Towns Joining CLMRN or Just Noise?

[adamfancher]

So I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, but wanted to toss it out there on the off chance that one or more of these towns is legitimately getting on board with CLMRN.....Each of these talkgroups has shown up over the last few days, suspiciously all in the 24xxx-25xxx talkgroup range with one affiliation with a phony looking radio ID.

; Town of Wallingford
P25, BEE00.3A9, 24883, 6783103, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/02/28 23:27, ""

; Town of Wallingford
P25, BEE00.3A9, 24889, 15517271, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 0:15, ""

; Town of Warren
P25, BEE00.3A9, 24947, 10982438, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 7:29, ""

; Town of Warren
P25, BEE00.3A9, 24955, 235679, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 8:24, ""

; Town of Warren
P25, BEE00.3A9, 24998, 7095465, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 17:51, "Radio ID Range 709xxxx Unknown"

; Town of Washington
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25005, 4824298, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 18:42, "Radio ID Range 482xxxx Unknown"

; Town of Washington
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25019, 16610485, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 16:32, ""
; Town of Waterbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25101, 15053873, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 22:47, ""

; Town of Waterbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25104, 12595768, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 19:06, ""

; Town of Waterbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25136, 4511797, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/01 23:02, "Radio ID Range 451xxxx Unknown"

; Town of Waterbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25145, 25612, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/02 0:08, "Town of Ansonia (Mobile)"

; Town of Waterbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25188, 10624148, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/02 9:37, ""

; Town of Waterbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25189, 16034496, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/02 9:47, ""

; Town of Waterbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25191, 1553976, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/02 9:56, "Town of West Hartford (Portable)"

; Town of Waterford
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25274, 2916496, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/02 16:17, "Radio ID Range 291xxxx Unknown"

; Town of Watertown
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25370, 16088282, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/02 20:23, ""

; Town of Watertown
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25379, 837788, 50, Normal, 1, 2025/01/19 21:48, ""

; Town of Watertown
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25393, 3817565, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/02 23:09, ""

; Town of Glastonbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25432, 15120486, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/03 4:07, ""

; Town of Glastonbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25453, 12413553, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/03 10:46, ""
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25453, 15942394, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/03 10:47, ""

; Town of Glastonbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25457, 16221369, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/03 7:15, ""

; Town of Glastonbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25465, 9960676, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/03 8:12, ""

; Town of Glastonbury
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25475, 11335769, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/03 13:29, ""
P25, BEE00.3A9, 25475, 16469513, 50, Normal, 0, 2025/03/03 13:31, ""

I'm guessing it's all BS, but on the off chance that the 8-digit radio IDs are valid CTS technicians working on the systems I just wanted to see if there's any knowledge of the towns above joining the network.

 

[W1KNE]

All those match their respective towns , except for Glastonbury. 254 would be Westbrook, and Glastonbury would be 154.

 

[adamfancher]

All those match their respective towns , except for Glastonbury. 254 would be Westbrook, and Glastonbury would be 154.

Ah, yes, was looking at my municipalities cross-eyed it would seem. I suppose it would make sense that "G" doesn't come after "W"

 

[radioguy224]

washington and warren are updating radios to be compatible with the new LCD radio line up stating around the 24 of March

 

[firerick100]

Wallingford already on their own new system and as far as Waterbury,I have not seen or heard anything about them going to the state system

 

[cg]

None are valid...
-Trust valid range of talkgroup(s) with matching valid range of radio(s).
-Trust a radio that has prior history of voice activity
-Trust a talkgroup that has a history of voice activity
-Look for patterns rather than a bunch of unrelated talkgroups with zero hits. For example, when a new town hands radios out at a drill or meeting, someone will spin the dial. If they do it slow enough to allow affiliations, you may see a bunch of near sequential talkgroups. Likely valid, especially if done with a radio that has the correct RID match.
-Trust a TGID that has multiple similar radios affiliated even with no voice.
-trust a TGID that shows a valid encryption protocol and shows a key ID (that means lots of bits lined up in the correct place)

Other than ISSI, I have not logged and don't recall ever seeing ANY 8+ digit IDs on the system
Mark them with what you think they are and add the date. That way they will jump out at you if you see them again.

If you get an ISSI link, you will often see the Neighbor system ID and the radio ID and then the next line will show the ISSI ID
2025/03/03 16:39:33 Freq=774.531250 NAC=3A8 Registration; 9EF:1485031 ACCEPT
2025/03/03 16:39:33 Freq=774.531250 NAC=3A8 Affiliation; RID=16776938 ACCEPT
You then can see the radios in the file under their home system:
P25, BEE00.9EF, -2, 1485023, 50, Normal, 0, 0000/00/00 0:00, ""
P25, BEE00.9EF, -2, 1485025, 50, Normal, 0, 0000/00/00 0:00, ""
P25, BEE00.9EF, -2, 1485031, 50, Normal, 0, 0000/00/00 0:00, "", "M B", 1FA13355

ISSI systems usually show the typical ISSI TGs and RIDs. They only show their home RID on the foreign system if them are on that systems TGs. So a Wallingford radio roaming on CLMRN while on Wallingford groups shows only ISSI numbers. That same Wallingford radio on a CLMRN group would show the 148xxxx RID.

I would say that you very likely have some kind of computer, interference or signal issues that is preventing strong, clean decoding.

 

[sefrischling]

Waterford has been on CLMRN for a while, as they dispatch L&M Medics on CLMRN. TG: 9011

 

[adamfancher]

I would say that you very likely have some kind of computer, interference or signal issues that is preventing strong, clean decoding.

Whatever it is, it's gotten really bad over the last week. Came home last night to a whole page of similarly bogus affiliations in the 2xxxx talkgroup range.

What's strange is nothing seems to have changed as far as signal strength, I am less than a mile from the tower and have always had to dial my gain way down to prevent clipping.

I'm wondering if it's possible that after running 24/7 for the last 5 years my SDR is getting long in the tooth...

 

[nhfdcadet]

Whatever it is, it's gotten really bad over the last week. Came home last night to a whole page of similarly bogus affiliations in the 2xxxx talkgroup range.

What's strange is nothing seems to have changed as far as signal strength, I am less than a mile from the tower and have always had to dial my gain way down to prevent clipping.

I'm wondering if it's possible that after running 24/7 for the last 5 years my SDR is getting long in the tooth...

I've noticed my SDR's gradually getting less and less sensitive, sometimes missing transmissions entirely

 

[adamfancher]

Ugh....what a mess....Here's the last 24 hours:

 

[cg]

What does your FMP24 window look like?

 

[W1JOP]

Waterford has been on CLMRN for a while, as they dispatch L&M Medics on CLMRN. TG: 9011

L&M Medics VIA Waterford is CLMRN all Waterford town services police/FD is on a phase 1, that they share with East Lyme and Waterford, so unless things have changed just L&M is Dispatched by station W on CLMRN

 

[sefrischling]

L&M Medics VIA Waterford is CLMRN all Waterford town services police/FD is on a phase 1, that they share with East Lyme and Waterford, so unless things have changed just L&M is Dispatched by station W on CLMRN

Yes, Waterford Fire / Waterford Police are on their own system, which is shared with New London, not East Lyme. East Lyme, where I live, is VHF for Fire / Police, although Station W does simulcast them on their Phase 1 system, so Wtfd Fire / Police can communicate with East Lyme. L&M is dispatched on VHF, the Waterford System and CLMRN. Waterford has been on CLMRN for the dispatching of L&M Medics.

 

[adamfancher]

What does your FMP24 window look like?

 

[cg]

I believe there were discussions on Waterford's system becoming part of CLMRN as others have done but for whatever reason it seems to not be moving that way. New London appears to be moving to CLMRN and they have been upgrading their radios recently.

 

[cg]

The signal appears to be decent. The gain might stand being dropped a bit to where the flare out at the bottom of the peak is not so pronounced.
You could keep an eye on it and see if you get any random/occasional weakening or interference.

This is what I get from Talcott (B & L), Bloomfield North (H) & Hartland (B). The signal strength is seen in the quality of the spike with H (center) the best as it is almost line of sight and 4.5 miles. B is signal from 2 sites and L (bottom) is the worst of the three.

 

[adamfancher]

I've gone over to my other SDR to see if I have similar results. That one does not have an amplifier on it and I don't have to dial back the gain at all, I would imagine the other one is experiencing the effects of a strong signal being clipped in half from being overdriven then attenuated in software.
Also, I've made an interesting observation....as the bogus 26xxx talkgroup affiliations keep rolling in....I'm finding that the talkgroup number is incrementing over time, ie:

3/06 26226-26386
3/07 26401-26652
3/08 26759-26906
3/09 26913-26984

I reviewed the timestamps and confirmed that indeed, the talkgroup numbers are sequential over time
Also oddly, if the TG number continues to increment, it is just about to overlap the last instance of this phenomenon which appears to have taken place around November 2024, where I was seeing bogus entries in the 31xxx-35xxx range, but on a much smaller scale.

Strange stuff

 

[adamfancher]

So I switched to the other SDR and that seemed to put a stop to this madness. Quite frankly it may be the SDR I've been using right along, it's hard to tell because sometimes they get unplugged/replugged and the software chooses whichever one gets recognized first.

It's been 3 hours so far with no further instances, so I'm satisfied that this an overdriven signal issue. Thanks for your help on this, cg!

 

[adamfancher]

Son of a *****...TG 27017 just came through.