139MHz still used & new 154MHz for power companies info

[Mark5R]

May be a bit of a long post this one but wanted to give a full background to the question.

Anyone here used to monitoring the power companies over the years on the nationwide trunknet on 139 and 140MHZ?

I monitored them for many years on these frequencies listening to their phone patch type transmissions mainly on 139MHz frequencies hearing them change metres and fix faults at sub stations and faulty meter call outs etc etc. They even ring their families some times on these radio phone patch type systems.

So anyway the voice part of these transmissions disappeared for me or at least in my area anyway for a few years but now they are back

Voice frequencies logged so far the past few months include.....

139.71250 FM
139.88125 FM
139.53125 FM

Its good to get an old user back. they refer to it as a PMR system and today they made a call and said "call me on the digital PMR radio" which got me thinking about the new JRC power wide area 154MHz system talked about in this thread https://ukradioscanning.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4931 about the new 154 MHz DMR Tier 3.

Now I am assuming that he meant this new system when he said "call me on the digital PMR radio" but I have been monitoring this new system and not spotted one voice transmission as of yet? If this new use of the old analogue system is going to die again soon and all go to this new DMR network I would like to follow it. I know shopwatch and security is what most like to hear but this line has always interested me.

Has anyone on here been monitoring the old 139MHz power frequencies or the new 154MHz ones? If so please let me know your findings or how you are getting on and any info about the new 154 system would be good.

[AndrewIrvine]

Not 154, but in the Merseyside area I have heard a few transmissions including taxis, between 152 and 153 on DMR.

[milly]

Not 154, but in the Merseyside area I have heard a few transmissions including taxis, between 152 and 153 on DMR.

DCS 2Way Radio have quite a few licences within that range in Liverfool. Several dual freq Cap+ systems with taxis and transport companies being the main users.
Same company provide similar systems at higher freqs as well.

[milly]

...then back on topic

I did specifically look for digital stuff when passing time around Manchester between a couple of meetings a few weeks ago. Found the signal on 154.081250 mentioned by moj but very poor decode rate and a lot of pager interference. Same network had a stronger signal on 154.02715 (best decode rate, L2-6.5, rather than actual centre freq). This is well outside Western Power Distribution's area of operation and it seems unlikley to be mountain rescue as SARCOM operate a DMR repeater for that with good coverage across the NW

the one meg chunk from 139.5625 is still used by Utility companies except around London. Use seems to have increased in the last couple of years or so. It seems you can still collect 30+ 'sysid's (the wrong label as these aren't MPT1327 trunked systems really) from pretty much anywhere.

[Alfie]

Anyone here used to monitoring the power companies over the years on the nationwide trunknet on 139 and 140MHZ?

That band is just full of London buses round these parts for trunked voice and data. no voice power calls but there are power channel allocations that transmit trunking noises but no speech.

[milly]

Anyone here used to monitoring the power companies over the years on the nationwide trunknet on 139 and 140MHZ?

That band is just full of London buses round these parts for trunked voice and data. no voice power calls but there are power channel allocations that transmit trunking noises but no speech.

Within the M25 area the JRC band with odd utility company systems was released for iBus.

[bigbloke]

for the forseeable future you wont hear any voice traffic on the 154-155 utilities DMR band

its not really Tier 3 as theres no mobility. The sites are running DMR with each
radio endpoint afilliated to one base station only.

the data slot transmissions reveal a SCADA polling protocol called DNP3.
theyre being used for low bit rate telemetry / process control. radios are sepura
DMRs

why did they apply for a 1MHz wide licence ? easier to change technology when
the need arises in the future.

Regards

BB

[Davie Boy]

Glad I found this topic.... otherwise I would not have brought this up.... very curious

I picked one of these up in Nottingham 3 months ago when casually scanning the bands at home.... picked up on 139.5810 on SDR then narrowed it down to 139.58125 and confirmed it as that frequency from the uk scanning directory and WTR as 139.58125/148.08125 JRC ELECTRICITY BOARDS TRUNKED/UK NATIONAL USAGE

....I put it in my scanner and heard nothing again for just over 3 months (I keep a log) until yesterday and I heard it 3 times the same day but very strange....

so here goes.... I would have kept this to myself but when I saw this topic I couldn't help but spill my guts in the craving for more information

The first time 3 months ago I caught the tail end of the transmission.... about 30 secs but it was two blokes talking on some kind of what sounded like MPT trunked....? There was talk of a generator and sub station and then the usual couple secs trunking sound and the tx ended....

The talk of generators and sub station confirmed it was the leccy co.... I alpha tag and store it as such and get no hits for 3 months at all.... then yesterday the scanner stops.... its someone dialing a phone number with normal tones you hear on a phone but it has the MPT trunking sound too.... no electric chatter though.... its a guy calling his wife with some personal chat.... he makes a call to her and has an personal chat with her each time.... he never mentions work but does actually mention the system he is using as....

"I will ring you on the PMR system"

139.58125 is the exact frequency.... confirmed on SDR, 3 x scanners and icom tx/rx

Can anyone shed any light on this....? Is the system hijacked as I know UHF military ones have so its not beyond the realms.... an old system got from an old power co car....> or a legit electric co worker using it to ringing his missus...?

[Mark5R]

Davie Boy it is probably legit I have heard the official users calling home they are allowed and yes it is known as the PMR system. As I said in the original post have heard these for years but they went quiet for a few years. It still is rare to hear them but its nice to see them using them again. I guess they are the old units they have had in their cars and vans for years?

[moj]

Just to clarify guy's I said sarcomm were using the 152 MHz area 154 mhz seem's to all be tier 3 transmission's normaily but it's all data you hear as bigbloke stated .

like I said when I heard them talking they were testing there radio's between different point's but shortly afterwards they switched to enhanced encryption ...