Weird Morse Codes Heard Over Scanner

[Your_old_pal_Hal]

What are these Morse codes I keep hearing over the County sheriffs main digital radio frequency? Every now and than i here it. Its morse code for something. A sergeant told me its a digital page to someone. The Sheriff is on a basic NON TRUNKING digital conventional system in are area in Saint Charles. Sometimes and just gos "boooooo "pause" "booooo" for about a minute or even 5-10 mins! and i can't here the regular radio traffic and than it stops and normal conversation is back online. It is NOT A FIRE TONE OR EMS TONE! Its on the main digital conventional sheriff channel. I repeat its not Fire/EMS. Its Morse code and sometimes its makes a short hum after hum after hum, etc, etc, etc. Its sounds really really weird. It does not happen often but Id like to know what it means.

I thought I saw some software online once that you can download to your computer and hook it up to your serial or usb and see what the data is. Can someone educate me on this matter. And if so is there any computer programs that can tell me or show me this information and if not its all good Im just very curious to what the heck it means, but i like to understand it better. I used to think it was a repeater tower just showing that it works correctly, but this sergeant told me its a page of some sort.

If someone could help me out i would appreciate it greatly! Ive been listening to scanners sense i was about 12 years old. Thanks

What you are hearing is a "marker tone." It's a "boop" every 15 seconds or so while a unit initially arrives on scene and is checking. The tone is sent out to let others know they have to stand by (read: stay off the air). Before you hear this, the dispatcher should say, "All units 10-3 for status." Then the beeps start. These beeps come from each of the 5 transmitter sites (if they're up) and sound "wobbly" because of the digital vocoding (NOT multipath or phase distortion, although the system has tons of it that is filtered by the Astro error correction - it's an analog tone generated in the console's CEB and being digitized by a vocoder that's only meant for speech).

The sergeant's wrong. There is the capability for digital signaling. It's rarely used and your scanner won't decode it. It's a databurst. When it's sent, the radio will beep and have a message displayed. The dispatcher can also ping a unit to see if it's turned on, or stun the unit to disable the radio in case it's lost, stolen, or unauthorized. The latter turns it into a brick. Scanners won't decode any of those transmissions (nor will the radios open up during that time).

You will also notice a CW identifier (Morse code) every 15 minutes that's sent in analog from Laura Hill ONLY. If the ID is interrupted by a transmission, it will start all over again. On a busy night it's not uncommon for the ID to keep trying for a while in between digital transmissions.

The dispatchers and officers never hear the CW ID. They DO hear the marker tone.

There is also an intermittent hang-timer that engages after a transmission that was received by a certain pathway. It's about a 5 or 6 second bzzzzzzzzzzz that's not decoded on a digital scanner, but if you are listening through an analog receiver, it will hang on frequency and will send you the buzzing noise. Again, not heard by anyone but scannerland.

The "EMA" channel has two stand-alone (not voted, not simulcast) dual-mode repeaters that can do analog or digital from the same box depending on what they hear. Most digital transmissions that you cannot decode are DES-OFB encrypted voice. There is no "data."

 

[waingro223]

I finally got it!!!

I got the sound recorded! So now just post it on youtube?

 

[waingro223]

I got it now.

So the Humming sound is to let all units and dispatch that they are out investigating something serious and to hold all radio traffic while the deputy's are poking around. And the Morse code is just the stations call sign in Analog mode. How come Saint Charles doesn't use a more advanced system like Saint Peters, Motorola 800MHz Trunked. They have a Main, Standby, Traffic, Tactical, and the Mall. An Saint Peters Officer told me that they use the Standby Channel so they don't hold up the Main Channel when they are poking around, just like when Saint Peters Traffic is out doing radar traps. It seems like Saint Charles needs to upgrade there system or something. Saint Peters, Saint Louis City and O Fallon seem to have the best systems for talking without tying up other channels, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just trying to understand the systems better. Saint Peters Motorola seems like a great system as so does O Fallon and Saint Charles City. They can use all those TGIDS off multiply frequencies.

 

[Gezelle007]

I got the sound recorded! So now just post it on youtube?

Yeah if its a video..

 

[waingro223]

Thats the problem.

Its a .wav file converted from my phone and you tube does not recognize the file type, but if you want i can upload the file to you. Originally it a .amr file which is less than 500kb. The converted .wav file is 4MB.

 

[kruser]

Its a .wav file converted from my phone and you tube does not recognize the file type, but if you want i can upload the file to you. Originally it a .amr file which is less than 500kb. The converted .wav file is 4MB.

I'd like to hear it. I'll PM ya with an email you can sent to if you would like.

 

[Confuzzled]

If it's a .wav file, try uploading it here:

MP3 Upload - Free audio file hosting upto 250 MegaBytes

This is an audio file hosting site similar to all the image hosting sites like TinyPic.

 

[Confuzzled]

.....

 

[shaft]

What you are hearing is a "marker tone." It's a "boop" every 15 seconds or so while a unit initially arrives on scene and is checking. The tone is sent out to let others know they have to stand by (read: stay off the air). Before you hear this, the dispatcher should say, "All units 10-3 for status." Then the beeps start. These beeps come from each of the 5 transmitter sites (if they're up) and sound "wobbly" because of the digital vocoding (NOT multipath or phase distortion, although the system has tons of it that is filtered by the Astro error correction - it's an analog tone generated in the console's CEB and being digitized by a vocoder that's only meant for speech).

<snip'd>

You nailed it, thanks for the explanation. Nice to finally know what the "hold the marker" phrase actually means after hearing it for a few years.

Thanks again Hal.

 

[waingro223]

To Kruser

Well it looks like the question has been nailed, but i can't seem to upload the sound on that website for some reason? If you still want to know what it sounds like let me know where i can upload it for you, if you want to hear it yourself personally that is.

 

[cifn2]

Any chance it might be a data burst, with system information?