stars

[dhmann1811]

Since you all are the experts I need your help. I have been reading all the info on the STARS forum and I want to program my radio correctly. I do understand that you all are still trying to figure out all the freqs as well. I have a BCD396T and will be traveling through Richmond in a few days. Do I just need to input the nine freq. in the 152 range that were previously listed? Also do I program it under the MOT VHF section in order to track them? Anyone who has a 396T and can help with that info I would greatly appreciate.

Thanks,
David

 

[fmon]

I'm learning a lot following this thread, and wish there was some hope for a faster rollout up here in Charlottesville (2 years?). I may be able to get a picture of at least one site when they begin installing equipment here.

Thanks for the report, I assume the CC was the listed freq for Gum Spring.

View this Virginian-Pilot for a picture of a typicle Interoperable tower.

 

[RagnarD]

Hi Frank,

This must be the "new" APCO-25 system that is licensed to Va. Beach. I have it programmed and I guess I need to start listening for it.

May be a good idea to start a new thread for the Hampton Roads Interoperability System as to not hijack the STARS thread.

EDIT-After going back and re-reading the article the Va. Beach system is different animal called "Orion". Guess maybe they are going announce STARS here tomorrow?

Nice work by the way on getting the latest info on towers, etc.

73
de
chris
kq4z

 

[RagnarD]

Since you all are the experts I need your help. I have been reading all the info on the STARS forum and I want to program my radio correctly. I do understand that you all are still trying to figure out all the freqs as well. I have a BCD396T and will be traveling through Richmond in a few days. Do I just need to input the nine freq. in the 152 range that were previously listed? Also do I program it under the MOT VHF section in order to track them? Anyone who has a 396T and can help with that info I would greatly appreciate.

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

I don't know about us being "experts" but here is what you need.

Create the separate systems for your 396 and program them as APCO-25 systems. Then in each system put one of the control channels and what I have been doing is running the 396 in ID search mode.

If you use ARC-396 PRO s/w I will be more than happy to e-mail you my system files for STARS.

Hope this helps

73
de
chris
kq4z

 

[dren]

Hey guys, I don't know if it's a big deal or not but the Gum Spring tower is called the Louisa tower.

 

[gcgrotz]

Frank:

Yes it was the listed freq. I found it first in analog because I had the freqs in my old scanner from some old database and heard the data.

And dhmann - invest in ARC396 and it will do the work for you. When I first bought my 396 I had the Charlottesville system up and running in about 5 minutes, before I figured out how to do analog even. Didn't know squat about programming trunking into a scanner. Gotta love technology that works for you instead of against you!

 

[gcgrotz]

Thanks for the report, I assume the CC was the listed freq for Gum Spring.

View this Virginian-Pilot for a picture of a typicle Interoperable tower.

Frank, that looks like a typical cellular or VSP tower. Looks like a 2GHz grid dish and maybe some 6GHz and another high performance dish of some unknown freq. I love how the reporter refers to it as wireless radio waves too.

But give them credit, as a former resident I know how little cooperation there is on most things political. That part seems to be getting better.

george

 

[fmon]

Frank, that looks like a typical cellular or VSP tower. Looks like a 2GHz grid dish and maybe some 6GHz and another high performance dish of some unknown freq. I love how the reporter refers to it as wireless radio waves too.

But give them credit, as a former resident I know how little cooperation there is on most things political. That part seems to be getting better.

george

I agree, likely VSP, The continued article in my paper Paper also attempted to illustrate the scattered locations of all the towers supporting this Interoperability system throughout Hampton Roads.

 

[RagnarD]

The more I look at this I don't think this is the announcement for STARS because there is no reference to the Eastern Shore for the VSP units over there. Also if you study the map it does not go far enough west to support the VSP 5th Div AOR.

I guess we will know for sure tomorrow afternoon.

73
de
chris
kq4z

 

[BoxAlarm187]

First, although I have not been able to contribute anything to this thread, I want to thank all of you that have put so much time into getting this system up and running for the RS and Uniden scanners. Once my life slows down in about three weeks, I hope to have the time to load these files into my radios and see how they work from my QTH.

As for the Hampton Roads system, I would lean towards Orion, not STARS.

 

[n4jri]

An experiment for 396T users

Chris,

I read that on the 396T, you put each control channel in as a different system. It sounds like a very good way to keep the radio scanning between the different control channels rather than getting stuck on a weak one.

Just for kicks and grins, how about putting several adjacent control channels into a single system and observe how that system behaves when you're in motion? I'm in the midst of doing some experiments with a PRO-96 devoted to STARS only, but am concerned that with a boatload of existing sites and others proposed the system could become cumbersome for even the 396T, let along the PRO-96 with a maximum of 10 trunks per V-file.

BTW, I have briefly run PRO96COM now on the Louisa (152.0225), Cumberland (152.5475) [I was wrong to call it Amelia], and what may be Farmville (152.5625) which I strongly suspect is atop Leigh Mountain.

Richard Rowland located the Cumberland site today, and his reception reports on Farmville (which I think I had listed as Nottoway) lead me to believe that the site is actually south of Farmville and west of Crewe. Leigh Mountain is the best candidate for this. If anyone is in the area, try and give it a hit with Signal Stalker or some similar technology.

I'm tabulating a lot of coverage data right now, but will provide the PRO96COM data on these three sites shortly.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[kikito]

I'm in the midst of doing some experiments with a PRO-96 devoted to STARS only, but am concerned that with a boatload of existing sites and others proposed the system could become cumbersome for even the 396T, let along the PRO-96 with a maximum of 10 trunks per V-file. 73/Allen (N4JRI)

I also answered on Yahoo about this but thought I bring it up here too.

I have over 12 control channels in one bank, each separated by a conventional frequency. The Pro-96 will scan all of them, one by one when programmed this way. This is a very well known trick which some people also call a bug but either way, it works great. It's less cumbersome than in the BCD396T as far as not having to duplicate the TG list on each separate system. On the Pro-96, you only need one TG list that gets shared by as many control channels from the same system that you can fit in one bank.

 

[n4jri]

STARS PRO96COM Tower Files

Here's some data on following sites:

SPHQ
Louisa
Cumberland (I used to call it Amelia, but Richard Rowland found it in Cumberland, and this is how it's referred to in STARS docs)
Farmville (I had called this Nottoway, but it's probably on Leigh Mountain near Farmville)
King William (actually referred to as Rumford in STARS lit, I've been calling it King William because Rumford isn't a well-known location)

While I had a pretty nice session with SPHQ, I did Louisa, Cumberland and Farmville from some distance away. But the files will show voice freqs and alternate control freqs. Note that freqs with "a" are alt. CC's, and I presume we should be putting those in blue.

Also note that I enclosed the key to the usage flags on the freq's from PRO96COM. On the database, we are putting in a lot of pure data freqs, not just voice freqs. This still leaves Warsaw unrecorded and I can't remember for sure about Thornburg.

Hope it helps.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[RagnarD]

Chris,

I read that on the 396T, you put each control channel in as a different system. It sounds like a very good way to keep the radio scanning between the different control channels rather than getting stuck on a weak one.

Just for kicks and grins, how about putting several adjacent control channels into a single system and observe how that system behaves when you're in motion? I'm in the midst of doing some experiments with a PRO-96 devoted to STARS only, but am concerned that with a boatload of existing sites and others proposed the system could become cumbersome for even the 396T, let along the PRO-96 with a maximum of 10 trunks per V-file.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

Hi Allen,

I'll give it a whirl and see what happens. The only reason I have the 396 programmed that way is because once it finds an "active" control channel it no longer looks for another one in that system.

It also consumes alot of dynamic memory as Kitko mentioned above.

I'll report my findings after I run a quick test. However, it may be a day or 2 before I can get it done.

Gud work OM on ur tower findings

73
de
chris
kq4z

 

[RagnarD]

Hampton Roads STARS News Flash!!!

Hi Folks,

Copying encrpyted voice traffic on frequency 159.3975 on a collapsable antenna on a PRO-96 just now.

That frequency is licensed to WPNR580 and is an associated license to STARS.

Maybe things are starting to get going down here.

 

[fmon]

Food for thought

Allen, your tower 101 & 103 have the same call sign as my tower 106 (Williamsburg), noted previously at NW corner of Camp Peary.
This FCC page list 6 towers with 96 freqs in 158-159 range, which are likely the original assigned freqs for this system. I think three of those towers are located out of Div 1. Williamsburg in 5, South Hill in 6 and Fredericksburg in 2.

 

[OnePcDoc]

wow i'm lost

i'm trying to read all these post and understand but i have a couple of questions

1 has anyone got this system to work on pro-96 ??

2 if so how ?

3 if not can we put frequecny in and listen manually

4 i live in yorktown i see site in williamsburg now would that be what channels i programed

any info would help me thanks

 

[fmon]

Win96 Setup

1. yes
2. See attached
3. not the CC's, but if you setup using Win96 per attached you will be able to scan the towers within range
4.You should be able to pick up at least two towers, maybe more.

 

[OnePcDoc]

multi table

i followed chart but when i try to put it 2.5 as step it turns in to 5.0 what am i going wrong

 

[mikey60]

1. yes
2. See attached
3. not the CC's, but if you setup using Win96 per attached you will be able to scan the towers within range
4.You should be able to pick up at least two towers, maybe more.

If you want the Pro-96 to track all available sites, put non-zero FM mode channels between each site and make sure they are NOT locked out. The example you show has a frequency of 0.000 and are locked out, that won't work...

Mike