Station 38
- Thread starter Anderegg
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Which scanner do you have that spits talkgroup IDs out in hex? You gotta fix that so you're speaking the same langauge of the rest of us.
One cool byproduct of hex is the talkgroup ID format is the same between the old 800 MHz Smartzone system and the new 700 MHz P25 system. You can compare here:
San Diego City 800MHz Trunking System, San Diego, California
San Diego City 800MHz Trunking System Profile
www.radioreference.com
San Diego City 700 MHz Trunking System, San Diego, California
San Diego City 700 MHz Trunking System Profile
www.radioreference.com
I don't get it though. 621h = 1569 decimal on the new system, x16 = 25104 decimal on the old system. This has been identified as primary for the rangers that patrol Lake Murray, and may actually include a patch with an as of yet unidentified conventional frequency there. I believe they are dispatched by station 38, but that talkgroup wouldn't normally be used by water crews.
I have Uniden SDS and Whistler WS/TRX scanners...they both do hex display. When everything changed from 3600 to 9600 trunking, the easiest way to transfer the old talkgroups to the new systems in the scanner software, was to switch to hex mode, copy and paste. If you tried that in decimal mode, there would not be a conversion happening and the talkgroup ID's would be wrong. I just left it in hex since them, I am used to it that way now.
Paul
Paul
"Station 38" working a fire hydrant knock off I was at on this talkgroup. Hearing them chat on it now about a manhole, flooding to a business, etc, so I can say with some confidence, this is the talkgroup that the white water department trucks with the blinky lights on top that go to emergencies operater on.
Paul
Paul
Station 38 dispatches for more than just the water department though, they also do storm water and the sewer pump repair guys and other public works. If you listen for unit IDs, the talkgroups with the guys in the “760” range seem to be sewer, while the “1900” units are the water dept. There are a ton of seldom used public works / station 38 talkgroup I never totally figured out, but the most popular are:
1307 “38 CALL” - Everyone besides water dept calling station 38
1309 “City Dispatch” - After hours nights/weekends station 38 dispatch covering all city public works.
1311 “Water Dispatch” - This is the water dept (1900 units), which has their own dispatcher during the day and then uses “City Dispatch” to be dispatched by station 38 on nights/weekends.
1569 I don’t know the official name of, but it’s used by the park rangers patrolling Lake Murray on behalf of the water dept, and appears to be patched to a conventional frequency used on site there.
I know you always use your SDS-100 now, and I think I know what happened. The SDS-100 is absolutely terrible with patched talkgroups, and unlike my PSR-500 which shows “ptch” in the upper corner and always displays the “supergroup”, the SDS-100 just randomly flashes back and forth between the talkgroups that are patched. If you hold on any of the talkgroups that are patched on the PSR-500 it will hear all of the supergroup traffic, but if you hold on the SDS-100 it’s too stupid and will miss traffic some of the time if the supergroup of the patch changes. Not very impressive for a $700+ scanner but...
Long story short, in the evenings station 38 patches 38 Call (1307), City Dispatch (1309), Water Dispatch (1311) and Lakes (1569) together. They’ve been doing this for many years, since back in the 800 MHz system days. So what you heard on TG 1569 was actually water department on TG 1311, but with the four patched together. Try listening in the middle of the day, or using unitrunker to confirm a time when they aren’t all patched, and you’ll see the radio traffic is different. The older Whistler WS scanners should do a better job with this also.
1307 “38 CALL” - Everyone besides water dept calling station 38
1309 “City Dispatch” - After hours nights/weekends station 38 dispatch covering all city public works.
1311 “Water Dispatch” - This is the water dept (1900 units), which has their own dispatcher during the day and then uses “City Dispatch” to be dispatched by station 38 on nights/weekends.
1569 I don’t know the official name of, but it’s used by the park rangers patrolling Lake Murray on behalf of the water dept, and appears to be patched to a conventional frequency used on site there.
I know you always use your SDS-100 now, and I think I know what happened. The SDS-100 is absolutely terrible with patched talkgroups, and unlike my PSR-500 which shows “ptch” in the upper corner and always displays the “supergroup”, the SDS-100 just randomly flashes back and forth between the talkgroups that are patched. If you hold on any of the talkgroups that are patched on the PSR-500 it will hear all of the supergroup traffic, but if you hold on the SDS-100 it’s too stupid and will miss traffic some of the time if the supergroup of the patch changes. Not very impressive for a $700+ scanner but...
Long story short, in the evenings station 38 patches 38 Call (1307), City Dispatch (1309), Water Dispatch (1311) and Lakes (1569) together. They’ve been doing this for many years, since back in the 800 MHz system days. So what you heard on TG 1569 was actually water department on TG 1311, but with the four patched together. Try listening in the middle of the day, or using unitrunker to confirm a time when they aren’t all patched, and you’ll see the radio traffic is different. The older Whistler WS scanners should do a better job with this also.
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