Starcom and Pro96com

[n9lob]

With Woodford county SO moving to SC21 in the the next year or two, the recent post about Starcom site overload got me thinking. I downloaded pro96com and using my PRO197, I started monitoring Congerville (T231) to see how busy it is. This had lead me to a few questions I hope the more experienced can answer.

The site has an alternate control channel. This channel also has the lowest number of hits. It seems as if it is only assigned when the other four talk paths are in use. I'm not looking at it all the time but when I am, this is what happens. Is that a correct assumption?

I see a lot of data transmissions, are those MDT or similar? I see it a lot on Ameren TG's.

Will the channel grant screen show me 'bonks'? It looks like the other events tab will show me that?

What does the 'arrow' in the active field mean? The online manual only refers to showing a TG when controlling a Uniden scanner which I'm not doing.

In the site description it shows 'Flavor Phase 2'. Does the mean the site is phase 2 capable now or at the flip of a switch (or press of a key)?

TIA for help in getting me up to speed on the nuts and bolts of the system.

 

[troymail]

Your best answers will come from Mike (the developer) but I use it alot and here are my thoughts:

The site has an alternate control channel. This channel also has the lowest number of hits. It seems as if it is only assigned when the other four talk paths are in use. I'm not looking at it all the time but when I am, this is what happens. Is that a correct assumption?

That's always been my belief. This is particularly critical if only one alternate is being advertised (the reason many system advertise multiple backup CC frequencies).... really don't want that backup CC frequency in use should the primary repeater fail...

I know you didn't ask but in a similar fashion, for some Phase 2 systems, I've also seen one or more system/site frequencies "held back" as another last resort because they seem to reserve that frequency for fallback to Phase 1 should a Phase 1 radio appear on a system talkgroup.

I see a lot of data transmissions, are those MDT or similar? I see it a lot on Ameren TG's.

As with most things, it depends and could be alot of things. Most times I always assumed it was probably location/GPS info being reported.

Will the channel grant screen show me 'bonks'? It looks like the other events tab will show me that?

I don't think so (but I could be wrong!). You will see "rejections" (or is it "denies") when a radio tries to affiliate but isn't permitted (on that tower, talkgroup, etc.).

What does the 'arrow' in the active field mean? The online manual only refers to showing a TG when controlling a Uniden scanner which I'm not doing.

I always assumed it was "last active talkgroup/channel" but I've never tried driving another radio from Pro96Com.

In the site description it shows 'Flavor Phase 2'. Does the mean the site is phase 2 capable now or at the flip of a switch (or press of a key)?

I believe it means the system is Phase 2 capable/compliant and has Phase 2 characteristics being transmitted in the control channel. This is typically why in many cases, you'll see a system being reported in the RRDB as "Phase 2" but all of the talkgroups are listed as Phase 1... could just be a matter of issuing everyone for a given talkgroup a Phase 2 radio and then that talkgroup could suddenly become Phase 2 (but it's probably a bit more than that).

 

[n9lob]

Thanks Troymail. I just remember 852.900 (the alternate control) popping up a lot during IDOT operations in the winter. I can easily envision the five channels being used up as we have:

District 8
District 6
IDOT Peoria
IDOT Morton
IDOT El Paso/Wenona
Ameren TG's

and those are just the groups I've been monitoring. Using wildcard I hear D17 and the D9 commander lives in El Paso so we get that traffic a bit as well. I'm just wondering how bogged down it gets that we don't know about and how putting Woodford on there will add to that crunch. Don't even get me started on the McLean county schools calling custodians to clean up little Billy's barf and the latest playground fight. (No, I'm not making those up.) This is just the Congerville tower, I haven't even tried the Metamora tower. Maybe phase 2 will come sooner than later to mitigate that concern but I'm not counting on it.

I guess I'm just thinking worst case as the county board is going to vote to budget $610K to convert and that is not considering the cost for the individual communities. I'd hate for then to exchange one set of problems for another.

 

[mikey60]

The arrow points to the frequency that would be active if a voice scanner was being used. It's there regardless of there being a controlled scanner or not.

Another channel that's typically held out from normal use would be the frequency used for system identification. Typically but not always the lowest frequency at the site. Pro96Com will show it as CWID when it's active, and will read and store the call sign when heard (It's encoded into the control channel data stream, at least on Motorola systems).

Mike

 

[n9lob]

Mike,

Thank you for that information. This site is covered by two licences and they do display as you said. Those two freqs. do have far lower hits that the others except for the alternate control. I wondered if there was a reason for the uneven distribution, that answers it.

BTW, I'm a long time user of PSREdit500, great program. I wish Sentinel was that easy to figure out.