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I still can't get this one from either my house or work AO...

EDIT: Nevermind, I just saw where the sites are.

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

Some is my new favorite word.

Decoding fine with the PSR-800! 8)

This is an interesting system to monitor. It's very different than others in the area. Kind of a cross between police and taxi dispatching.

In 1 out of 6 transmissions, there's a call about a radio problem. Every operator has to "log-in" to their radio or they cannot move. The dispatcher seems to have master control and can help people from their console -- i.e. all tied together via computer network.

Everyone seems quite patient so far -- considering all of the problems. The dispatchers are very good -- very calm and in-control.

Audio quality isn't bad considering I'm on the Eastside. I cannot hear the Site 2 control channel from my QTH. Every now and then I'll see a TGID displayed but the audio is very weird (high-pitched) -- I'm not sure if this is encryption or what. Oddly, even though my signal strength is very good, I still get transmissions cutting in/out.

Here's what I've hit so far -- realize that most of this is best guess from the transmissions I've heard:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TGID - Description
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

28001 - ATG (Dispatcher can talk to all operators)
28002 -
28003 -
28005 -
28006 - Heard references to District 22 (possibly south-end operators, Tukwila, etc)
28007 -
28025 - Possible transit engineers/maintenance **Channel 8 -- (two diff references called this channel 8) (Saturday, Apple Cup is "Husky Control" -- coaches from UW stadium to Centurylink Field)
28026 - "Husky 1 to Husky 8"
28029 -
28033 -
28048 - Enforcement Response Team (requests for Transit Police) -- heard operator call for help, waiting for unmarked transit police to arrive)

**Heard references to TAC-1 and TAC-2 (but didn't hear any follow-up, could be encrypted)

No, I didn't make this up. Here's a fairly typical conversation on this system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf8oyD0LwjI

So Wilrobnson called me up this afternoon asking about this system, because apparently you can't get the internets on a Crackberry. Apparently Wilrobnson was near DuPont and was picking up 1F9 using an undisclosed control channel at 98%. I was expected to list all the sites for the system, despite the fact that the RP has a photographic memory. I was pretty sure the furthest south site was the water tanks in Auburn/Federal Way (where AMR's 162.55 simplex stick is). That didn't seem reasonable to either one of us, so I suggested that there might be a site on Grass Mountain. That didn't make sense becuase Willrobnson can pick up the Grass IWN site from his own little corner of Puyallup but not this system.

Turns out there isn't a site on Grass. But there is one on Rattlesnake. Still, Rattlesnake is a bit of a stretch to DuPont. I know 700 doesn't propogate the same way as VHF-Lo or VHF-Hi, but don't the FMB stations on Tiger reach DuPont OK? Because none of these sites in Seattle make any sense and Tiger and Rattlesnake from this license are the only other options.

Given that Metro has just one route that runs through Pierce County (and just barely at that) it doesn't make sense for King County to build out sites in Pierce. BUT, Pierce does have their own 700 system using similar technology...


And a final question--has anyone found a definitive location for Tower 102? Seems that 101 is a simulcast on all sites. But to confuse matters more, Willrobnson claimed he was getting something on T102's frequency--still in DuPont--or maybe Lakewood by then--but not enough of it to decode.

Yeah I've noticed some strange things about this system as well. The propagation around the area is very strange at times. I can get it very well in Lake Hills (Bellevue) but heading towards Eastgate/I-90 it's very touch and go.

I was on top of Somerset Hill in Bellevue (above Factoria) and I couldn't get it at all. Zero reception.

I couldn't locate the 2nd site tower either. I was thinking it could be in the bus tunnel?

You can, but I was busy working, not taking pictures of people without pants.


See below.


I do, however, in my defense, I've never looked at any info for this system before.


AMR is pirating on NOAA? Glad to hear I'm not the only one...


I was still in Dupont. Had I been using anything better than a VHF 1/4 wave, I may have had something.

Here's what I pulled up:

System ID : 1F9
System Name : Metro Transit
WACN : BEE00
Tower Number (Decimal): 101
Tower Number (Hex) : T0101
Tower Description : Simulcast
Control Capabilities : Data,Voice,Registration
Call Sign(s) :
Timestamp : Sun Jan 8 14:35:46 2012

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,851.00625,0.00625,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1
01,762.00625,0.00625,30.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1
02,851.01250,0.01250,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,2
03,762.00625,0.01250,30.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,2

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Frequency(/Slot),Hit Count
"01-1242","d",769.76875,799.76875,0
"01-1282","d",770.01875,800.01875,0
"01-1322","d",770.26875,800.26875,0
"01-1360","d",770.50625,800.50625,0
"01-1362","d",770.51875,800.51875,0
"01-1940","d",774.13125,804.13125,0
"01-1980","a",774.38125,804.38125,0
"01-1982","a",774.39375,804.39375,0
"01-2020","c",774.63125,804.63125,0
"01-2022","a",774.64375,804.64375,0
"03-1242","v",769.76875/0,799.76875/0,3
"03-1243","v",769.76875/1,799.76875/1,6
"03-1282","v",770.01875/0,800.01875/0,9
"03-1283","v",770.01875/1,800.01875/1,8
"03-1322","v",770.26875/0,800.26875/0,1
"03-1323","v",770.26875/1,800.26875/1,2
"03-1360","v",770.50625/0,800.50625/0,4
"03-1361","v",770.50625/1,800.50625/1,3
"03-1362","v",770.51875/0,800.51875/0,2
"03-1363","v",770.51875/1,800.51875/1,4
"03-1940","v",774.13125/0,804.13125/0,1

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency,Tower Name
102,"T0102",1f9,"01-1320",770.25625,""

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

155.16 not 162.55. Just one of the many reasons I don't memorize frequencies.

I don't either, it just happens, as I think you've seen.

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

I've chased some signals in PierceCo that finally led me to Rattlesnake Mtn, so don't rule it out.

I think you are correct......

FileVersion:7
-TowerInfo
#This section is here for information only. With the exception
#of the Call Sign(s), This data is not Read back into the program at all.
System ID : 1F9
System Name : King County Transit
WACN : BEE00
Tower Number (Decimal): 102
Tower Number (Hex) : T0102
Tower Description : Seattle Tunnel NAC 1F2
Control Capabilities : Data,Voice,Registration
Call Sign(s) :
Timestamp : Wed Jan 11 14:35:03 2012

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,851.00625,0.00625,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1
01,762.00625,0.00625,30.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1
02,851.01250,0.01250,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,2
03,762.00625,0.01250,30.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,2

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"01-1240","a",769.75625,"01-1240",799.75625,0,0
"01-1280","a",770.00625,"01-1280",800.00625,0,0
"01-1320","c",770.25625,"01-1320",800.25625,0,0
"03-1200","v",769.50625/0,"03-1200",799.50625/0,0,16
"03-1201","v",769.50625/1,"03-1201",799.50625/1,0,21

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency,Tower Name
101,"T0101",1f9,"01-2020",774.63125,"Simulcast NAC 1F1"

Very cool dste. Yeah I meant to go down there over the holidays to verify my guess but I didn't make it.

Where'd you log T102 from Dan? What was the signal strength?

If you look at the ULS listing it's only 5w ... so it's probably got to be within a mile of the bus tunnel.