black and the repeater is owned buy one of the other counties
on the east side of Washington or Idaho for that matter and the audio is just
fed to them through the microwave system or they are pulling the audio off the
main channels or the UHF Simulcasts of the same two channels 453.3500 and
453.9750 Patrol 1 & 2 respectively both have 103.5 output tone.

The person who was a police officer for Deer Park back when it was its own
department was Gene Graham.

Another person you may have heard of or known, Brenton Theilen who was
the Medical lake Police Chief back I think he said in the mid 90's

73
Steve

 

[tmfok7]

[quote="kd7kdc] The person who was a police officer for Deer Park back when it was its own department was Gene Graham.[/quote]

Is this the name you were referring to in the other post? I didn't know him! The guy I knew may have just been a reserve there. He was retired LAPD and his son is a deputy now for Spokane. His name was Harold.

It doesn't sound logical that they would feed those channels thru another system for the purpose of tying in with another jurisdiction. There are several possibilities here as to why you are hearing that traffic on those frequencies. It could be MR for areas with poor coverage as they did previously... amongst other possibilities.

The 453.975 and 453.350 frequencies are their for ties for the Dix. They operate on UHF! There are several more frequencies in the 453 range that they use also.

On another note... Mike and Tidalwave posted the "callsign" list for the city and county. After the changes to the radio call system, L-100 (Lincoln) is/was the Police Chief's callsign and L-500 is the Sheriff's callsign.

 

[kd7kdc]

The Dix office has not been using the two repeaters for the last 2-3 years.
Now there is a data type signal transmitting on the 453.6750 repeater
every 15-20 seconds, it is not any of the digital voice flavors.

I think the Dix office either moved to nextels like the city had done almost
10 years ago, or they are using a repeater on 220 or 700 Mhz.
The city radio tech told me that the Dix think that the nextels are more secure
than a encrypted repeater.

About a month ago the spokane sheriff dispatcher keyed up the 453.7750
and asked for a swat officer by name with no response then asked if any
other of the swat team were on this channel with no response.

I think the two county UHF links are more for Inop for those departments or
agencies that use UHF. A few months back there was a car chase that
originated in kootenai county and ended up in spokane valley and the kootenai
county and post falls units came up on the patrol link to cordinate with spokane.

73
Steve

 

[tmfok7]

When I was in high school around 2000 I did a ride along with WSP and the Moto Syntor X9000 control head displayed the channel name Hoquium,

Steve...154.695 is the Area frequency in District 8 (Hoquiam/Naselle)

Chuck

 

[Tidalwave]

This is a response to commstar about he 700mhz system for spokane (and area). This snip is from a document dated april of 2008. The full document is rather large otherwise I'd post it.

Proposed Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) Grant
Funded Projects
The State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC) reviewed 23 applications
for the Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) Grant. This grant
provides the state of Washington a solid opportunity to improve public safety
communications interoperability. The applicants included ten Eastern
Washington public safety agencies, eleven Western Washington public safety
agencies, and three state agencies.
All of the applications had merit and were worthy of funding. However, due to the
limited amount of funding available the SIEC recommended approval of the
following projects:

Spokane/Kootenai Regional Emergency Communications System
This project addresses the interoperability requirements of multiple jurisdictions
and agencies in the north east corner of Washington. Spokane serves as a
regional public safety hub for several Eastern Washington Counties, Northern
Idaho, a part of Western Montana, Northeastern Oregon and some of Southern
British Columbia. Public safety communications shortcomings addressed by this
project are inadequate coverage, no interoperability between agencies and
disciplines, antiquated equipment, insufficient spectrum, and a lack of long range
strategic planning. This initiative will build the radio sites necessary to provide
coverage for a 700 MHz P25 digital trunked radio system for the emergency
responders of the region. The systems master controller integrates existing
public safety radio systems utilizing various frequency bands and technologies.
This project implements an advanced technology, spectrally efficient digital
trunked radio system utilizing 700 MHz for voice and data. It will allow user
transparent operation across various bands and systems and be the first stage of
a region-wide 700 MHz P25 system.
Washington Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan
153
This project improves regional interoperability in a large metropolitan area. It
directly supports the funding goals of PSIC grant by creating a spectrally efficient,
advanced technology 700 MHz P25, digital trunked radio system that integrates
existing radio systems utilizing various frequency bands. This project supports
SCIP goals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 and state’s Technical Implementation Plan (TIP).


I thought I had more information somewhere else. I'll poke around for it. Again, the big hold up is that the
state and federal grants do not cover the full cost. Spokane and spokane county would have to foot a sizable chunck of the bill and this is what the citezens of the area keep voting against.

 

[tmfok7]

This initiative will build the radio sites necessary to provide
coverage for a 700 MHz P25 digital trunked radio system for the emergency
responders of the region.

Tom... so my question about this is, if this is in some planning/financing stage, what is with the additional 700/800 mhz centerfed antennas the SO and PD started sporting on their patrol cars a year or so ago? Did they decide to add the antennas to the cars and see if the system came to be, get some other type of MDC/MDT in their cars or just wanted to see how they would look on there? I've brought this up before and someone else on here asked a County deputy what it was for and all he said was he didn't know! Maybe one of your friends can shed some light!

Regards...
Chuck

 

[kd7kdc]

I think It may just be an antenna for the MDT system because they are always complaining the computer is out of range.

 

[tmfok7]

I think It may just be an antenna for the MDT system because they are always complaining the computer is out of range.

I don't think adding a second antenna will help with that Steve! About the only resolution for that would be adding more transmitter sites. Having the MDT's not work from time to time, has been a problem off and on pretty much everywhere since there inception. Seattle PD has a TG on the Trunked System for the officers to talk to the computer techs when they have problems with their MDC/MDT's.

 

[Tidalwave]

I have yet found time to bug some of my contacts at the PD, but they might not be very helpful as they are patrol officers and not the tech guys.

Here are some tidbits of info that may help figure this out:

They use General Dynamics (itronix) gobook 3 laptops in their cars. These laptops will support 3 concurrent modems/antennas. They switched to these from the vr-1's about 2 years ago (same time the mystery antenna's started showing up?)

I have seen maps displayed on the MDC. Not sure if the cars are enabled with GPS.

Some cars (mostly the motors winter vehicles) have the new (forget the name) fast system for swiping a drivers license and printing out a ticket.

Hopefully sometime this week I'll get some answers.