NS Trunked Mobile Radio System (TMR) System Introduction
Last updated September 29, 2010
I HAVE JUST RETURNED THIS PAGE TO THE SITE AND WILL BE REVISING IT SOON. PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM NOT LISTING TALK GROUPS ON THIS SITE. FOR THOSE YOU SHOULD GO TO SCANMARITIMES.CA OR TO RADIOREFERENCE.COM WHAT YOU SEE HERE IS A MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE THAN YOU WILL FIND ELSEWHERE.
Map of the system from hfx-chris on Google Maps and clickable to zoom in on each site (map or satellite) --- a great piece of work.
Please
note that information presented here and in the associated pages is a
combination of information made available publicly by the
This page describes the system and goes on to suggest some ways to listen to it. You will also need talk group id's linked below, and you may wish also to add the non-trunked frequencies that are associated with the TMR, also linked below.
THIS SYSTEM IS SLATED TO BE REPLACED IN NOVA SCOTIA BY WHAT IS DESCRIBED AS A 700 MHz TRUNK SYSTEM THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE OPERATED DIRECTLY BY THE GOVERNMENT. IT IS EXPECTED THAT IT WILL BE COMPATIBLE OR LINKED TO PROVINCIAL SYSTEMS IN NEW BRUNSWICK AND PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND WHICH WILL NOT NECESSARILY ALSO BE 700 MHz SYSTEMS.
|
Non-trunked Frequencies associated with the TMR. Several users have non-trunked 800 MHz frequencies in their radios. These are used for short-range simplex or as inputs to fill-in or backup conventional repeaters. The users are able to select these on their radios seamlessly, and doubtlessly would not even realize they were not using the trunk when they do so. |
This is not intended to be a technical description, and therefore any comments made here are subject to correction by those who are more technically-oriented.
General Introduction to the TMR:
TMR for short; but also abbreviated to TMRS or rarely as IWANS
A network of 66 towers or sites throughout Nova Scotia as well as three sites in the Fredericton, New Brunswick area.
Built by what is now called Bell Aliant in order to serve a ten-year contract with the Nova Scotia provincial government. Commenced operations in late 2000. Contract extended.
Intent was to provide seamless communications throughout the province for all or practically all provincial government agencies as well as supported volunteer organizations operating in the public safety sector. A corollary to this was that all of these agencies would be able to intercommunicate in the event of a major incident or in any other appropriate circumstance.
Bell Aliant markets excess capacity to commercial users, municipalities and the federal government.
800 MHz Motorola SmartZone system made up of two interconnected zones
Zoning is irrelevant to casual scanner listeners as one set of talk groups is used throughout the whole system.
Zone 1 identifies as System 6939 and covers the central and western parts of Nova Scotia
Zone 2 is 6D19. Zone 2 can roughly be
described as the sites in the northeast part of mainland
Capable of supporting analog, digital and digital encrypted transmission. Air time is cheapest for
analog and most expensive for digital encrypted, and as well the equipment
required may also increase in cost.
For scanner listeners digital transmissions require a digital
scanner. Encrypted transmissions are
not decipherable by any current or forthcoming scanner.
Map of the system. This map, from the early days of the system, colour-codes sites by number of channels; however this is somewhat out of date due to a subsequent increase in frequencies in use throughout the system. Excluded from this obsolescent map are the 3 sites in Fredericton and the added site just east of Shubenacadie at Chaswood.
Ten sets of frequencies re-used from site to site. Set #9 is in extremely limited use (two frequencies at Chaswood only) so that for discussion purposes we will say there are 9 sets.
7 of the sets are divided into subsets of frequencies shared by pairs of TMR sites, so that there are 14 subsets and 2 undivided sets, yielding 16 sets of control channels. See below for detail.
System itself is under the care and technical control of Bell.
Almost all the sites are
Usage of the TMR by Nova Scotia public service agencies is directed by the TMR office of the provincial government. Employees of this office conduct training sessions with user agencies and as well operate two mobile communications vehicles. These units may be driven to the scene of incidents and provide patching services between various systems including the TMR, marine VHF, aero VHF, and public service VHF and UHF systems. These trucks are NOT mobile TMR sites but do have telescoping antenna towers to provide enhanced connection to portables and distant repeater sites while on scene of incidents.
USAGE OF THE TMR
The dominant users of the TMR system are:
· NS Government Department
[some DNR
conservation is digital, partially encrypted], including also the ambulance
system operated by EMC, and their liaison with hospitals.
· NS Government affiliated agencies, including the regional health authorities (hospital operators), the EMC-operated ambulance system, and cooperating volunteer agencies such as Red Cross, Ground Search teams, Volunteer Fire Departments. VFD's use the TMR in limited ways only, except for the few that are dispatched by the Halifax Regional system.
·
RCMP
·
·
·
CFB
· Fredericton City (as of 2010 this
user was converting to other means)
· Federal departments including
Fisheries and Oceans, Parks, Border Services, for at least part of their
communications. Extent unknown. Mostly encrypted.
· Commercial users on a secondary
basis. (This means that although these users have allocated talk groups, in
times of high usage by public service users, service may be unavailable
temporarily, which could mean for a few seconds or in an emergency situation,
for hours or days)
Talk groups (Basics)
This page is not intended to tell you how trunking
works, or what talk groups are. Suffice it to say that talk groups are the
virtual channels assigned to various users on any trunk system including this
one. A list of
users and their talk groups can be found at
www.scanmaritimes.ca (free
registration as a member will be required) and at
www.radioreference.com
Most scanning enthusiasts will be content to enter selected known talk
group id numbers into the scanner from the list, and once the scanner is also
set up with frequencies, listen to whatever is active. Others will leave their scanners on search
mode and hope to discover previously unknown talk groups.
Frequencies (Basics): Enough to get you listening if you have control channel mode on your scanner
Most listeners today will have a trunktracking scanner capable of control channel mode. With this there is no need to know the voice channels for the sites as long as you have the control channel frequency entered, and preferably also the alternate control channel frequency for times when it is in use. There are 16 sets of control frequencies, for a total of 32 frequencies. If you enter all 32 of these frequencies into a trunking bank of your scanner you will have complete coverage of the system. Note that whereas there are nearly 70 sites in the system, most frequency sets are used in at least two sites and therefore you will cover the whole system with these:
|
Freq Set # |
Control Channel |
Alternate CC |
Sites |
|
1A |
860.0125 |
860.2625 |
Belliveau Lk,
Wakeup Hill, Ecum Secum,
Loch Lomond, |
|
2A |
860.0375 |
860.2875 |
|
|
3A |
860.0625 |
860.3125 |
Londonderry, Central Clarence, |
|
4A |
860.0875 |
860.3375 |
Martock, Middle |
|
5A |
860.1125 |
860.3625 |
Meteghan, Hebbville,
Tangier, Kiltarlity |
|
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
|
|
7A |
860.1625 |
860.4125 |
|
|
8 |
860.1875 |
860.4375 |
|
|
10 |
860.2375 |
860.4875 |
|
|
1B |
861.2625 |
861.5125 |
|
|
2B |
861.2875 |
861.5375 |
Great Hill, Sackville, |
|
3B |
861.3125 |
861.5625 |
Wentworth, |
|
4B |
861.3375 |
861.5875 |
Ellershouse, |
|
5B |
861.3625 |
861.6125 |
Wharton*, |
|
6B |
861.3875 |
861.6375 |
Shelburne, Aldersville,
|
|
7B |
861.4125 |
861.6625 |
Pugwash, Shubenacadie,
East Kemptville, Sellers Brook, Boularderie,
|
When you enter whichever
of these frequencies you want (maybe all) you will likely also want to enter an
alphatag. You
might want to just use the frequency set number to represent all of the
sites. What I do is for each of the
frequency pairs enter the number and as well the name
of the site in the group that I am most likely to hear in my everyday
life. For example for group 7A because
I am in range of Musquodoboit Harbour
during my daily commute but will not likely hear any other 7A’s unless I go on
an occasional trip, I enter for these two frequencies: 7A MUSQ HBR.
Actually for the alternate I put 7A2 which means to me that it is the
alternate I am hearing. You might want
to dispense with the number and have more room for the site names and maybe put
in a couple. Let’s say it is Group 6A…. I can usually hear Maritime Centre but
sometimes I can also hear Nuttby Mtn,
so for that one I alphatag it as 6A MARC/NUT. Since I am not very likely to hear the others
except on a trip, I don’t bother with having them factor into my alphatag. One of the hassles with abbreviations is that
some of the sites can have the same logical abbreviation, for example MAR is
the first 3 letters of five sites! So you
have to pick something you can remember.
More will be explained below for those who want to know more, or who do not have control channel mode, or indeed a trunk-tracker at all. Most alternates are rarely used but those for Frequency sets 2A, 6A, 8 and 10 are often used at Halifax area sites so if you are short on space in a bank you could enter only those alternates and experience few, if any lapses in reception. Please note that entering this table-full of control frequencies is intended for those who are mobile and want to receive ALL sites. If you are stationary and only want to receive one or a few sites, just put in the pairs you want.
7.
5. Setting up your scanner to listen to the TMR:
Please note that this is NOT a set of instructions on how to physically input data, i.e. "program", your scanner. All scanners come with instructions in their manuals; however with most modern scanners it is much much better to program using provided or proprietary software through your computer. This section is about how to arrange things on your scanner.
In writing about this topic I have to make some assumptions. I will start off by assuming you have a modern trunktracker with defined banks (not virtual banks) that has control channel mode and in addition allows you to place trunk and non-trunk frequencies into the same bank. If you have a scanner that picks up 800 MHz but is NOT a trunktracker there will be some help for you farther down the page. Similarly, if you have a first generation trunktracker that requires you to input all the voice frequencies for a desired site, that will also be mentioned down below. Conversely if you have a top of the line scanner with virtual banks you will not be restricted to a set number of banks with a set number of frequency and talkgroup slots. I am NOT going to be speaking of this latter type of scanner here. Finally I am also assuming that you are in range of Nova Scotia sites of the TMR. With that out of the way, let's go!
Set-up Decision #1: How many banks to be used for the TMR?
It is crucial to decide what in general you want to listen to, and here I mean what if anything do you want to listen to that is not on the TMR? If you want to listen to another trunked system such as in Halifax, Moncton or Saint John, those systems will have to go into separate banks in your scanner. Let's say you have 10 banks. If you want to have two other trunk systems you will be using up at least two banks for them, and therefore have only eight left for TMR. Similarly if you want to listen to a large number of non-trunked frequencies such as let's say 45 volunteer fire department frequencies, they will take up a bank. At this point you might be saying why cant I just have one bank for TMR? Well, you can but I will talk about that down the page, so hang on. At this point I will go on the concept that you will want several TMR banks. Now, carrying on with what I was saying. Let's say that you live near Halifax and want to listen to just a few conventional frequencies such as the VHF pagers in the Halifax fire system. When there are only a few conventional frequencies you can put them into a bank that already has the trunk frequencies entered. For example, continuing with the VHF fire frequencies if you have a trunked bank that you use for hearing TMR traffic relating to fire incidents, you might add a few local VHF frequencies to the site. Let's say that your scanner can take 50 frequencies per bank. If you have entered all 32 TMR control frequencies then there will be room for 18 conventional frequencies. In my own case, yes I do that sort of thing, but I have need of complete banks for non-TMR things. I listen on occasion to 2 metre ham, aeronautical, and marine. Each of these services, depending on your mobility and interests can have pretty much their own banks-worth of frequencies. In fact I have two banks full of aeronautical frequencies! I live in the Halifax area and do not have any need or desire to have other trunk systems entered into my scanner. Yes there are other trunk systems in the Halifax area but they are of little interest to me so the result is that I have five banks dedicated to the TMR and five to conventional frequencies (Aero, Aero, Marine, Ham, and as well rural fire departments outside HRM).
Set-up Decision #2: How much of the TMR system is to be monitored?
Keep in mind that the TMR has nearly 70 sites but at any one location you will only be able to hear a few, maybe only one. Okay, the first thing you have to decide is whether or not you want to be able to listen to the whole TMR system or just one or a few local sites. Using the charts on this page you can either enter all 32 possible control channels or simply pick out the ones for your desired sites. If you only listen from home there really isn't much point in entering multiple sites that you cannot even hear. In fact, even if you can hear more than one, you might find it better to just enter the strongest one, but there is a caveat to mention here: the talkgroups active on one local site will not necessarily be the same as on another. I live in the Halifax area and I know that the Sackville site and the Tantallon site, for example, do have slightly different affiliations that do vary from day to day and time to time. If you are mobile then of course the decision is based on where you travel and you will enter control frequencies as appropriate. I think that most of us who are mobile will want to enter all 32 frequencies to cover the possibility of being anywhere the TMR is present. One can always turn off and on the particular frequencies via lockout as you move around. Personally I leave them all active but some feel that this slows down the scanning operation to go through inactive channels. Quite likely but I don't find it to be a significant problem. On a related personal note, I commute over 120 km one-way each day and in doing so am definitely in range of 10 sites with different control frequencies, as well as a couple that I would pick up if I diverge a bit from my normal route. Since there are only 16 sets of frequencies I might as well have them all in, as even the ones I cannot normally hear are not that far off my normal path and just for interest maybe on a good day I will detect them from a hilltop. So for the purposes of my discussion I will go on the concept of entering all 32 control frequencies into the scanner, leaving let's say 18 spots in each bank for conventional frequencies if desired.
Set-up Decision #3: Okay, there will be several banks for the TMR; how will they be organized?
At this point I have already gotten ahead of myself. I have already implied above that all the control frequencies (maybe as many as the full 32) would go into each TMR bank but wait a minute, maybe not. Some listeners like to organize the scanner differently by separating the banks by site. Let's say you live in Truro: Bank 1 could have Hilden, Bank 2 could have Londonderry, Bank 3 could have Nuttby, and if you drive to Halifax you might put Shubie in Bank 4 and Geizers in Bank 5. I would be able to lockout the banks for sites not in range. You could vary somewhat in the set of talkgroups entered into each of the banks. This is NOT the way I do it but sometimes I wish I had so I can compare what is on each site, and also to make sure my scanner is sampling all the sites in my area.
You can certainly do things as just described but I personally feel it to be much superior to enter all my desired site control frequencies into each TMR dedicated bank and then differentiate by service. The reason for this is two fold. For one thing I can turn off and on the various services, so that if I want to listen to fire but not the Halifax transit system or vice versa, then I can easily do so. The other reason is I think much more important and the one that stops me from dividing in the manner described in the paragraph just above. The TMR is a very large system, not just physically, but also in the number of talkgroups assigned and active. Most listeners would like to monitor hundreds of talkgroups, not just a few, and not just dozens. The typical scanner can only take 50 to 100 talkgroups in a bank and that means unless you live in an isolated area and are not mobile your capacity will be exceeded by your wishes. Yes if you live in Fredericton and you only have the local city services to monitor, you might put them all in one bank (possibly divided into sub-banks) and have a separate bank for each of the three local sites. Most of us will want to put in more talkgroups than there are spaces and therefore the only thing you can do is put different services into different banks. So that is what I recommend for most people. I am not going to tell you how to arrange them Obviously it depends somewhat upon where you live. For example if you have a digital trunktracker and live in the Halifax area you will likely want a bank for the HR Police and local RCMP, another for HR Fire, etc.. but really it is up to you what you put in separate banks and what you combine. No matter what, without a high end scanner with virtual banks, you will have to make some compromises. I do not currently have a digital scanner so I do not have a police bank, but I only have 5 banks available due to my other interests. My five TMR banks are as follows: 1. HRM Fire, also includes the VHF paging frequencies as well as 800 MHz backups, 2. EMO/Mutual Aid/EO and includes some EHS and conventional, 3. DOT and selected HRM. I use this in the winter for monitoring plows and the transit commentaries on roads. 4. In the summer season I listen to DNR for forest fire related traffic. 5. NS Govt and Miscl. Most of the time I do not listen to this, as I am tired of Corrections and truck inspectors signing in and out but you never know what you might hear. But I also have in here Truro PD and Fredericton just in case someday they are hearable in my area. Each of these TMR banks also has at least a few related conventional frequencies also entered. If I had a digital scanner (as I used to), I would also want a bank for the Halifax Regional Police and associated local RCMP talkgroups and another separate bank for the RCMP outside of HRM and also the non municipal units. Also, most of you will want a bank dedicated to EHS. Keep in mind that I would still have other banks available for other things that are conventional.
In this method you might likely have all 32 control frequencies in each bank. You can still turn individual sites off and on by using individual channel lockout. Let's say you have the CC frequencies for Shubenacadie (and the other sites with the same frequencies) in positions 15 and 16 on every bank. If you want to lockout Shubie you can manually go to all your active TMR banks and lockout 15 and 16 on each one, but remember they are locked out so you will have to remember to turn them back on again. For this sort of thing you better keep a card with you to remind you which sites are in which spots, and make sure you enter site frequencies identically into each of your TMR banks. This is likely what you would do anyway using copy and paste in your software.
Now a word about sub-banks. In trunking banks you will be entering talkgroup id's. In most scanners you can divide the talkgroups into subbanks of 10 to 50 each. It is best to arrange and use these sub-banks. Ideally you would be familiar with what you have in each sub-bank and know how to turn them off and on while you are using your scanner. Personally I do not do this and would have to go to the instructions to remember how to turn sub-banks on and off. But you might want to do so... let's say you have EHS in one scanner bank, but you want to selectively turn on and off various regional channels. That is how you would do it -- use the sub-banks!
Set-up Decision #4: Open or Closed?
Generally trunktrackers
can operate in two modes. One is an open mode or search
mode. In this mode the scanner will let you hear whatever is
being transmitted on the site, and will display the talkgroup
id number on the screen. You are able however to lockout a
number of talkgroups that do not interest
you. A typical lockout maximum is around 100. That way
you can get rid of data bursts, encrypted signals, and probably many of the
commercial talkgroups. The good thing
about the search mode is that you may encounter something new and interesting
that does not appear on lists such as that found on the Maritimes Scanning
Site. The bad thing about this search mode is that in some areas of
Nova Scotia, such as around Halifax there may be more than 100 talkgroups that you want to lockout. Personally,
I rarely use this mode, and rely on my friends and contributors to find new
channels, but with a simple trunktracker you might
find this to be the best method.
The other mode is closed mode or scan mode. For this mode
you must load or program in known talkgroup id's that
you find in a list. With a simple trunktracker
you might only be able to enter 50 to 100 chosen talkgroups
and therefore you will in all likelihood find this method to be
inadequate. The big advantage with closed mode is that you are only
going to hear talkgroups that you want to hear, but
remember, you will not discover anything new.
Beyond this are other features that add to
your listening abilities and convenience. The main one is alpha-tagging,
which is a way for you to correlate talkgroup names
or descriptions with the talkgroup numbers that
appear on the screen. You enter the alphatags
and when done, the tag will appear along with or instead of the
number. Just as important as this is computer
programmability. Instead of pushing buttons on your scanner to
enter the frequencies and talkgroups, you do the work
on your computer and then download to the scanner. In fact it is
possible to take a file from a friend or off the internet and load your scanner
from that. This feature is of particular use with alphatags, which are a huge pain to manually enter on your
scanner. All, or practically all, trunktracking
scanners now in production have both of these features. The third
feature is the ability to decode digital transmissions, and at present scanners
that can do this are more expensive. This feature is only of use if you
live in an area with digital transmissions that are of interest. At
present the main digital users are the
That pretty much does it if you are using a typical trunk tracking scanner from the mid first decade of this century, other than the highest end types with virtual banks.
Now let's talk about scanners that are older trunktrackers or are not trunktrackers at all:
If you do not have CC
mode on your scanner, then you will have to pay careful attention to the
frequency charts included here, as you must enter all the frequencies for the
sites you want to listen to. You will only have room in your
scanner for a few sites, as you must program in all the voice frequencies for
the sites you want, not just the control channels.
Now let's have some
details:
Listening to the TMR
requires at the very least a scanner capable of monitoring 800 MHz
frequencies. At present the range of frequencies on the TMR spans
from about 858.2 to about 862.5 MHz. All scanners capable of 800
MHz will cover this band of frequencies.
To appreciate my
comments about the use of conventional scanners as compared to a trunktracker you must understand how trunking
works. All my initial comments will assume that there is only one
site in the system. With trunking
there will be several frequencies available but they are shared amongst many
users. Let us say that there are 20 users. Instead of each user
having a private frequency of its own, which most of the time is not in use,
there could be 3 or 4 frequencies that are shared amongst the 20 users.
Most of the time there will not be any conflict. This does not mean
that with 20 users and 4 frequencies that each frequency has 5
users. The 4 frequencies are shared in an overall way amongst the
20 users so that each user can use any of the 4 frequencies.
What this means is that if you want to listen to Acme Ambulance, it does not
have one specific frequency; it has four frequencies and at any time it can be
on any one of them. Acme's "channel" hops around from one
frequency to another, even sometimes in the middle of a
conversation. In trunking the
"channels" are generally called "talkgroups"
because they do not correspond to a particular frequency.
In order for a user like
Acme Ambulance to have all its units in a particular region hop around from one
frequency to another, and all at the same time, there is a central computer
control. This computer or processor informs each radio which
frequency it should go to. The information going to radios goes out
on a special frequency called a control channel (also known as the data
channel). Each TMR site has a control channel. When you tune
to it on a conventional scanner you will hear nothing but a continuous harsh
buzzing sound, which is a steady stream of information telling the radios of
all the users what to do. The control channel at each site may stay the
same from day to day, or it may change. At some TMR sites, definitely some in the
I will now cover
listening using three types of scanners. I suggest you read all sections
up to and including your type of scanner.
1. Conventional scanner (which must be able to receive the 800 MHz band)
2. Simple Trunktracker (able to receive one site at a
time, and not mix trunk with conventional listening) [Obsolete]
3. First generation multitrunking trunktracker without control channel mode
[Obsolete]
1. You have an 800 MHz conventional scanner.
First of all a comment of interest to all, regardless of what kind of scanner you have. Some scanner listeners have reported that it is easier to receive distant transmissions if you use conventional mode. For example if you live a considerable distance from let's say the Pugwash site, and want to hear it you would first, if you have a trunktracker, enter the control channel as normal. If you do not get anything you might then enter voice frequencies and scan them conventionally, and have much better results. This may be because you need strong control channel reception in order for your scanner to actually go to the proper voice channels automatically, and therefore you might never hear them. If you simply enter them in and scan them you will more likely be able to hear them. Naturally, with this method you will not be following conversations, and will be hearing things you do not want to hear, as described next.
All you have to do is
figure out what the voice frequencies are at your local site (you can find them
here), and ignore the control channel, which means DO NOT ENTER IT.
You won't be able to specifically follow Acme Ambulance from one frequency to
another but with your radio on scan it will go from one frequency to another
and find Acme again very quickly. So what is wrong with this
scenario? The trouble is, that it isn't just Acme Ambulance
that uses the TMR. The TMR serves many many
users. It is quite true that you aren't going to hear Fredericton
communications through a site in the Halifax area (at least not usually, but it
is technically possible), but even when you discount the far-away stuff, there
are lots of users that might be on the local part of the system while you are
listening to Acme Ambulance. Your scanner will stop on any
and all of these other users and there is no way to avoid this. Your
conventional scanner scans frequencies, not talkgroups!
You might say that you are okay with hearing these other users....
Just keep in mind however that some of the users are sending data bursts, such
as to monitor water flow, or are using digital transmissions which come across
as a harsh buzzsaw sound, similar to that found on
the control channels. After a while you will get plenty tired of
not being able to lockout these unwanted things, and you will want to get a trunktracker.
2. Now you have a
simple trunktracker.
The first trunktrackers such as the PRO-90, PRO-2050
or BC-235 were relatively simple. I thought it was wonderful when I first
got my BC-235! While they had several banks you could only listen to one
at a time in trunking mode, and you could not mix trunk
and conventional frequencies on one bank. Certainly you could load
one TMR site into one bank, and others into other banks, but you would have to
manually open and close banks in order to go from one site to another, and you
would not be able to listen for conventional signals such as fire pages while
listening to a trunk site. These early receivers had no provision
for alpha tags, and can only show the tg id number.
With these scanners you would enter the control frequencies as well as all the voice frequencies. The scanner had to have the frequencies actually entered but would then be able follow the conversation from one of them to another. If you have this kind of scanner you will have to determine all the frequencies for your chosen site(s) from the charts provided farther down this page. This is the same as if you have a conventional non trunked scanner but in this case you MUST enter the control frequencies but you will not hear them. You will be restricted as to how many TMR sites you can listen to as your scanner will likely not have enough space for all of them, especially if you want to have other types of frequencies also entered into your scanner.
3. Now we move on to multi-trunker without control channel mode.
A multitrunker allows you to have different trunk systems in different banks and as well mix conventional (non-trunked) frequencies with trunked ones within banks. Other than that things are the same as with the simplest trunktracker mentioned above, except that in some cases you can enter alphatags and in addition use software for your entering tasks. The PRO-92 fits into this category.
6. More Frequency Detail and System Chart:
For many listeners, this will be more than you need or want to know!
The first chart below shows the control and alternate control
frequencies for each site. These are all you need to enter if your
scanner has control channel mode (CC Mode).
If you didnt opt for th complete coverage in the preceding section, you
can pick and choose sites from the following information. Note that in all
cases a particular set of frequencies is used at more than one site. The
alternate is only rarely used at most sites, but you should have it entered
just in case. A few sites, particularly those around Halifax do use the
alternate quite often (with no predictable pattern yet discerned) and you
cannot do without them around Halifax. It is not my intent in this
page to teach how to use Control Channel mode.
Suffice it to say that you could enter the same set of control channel
frequencies into each one of your trunking banks,
with each bank being used for different services. This does mean that your scanner might stop
on a weak site with resulting scratchy reception, but generally I have not
found this to be problematic, and if it is I lockout the unwanted site CC
temporarily, or simply change the direction of scan.
Farther down this page I do discuss the merits of entering all of the control channels and how to set up your scanner to best receive the many services on the TMR.
ACCURACY NOTE: This chart is
thought to be completely accurate for primary control channels and is in
agreement with TAFL and supported by observation. {TAFL is The Administrative Frequency List
maintained by Industry Canada}.
Alternates are not often used at most sites and therefore are not so
easily confirmed. This chart shows the
normal expected alternate, i.e. the frequency 0.250 MHz higher than the
primary. Variations from TAFL are as
follows: Hebron: TAFL lists all
frequencies other than the control channel as being in group 8 not group
3A.
Sites are listed by zone and then by site number. Other site number have
been seen elsewhere; however those shown are those which appear on Trunker or similar analyis
programs. Coordinates are listed in
case you wish to locate sites in real life or on the map. The format used is pastable
directly to Google Maps. Call Signs
are of little interest but if you are unsure of which site you are hearing, you
can listen conventionally to voice frequencies and every so often the call sign
will be transmitted in CW (morse
code) – this is not hearable in trunking mode.
You will note that if, for example, you have the two frequencies entered for Pugwash, you are also good for Shubenacadie and any other site that has that set of control frequencies.
"Groups" are discussed further below, but basically are the frequency groups used by the sites. All frequencies in the 800 MHz band have an Industry Canada channel number. TMR sites almost invariably use frequencies spaced 10 channels apart, so that for example, Wharton uses Channels 415, 425, 435 and 445. and it could also be assigned 455. I refer to this Group as Group 5 as all channel numbers end in 5. It is 5B because there are five other channels ending in 5, i.e. Channels 365 to 405, that are also assigned to the TMR and a site using them is referred to (by me) as Group 5A as it is the same sequence of channels but just the lower half of the complete group of ten. Please note that some sites in the TMR use the whole set of ten channels but are still referred to as A or B based on which frequencies are used for control channels.
"Map" indicates the map page for Nova Scotia on which the TMR site can be found. The maps can be accessed via this link. Please note that as of May 29, 2009 the map project on the Maritimes Scanning Site was just getting started so that some map pages may not be available. In the future it may be possible to link directly to the map from the map column, but in the meantime you will have to link to the index page and then select the map from there. I have entered two examples of direct linking: Louisbourg and Loch Lomond... try them out... see what you think. These map page numbers are also those as used in the 2006 Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas.
|
Site |
Group |
CC |
ACC |
Zone |
# |
Coordinates |
Call Sign |
Area Served |
Map |
|
Wharton |
5B |
861.3625 |
861.6125 |
1 |
2 |
45 27 01, -64 25 20 |
XKB861 |
Parrsboro |
66 |
|
|
5B |
861.3625 |
861.6125 |
1 |
3 |
45 50 17, -64 09 56 |
XKB845 |
|
51 |
|
|
7A |
860.1625 |
860.4125 |
1 |
4 |
45 40 18, -63 58 27 |
XKB864 |
Springhill |
51 |
|
Pugwash |
7B |
861.4125 |
861.6625 |
1 |
5 |
45 48 55, -63 41 24 |
XKB881 |
Pugwash |
51 |
|
Wentworth |
3B |
861.3125 |
861.5625 |
1 |
6 |
45 35 16, -63 32 47 |
XKB822 |
Wentworth |
52 |
|
|
3A |
860.0625 |
860.3125 |
1 |
7 |
45 29 44, -63 38 53 |
XKB823 |
|
68 |
|
|
1B |
861.2625 |
861.5125 |
1 |
8 |
45 19 17, -63 16 07 |
XKB809 |
|
68 |
|
Shubenacadie |
7B |
861.4125 |
861.6625 |
1 |
9 |
45 04 20, -63 26 28 |
XKD802 |
Shubenacadie |
68 |
|
Ellershouse |
4B |
861.3375 |
861.5875 |
1 |
10 |
44 56 21, -63 57 28 |
XKD800 |
|
80 |
|
Martock |
4A |
860.0875 |
860.3375 |
1 |
11 |
44 55 44, -64 09 52 |
XKB805 |
|
80 |
|
Blomidon |
10A |
860.2375 |
860.4875 |
1 |
12 |
45 12 17, -64 24 11 |
XKB841 |
E |
66 |
|
|
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
1 |
13 |
44 58 37, -64 45 37 |
XKB877 |
W Kings |
79 |
|
Central
Clarence |
3A |
860.0625 |
860.3125 |
1 |
14 |
44 55 08, -65 13 32 |
XKB839 |
C |
78 |
|
Dalhousie |
1B |
861.2625 |
861.5125 |
1 |
15 |
44 41 58, -64 56 10 |
XKB837 |
|
78 |
|
|
3B |
861.3125 |
861.5625 |
1 |
16 |
44 47 10, -65 29 23 |
XKB836 |
C |
78 |
|
|
5B |
861.3625 |
861.6125 |
1 |
17 |
44 34 32, -65 47 47 |
XKB880 |
Digby |
76 |
|
|
1A |
860.0125 |
860.2625 |
1 |
18 |
44 21 04, -66 02 22 |
XKB842 |
|
84 |
|
Meteghan |
5A |
860.1125 |
860.3625 |
1 |
19 |
44 12 09, -66 06 20 |
XKB879 |
Meteghan |
84 |
|
|
7B |
861.4125 |
861.6625 |
1 |
20 |
44 04 47, -65 46 44 |
XKB870 |
|
84 |
|
|
3A |
860.0625 |
860.3125 |
1 |
21 |
43 53 46, -66 04 32 |
XKB875 |
|
88 |
|
|
7A |
860.1625 |
860.4125 |
1 |
22 |
43 50 33, -65 55 42 |
XKB843 |
Argyle |
88 |
|
Middle |
4A |
860.0875 |
860.3375 |
1 |
23 |
43 39 14, -65 45 28 |
XKB878 |
|
88 |
|
|
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
1 |
24 |
43 34 16, -65 32 23 |
XKB844 |
|
89 |
|
Shelburne |
6B |
861.3875 |
861.6375 |
1 |
25 |
43 46 42, -65 18 24 |
XKB882 |
Shelburne |
89 |
|
|
4B |
861.3375 |
861.5875 |
1 |
26 |
43 51 31, -64 59 29 |
XKB834 |
|
90 |
|
Great
Hill |
2B |
861.2875 |
861.5375 |
1 |
27 |
44 04 02, -64 43 12 |
XKB884 |
|
87 |
|
|
2A |
860.0375 |
860.2875 |
1 |
28 |
44 22 28, -65 02 09 |
XKB865 |
|
86 |
|
Hebbville |
5A |
860.1125 |
860.3625 |
1 |
29 |
44 20 41, -64 31 23 |
XKB874 |
|
87 |
|
Sellars Brook |
7B |
861.4125 |
861.6625 |
1 |
30 |
44 24 37, -64 23 26 |
XKB883 |
Lunenburg |
87 |
|
New |
7A |
860.1625 |
860.4125 |
1 |
31 |
44 34 41, -64 40 55 |
XKB866 |
|
79 |
|
Wakeup
Hill |
1A |
860.0125 |
860.2625 |
1 |
32 |
44 34 15, -64 16 12 |
XKB863 |
|
79/80 |
|
Aldersville |
6B |
861.3875 |
861.6375 |
1 |
33 |
44 50 13, -64 30 26 |
XKB806 |
Highway 12 |
79 |
|
|
3A |
860.0625 |
860.3125 |
1 |
34 |
44 38 30, -64 01 27 |
XKB812 |
West End HRM |
80 |
|
Tantallon |
3B |
861.3125 |
861.5625 |
1 |
35 |
44 42 15, -63 51 52 |
XKD803 |
Tantallon |
80 |
|
Prospect |
1B |
861.2625 |
861.5125 |
1 |
36 |
44 30 39, -63 44 46 |
XKB804 |
Prospect |
81 |
|
Geizers Hill |
8A |
860.1875 |
860.4375 |
1 |
37 |
44 39 03, -63 39 25 |
XKB813 |
|
81 |
|
Maritime
Centre |
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
1 |
38 |
44 38 39, -63 34 19 |
XKB811 |
|
81 |
|
Sackville |
2B |
861.2875 |
861.5375 |
1 |
39 |
44 45 37, -63 39 10 |
XKB814 |
Sackville |
81 |
|
|
10A |
860.2375 |
860.4875 |
1 |
40 |
44 43 29, -63 26 17 |
XKB810 |
Preston/Cole Hbr |
81 |
|
Musquodoboit Hbr |
7A |
860.1625 |
860.4125 |
1 |
41 |
44 48 20, -63 10 36 |
XKD801 |
Musquodoboit Hbr |
82 |
|
Tangier |
5A |
860.1125 |
860.3625 |
1 |
42 |
44 48 29, -62 40 32 |
XKB808 |
|
83 |
|
Marinette |
5B |
861.3625 |
861.6125 |
1 |
43 |
44 58 06, -62 39 47 |
XKB815 |
|
83 |
|
Chaplin |
4A |
860.0875 |
860.3375 |
1 |
44 |
45 12 14, -65 50 20 |
XKB830 |
NE End Musquodoboit
Valley |
69 |
|
Ecum Secum |
1A |
860.0125 |
860.2625 |
1 |
45 |
44 57 53, -62 08 54 |
XKB816 |
East End HRM |
83 |
|
Chaswood |
2A |
860.0375 |
860.2875 |
1 |
46 |
45 02 11, -63 13 01 |
CIT965 |
SW Musquodoboit
Valley |
68 |
|
|
4B |
861.3375 |
861.5875 |
2 |
2 |
45 14 39, -62 01 35 |
XKB807 |
|
71 |
|
Lundy
(Salmon R) |
1B |
861.2625 |
861.5125 |
2 |
3 |
45 19 05, -61 28 29 |
XKB868 |
Canso |
72 |
|
Arichat |
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
2 |
4 |
45 33 43, -64 04 18 |
XKB846 |
|
57 |
|
|
1A |
860.0125 |
860.2625 |
2 |
5 |
45 46 22, -60 33 04 |
XKB832 |
|
|
|
Louisbourg |
5B |
861.3625 |
861.6125 |
2 |
6 |
45 54 40, -60 00 30 |
XKB862 |
Louisbourg |
|
|
|
7A |
860.1625 |
860.4125 |
2 |
7 |
45 59 49, -60 27 22 |
XKB817 |
|
58 |
|
Coxheath |
4A |
860.0875 |
860.3375 |
2 |
8 |
46 06 16, -60 16 26 |
XKB838 |
|
42 |
|
|
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
2 |
9 |
46 11 40, -59 59 04 |
XKB835 |
|
43 |
|
Boularderie |
7B |
861.4125 |
861.6625 |
2 |
10 |
46 15 42, -60 20 28 |
XKB840 |
|
42 |
|
Rear
Big Hill |
2A |
860.0375 |
860.2875 |
2 |
11 |
46 10 11, -60 39 59 |
XKB818 |
St Anne |
41/42 |
|
|
2B |
861.2875 |
861.5375 |
2 |
12 |
46 08 16, -60 53 332 |
XKB833 |
Baddeck |
41 |
|
|
3A |
860.0625 |
860.3125 |
2 |
13 |
46 35 38, -60 22 59 |
XKB826 |
|
42 |
|
|
1B |
861.2625 |
861.5125 |
2 |
14 |
47 00 35, -60 25 26 |
XKB825 |
|
27 |
|
|
1A |
860.0125 |
860.2625 |
2 |
15 |
46 49 02, -60 40 47 |
XKB829 |
|
26 |
|
Cheticamp |
3B |
861.3125 |
861.5625 |
2 |
16 |
46 34 41, -60 59 01 |
XKB828 |
Cheticamp |
41 |
|
Kiltarlity |
5A |
860.1125 |
860.3625 |
2 |
17 |
46 13 15, -61 09 27 |
XKB831 |
|
41 |
|
|
5B |
861.3625 |
861.6125 |
2 |
18 |
46 12 46, -61 19 44 |
XKB827 |
|
40 |
|
|
6B |
861.3875 |
861.6375 |
2 |
19 |
45 47 33, -61 18 12 |
XKB876 |
|
56 |
|
Aulds Cove |
3A |
860.0625 |
860.3125 |
2 |
20 |
45 38 54, -61 27 52 |
XKB819 |
Port Hawkesbury |
56 |
|
Fairmount |
7A |
860.1625 |
860.4125 |
2 |
21 |
45 40 55, -61 58 41 |
XKB871 |
Antigonish |
55 |
|
|
7B |
861.4125 |
861.6625 |
2 |
22 |
45 35 28, -62 20 53 |
XKB820 |
|
54 |
|
Sutherlands
Bog |
2B |
861.2875 |
861.5375 |
2 |
23 |
45 35 10, -62 40 29 |
XKB847 |
New |
53/54 |
|
Brookland |
6B |
861.3875 |
861.6375 |
2 |
24 |
45 32 24, -62 57 17 |
XKB821 |
|
69 |
|
|
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
2 |
25 |
45 33 17, -63 13 25 |
XKB824 |
|
52/68 |
|
Maryland
Hill |
8A |
860.1875 |
860.4375 |
2 |
26 |
45 56 29, -66 39 15 |
XJR879 |
|
46 |
|
Popple Hill |
6A |
860.1375 |
860.3875 |
2 |
27 |
45 57 26, -66 33 40 |
CGG914 |
|
46 |
|
Silverwood |
4B |
861.3375 |
861.5875 |
2 |
28 |
45 57 18, -66 45 58 |
XJR878 |
|
46 |
7. STANDARD FREQUENCY SETS IN THE
TMR:
You do
not need this information if you are using control channel mode.
If you are using a conventional scanner to monitor the TMR or any other trunking system it is necessary to know all the voice frequencies present at the site you wish to monitor. Listening to a trunked system on a conventional scanner is not my idea of fun as you cannot filter out anything you do not want, including irritating noise and boring traffic. You also need to know all the frequencies if you are using a trunktracking scanner that does not have Control Channel mode, such as the PRO-92.
The
TMR uses segments of 9 of the 10 frequency groups that are available in
the 800 MHz band. One TMR site (Chaswood)
does in fact use two frequencies from the otherwise unused group (Group 9) so
that it would more accurate to say that all 10 groups are used.
Frequencies in the 800 MHz band fall
naturally into ten groups. I call them Group 1 to Group 10, after the
final digit of the channel numbers in the groups. The 800 MHz public
service band begins at 851.0125 MHz, which is the repeater output side of
Channel 001. Farther up the band for example, 860.0125 is
Channel 361. Individual repeater
sites generally are assigned sequences of channels ending in the same digit (in
other words a ten-channel or .2500 MHz spacing, in the case of a Group 1A TMR
site Channels 361, 371. 381. 391, etc. Other sites might use
Channels ending in 2 (Group 2), etc. Channel 362 is 860.0375;
Channel 372 is 860.2875, etc. You can see that Group 2 is .0250 MHz
higher than Group 1, etc.
Group 9 is used in the Maritimes but
by by licencees other than
the TMR.
The
following chart indicates the frequencies used at each site. The chart is based principally on entries in
TAFL, augmented by observation. It
shows not only the two control channels or frequencies for each site, but also
the other frequencies used only as voice channels.
Low
volume sites normally have a total of 3 or 4 frequencies, including control
channel, alternate control channel and one or two dedicated voice
channels. Please note that the control
channel not currently in use as such becomes a voice channel.
Standard
volume sites have an additional voice channel which fills the normal quota of 5
frequencies.
It
may be seen on this chart that there are basically sets of 10 frequencies,
divided into two sets of five. TMR
sites are normally paired so that two nearby sites each use approximately half
of the ten frequencies in a group.
Usually one site in the pair uses the lower half of the ten frequencies
and the other one uses the higher half, but usage does differ from that norm at
some sites. For example see the Tantallon/Queensland pair, in which Tantallon
is much busier than
High
volume sites are unpaired in that they do not have a nearby site sharing the
group of 10 frequencies and therefore these unpaired sites could potentially
have all 10 frequencies assigned. In
the case of some sites in the Halifax area it has been found necessary to go
beyond the normal 10 frequency set by continuing the series downwards in
frequency or in a couple of cases, to use one or more frequencies from another
group entirely.
My
feeling is that this chart is incomplete, and therefore if you must resort to
entering frequencies, i.e. you do not have control channel mode, then it is
best to enter all the frequencies in the group.
For example, with Belliveau Lake, which
apparently only has three frequencies, it would be prudent to enter all 5
frequencies in the sub-group, or even all 10 from Group 1.
An
anomaly to be aware of is Chaswood, which has the two
control channels in Group 2 but the two dedicated voice channels in Group
9. This is the only use of Group 9 in
the entire TMR. If you check TAFL you
will find that Group 9 is assigned mostly to other users in Atlantic Canada.
Additionally
the chart shows other oddities that may or may not reflect reality. For example Hebron shows one frequency in
Group 3 and the remainder in Group 8. If you are in the Yarmouth area, please check this for me
and confirm one way or the other.
Similarly Hilden, near
Truro, has an odd assignment of frequencies, within Group 1, but not the normal
assignment. Please let me know
if this is accurate or not.
This
chart also shows Department of Fisheries and Oceans repeater frequencies in New
Brunswick as well as a listed Canada Border Services Agency frequency. I have shown these out of interest as they
are otherwise TMR frequencies. Please
note that there are some other users of frequencies on this chart, principally
in New Brunswick, and of course elsewhere in Canada and in the USA.
Legend: Primary control channels are bolded.
Unpaired sites are in capitals.
This
chart last updated November 14, 2008
Listing notes (Key to symbols):
· ! = frequency not in TAFL but someone has reported it to be in use at the site anyway.
· ? = frequency not in TAFL and not heard, but is a logical frequency to be inserted if another is needed
· ?? = frequency does appear in TAFL but is questionable (out of expected series) or a listener has stated it is not in use
· * = frequency appears in TAFL but confirmed definitely not to be in use according to trunk analysis software.
It is recommended that the marked frequencies be entered regardless in order to ensure reception, if you have the space in your scanner. For sure the ! frequencies should be entered, but the others could be omitted if you have little space in the scanner.
Anyone having analysis software (Trunker, etc) is requested to check the sites nearby to you and find out what exactly is what and let me know. Thanks to hfx_chris for confirming the Preston situation as of June 2009.
|
Grp |
Half |
Chan |
Freq |
Site/Pair 1 |
Site/Pair 2 |
Site/Pair 3 |
Site/Pair 4 |
Site/Pair 5 |
Site/Pair 6 |
|
|
1 |
A |
361 |
860.0125 |
Belliveau Lk |
Wakeup |
Ecum Secum |
|
Loch Lomond |
North Mtn |
|
|
1 |
A |
371 |
860.2625 |
Belliveau Lk |
Wakeup |
Ecum Secum |
|
Loch Lomond |
North Mtn |
|
|
1 |
A |
381 |
860.5125 |
Belliveau Lk |
Wakeup |
Ecum Secum |
HILDEN?? |
Loch Lomond |
North Mtn |
|
|
1 |
A |
391 |
860.7625 |
|
Wakeup |
Ecum Secum |
HILDEN?? |
Loch Lomond |
North Mtn |
|
|
1 |
A |
401 |
861.0125 |
|
|
|
HILDEN?? |
|
|
|
|
1 |
B |
411 |
861.2625 |
Dalhousie |
Prospect |
Lundy |
HILDEN |
|
C.
North |
|
|
1 |
B |
421 |
861.5125 |
Dalhousie |
Prospect |
Lundy |
HILDEN? |
|
C. North |
|
|
1 |
B |
431 |
861.7625 |
Dalhousie |
Prospect |
Lundy |
HILDEN? |
|
C. North |
|
|
1 |
B |
441 |
862.0125 |
Dalhousie |
Prospect |
Lundy |
HILDEN? |
Inverness?? |
C. North |
|
|
1 |
B |
451 |
862.2625 |
|
MARITIME
CTR? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
extra |
|
858.0375 |
|
|
|
Shubenacadie ! |
|
|
|
|
2 |
extra |
|
858.2875 |
|
|
SACKVILLE |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
extra |
|
858.7875 |
|
|
SACKVILLE
! |
Preston?? |
|
|
|
|
2 |
A |
362 |
860.0375 |
Caledonia |
CHASWOOD |
SACKVILLE |
Rear
Big Hill |
POPPLE
HILL |
DFO
Bethel** |
|
|
2 |
A |
372 |
860.2875 |
Caledonia |
CHASWOOD |
SACKVILLE |
Rear Big
Hill |
POPPLE
HILL |
|
|
|
2 |
