Washington County Local Government UHF Channels

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Gilligan

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I have been trying to figure out what frequency Hagerstown City Services uses on UHF. The city is licensed on both VHF and UHF. I know that Lights, Parks, Water, & Streets all use VHF. And they drive white marked pickup trucks around that have obvious 18" VHF antennas. But there are quite a few of these marked city pickup trucks that have shorter, probably 8-9" UHF antennas as well. I know that the city has some channels up there. Here's basically what I've been able to gather so far:

There is a long-standing license for KNEX271 on 453.150 and 453.650. The only user on 453.650 appears to be the County Commuter Buses with a tone of 123.0 PL. However, I have concentrated some attention on 453.150 and found some interesting things.

There appears to be a repeater up on Fairview Mountain for 453.150. I am beginning to think that it is PL-independent, that is, that it will repeat all traffic w/ input of 458.150 regardless of PL, and that it will pass the PL along. This may not be true, however, as I'm still trying to determine if all of the traffic I'm hearing on 453.150 is going through the repeater.

I have heard Airport trucks clearing off the runways at the Regional Airport on 453.150 w/ 103.5 PL. I have also heard 453.150 w/ 77.0 PL referred to as "Local Government Talkaround". Other users of this frequency have been found using 67.0 PL and 71.9 PL. And it's possible that the talkaround channel was referred to as channel 16, implying that they may have up to 16 different channels in their trucks (it would kind of make sense to have the talkaround channel as the last one in the radio anyway).

If anyone knows anyone in the city who would be willing to let them check out the channel lineup in their trucks w/ frequencies and tones, or if anyone has any information on this, please post it here. I doubt that there is anything especially interesting to hear, but it bugs me that they all sport UHF antennas and yet they seem impossible to find on the radio. For the record, I have searched 451, 452, and 453 MHz and cannot any users among those frequency ranges that would match up with the county government trucks. Maybe someone knows what jobs or responsibilities these trucks w/ UHF have and can add this information as well. Thanks for any and all response.
 

markandjere

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I entered 453.150 on my 96 and heard some traffic on it today . I wasn't able to hear the message and can't remember what the pl was. It may not have been related though as I was in the Fayetteville ,PA area. I will try to catch it if it pops up again.
 

Gilligan

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I've now got traffic on 67.0, 71.9, 77.0, 85.4, and 103.5 PL tones. Not confirmed yet but I believe 103.5 PL is the airport. And 67.0 PL sounds like the city trucks plowing snow. Of course, 77.0 PL is the talkaround channel, as I discovered last year. Now to figure out specific uses and which ones are simplex and which are repeater...
 

Gilligan

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453.150 - 103.5 PL is definately Airport Operations. They can be heard plowing the runways and terminals. It sounds like it's actually Base-Mobile and not a repeater, as would match the FCC license.

453.150 - 67.0 PL is trucks plowing, but I don't know exactly who it is.
 
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Gilligan

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Okay, so I did a little "exploring" in the parking lot of the Washington County Administrative Annex at 80 West Baltimore Street. Lots of county vehicles there and they had all kinds of antennas, especially those UHF ones I have been inquiring about. I'm posting some pictures of them. Notice that several vehicles are equipped with multiple radios and antennas, some even appearing to be 800 MHz. Nearly all have at least one UHF antenna. I believe that the target users for the unknown UHF channel(s) will be the County Administration & Permits/Inspections. The last vehicle pictured was a public works vehicle, and it was not at the annex but was a few blocks away in another parking lot. Maybe someone has the capability of zooming in better than I to read the labels on the radios or microphones. Or to say what kind of radios they have in the vehicles. I may be able to get better pictures with a much better camera at a later date. These were taken with the camera on my phone with some drizzling rain. It appears that one vehicle at the government building and the other sedan from a few blocks away are both supervisory vehicles, since they apparently can access several radio systems.
 

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Gilligan

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Some more vehicle photos.
 

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Gilligan

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Some of the consoles. The first four are from vehicles at the administrative annex and the last is from the public works sedan a few blocks away. That guy's got quite a setup. Any guesses at what those radios are labelled?
 

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jim202

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Well you guys are forgetting that a county wide UHF trunking system has been installed. Originally
there was talk of the city police going to the system. Not sure that this has taken place or not.
Back some six years or so when the trunking system was first talked about, just which departments would end up on the new system had not all been decided.

As I am not involved with the system for so many years, many changes have probably taken place.
You local people will have to fill in the missing holes.

Jim
 

Gilligan

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Well you guys are forgetting that a county wide UHF trunking system has been installed.
The trunked system is being installed currently and is P25 digital. It will probably contain police, fire, and government services in the long run, but right now, the only thing heard is testing. The radios and the channels described in this thread are positively UHF conventional, and they are old at that. My assumption is that they may be on 453.150 w/ different PL tones, but that has yet to be confirmed. So far, no other possible channels have been discovered with any assurance. But these government users are not using any new trunked system as of yet.
 

Gilligan

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453.150 - 67.0 PL

After monitoring plowing operations in the town of Boonsboro (downtown) and making a quick call to the county's public works department, I have now confirmed that this repeater is used by the Town of Boonsboro's public works department.

While this could be a shared Washington County government repeater, it seems unlikely. Different towns would probably interfere with one another while they're working.
 
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Gilligan

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The county was conducting radio checks on LG Talkaround (453.150 - 77.0 PL) today. Sounded like maybe they were checking radio installs or something. I sure would like to know the actual purpose of this repeater...
 

Gilligan

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This morning, I monitored an interesting conversation on the LG Talkaround repeater. Members of the Washington County Fire Special Operations company (Company 20) were using the channel to stay in touch with the county regarding an operation they were involved in by Snyder's Landing (just west of Sharpsburg on the Potomac River). Utility 20 referred to himself, a boat, and Rescue Squad 201 when informing the dispatcher of the incident. I was unaware that any fire units at all had the capability to use the LG Talkaround repeater, but I suppose if any of them should have that programmed into their radios, it should be the Special Operations company. The more I listen to this repeater, the more I realize that it's function is broader than I thought. In this case, I would bet that they were using it to extend the range of their communications, as VHF low-band may not have good coverage in Sharpsburg. I wonder who else has access to this repeater...
 

Gilligan

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I requested info and received confirmation from a reliable source that 453.150 is a shared repeater serving multiple agencies with different PL tones. I am assuming that the repeater is on top of Fairview Mountain as the FCC license shows, and that most of the agencies are able to switch between repeater and talkaround depending on their needs.
 

Gilligan

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Well, so far the following users of the shared repeater on Fairview Mountain have been identified:

453.150 - 67.0 PL - Boonsboro Public Works
453.150 - 77.0 PL - County LG Talkaround
453.150 - 103.5 PL - County Airport Operations

Still trying to figure out who these three users are; unfortunately, they are not very active:

453.150 - 71.9 PL
453.150 - 85.4 PL
453.150 - 123.0 PL
 
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winglessBat

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sounds like this is the old system and has not been cutover to the new coutywide trunk P25 digital system yet. Is Motorola done with their coverage test yet? Did the county also select the High Performance Data for data apps?
 

Gilligan

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sounds like this is the old system and has not been cutover to the new coutywide trunk P25 digital system yet. Is Motorola done with their coverage test yet? Did the county also select the High Performance Data for data apps?
This thread has nothing to do with the new P25 system. This thread is completely about the county's existing conventional UHF government channels, and specifically targetting information about one particular repeater on 453.150. There are numerous other threads that already reference the new P25 system and its progress to date, like this one.
 
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