Where do people find the information that is posted on the reference data base?

[betulie11]

I am curious where people find the information that is posted in the reference database.

I would like to start researching government and business data my local area and share my findings.

In my area RACOM sets up and maintains the majority of the radios, they don’t like to share data in my experiences with them. (I work for the city that they were servicing the radios for and was only able to get 5 talkgroup IDs from them, all of which are rarely used.)

I know the FCC provides frequency and location data. But that does nothing for talk groups or info regarding whether or not the transmissions are digital/analog or encrypted.

 

[wa8pyr]

I am curious where people find the information that is posted in the reference database.

I would like to start researching government and business data my local area and share my findings.

In my area RACOM sets up and maintains the majority of the radios, they don’t like to share data in my experiences with them. (I work for the city that they were servicing the radios for and was only able to get 5 talkgroup IDs from them, all of which are rarely used.)

I know the FCC provides frequency and location data. But that does nothing for talk groups or info regarding whether or not the transmissions are digital/analog or encrypted.

Listening on the scanner and making notes as to who and what you’re hearing is the most common way.

For details of trunked and/or digital systems many folks use one of the control channel decoder programs such as Pro96Com, Unitrunker or DSDPlus.

 

[northstarfire0693]

You also have system users that post information on TRS and conventional systems

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Welcome to the RR forums, @betulie11. As the others above me have mentioned and as has been repeated ad nauseum throughout various threads here: the RR database relies on user submission to stay up to date. I'm an avid database contributor for my region & wherever I may visit but I've got notes I've taken from various stations I've stumbled upon and have sat on for months or even years without an agency identification. Either I'm not in the area often enough to linger on said stations for a long time or if I am, said stations come in weak, traffic is sparse, ambiguous or all of the above. A vast majority of these stations are leased repeater services so those are often the hardest to try and pinpoint end users for. But yes, a lot of studying, note taking, observation, verification & re-verification. For example if I made a submission 10 years ago mapping out an amusement park's radio usage (which at that time would have been analog) I or another contributor would then need to make a return trip years later to see if traffic still exists as noted in the database or if they've upgraded their radio system to (let's say) DMR. There would be no way for the database to reflect this change without someone submitting the updated info

Submission Guidelines Page

 

[dave3825]

I would like to start researching government and business data my local area and share my findings.

I know the FCC provides frequency and location data. But that does nothing for talk groups or info regarding whether or not the transmissions are digital/analog or encrypted.

Where is your local area and have you looked in the database to see what might be available?

 

[CanesFan95]

The real question is, how do they identify ENCRYPTED talk groups? Especially when they somehow know like an exact channel name or number. Other times I see long, complete lists of exact-looking TG names. My only guess is its someone on the inside.

 

[buddrousa]

@CanesFan95
You are not going to like this answer either but several of us that post information have direct sources to the Agency.
We are either good friends with the system admins people in the Agency or are involved in the Agency ourselves.

 

[CanesFan95]

No, I DO like that answer. Cause that's how we get good information.

 

[pb_lonny]

A lot of listening and note taking, I have written a custom database program for exactly this purpose...

Software - SAPJRadioScanningDB

A blog about my hobby of radio band monitoring across the VHF and UHF bands.

launcestonradiomonitoring.blogspot.com

 

[Forts]

I like that database software? Is it available for download at all?

 

[nd5y]

The real question is, how do they identify ENCRYPTED talk groups?

One way is by radio IDs and what other talkgroups they appear on.

Especially when they somehow know like an exact channel name or number.

On some systems talkgroups are assigned in blocks of consecutive numbers so it's not hard to figure out when you sort all the talkgroups in number order you will see patterns like:
1001 Dispatch 1
1002 Dispatch 2
1003 TAC 1
1004 (encrypted or missing)
1005 (encrypted or missing)
1006 TAC 4
1007 (encrypted or missing)
1008 Events 2

 

[Forts]

Also sometimes you get clues from clear channels/talkgroups.

TG1000 - "Everyone move over to Secure 2".... then you start picking up encrypted transmissions on TG1012 etc etc. Even though you can't listen it's always a little rewarding when you're able to identify something new.

 

[WX4JCW]

when doing trunk systems i use one of the control channle decoders, Unitrunker is my favorite as it gives a history for each radio ID, taking notes when they say something along the lines of "Go to Ops 2" then you can see that radio move to a new talkgroup and can assume its Ops 2, some agencies actually post their radio matrix online as well which helps, this for me is the fun part of the hobby being a detective and figuring out the puzzle

 

[CanesFan95]

But sometimes what you see in the RRDB is radio TG aliases that look like what's programmed to display on the radio. It would take someone on the inside to get that.

 

[GTR8000]

But sometimes what you see in the RRDB is radio TG aliases that look like what's programmed to display on the radio. It would take someone on the inside to get that.

Right, and sometimes that's exactly how the info is obtained. That has already been established in this thread.

There is really no mystery to it, folks.

 

[wa8pyr]

But sometimes what you see in the RRDB is radio TG aliases that look like what's programmed to display on the radio. It would take someone on the inside to get that.

Not necessarily. As @WX4JCW noted, some agencies post their radio channel plan online.

 

[pb_lonny]

I like that database software? Is it available for download at all?

Yes, it will be. I am just working on some final touches and doing the install and usage guide.