St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School FCC App

St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School, located in Alexandria, has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for a DMR trunked system (possibly MOTOTRBO IP Site Connect) at the three campuses of the school. 463.8625 will be used at the Lower School, 461.4250 will be used at the Middle School, and 462.3500 will be used at the Upper School.

Digital Realty Trust FCC App

Digital Realty Trust, located in Chantilly, has an application pending before the FCC for a DMR repeater on 452.2125.

Queen of Apostles Catholic School FCC App

Queen of Apostles Catholic School, located in Alexandria, has an application pending before the FCC for DMR simplex on 456.4125, 457.1125, 467.2125, 457.6375, and 462.2125.

Capper Carrollsburg Joint Venture FCC App

Capper Carrollsburg Joint Venture, a residential development in DC, has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for a repeater on 462.2000, and simplex on 456.2375, 456.3125, 456.3625, and 467.2375.

FBI Headquarters FCC App

Brian Stein has an application pending before the FCC on behalf of the FBI Headquarters building in DC. The app calls for simplex on 467.4125, 457.6875, 462.2375, 457.8625, 452.0625, and 467.3875.

Loudoun Trunked System Down

The Loudoun County trunked system has been down for several hours. According to this RadioReference thread, Loudoun units are using the 8 Tac channels, Fairfax County system, and Frederick County system for backup communications. State units are trying to get cache radios moved into position for Loudoun to use; they communicated on STARS talkgroup 2417 about this.

Uniden Releases Another DMR Firmware Update

Although the public release of the DMR firmware update for the BCD436HP/BCD536HP scanners was last week, Uniden today released new firmware that aims to improve DMR even more. Here are the changes:

• Modified the display issue of P25 ENC reception
• Improved the tracking in CAP Plus
• Stabilization of the data decoding in all trunking DMR

New DSD+ "Fast Lane" Released

DSD+ "Fast Lane" 2.18 was released this week. (Fast Lane releases are sort of like betas; the current "public release" of DSD+ is 1.101 and was released last Christmas.) Some of the changes from the last Fast Lane (2.10):

• Updated license data
• Support for AM demodulation
• Squelch logic added
• Support for NEXEDGE 9600 composite control channels

Weekend Events

• Billy Joel performs Saturday at 8 PM at Nationals Park.
• DC United plays Sunday at 6:30 PM at RFK Stadium.

Baltimore Update

After a recent trip to Baltimore, I was able to update many frequencies/talkgroups on the Baltimore City and Baltimore County pages.

Clarksburg Premium Outlets FCC App

Clarksburg Premium Outlets, located in Montgomery County, has an application pending before the FCC for a DMR repeater on 464.9375, and DMR simplex on 468.5750.

Southern Maryland Hospital Adds DMR Emission Designators

Southern Maryland Hospital recently added DMR emission designators to its three UHF repeaters.

Uniden Posts "DMR Release" Firmware

Uniden has posted what is expected to be the DMR release firmware for the BCD436HP and BCD536HP scanners. Here are the changes from Release Candidate 4:

1. Modified the skip issue of the site hold frequency, when the channel hold is released
2. Enabled the delay time of ID channel that received as partial or i0
3. Adjusted the DMR ID display in 3 Line Display mode
4. Supported the DMR ID display in Search with Scan mode
5. Supported the DMR ID display in the receiving encrypted data

Weekend Events

• The Citi Open continues through Sunday at Rock Creek Park in DC.
• The Nationals play Friday at 7:05, Saturday at 7:05, and Sunday at 1:35 at Nationals Park.

Hampton Inn Convention Center FCC App

The Hampton Inn Convention Center in DC has an application pending before the FCC. The app calls for analog/DMR simplex on 463.2500, 468.2500, 464.0375, 469.0375, and 466.1250.

The hotel held a license for four UHF simplex frequencies which expired last year.

Uniden Releases DMR Release Candidate 4

Yesterday, Uniden released DMR Release Candidate 4. Here are the changes from RC3:

1. Modified delay time working in CAP Plus
2. Modified judgement of DMR type
3. Added unit ID display in Conventional DMR
4. Supported some kinds of DMR ID display and recoding in Quick Search
5. Supported some kinds of DMR ID display and recoding in Custom Search, in case of the name is Custom 0 to 9
6. Added DMR slot display in Search with Scan
7. Added DMR slot display in Close Call Hits with Scan
8. Modified the issue of no resume scan after DMR or P25 conversation in Priority DND

Weekend Events

• The Citi Open begins today and continues through next Sunday at Rock Creek Park.
• The Nats play today at 7:05 and tomorrow at 1:35 at Nationals Park.

University of Maryland Alumni Association FCC App

The University of Maryland Alumni Association has an application pending before the FCC for DMR simplex on 456.3875, 456.5625, 457.1375, and 457.7875.

Microsoft FCC License

Microsoft was recently licensed for a DMR trunked system on 451.8750, 451.9125, and 452.2375 for a data center in Sterling. The company has at least two other licenses for DMR trunked systems in Northern Virginia.

Unknown June 9 Event in Stafford

On June 9, there was an unknown event in Stafford County, and a couple of talkgroups from the county trunked system were active. On talkgroup 4533, "Colonial Forge" was mentioned. (Colonial Forge is a high school in the county.) On talkgroup 4534, medical and water stations were mentioned.

Weekend Event

• The Smithsonian Folklife Festival continues through Sunday on the National Mall.

Springfield Town Center Update

Here are a few new frequencies for Springfield Town Center:

467.9000 [ d632] Bath & Body Works
467.8250 [ d131] Dave & Buster's
467.9000 [ d043] Dave & Buster's
467.8750 [  82.5] Yard House?

Aircraft Service International Group (IAD) FCC App

Aircraft Service International Group at Dulles Airport has an application pending before the FCC for simplex on 157.7250, 160.0200, and 173.2750.

July 4 Monitoring Roundup

I didn't attend the fireworks in DC this year, but did have a chance to monitor many of the Fredericksburg-area July 4 events. Here are some talkgroups monitored:

Spotsylvania
00-022 Fire Admin (fireworks safety)
00-087 Disaster Tac (fire/medical)
02-023 Sheriff Tac 2 (traffic control)
04-121 Parks & Recreation (organizers)
05-007 School Buses (shuttles)

Stafford
4505 Stafford Sheriff Coordination
4607 Stafford Fire Incident 2 (river/barge safety)

Charles
16528 Traffic Control
17152 Traffic Control
17376
17408 "north side Fairgrounds"
17424

I've already posted about Culpeper and Rappahannock. And before that, I posted about Warrenton.

July 4 Culpeper/Rappahannock Monitoring

Talkgroups 42256 and 42288 from the Fauquier/Culpeper/Rappahannock trunked system were active for July 4 events in Culpeper. Talkgroup 29392 from the same trunked system was active for July 4 events in Rappahannock.

Hogan Lovells FCC App

Hogan Lovells, a law firm in DC, has an application pending before the FCC for a DMR/analog repeater on 452.0500, and DMR/analog simplex on 457.6250, 468.6375, 469.0250, and 469.2000.

District Distilling FCC App

District Distilling, located at 1414 U St. NW in DC, has an application pending before the FCC for DMR simplex on 457.6625, 457.7625, 462.2625, 467.4125, and 456.7125.

More Info on STARS Talkgroup 6703

STARS talkgroup 6703, briefly monitored in April, was recently heard again on the Thornburg tower. The user of the talkgroup could not be identified, but the Virginia Distribution Center was mentioned. Also mentioned were "incident response borrowed by Virginia Department of Health," "inspection," "Hollywood," "FDA," and "listeria."

Warrenton Town Limits

Warrenton is hosting an event this afternoon/evening called Warrenton Town Limits. Here are a couple of talkgroups from the Fauquier trunked system that are active:

25392 Fauquier Fire 11J
25808 Warrenton Police Special Events 9

Uniden "DMR Prerelease 2" Released

This morning, Uniden released "DMR Prerelease 2" beta firmware for the BCD436HP and BCD536HP scanners. Notable in this release is Sentinel software support (DMR can now be programmed from software).

Weekend Events

• The Smithsonian Folklife Festival continues through July 4, and then runs from July 7-10 on the National Mall. Last year, organizers used NXDN on 412.9000 but transmissions were scrambled.
• The Nats play Friday at 6:05 PM, Saturday at 7:15 PM, Sunday at 1:35 PM, and Monday at 11:05 AM at Nationals Park.
• The National Independence Day Parade begins at 11:45 AM on Monday at 7th St. and Constitution Ave. in DC.
• The fireworks on the National Mall begin Monday shortly after 9 PM.