St Thomas, Ontario Frequencies

Status
Not open for further replies.

pandaemonium

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
9
Location
St Thomas, Ontario Canada
I just got back into scanning after many years and don't know my way around anymore. Fire is still listed at 151.97 : 88.5 but I've yet to have activity on it. I had some activity on 148.96 : 225.7, but only fragments of conversations, and sometimes I get some tones? on 154.44500 : 74.4. For police I have 142.125 : 156.7 and 142.5 : 156.7, there also seems to be some conversation missing. I also added Aylmer and Port Stanley Fleetnet Zone 1 with whatever groups looked useful, but I haven't come across any activity yet.

Any pointers for me?

Uniden BCT15X
 

pandaemonium

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
9
Location
St Thomas, Ontario Canada
@Bullmax

Yup, thats the first place I looked, some are working, but either Iv'e got some configuration problems, or it's a little out of date. Everything else I'm looking at I got with searches and CC, but it's not much.
 

pandaemonium

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
9
Location
St Thomas, Ontario Canada
While I went past the F.D. today, I had a look at the antenna tower, there is a set of four vertically orientated loop antennas at the top followed by two more below that. And below them is what appears to be a single vertical dipole antenna. I will have to go by the P.D. and see what they have. But it seems I must be missing out on something!

I was also wondering. The P.D. frequency has a tone frequency, the same tone frequency as is used in nearby Aylmer (repeater?). There doesn't seem to be anything nearby that uses the frequency, so why use a tone frequency? I have never heard anything else when listening without it.
 

Muxlow

Super Secret
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
1,627
Location
Middlesex County
Their cars have 3 antennas. 1 is for the computer, 1 for the radio and not sure bout the other
I was getting them on their normal operations channel just fine last week
 

Attachments

  • DSC_3244.jpg
    DSC_3244.jpg
    74.2 KB · Views: 3,802

exkalibur

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 15, 2006
Messages
2,764
Location
York, Ontario
Do they have dash-cams? It could be an antenna for the remote mic.

Or, it could also be a GPS antenna...
 

Muxlow

Super Secret
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
1,627
Location
Middlesex County
Nope no cams, didnt even had radar in that car or any of the ones I saw.
They must only use the hand helds. Maybe one is TX and the other RX? I know LPS does it that way. One on the roof is TX and the trunk is RX and i think on the new cars the 3rd little pancaker is for GPS
 

gary123

Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2002
Messages
2,200
While I went past the F.D. today, I had a look at the antenna tower, there is a set of four vertically orientated loop antennas at the top followed by two more below that. And below them is what appears to be a single vertical dipole antenna. I will have to go by the P.D. and see what they have. But it seems I must be missing out on something!

I was also wondering. The P.D. frequency has a tone frequency, the same tone frequency as is used in nearby Aylmer (repeater?). There doesn't seem to be anything nearby that uses the frequency, so why use a tone frequency? I have never heard anything else when listening without it.

Its been a while since I have been in St Thomas but the fire dept should have 2 Vhf sinclair srlc4 antennas one for local St thomas and the other for the county fire depts. The Dipole should be for the paging used to call the county depts.

The PL tone freq was used to prevent interfearance from othe depts or services using the same frequancy. It still is usefull to eliminate intermod or other users like fleetnet from being heard on your scanner.
 

pandaemonium

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
9
Location
St Thomas, Ontario Canada
Thanks for the input so far, I was wrong about the bottom antenna, with a telephoto lens it appears to be a AM yagi pointed SSW. Here is a picture, I will get to the P.D. soon.
 

Attachments

  • 2009-10-22b 070.jpg
    2009-10-22b 070.jpg
    6.5 KB · Views: 2,032

gary123

Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2002
Messages
2,200
Thanks for the pics. The fire tower is as I remember exept the lower VHF antenna is a SRL301C2. The antenna pointed SSW is definatly the page out (412.9875?) for the surrrounding county depts.

The police tower antennass are all VHF Probably one for main operations one for OPC and one as a backup or secondary use (survalance ops etc)
 

gary123

Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2002
Messages
2,200
I am not aware of any local groups. I am near Stratford and so far as I know Im the only scanner buff in the area.
 

pandaemonium

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
9
Location
St Thomas, Ontario Canada
Just an update. I have had some activity on these frequencies:

* indicates frequent activity

* Airport 122.70000
* Police 142.12500:156.7
* Police 142.50000:156.7 (Aylmer)
Fire 148.96000:225
Fire 151.97000
Fire 153.80000
Fire 154.07000
Fire 154.44500:74.4
Fire 159.31500
Fire 165.55500

Anything else?
Anything on a trunk here?
 

exkalibur

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 15, 2006
Messages
2,764
Location
York, Ontario
Um...

LPS doesn't use one for TX and one for RX. Their radios don't support it and there's no reason to.

One antenna is for the voice radio, one is for the data radio and the other is for the GPS.
 

Forts

Mentor
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
6,688
Location
Ontario, Canada
Just an update. I have had some activity on these frequencies:

* indicates frequent activity

* Airport 122.70000
* Police 142.12500:156.7
* Police 142.50000:156.7 (Aylmer)
Fire 148.96000:225
Fire 151.97000
Fire 153.80000
Fire 154.07000
Fire 154.44500:74.4
Fire 159.31500
Fire 165.55500

Anything else?
Anything on a trunk here?

151.9700 is the primary Elgin County fire frequency
154.0700 is OFM
154.4450 is St. Thomas City Fire

Those other fire frequencies could be Tac channels, I'm not sure. At one point in time I had:

Tac 1 - 154.8450
Tac 2/City - 154.4450
Tac 3 - 171.5700
Tac 4 - 159.3150

I was never able to confirm those though as reception on those frequencies seems rather weak. Quite often you will hear the dispatcher on 151.9700 telling units at a fire scene to switch to a tac channel, so maybe give those a try. If I recall they do a radio test at about 9am every morning... maybe try catching that and see what you can come up with.
 

Muxlow

Super Secret
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
1,627
Location
Middlesex County
Um...

LPS doesn't use one for TX and one for RX. Their radios don't support it and there's no reason to.

One antenna is for the voice radio, one is for the data radio and the other is for the GPS.

When i was in their garage i asked what each did, and the officer said one was for RX and one for TX

But hes just a normal patrol guy.. so of course he is wrong:)
 

pandaemonium

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
9
Location
St Thomas, Ontario Canada
Excellent! As for data channels, what can I do with them, can I decode them somehow? Can someone provide me with the data format so that I can write a program to decode it? Yes I am a programmer-- for over thirty years! I am such a cool nerd!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top