Allegheny County - Mon Valley Fire

The new Allegheny County Mon Valley fire freq is getting more active. 471.3125 PL 110.9 Repeater is getting more users. I've been hearing Glassport #1 using it for operations. Versailles fire units have been active on it as well. Liberty VFD ran a pager test, and sounds like they should be active on it any time as well. Departments are starting to get the equipment and leave the old 33.800 CSQ simplex system

Antenna work

I've been busy doing some antenna work.

I have a a Radio Shack discone that I needed to repair. I wasn't watching what I was doing a couple of years ago, and managed to break off a radial. I got it threaded back on, but it fell of this winter. I replaced that radial, and replaced the coax with LMR 400.

I have an old Antenna Specialist scanner antenna (Mon ???) on a 5 ft mast. I put that on a 10ft mast and changed the coax to LMR 400.

I got a new discone at a hamfest. I put that up on a 10ft mast and used LMR 400 on that as well.

I do have some improvement with the LMR 400. I can now hear Westmoreland County's 800 system. I do have to say, that stuff is a bear to work with. It is by far the toughest stuff to work with. I don't enjoy putting connectors on, and this made it worst. Its done now, so when I get some better antennas to replace the discones most of the work is already done.

A Few New Freqs

Its been a while.....so here are some new freqs that have been found. Pages will get updated soon.

First freqs found at the football game between Keystone Oaks at Elizabeth Forward High School.
155.025 - DPL 134 - Repeater - Police Ch. 6
153.785 - DPL 134 - Input to 155.025
462.5625 - PL 67.0 - Simplex - Elizabeth Forward High School stadium security
159.090 - PL 107.2 - Repeater - Allegheny County east zone police Ch. 2
153.995 - PL 107.2 - Input to 159.090

Some other recent findings :

Baldwin Whitehall School District - 464.875 - PL 179.9 - Simplex - High school marching band operations.

462.1125 - DPL 116 - Repeater/Simplex - UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital - Operations. I have been playing with this one for a while. The odd thing with this is, its the exact same freq AND DPL as South Hills Village. Neither is strong enough to be heard at the other location. Just the same, just odd that the same DPL was picked at both sites.

464.8625 - PL 103.5 - Repeater - WL Roegnigk. This appears to be a new frequency for buses in the Pittsburgh area.

467.850 - PL 118.8 - Simplex - I am certain that this is the Wyndham in Oakland. Front desk to house keepers. In the down town area there is another hotel using this freq with PL 103.5. I have not been able to ID that hotel as yet.

151.715 - PL 94.8 - Simplex - Holiday Inn Express South Side shuttles.

461.375 - DPL 025 - Repeater - Thomas Jefferson high school operations

461.375 - DPL 432 - Repeater - Security company for many locations around the city. They provide security for Lemington Heights Apartments, Mid Town Towers, Highview (located on Duquesne Place in Duquesne), and some other locations. I'm trying to track down the companies name.

I was doing some searching tonight in the 461 - 462 area. It was busy on many frequencies with buses transporting teams, and bands to games. Searching the 461.000 - 470.000 area may turn up some interesting things during football season.

Penn Hills Police

Penn Hills police are now on 856.5875 PL 167.9. They are still using 854.6875 as Ch. B.

Pages Updated

Updates for the following pages have been uploaded :

Allegheny County EMS Stations
Allegheny County Dispatch By Zone
Allegheny County Fire And EMS Tones

Football Scanning

Football season is just about to begin. Here are some scanning tips to monitoring the action of Steelers and Pitt football games.

Heinz Field :
Heinz Field is on the City Of Pittsburgh TRS system. You can leave it as type II and program in the talkgroups, and close the bank. The fleet map for the City of Pittsburgh TRS with Heinz Field is Block 0 S 12, Block 2 S 12, Block 4 S 4, Block 5 S 4, Block 6 S 0, and Block 7 S 3. You will want to close the bank to receive only these talkgroups.
53248 - Fleet
53264 - Dispatch
53280 - Stadium Operations
53296 - Security
53312 - Event Staff
53328 - Public Relations
53344 - Ticket
53360 - Marketing
53376 - Merchandising
53392 - Maintenance
53408 - Electrician
53424 - CONSTL
53440 - CPS
53456 - Score Board
53475 - Video
53488 - Football Ops
53504 - Grounds
53520 - Guest Services
53536 - Gates
53552 - CSC Alternate
53584 - Warehouse
53600 - Concessions
53616 - Club
53632 - Kitchen
53648 - Suites
53664 - ARA Management
53664 - Fire Department Inspections
53696 - Event 1
53712 - CSC Management
53728 - Steeler Management

In addition to the TRS they use 461.550 PL 218.1 simplex with security outside of the stadium.

NFL :
The NFL is licensed to several frequencies. I have monitored a few at the games. It appears they have a pair (Input / output) for every team for the quarter back radios. These radios run as a repeater (low power) so that the NFL can cut it off when rules state. These radios are also voice inversion scrambled, so you really can't understand what they are saying. They also use freqs to coordinate game day activities. NFL freqs I have been able to confirm :

461.0875 - DPL 134 - Cleveland Browns
461.1875 - DPL UNK - Tampa Bay Bucaneers
461.3625 - DPL 226 - Denver Broncos
461.4875 - DPL 311 - Philadelphia Eagles
461.5625 - DPL 025 - Cincinnati Bengals
461.7125 - DPL UNK - Miami Dolphinis
463.2375 - DPL 464 - Baltimore Ravens
463.2875 - DPL UNK - New York Jets
463.8875 - DPL 131 - Green Bay Packers
463.9125 - DPL 047 - Kansas City Chiefs
464.4375 - DPL UNK - Tennessee Titans
464.6875 - DPL 143 - New Orleans Saints
464.7375 - DPL UNK - Jacksonville Jaguars
464.9375 - DPL UNK - New England Patriots
462.0625 - DPL 245 - Pittsburgh Steelers

It is not possible to monitor the coaches. The NFL uses a proprietary system made by Telex (even though they have Motorola on the head sets), called the Lombardi system.

Pitt will also use these frequencies at games :
452.300 - PL 156.7 - Athletics
453.150 - PL 103.5 - Police (Repeater)
453.800 - PL 103.5 - Buses (Repeater)
468.875 - DPL 263 - Athletics
469.125 - UNK PL/DPL - Athletics
470.8375 - PL 114.8 - Athletics
473.8375 - PL 156.7 - Athletics

Those freqs are mainly coordinating activities around the field (cheerleaders, band, stats, equipment, and on field activities. Again it is not possible to monitor the coaches

Search around, there is plenty to find.

Aleppo Fire

I have finally been able to confirm Aleppo VFD is using 495.5125 DPL 606 (North - Ohio Fire Ch. 2) for dispatch and operations. I have heard County Communications cross patch them to the North Boros fire channel when responding with those agencies.