PCWIN is coming to life

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FLANO

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Well, today, Pima County entities, including PCSO, have cut over from the EFJohnson Trunked System. It would seem the EFJohnson TRS may be shut down.

You will need a PSR-800, Uniden x36 radio to hear them.

Lots of activity, great to finally hear both sides of the PCSO conversations :)

Making sense of what we are hearing and will be posting something in the PCWIN system tonight.

This will be a rolling addition of the other participants, so keep a listen to see as new departments come on line. It will take about a month to get everyone switched over to the PCWIN TRS.

Happy listening :)
 

radioguru6613

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Sadly if you don't have a very new scanner (my PSR800 had no issue with this system) you won't be hearing anything since it's TDMA but WOW you could hear it all the way in Pinal!
 

mothertrucker

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I suspect that TFD is now using the new system for some of it's work as there was a lot of team 2 police chatter today about a house fire & evacuations & all the old TFD channels had no talk about it at all.

I am gonna wait until the system is fully up & operational before taking the plunge on the bcd346.

Last I heard.... they set April 15th as the date for full migration to PCWIN.

You can follow the official blow by blow updates of the system here....


Communications Center Expansion | Official Website of the City of Tucson
 

FLANO

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TFD is not yet "live" on the system. As mentioned in an earlier thread, there is a lot of training, and last minute check outs, before any of the participating agencies go "live". The participants are being rolled out onto the system over time, by the mid April time frame, as you mentioned, everyone should be active.

TFD is still using their legacy system for real activity. Not sure why you didn't hear their F1 frequency, but it was indeed active today.

TFD will be moving over real soon :) Keep listening ...


I suspect that TFD is now using the new system for some of it's work as there was a lot of team 2 police chatter today about a house fire & evacuations & all the old TFD channels had no talk about it at all.

I am gonna wait until the system is fully up & operational before taking the plunge on the bcd346.

Last I heard.... they set April 15th as the date for full migration to PCWIN.

You can follow the official blow by blow updates of the system here....


Communications Center Expansion | Official Website of the City of Tucson
 

FLANO

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Tucson Fire Department has officially cutover as of 0800 today. They were ordered to stow all old radio equipment and conduct business on PCWIN.

First Battalion Call out was conducted at 08:05 for a house fire on "Fire-1".
 

radiopaulie

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Trying to listen with my BD436HP. Only hearing Pima Co. Sheriff's on TG 18009. What am I doing wrong?

I refreshed my Sentinel database, and plugged into the scanner.

Any quick, plug and play updates to get the new TFD talkgroups into the radio?

Thanks
 
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FLANO

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You'll have to manually add the new TG's into the Sentinel software for now. The database for the x36HP radios is updated on Monday mornings. After Mondays, whatever was added before Monday, gets automatically updated for you.

You'll want to do this every Monday to keep up to date.

I should add that you must update the database via the Sentinel software and then update the scanner...:)



Trying to listen with my BD436HP. Only hearing Pima Co. Sheriff's on TG 18009. What am I doing wrong?

I refreshed my Sentinel database, and plugged into the scanner.

Any quick, plug and play updates to get the new TFD talkgroups into the radio?

Thanks
 

sfreiman

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Sounds like I will need to make the plunge to add a BCD536HP soon. I'm still receiving TPD, etc. on my BCT15X's. Will my BCT15X's still be able to pick up anything in Pima County anymore? Sure do like these radios.
 

FLANO

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Sounds like I will need to make the plunge to add a BCD536HP soon. I'm still receiving TPD, etc. on my BCT15X's. Will my BCT15X's still be able to pick up anything in Pima County anymore? Sure do like these radios.

The short answer is yes. Not all agencies within Pima County are switching over for many reasons.

AZ DPS, Tucson International Airport, Marana Police, Civilian Air, Military Air, Railroad, Business Trunk systems, and more would still be monitorable :)

You'll have TPD for a little while, but it too will be switching over ...
 

DanRollman

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The short answer is yes. Not all agencies within Pima County are switching over for many reasons.

AZ DPS, Tucson International Airport, Marana Police, Civilian Air, Military Air, Railroad, Business Trunk systems, and more would still be monitorable :)

You'll have TPD for a little while, but it too will be switching over ...

The Northwest Consortium fire districts (Northwest, Golder Ranch, etc.) are not switching to PCWIN and will remain on VHF. So there's that. The Northwest Consortium has a set of talkgroups assigned to them on PCWIN, but won't be using them routinely. They also have a handful of PCWIN radios, but will really only use them for interoperability with agencies using PCWIN.

Dan
 

FLANO

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I have been doing a little bit of site concentration today and it seems to me that the best site, to catch the most activity, is Simulcast A. This catches pretty much everything, most of the time, certainly in the Tucson Metro area.

If you want to concentrate on PCSO, most of the activity seems to be on the Keystone Peak site, with the most transmission coming from West and South equally, followed by North, then East. The transmissions are also on the other sites, but that seems to be the highest concentration of PCSO voice activity on this site, with a few missing transmission to the neighbor sites.

Keystone Peak is also the most widely heard site in eastern Pima County. I've been able to keep a good signal, east to Vail on I-10, north to Eloy on I-10, and south on I-19.

Confidence Peak, Mt Bigelow, and Haystack sites are low for activity and seem to only be good for an overflow transmission or two. This would not be a primary listen, IMHO.

Simulcast B, seems to overflow a lot of Simulcast A activity, but then other times it is broadcasting the same thing. Don't know what to make of this site yet :) Seems to be less active than A, even though the site locations are the same.

Simulcast North is good for the activity from PCSO North, West, then South respectively.

The other three sites are outside of my home and shop range, so I'll have to make a road trip to check those out :)

Again, just observations that I've made using the x36HP and 800 radios, as well as, Unitrunker and PRO96COM.

Anyone have any different observations ?
 

FLANO

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I am making a change to my comments about the sites, concerning Mt Bigelow.

It seems that it would be a good one to listen to for the activity on Mt Lemmon and for the PCSO "East" talkgroups.
 

FLANO

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I'm using both x36HP models (BCD436HP and BCD536HP). I am also using the PSR-800.

There are Pros and Cons to all of these radios. Really depends on what you are trying to do - listen, or discover.

Listening, for the ease of moving around, like a normal scanner, the X36HP radios are a tad better at this.

The 800 is better at capturing the digital audio quicker and ID'ing the transmitting radio ID many more times over the x36HPs.

I have a whole laundry list of likes and dislikes for these radios, but it really depends upon what you want to do.

I'm not upset that I own them :)
 

AZScanner

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Spent the weekend down there listening to the new system off and on. I think there will be some tweaks needed to get the x36 radios performing at their best on this system. Sometimes a transmission would come in well and other times it would have popping or clicking sounds. If anyone has found a work-around or fix for that, I think it'd be good to include in this thread. I didn't try adjusting anything while I was down there this time, but next time I'm down I'll try to improve the reception a bit using some P25 adjustments. Still it's a big improvement over the VHF radios. My fiancee was commenting on how clear it sounded compared to the old analog system.

Thanks to Flano and others for tirelessly monitoring and logging all the new talkgroups as they come on line. :)

-AZ
 

sfreiman

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I want a base unit, so the BCD536HP sounds like the only choice so far.

I'm using both x36HP models (BCD436HP and BCD536HP). I am also using the PSR-800.

There are Pros and Cons to all of these radios. Really depends on what you are trying to do - listen, or discover.

Listening, for the ease of moving around, like a normal scanner, the X36HP radios are a tad better at this.

The 800 is better at capturing the digital audio quicker and ID'ing the transmitting radio ID many more times over the x36HPs.

I have a whole laundry list of likes and dislikes for these radios, but it really depends upon what you want to do.

I'm not upset that I own them :)
 
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