EDACS: The Metro21 system has been rebanded.
Added digital control channel to Unknowns.
Albany: Updated Guilderland fire channel plan.
P25: Added new talkgroups to Colonie 01D6 system.
P25: Added new sites and estimated callsign info to NYSEG 0269 system.
Schenectady: Updated EMS frequency.
Motorola: Added new (and unidentified) talkgroups to Albany BB37 DPS system.
Various updates and notes for National Grid and NYSEG on the Statewide Business page.
Erie: Corrected Lackawanna FD apparatus listing.
Onondaga: Added CTCSS tone for Jordan PD to Public Safety page.
Oswego: Updated Transportation frequencies. Added National Grid frequency. By the way, Oswego listeners, please check in with updates on National Grid communications up there. Are they using all of those UHF channels? What is each one used for? Have you noted any VHF P25 digital traffic in the area?
Rensselaer: Added low band fire channels and designators. Added note about usage change for 46.04.
Saratoga: Added crossband fire frequency.
Steuben: Updated Corning fire channels.
LTR-MultiNet: Updated frequencies and added various notes to Rensselaer County's AD44 system.
Motorola: Deleted National Grid's former AA1C system. It has been decommissioned.
P25: Added SysID for Saratoga County's 0001 system.
P25: Added sites to NYSEG 0269 system.
Over the next few weeks/months, I will be doing some general updating to the entire site. I will be eliminating inconsistent color themes, validating internal links, and changing the way CTCSS/DCS/NAC/etc. information is displayed. I also plan to migrate the information into a database and add a search engine eventually.
April: The facelift is delayed. I am suffering severe financial problems right now. I have high hopes for a full time job by summer, but in the meantime my savings are gone and I have to move by May 1. In a worst-case scenario, the website will become dormant or be taken offline. Fingers (and toes) crossed...
NYSWCN Phase I will be built in Erie and Chautauqua Counties. For those who have not heard yet: the New York Statewide Wireless Communications Network (SWN) will not be monitorable with any scanner or other commercial receiver that will be available to the general public. It will be M/A-Comm Open Sky, which is a proprietary digital cellular-like trunking format that has not been licensed to anyone else so that they could manufacture equipment for it - especially scanners!
I have been told by a source in State government that a provision in New York's SWN contract requires M/A-Comm to allow radio manufacturers to license Open Sky protocols so the state will not be tied to a single vendor. This provision could be exploited by companies that design scanners (are you listening, GRE and Uniden?) to obtain the lawful ability to sell Open Sky scanners! Further comment on scanning: There are two technical differences that would affect scanning of an Open Sky system. The first is the proprietary digital voice protocol, which is relatively trivial if the algorithms are licensed. The second and more significant difference is the cellular-like system architecture. Even if Open Sky involved "normal" digital voice channels (which it doesn't - everything is multiplexed), it is not like "trunking" as we know it. It would be more like scanning cellphones - if that were legal - than scanning any familiar type of 2-way communications. Scanner listeners monitoring an Open Sky system are likely to be disappointed in their ability to follow conversations.
So far, the only successful implementation of an Open Sky radio system that anyone on RadioReference's forums is able to identify is at the airport in Krakow, Poland!
I have been receiving copies of and links to news reports from the Buffalo area about the SWN initial testing. The local officials are not pleased and the City of Buffalo has cancelled its plans to become a full partner in SWN. They have decided to become a Gateway Partner - which means that they will have some access to the system during emergencies - when/if SWN becomes operational.
Erie County has officially announced that their status will be Gateway Partner instead of Full Partner as originally planned, and other counties around the state are beginning to take notice. Now even state legislators are starting to ask pointed questions, and calling for an independent investigation of the contract.
Visit M/A-Comm's own website to see what they say about Open Sky.
I will not post any frequency or transmitter site info about SWN until the system actually begins to go live. Frequencies are typically switched around during construction and testing as unanticipated interference problems emerge. I won't contribute to any confusion by posting incorrect and unverified frequencies just because they appear on the FCC licenses. Also, a substantial number of frequencies currently licensed for SWN (and for some local trunked systems around the state) will have to change as the Nextel rebanding process continues. Again, there is no point in listing frequencies that will probably never be used before the licenses are adjusted.
POLICY CHANGE NOTICE: The identities of all contributors of information to the NF2G Scannist Pages will be kept confidential. However, you must identify yourself when sending information to me. I won't publish anything on my website if I don't know who sent it. I delete all emails containing website update info as soon as I've made the updates, so there are no records of past sources.
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Averill Park, NY.
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