Stelco TRS?

[jellotor]

I've found what sounds like a Motorola type 2 control channel on 853.0000 in Hamilton. The TAFL lists the following information for the frequency:

808.000000 853.000000 16.00 431633 794905 HAMILTON, ON - HILTON WORKS STELCO 7.1 STELCO INC. HILTON WORKS PURCHASING

(That's TX frequency, RX frequency, bandwidth, latitude, longitude, location, radiated power and licensee)

I put trunker on this control channel and picked up approximately a 85-90% decode rate but trunker would not determine the control channel. It listen the system ID as 2436. Here's the contents of the 2436Sys.txt file that I've generated after a half-hour of monitoring.

UnNamed System
MAP=22222222
OPTIONS=nVDf
PLAN=0
DESCR=Type II 76.76 Hz
THRESHOLD=50
DISPOSITION=ascsdsfulxnspssr
v0x004 ,4,4,10a
v0x018 ,18,54,188
v0x031 ,31,18,11e
v0x037 ,37,31,100
v0x03a ,3a,53,155
dv0x050 ,50,4,9
v0x053 ,53,37,1da
v0x054 ,54,3a,16c

I'm not sure why trunker is having issues with this system. There's plenty of traffic (30+ radios at this point) but there's no frequency showing up for the control channel. I changed the plan to 800 MHz and splinter 800 MHz to see if it would make a difference, but no luck. My experiences with Fleetnet and trunker lead me to believe that even without a proper map file the control channel frequencies, at least, will show up in trunker.

Suggestions are gratefully accepted...

 

[EJB]

Long shot Graeme but do you remember the Harteq books?
In the last one Bart listed Stelco's system.
I have the book at work if that would help.
Perhaps its the same system.

E

 

[jellotor]

Hmm...yeah, that may help a bit. If you don't mind looking it up tomorrow, Eric...

 

[DaveH]

You have Plan=0. Try setting it to 8 and see if that helps.

Dave

 

[DaveH]

Also (if you haven't already) do a Callsign search on VAX631. The
other system channels should be listed; possibly others which are
not part of the system.

Dave

 

[mikewazowski]

I found the same thing last week with Windsor's system. Trunker (Eric Cotrell version) defaulted to a plan of 0 instead of 8. I edited the xxxxsys.txt file to change the plan to 8 and deleted the frequencies it had found so far. Started it running again and all was well except for an interconnect which came up as a channel number instead of a frequency.

 

[DaveH]

Since Eric's version was targetting VHF/UHF systems it makes sense
to default to Plan 0. I keep regular Trunker (m3.8.3) for 800MHz systems
because Eric's version doesn't work on Type I systems (and there's still
a few of those left), and for that matter mixed-type systems.

Dave

 

[itsme]

haruteq stelco

I just sent you the listings out of the book enjoy.

 

[jellotor]

Thanks to everyone who responded. Shoulda figured it was a simple problem...such as deleting the frequencies before changing the plan. I believe it may be either an 800 MHz splinter system with a few rotating control channels (852.4500 is the CC this morning) or a custom map file may be in order. Will let trunker do it's thing all morning and we'll see what we come up with.

 

[jellotor]

Ok...looked up all the numbers in TAFL and submitted it to the database since everything is tracking correctly. Just wanted to pass along that the talkgroup numbers in the haruteq book seem to be invalid; plenty of talkgroups ending in 1 or 3 or so...probably a long-ago victim of scanners that can't figure out status bits.

This is an interesting system. So far the types of calls I've noted are 'e' (red) which seems to denote a non-cleared encrypted emergency call, plenty of 'g' calls (encrypted group call) and a few individual calls. So far I've got about 57 GIDs and 70 RIDs associated with this system. Busy system (it's 2 am right now) but fairly uninteresting chatter. Haven't heard the plant fire department do radio checks or anything yet.

 

[mbstone99]

Stelco

Thanks to everyone who responded. Shoulda figured it was a simple problem...such as deleting the frequencies before changing the plan. I believe it may be either an 800 MHz splinter system with a few rotating control channels (852.4500 is the CC this morning) or a custom map file may be in order. Will let trunker do it's thing all morning and we'll see what we come up with.

Hey ya yoou are right this is a splinter system. I did a bit of scanning of this system back a few months ago but i haven't listening to it lately.

Matt

 

[DaveH]

This is an interesting system. So far the types of calls I've noted are 'e' (red) which seems to denote a non-cleared encrypted emergency call, plenty of 'g' calls (encrypted group call) and a few individual calls. So far I've got about 57 GIDs and 70 RIDs associated with this system. Busy system (it's 2 am right now) but fairly uninteresting chatter. Haven't heard the plant fire department do radio checks or anything yet.

I tried Beta EC1 on a Type I system and it lists frequencies but fails to display the CC. It also shows invalid call types like encrypted emergency calls (which I know are not going on), the SysID as a RID etc. Regular m3.8.3. works fine.

Is the Stelco system Type I, or mixed, by chance? Have you been able to hear voice traffic? Seems like Stelco is unlikely to use encryption.

It definitely looks like a splinter system; radios like the older PRO-92/2067 don't work on them properly, just in case anybody's using them.

Dave

 

[mbstone99]

This is a type II system as far as I know of.

Matt

 

[jellotor]

I tried Beta EC1 on a Type I system and it lists frequencies but fails to display the CC. It also shows invalid call types like encrypted emergency calls (which I know are not going on), the SysID as a RID etc. Regular m3.8.3. works fine.

Is the Stelco system Type I, or mixed, by chance? Have you been able to hear voice traffic? Seems like Stelco is unlikely to use encryption.

It definitely looks like a splinter system; radios like the older PRO-92/2067 don't work on them properly, just in case anybody's using them.

Dave

Trunker displays it as a type II system (all the banks are displaying '2') and once I sussed out the frequencies the second scanner has no problems tracking for audio. Perhaps it's possible to program the radios to ignore the emergency button...I suspect that there are mostly portable/mobile radios in use with no 'dispatch' to speak of, per se.