Westcom P25 system information thread

[Radioman96p71]

The Westcom P25 system went online for testing as of January 14 2014.

Westcom (Project 25) System Trunking System, West Des Moines, Iowa - Scanner Frequencies

If we can keep all information regarding the new system here, it will make figuring out the new talkgroups and patches a bit easier for us all.

I will be watching this system closely for changes, but since it JUST went on the air I don't expect any major developments for a bit. It appears to be running at fairly low power, unsure if it is actually simulcast or not.

More info to come!

 

[Radioman96p71]

Currently the system is operating as a single site, C4FM, at the 98th Street water tower. Power appears to be somewhat reduced, I'm not receiving it as strong as I do the Type2 system which is close in proximity.

Only 1 radio has been affiliating and then logging off, no real traffic on it yet.

WACN: BEE00
SYSID: 4C9
RFSS: 1
Site: 2

Unsure if that info will change to match the FCC Callsign to P25 calculations or not.

 

[mikeydcg2003]

Acording to what i have found out this is suppose to go live March 1st so i would venture in the next few weeks we will start seeing a lot of activity and sites coming online

 

[Radioman96p71]

Small update on the system.

It appears to still be in C4FM, I haven't seen the usual simulcast distortion on scanners like I usually do.

EDIT: They literally must have just switched to CQPSK simulcast in the last few minutes. Icom receiver is not liking the signal and it has the nasty distortion on it now. Radio is tracking fine but UniTrunker is only getting 50% or so decode.

There has been a lot of basic testing going on on about 45 talkgroups. The most active has be 459 which is periodically patched to Westcom Fire Dispatch. 175 has also been active but I haven't heard what traffic was on it, i would speculate its Law Dispatch but no confirmation.

The big deal I noticed is the system is setup for P25 Phase 2, meaning only the brand new scanners on the market will be decoding P2 calls. Right NOW its patching to P1 but they have been testing P2 off and on.

The system is also using a different NAC code of 4C0 vs the System ID of 4C9.
More info to come, as usual.

 

[Radioman96p71]

OK, so some new info on this system.

As of 4/8/2014 public safety is mostly on the new P25 system. Groups will be added to the database before long once i get them figured out completely. I'm not sure if they will be staying what they are or not.

Westcom Fire 1 is and has been on the system sporadically when the 1 user that had the group in his radio would join.

I've seen at least 20 new groups just today from all the new radios joining all at once, working diligently to figure out what they are all to. It APPEARS the radio IDs are staying the same, so that is helping a LOT.

Anyone else been following this? I will be swapping my feed from the old system to the new before much longer when I can be sure they are done tinkering.

 

[timkilbride]

To far away to assist. Keeping my hands full with Linn and Johnson counties.

Tim

 

[N0ZJT]

Can you send me what you have so far? I am planning on being in the area this weekend and will hopefully have some time to watch the new system for updates as well.

 

[jlande]

So if I upload the freqs for westcom but no talk groups. will I be able to hear anything or will I just not know who is talking. Dumb question I know but just farely new to the scanning world

 

[Radioman96p71]

If you are using a scanner yes, just leave it in Search mode and it will find whatever it hears.

Going back over my list now, things kinda got flipped on their head so I'm re-analyzing how they are making it work. Lots of oddball patches that seem to randomly change throughout the day. Seems to have calmed down now, maybe I can get valid GIDs now!

The big ones for casual listening are 1101, 1102 and 1103 which are Ops 1,2 and 3 respectively for law enforcement. and then 175 is still being used for Fire paging.

 

[BaLa]

Not getting good decode (at times) in Altoona,
Obviously, not really familiar with the Area also.

Maybe somone can answer?
Westcom = West Des Moines?
This should be a start though.



-----
3 - Law Enforcement (Ch2) (possible West Des Moines PD)
601 - Law Enforcement (Ch1) (possible West Des Moines PD)

475 - EMS/Ambulance (Urbandale?) (6200 Aurora Ave Mercy Med Clinc in Urbandale)

505 - Public Works/Trash ?
523 - School? (talking about taking flag down, rope stuck, borrow Truck from Public works)

 

[Radioman96p71]

Yes this is the West Des Moines, Clive, Urbandale and Waukee system.

Here is what I have so far. Some confirmed, some not.

GIDs 1, 3, and 5 are all tied to 1101, 1102, and 1103. One of them is the fake, tho I'm not sure which.

1101 is Westcom Law 1
1102 Westcom Law 2
1103 Westcom Law 3

161 Westcom Tac 5 (tied to old analog Public Safety 1)
163 Westcom Tac 6 (old PS 2)
165 Westcom Tac 7 (old PS 3)
167 Westcom Tac 8 (old PS 4)
169 Westcom Tac 9
171 Westcom Tac 10

175 Westcom Fire 1
177 Westcom Fire 2
179 Westcom Fire 3

321 Public Works (unknown who)

459 Urbandale Ops 1
461 Urbandale Ops 2
463 Urbandale Ops 3
465 Urbandale Ops 4

475 Urbandale Fire 1
477 Urbandale Fire Chat

505 Urbandale Public Works

523 West Des Moines Schools?

551 Unknown Law 1 (Possibly Clive)

601 Norwalk PD Ops 1
603 Norwalk PD Ops 2
605 Norwalk PD Ops 3
607 Norwalk PD Chat

611 Unknown Fire
613 Norwalk FD Chat

631 Norwalk Public Works

1052 VHF Patch to MICS 10

4000 thru 4030 Motorola Techs


That's what I have ID'd in my radio. The patching on the law side is making it hard to nail down what groups are the placeholders and which are real. 1101 thru 1103 have been used consistently since deployment for the main Law channels.

Hope that helps

 

[timo123451]

Thanks for the info? Is Urbandale and Clive in the digital mix yet?

This change over couldn't have come at a worse time. I have to wait for the Whistler digital scanners to come out before I make a digital scanner purchase!

 

[Radioman96p71]

Urbandale is, Clive I have not heard yet.

Waukee fire was testing yesterday, haven't found their local groups yet.

What makes it difficult is they have the old system seamlessly linked to the new, so radio ids show up on both systems as if they were local, figuring out if they are actually on the new system requires you to look back thru logs to see if they logged into the new or old system before the call.

I'll post updates as I figure them out

 

[BaLa]

Nice list..
me,,I was just in the area.

Here today gone tommorow type Deal.

 

[Agnew01]

I have been listening (primarily) to the OPS1,2,&3 GIDs along with the Fire Ops GIDs. Have you seen any TDMA broadcasts? I seem to be getting just FDMA.

--Bob

 

[timo123451]

Does anyone know when they will operate strictly on the digital system?

 

[Radioman96p71]

They have been doing quite a bit of testing with TDMA on the tech channels, no Westcom traffic is TDMA yet, but they are still showing the system is capable and ready.

Not sure on the exact cutover date, it's been pushed back so many times its hard telling. West Des Moines and Clive have yet to fully cut over, as well as a few stragglers. If i had to guess i would say within 2-3 weeks, but that's assuming they keep up the current pace.

 

[Agnew01]

Thanks for the update Adam.

I've started listening to it daily now on my HT, which should be able to also pickup the TDMA when it shows up, but I've not heard anything yet. I did load all the tech channels in but have only been listening on those for the last day or so.

--Bob

 

[Radioman96p71]

Which radio are you using to monitor out of curiosity?

My Harris P7300 tracks it great but my M/P7100's don't care for Motorola's style of patching at all, causing it to jump around between the patched groups. If you park it on one it is fine.

Depending on how fast they move off the analog system I will probably migrate the live feed over to the new one, just need to come up with a method of getting the radio to track the groups when they patch.

 

[Ryan8429]

What's up everyone. Ok this is what I know about westcom. Westcom as of right now has Urbandale, Norwalk, Clive on the digital system West Des Moines is slated to go digital some time the week of April 28th. The analog system will be around for ever it sounds like (westcoms backup) it also sounds like it will be patched for the next few years due to not everyone going digital right away (ie public parks depts like that) I'm sure I've repeated some stuff, I just wanted to know so i knew how long i had before i need to get a digital scanner.