Wmata ops 5

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N4VKF

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I am trying to determine if rail operatons ops 5 is the station manager channel or something else. I read that it may be a system announcement channel

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N4VKF

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A document I read also make mention of the following Ops Channels. OPS7 and OPS10. I don't see a reference in the database.
 

N4VKF

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Also is are talkgroups 35152 and 35856 used any longer?

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N4VKF

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This is the chart that I found.

OPS1 - Red Line
OPS2- Yellow, Orange, Blue
OPS3- Yellow/Green
OPS4- ??
OPS5 - Blue ??
OPS6- ??
OPS7- Blue ??
OPS8- ??
OPS9- ??
OPS10- Blue??
OPS11- ??
OPS12- Blue??
 

KN4XW

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I am trying to determine if rail operatons ops 5 is the station manager channel or something else. I read that it may be a system announcement channel

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I am new to trunking and I'm trying to find the CC for WMATA. 496.43750 shows a signal (health 100 at my QTH in Bethesda) but I'm not hearing anything, just a bunch of 'joining.' Am I on the wrong CC?
 

KN4XW

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The database should have the control channels. What scanner are you using?

I am using 2 RTL dongles with DSD Plus and unitrunker. I used the WMATA CC in the database, and I get a 100 Health signal but can't seem to hear anything. I use my set up successfully for Montgomery County Public Safety.
 

KN4XW

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I can hear Fairfax, MoCo and Arlington with no problem but WMATA eludes me. The CC listed in RR is 496.43750 and is strong but I just get a lot joins and log offs. Am I using the correct CC? Have they shifted to 700 Mhz?
 

maus92

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I get that but what's the control channel? The one's listed in RR don't seem to work for me.
I'm sure you know this, but SmartNet systems can "roll" control channels between 4 preassigned channels. The RRDB shows 490.7875 as the primary cch, and 490.8625, 496.4375 and 496.5375 as alternates. The channel that you specified is an alternate cch, but you also said it shows "Joins" which generally means it is the active cch.
 

KN4XW

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I'm sure you know this, but SmartNet systems can "roll" control channels between 4 preassigned channels. The RRDB shows 490.7875 as the primary cch, and 490.8625, 496.4375 and 496.5375 as alternates. The channel that you specified is an alternate cch, but you also said it shows "Joins" which generally means it is the active cch.
Perhaps I was unclear. I can hear the control channel noise on 490.7875 but all I get is a flurry a calls and logouts at a crazy fast pace. I don't hear anything. See the screenshot. I listen to all the other local channels around here, but this one eludes me. 1566430541768.png

74501
 

maus92

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The RRDB shows a custom band plan for WMATA's system. I'm not familiar how DSD+ and Unitrunker 1 work together to follow conversations, but I would start by making sure you are configured to track a system that uses a custom band plan.
 

maus92

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I'm not sure why this would be necessary. All the other systems work, but I will look into it.
I don't know the other systems that work for you, but they are most likely using the standard band plan. WMATA uses a custom band plan according to the RRDB, therefore Unitrunker needs to have its default band plan settings adjusted. Some older scanners also have this issue. Do some research about band plans + Unitrunker on this site - there are threads about it.
 

KN4XW

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I don't know the other systems that work for you, but they are most likely using the standard band plan. WMATA uses a custom band plan according to the RRDB, therefore Unitrunker needs to have its default band plan settings adjusted. Some older scanners also have this issue. Do some research about band plans + Unitrunker on this site - there are threads about it.
Looks like I have some reading to do.
 

gratefuldan61

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Just some info to clean up the Rail OPs Talk Groups. My changes in Red... If someone can update the RR page that would be great.
Any usage of OPs channels above ch 3 are probably being used by Maintenance crews performing work. There is a Talk Around channel for this purpose, but if 2 crews are close to each other one of the crews will switch to an OPs channel for communicating. Also Gen 1 and Gen 2 in the Rail Maintenance Talk Groups are always popular for maintenance communications.
 

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maus92

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I was in the Bowie area today, so I fired up Unitrunker 2 to see what's up with WMATA. In order to resolve system freqs from the channel number - and monitor voice traffic - you must enter a custom band plan. Doing some research on the Unitrunker website, all trunking systems in the UHF T band (and others) have a custom band plan. I didn't know that.

I'm including a link for the band plan research, and attaching a screen shot of the system decoding. Hope this helps.


wmata.PNG
 

KN4XW

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I was in the Bowie area today, so I fired up Unitrunker 2 to see what's up with WMATA. In order to resolve system freqs from the channel number - and monitor voice traffic - you must enter a custom band plan. Doing some research on the Unitrunker website, all trunking systems in the UHF T band (and others) have a custom band plan. I didn't know that.

I'm including a link for the band plan research, and attaching a screen shot of the system decoding. Hope this helps.


View attachment 74563
I think this will help a lot. I appreciate the time you spent on this.
 
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