Who can solve me this mystery????

[Direwolf131]

I am puzzled as to why I can capture heavy radio traffic from the Sawyer Co. Wisconsin jail for 1-5 weeks a year, then its gone for most of the rest of the year, its not digitized in some fashion, it just literally disappears???? I have absolutely no idea what the deal is, it just vanishes into thin air.... and by capture I mean its there all day long, dozens and dozens of captures each day whilst its available, easily the busiest traffic I catch on a Uniden 536HP, more so than the Sawyer Co Sheriffs office as it patrols county roads.

 

[a417]

how far is that from you?

ducting, skip, etc...long story short, favorable RF conditions.

 

[nd5y]

Is it trunked or conventional?

 

[trentbob]

Everybody likes a good mystery but maybe we can get some hints to help. What kind of system is it and what is the frequency range. What season are the 1 to 5 weeks that you hear busy traffic? How far away are you and what kind of antenna are you using? Those are good starts.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Welcome to the world of troposphere ducting. Tons of discussion about it here

 

[Direwolf131]

Is it trunked or conventional?

Wiscom P25 trunked

 

[Direwolf131]

how far is that from you?

ducting, skip, etc...long story short, favorable RF conditions.

5-rural blocks....

 

[nd5y]

Wiscom P25 trunked

Talkgroups on a statweide trunked system could show up on any site where one of the users has a radio on that talkgroup.

 

[Direwolf131]

Its the strangest thing, I wonder if they do not switch to a different system altogether, though why they would is a mystery.... I'm right in Hayward, the Sheriffs dept just 5-blocks away, and "poof" its gone just as swiftly as it showed up.

 

[wtp]

what do they talk about ?

 

[KevinC]

I know absolutely nothing about this system but maybe they have a BDA (jails are notorious for being big attenuators) and the donor antenna is pointed at a different site than the one you normally listen to. Then once in a while a rouge radio affiliates to the site you normally listen to and you hear them.

Just a guess though.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Are you sure you have the correct sites programmed into your radio? WISCOM is multisite and the jail might have a nearby site you are ignoring until the odd time a radio affiliates on a different site near to you .

I didnt see Kevins reply till i responded. Thats probably whats going on.

 

[4006]

Wiscom P25 trunked

No offense to the out-of-state people replying to this guy, but you don't know what's going on. FWIW, the answer lives in the very database that this website revolves around.

OP: The jail has it's own non-WISCOM channel located at the facility. Is this what you are trying to listen to? The jail doesn't use WISCOM natively. I suppose that once in a while the county may patch (accidental or otherwise) this channel into a WISCOM talkgroup, but don't expect jail traffic to be on WISCOM.

154.80000

158.76750

KTV630

RM

243 DPL

SWJAIL

Jail

FMN

Corrections

Hope this helps.

 

[KevinC]

Sorry, out of state guy again...

I looked at the database and see no Sawyer County jail TG. I (wrongly) assumed you were hearing them on a TG marked just for them. So what TG are you hearing them on? This would have been good information to supply from the beginning.

 

[wtp]

one tower or all three ?

	061 (3D)	Hayward	Sawyer	139.7375c	151.055a	151.340	154.190	154.355
	065 (41)	Meteor	Sawyer	139.7625a	150.920c	151.445	152.1275a	154.845
	158 (9E)	Pipestone	Sawyer	151.100c	151.370a	152.600c	153.050	153.335

 

[Direwolf131]

I know absolutely nothing about this system but maybe they have a BDA (jails are notorious for being big attenuators) and the donor antenna is pointed at a different site than the one you normally listen to. Then once in a while a rouge radio affiliates to the site you normally listen to and you hear them.

Just a guess though.

Maybe thats it, whatever it is, its spectacularly strange, for an average of three weeks each year you get them pretty much all day long, then "poof" gone for the remainder of the year...

 

[Direwolf131]

No offense to the out-of-state people replying to this guy, but you don't know what's going on. FWIW, the answer lives in the very database that this website revolves around.

OP: The jail has it's own non-WISCOM channel located at the facility. Is this what you are trying to listen to? The jail doesn't use WISCOM natively. I suppose that once in a while the county may patch (accidental or otherwise) this channel into a WISCOM talkgroup, but don't expect jail traffic to be on WISCOM.

154.80000

158.76750

KTV630

RM

243 DPL

SWJAIL

Jail

FMN

Corrections

Hope this helps.

I wondered if that was the case, for some reason they are just using wiscom for a short period for some unknown reason, then reverting back, it seems that is just what is going on. As for my radio I am using a uniden 536HP which programs directly from this site, its spot on, literally with everything else statewide up to speed and date and I update it twice each month! Because I'm rural I range it at 30 miles, if I were in a major metro I'd just go 10, but up here in the national forest you have to really open things up so as to capture the other county sheriffs...

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

What named talkgroup are they showing up sporadically? Could they be assigned a normally dormant TG that is normally patched and only comes alive on the WISCOM when a user switches from conventional to WISCOM? Maybe the warden takes time off a couple weeks and his radio affiliates only when he is away at home?

 

[box23]

@Direwolf131, how did you determine you were hearing jail communications via WISCOM? As others have asked, can you provide the TGID you heard them on? Additionally, were you able to determine if the communications were originating from a single radio ID or multiple?

Is it possible you are scanning both conventional and WISCOM and mistakenly determined it was through WISCOM when it was really the conventional channel? I would also highly encourage you to monitor the conventional frequency for digital waveforms during the times they disappear.