Tallahassee / Leon County (2A6.BEE00)

[UlteriorModem]

Forgive me I am completely new to Scanners, let alone digital scanners.

Using a Uniden BCD325P2.

Local law enforcement has a "Fail soft" system channel. Sometimes I hear mundane conversations "I left my water bottle on the table" that kind of stuff.

But often I will hear only small snippets maybe 1/4 of a seconds worth of the conversation and nothing more. Apparently the trunking system is not working or programmed correctly.

I do hear on other trunked systems most notably local utilities such as Busses, Electric Utilities etc.

I am using freescan and download from radio reference programming only, pretty sure I dont have something set right.

Have access to the "Easier to Read" set of instructions but as I said I am a rank beginner and some of it makes makes my eyes just glaze over.

Any help or even just a brief explanation would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Can you please post the Radioreference link(s) to the system(s) or channel(s) in question? Would like to rule out a couple of things. 73!

 

[ecps92]

FailSoft - Failsoft - The RadioReference Wiki
References when the Trunking system has failed and Frequencies go into a CSQ Conventional Repeater mode
and you [depending on whose Trunking System - Motorola etc] may hear a low beep tone every 45-90 seconds
and the frequency continually keyed up

IF the system is NOT in failsoft, what you describe is the trunking system running fine.

When a user keys up, they get assigned a freqeuency, if they keyup fast enough they
may or may not stay on the same frequency hence the snippits

Whose system, give a link to the RRDB as it appeared that maybe you have not programmed the system.
Also what make/model radio

Forgive me I am completely new to Scanners, let alone digital scanners.

Using a Uniden BCD325P2.

Local law enforcement has a "Fail soft" system channel. Sometimes I hear mundane conversations "I left my water bottle on the table" that kind of stuff.

But often I will hear only small snippets maybe 1/4 of a seconds worth of the conversation and nothing more. Apparently the trunking system is not working or programmed correctly.

I do hear on other trunked systems most notably local utilities such as Busses, Electric Utilities etc.

I am using freescan and download from radio reference programming only, pretty sure I dont have something set right.

Have access to the "Easier to Read" set of instructions but as I said I am a rank beginner and some of it makes makes my eyes just glaze over.

Any help or even just a brief explanation would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kf8yk]

Failsoft channels are only active when a trunking system controller malfunctions. During normal operations frequencies listed as failsoft are used by the trunking system and are dynamically assigned to active talkgroups. Trying to listen to a failsoft frequency while the system is trunking will result in a lot of brief snippets of talkgroup activity.

Given the high reliability of most public safety trunking systems failsoft is a very rare occurrence. If you have knowledge of the failsoft assignments for your system you could put them in a separate bank in your scanner, but lock them out & only turn them on if the system control channel disappears.

 

[mmckenna]

Fail soft is a function where if the system trunking controller fails, the repeaters will drop back into basic conventional repeater mode. The radios should recognize the loss of trunk channel, and go to their 'failsoft' settings. On a SmartNet/SmartZone type system, each talk group or personality will have a 'failsoft' setting. Usually that just puts similar talkgroups onto one of the repeaters running in conventional mode.

Sounds like maybe you are hearing a conventional repeater, or users are set up to use simplex on those channels as a 'talk around'.

If they are using it as talk around, then it's possible that the transmissions are weak enough that you won't hear all of them.

 

[ofd8001]

Expanding a little more. . .

When trunked systems are working, conversations are assigned to the next available voice frequency. It could be any of them. One conversation may be on frequency 5 and the next conversation between the same users could be on frequency 3.

In a Fail Soft situation, the trunking controller and its backup/redundant controllers fail. The system will act just like a conventional repeater system. Certain users are assigned to Frequency 3, other users are assigned to Frequency 5 and so on. They remain on those assigned/predetermined frequencies for the duration of the failure.

One would program his scanner as a conventional system using all of the frequencies (voice and control channel), which is separate from the trunked system. He would Avoid, turn Quick Keys Off during normal times, turning this system back on if Fail Soft happens. If he leaves the Fail Soft system on, it will stop on the control channel and be annoying. Also conversations will be heard, but not followed.

 

[UlteriorModem]

Thanks all I understood the basic concept of the Failsoft but not really how it all works. It is not tones but just fractional seconds of voice comms.

Here is a link to the RR database under the "Tallahassee" system(s)

Leon County, Florida (FL) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Leon County, Florida (FL)

www.radioreference.com

 

[kf8yk]

855.96250 WPBH782 RM TPD Failsoft Police Failsoft - Tactical FM Law Tac

If you look at the trunking system page for Leon County you'll see the same frequency listed as one of the trunk system freqs, hence why you hear bits & pieces of random conversations.

It's possible that they use this for a simplex tactical channel, but given the amount of trunked traffic you hear on this frequency it might be unlikely. If it was used for simplex most system administrators would mark it as 'protected' so the trunked system controller would only assign traffic on this frequency if all other channels were busy. The protected flag greatly reduces the chances of the trunked system stepping on top of simplex operations.

Since there's no squelch code listed it's not much use to leave it enabled in your scanner, unless you want to experience what trunk system monitoring was like before trunktracking scanners became available.

 

[mikewazowski]

That listing probably shouldn’t be included in the database. It probably should go into the wiki.

When a trunking system fails, the trunking channels revert to conventional repeaters. The repeaters are always keyed up and transmit a beep every few seconds. Each radio in the system is set to automatically revert to a specific repeater until the system comes back online. Police would revert to one repeater, fire to another, works to another, etc.

The frequency listed here as conventional is one of the trunking system repeaters and according to the submitter, the police radios will automatically switch to this repeater if the system fails.

Since the system hasn’t failed and is operating normally, the snippets of conversation you are hearing are part of the normal nature of the trunking system.

I had a local system’s failsoft channels mapped out and kept them in a locked out bank of conventional channels. If the system did fail, I could manually switch to this bank to hear communications.

 

[UlteriorModem]

Were getting too hung up on Failsoft and how that works. Probably my fault due to how the question was asked.

I understand what the Failsoft's purpose is and to some degree how it works. Think if it as more of a symptom than the problem.

I guess what I should be asking is why am I not hearing any of the trunked channels?

854.96250	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
855.23750	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
855.46250	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
855.71250	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
856.23750	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
856.71250	WPBH782	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
856.96250	WPBH782	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT

 

[mikewazowski]

I guess what I should be asking is why am I not hearing any of the trunked channels?

854.96250	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
855.23750	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
855.46250	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
855.71250	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
856.23750	WPMP726	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
856.71250	WPBH782	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT	Telm	Data
856.96250	WPBH782	RM		TPD/LCSO MDT	TPD/LCSO MDT

Those frequencies should not be listed as conventional channels either. They are part of the trunking system Tallahassee / Leon County Trunking System, Tallahassee , Florida - Scanner Frequencies which is what you should be listening to.

So delete the failsoft channel and these channels if you have them programmed conventionally and scan the actual trunking system I linked to above.

I’ve gone into the database and have deleted those channels.

 

[UlteriorModem]

Thanks you sir, that cleared up some things for me.

Still not quite working right I guess i need to change some time out settings or something.

This is what i have at the moment...

 

[batdude]

keep in mind that a good chunk of this system is encrypted full time.

i have edited the first post above because we didn't have a master thread for Leon County / Tallahassee ... so this will now be the master thread.


doug

 

[UlteriorModem]

Yes I learned recently that it is indeed encrypted.

Thanks you for your help.

 

[bravo14]

I see in the DB TLH FD is "D" not sure if everything is "E" little over a year ago I scan the system the Star Metro Bus is Clear not sure now about now. I wonder if the all the freq's listed is correct too? Seems alot for one site.

 

[UlteriorModem]

I see in the DB TLH FD is "D" not sure if everything is "E" little over a year ago


I dont even know what means to be honest.

Yes I get the Star Metro and services, Locked it out though as they were taking up most all of the scan time. Dont really care that Thelma left her water bottle in the break room

 

[bravo14]

I see in the DB TLH FD is "D" not sure if everything is "E" little over a year ago


I dont even know what means to be honest.

Yes I get the Star Metro and services, Locked it out though as they were taking up most all of the scan time. Dont really care that Thelma left her water bottle in the break room

"D" is Digital "E" is Encrypted.

 

[UlteriorModem]

Ah! Thanks for that, I guess I can edit out out the DE channels and streamline the scanning some.

 

[AESFTW]

Sounds like FD is encrypted...

 

[AESFTW]

Visiting the area and noticed this. I'm sure everyone in the area is aware.