Maryland FIRST 700mhz TRS

[doctordave]

Boatbod,

The Kent radios have one zone with all the usual QA FD TGs (and other zones for adjacent jurisdictions like the DE system, etc......just like the programming of FD radios around here).....but it seems odd they would have their own dedicated aviation TG over on the UES system. Their template for the QA system zone.....as of 2 weeks ago, did not include that Kent aviation TG, interestingly. Perhaps this was a last-minute idea? MSP helos had been directly calling Kent for air-ground coms on VHF....and would presumably just do so on a 700 freq. I wonder if the MSP helos do not yet have 700 capabilities and this UES TG is a temporary fix? Very curious development.

[doctordave]

DPCain, You are quite a distance from the Kent towers. I wonder if you are simply getting some local RF interference that is causing your S-meter to spike up? When I was at the top of the bridge for the C&D canal the other day - just 15-20 miles north of Kent - the signal was pretty weak/choppy. Would seem a stretch that you could pull in any Kent signals from your location.....but maybe.

[troymail]

Sounds like they just did another "long distance" call between Baltimore and Chicago...

[troymail]

Well, hearing MdTA BWI Airport on the AA site -- I think this is the first time I've seen that.... active on the Baltimore site for the last 2+ hours also.

[baydog]

While I was in the Pendennis Mount area of Annapolis this afternoon I had some activity on TG 12801 off of the Queen Anne site. Each instance was brief and there was no voice. It was more like someone keying a mic but not saying anything. After about 5 ,minutes, the activity stopped.

[dpcain]

Originally Posted by doctordave

DPCain, You are quite a distance from the Kent towers. I wonder if you are simply getting some local RF interference that is causing your S-meter to spike up? When I was at the top of the bridge for the C&D canal the other day - just 15-20 miles north of Kent - the signal was pretty weak/choppy. Would seem a stretch that you could pull in any Kent signals from your location.....but maybe.

I have significant elevation and a fairly straight shot across the Bay from my hill plus a very good antenna. Getting good RSSI from Kent is very finnicky about particular location and requires that I go upstairs to the eastern balcony of the apartments above me and find a lateral sweet spot too.. so I'm pretty sure that I am actually getting Kent and not noise. This antenna has made some pretty ridiculous long-range snatches before, so I'm only mildly surprised.

[troymail]

0400 Kent announcement: "officially operating on the 700 Mhz radio system"

[troymail]

Kent day 1 -- see: http://forums.radioreference.com/mar...st1867293.html

[boatbod]

Originally Posted by doctordave

Boatbod,

The Kent radios have one zone with all the usual QA FD TGs (and other zones for adjacent jurisdictions like the DE system, etc......just like the programming of FD radios around here).....but it seems odd they would have their own dedicated aviation TG over on the UES system. Their template for the QA system zone.....as of 2 weeks ago, did not include that Kent aviation TG, interestingly. Perhaps this was a last-minute idea? MSP helos had been directly calling Kent for air-ground coms on VHF....and would presumably just do so on a 700 freq. I wonder if the MSP helos do not yet have 700 capabilities and this UES TG is a temporary fix? Very curious development.

The way I've typically seen the "Aviation" TGs work on UES is that they are patched to whatever county TG the fire dept is operating on.
MSP Helo gets in range and calls dispatch on "Aviation Call" and is subsequently assigned to either Aviation 1, 2 or 3 (and presumably also 4) depending on location of incident. 1=QA, 2=Talbot, 3=Caroline, 4=Kent(?).

My PRO-96 only sees the original county fire TG for all coms, but my PSR-800 sees the Aviation TGs as a patch. I suspect the ground units don't know of care how they end up talking to the air units, and their radios don't need any special programming to make it work. Mind you, I've not had the opportunity to play with one so I could be way off base...

[EyeSpy]

So have been listening to the system for a couple weeks. Seems something must be either blocking or be a week signal between the Harford Co line down to the City line. Can't grab a control channel during that span for some reason. Have even tried to hold it coming from Harford and it loses the "T"

Also, I too hear the "swish" sound on MSP JFK. Is this something to do on their system?

Also added the Medevac freqs in as I am close to Martin State and since Aviation tends to fly over often, thought I might get some comms. So far, nothing heard from that system.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

[FiveAlarmPhotography]

A lot of testing this afternoon on talkgroup "8566" on the Anne Arundel Site

[troymail]

They seem to do a lot of coverage testing on that talkgroup.

Now that Kent is up and live I'm starting to wonder what's next for after the new year.

[doctordave]

It will be interesting to see how soon MSP Golden Ring is up and running on this system - from what I've read, they are part of the first phase.....but I haven't heard them doing any testing and coverage (at least from a scanner standpoint) remains extremely poor along I-83 from the beltway to the state line. I do wonder if MSP will be allowed a full-time TG on the Balt Co 800 system while the 700 tower build-out continues.

[ka3jjz]

Well they DID have at least one allocated on the old system, but to the best of my knowledge, they never used it. It's likely someone is going to reason that they're not interested...but time will tell

Mike

[doctordave]

Quite true, Mike. My understanding is that the TG on the analog 800 system was set up as a patch for MSP units on 39.56 or other low band patch channels to get linked into the 800 system. I heard some rare use of that TG for special events. Since MSP R suffers from troublesome reception on 39.44 - due to their short primary tower (near airport), one would think that some quick radio fix would be a high priority. Often times each day, troopers are unable to raise the barracks and must use cell phones and/or the laptop to make contact.

[ka3jjz]

I think you're confusing the MSP Glen Burnie barracks on 39.04 - which does have a very small tower because it's so near the airport (I know because I lived there for just over a decade and passed it quite frequently) - with MSP Golden Ring on 39.44. I'm pretty sure they don't have the same tower site.

As you state, AA county did indeed put MSP Glen Burnie on their system, I'm sure, because 39.04 wouldn't cover all of the county (and they lost MSP Annapolis on 39.14 a few years back).

I wouldn't doubt that budget considerations came into play at the time the talkgroup on the old Baltimore county system came available. That, and perhaps a lack of interest, likely killed the initiative.

It will be interesting to see which of the barracks are the next to show up on FIRST. Golden Ring is certainly a candidate, assuming they can get the funding for all of the gear. I would put more stock in Glen Burnie moving first, since it houses the state capital and the Naval Academy. But that's purely conjecture on my part, and not in any way backed up with facts, except for the provisos I've stated.

Mike

[doctordave]

Actually, Mike, MSP Golden Ring is reasonably close to Martin State Airport....and I'm told that explains why they have such a short primary tower. They are in the same boat as Glen Burnie in this regard.

State 700 project documents show MSP JFK, Northeast and Golden Ring as being the specific installations to go live with phase 1 of the FIRST system rollout. I don't believe Northeast has yet gone live with this. The funding for phase 1 has reportedly already been secured, but I've yet to see a hard figure on timeline for finishing up this chunk of installs.

[ka3jjz]

Interesting - I didn't know that was where Golden Ring's tower was. Certainly does put them in the same boat as Glen Burnie insofar as coverage issues are concerned. Namely, crappy.

All of those FIRST sites are more or less a straight line from the Delaware border down. Wonder why Glen Burnie wasn't done first, for the reasons above? You would think from a critical interop perspective, that would be more important. Guess not. Probably has to do with budgets and if/where the new 700 towers are going to go...thanks..Mike

[troymail]

I think the tower sites included Golden Ring and Northeast but the 1-A plan didn't including those users as part of the initial phase. The majority of Phase 1-A was for MdTA (JFK, tunnels, bridges, and ICC) and Kent County. It looks to me like they just used towers at Golden Ring and Northeast for coverage.

[doctordave]

Maybe so, Troy. The state's 700 project page specifically references the patrol areas of the R, M & F barracks being covered in phase 1A.....but perhaps that doesn't really mean that all 3 barracks (rather than just JFK) will truly be rolled in during this segment.

700 MHz System