Maryland FIRST 700mhz TRS

[troymail]

I guess you could read it that way.... but if Golden Ring really covers up through 83 towards PA, there are no towers in Phase 1-A that I can see. Also, the MarylandFiRST ppt only mentions MdTA and Kent.

I think Northeast and Golden Ring just provide additional coverage for MdTA on the edge of the area in a similar fashion to Matapeake in Queen Anne's provides for MdTA on the Bay Bridge (eastern shore side).

The plan indicates the the rest of the Eastern Shore is next for 2013.

So what is Golden Ring using now for frequencies ? and how does narrowbanding factor in to that?

[ka3jjz]

Narrowbanding has nothing to do with VHF lo freqs.

I'm more than willing to bet they use NexHell a lot...Mike

[troymail]

Yes- so I guess no rush on getting MSP up on 700 like there was for MdTA and Kent...

[ResQguy]

Originally Posted by ka3jjz

Narrowbanding has nothing to do with VHF lo freqs.

I'm more than willing to bet they use NexHell a lot...Mike

It has a lot to do with their VHF-High portables and PAC-RTs/Pyramids though. Anyone know what they are going to do for portable coverage for the non-7/800 carrying troopers until FiRST is statewide?

[doctordave]

That is a very good question, ResQ.

Golden Ring has horrible reception issues on 39.44 - - seems an hourly event that inablility to make radio contact forces use of the cell phone or laptop to get a message through. I'm quite astonished that getting them fast-tracked for FIRST wasn't more of a priority.

[dpcain]

RE the last post and Mike, the absolute priority was MdTA. They were mandated by the FCC to either narrowband their legacy UHF system or find a new one by 1 Jan 2013, and Region 1A is designed specifically for that goal above all other considerations. MSP M became a part of it because they are on MdTA property and enforce JFK Highway on lease from them. Notably, MdTAP Commercial Vehicles units work in conjunction with MSP-M on that territory for CV enforcement, and maintenance of way is again SHA's responsibility but with overlying authority resting with MdTA.

RE Dave, putting MSP R on the BCo system would be nonsensical at this point in time. They only have at most a year until they begin to have 700mHz infrastructure built, and it may easily be shorter than that, during which time they can make do as they have for the past several decades. Current range testing being done by the FiRST team is NOT on the eastern shore, but is instead in Baltimore County, and on Friday extended down through my area into the border with AACo. To me, this indicates that MSP R and D barracks as the rest of Region 1 (minus the A) are next up. They will likely either join the system next and before the eastern shore begins to be built, or will join while the eastern shore infrastructure is in progress.

This system is designed to be done in logical chunks. 1A was the priority, from which the rest of that area can be built up, and from there the State can move west to east. It isn't being done in hodgepodge bits of hey lets go here and then there and then there because they're important areas, because overall system quality would be a mess: spotty build-out means spotty infrastructure and therefore spotty testing and resultant coverage, plus user confusion about why their 'statewide' system only works in certain areas for a long while. Plus, this method makes sense.. Allegheny and Garretuckey counties should be pretty used to getting the slow end of things by now haha.

[troymail]

Originally Posted by dpcain

Current range testing being done by the FiRST team is NOT on the eastern shore, but is instead in Baltimore County, and on Friday extended down through my area into the border with AACo.

I've been trying to determine what the coverage testing is that is being performed (TG 8566?). How did you determine this is the area they were testing?

[dcr_inc]

Who is using TG 8566 ? What dept / division?

[troymail]

Only thing I've heard on 856x is radio techs and testing

[dpcain]

Originally Posted by troymail

I've been trying to determine what the coverage testing is that is being performed (TG 8566?). How did you determine this is the area they were testing?

Mid afternoon they hopped from the BC site to the AA site during a test and kept flipflopping over the border for a while before landing firmly on AA. That indicates they're operating in this border area around Halethorpe or at least were on Friday.

RE dcr's question, I believe 8566 is currently being used by FiRST Project radio techs.

[troymail]

Just noticed that a couple of MSP JFK range radioIDs in TGID 7318 using encryption on 12/7...

[dcr_inc]

Thanks.. I hear them alot off the cecil and harford co sites.. Im in Delta Pa two miles into PA from Harford County

[dpcain]

Didn't get an RID grab off of it, but I heard MSP P Glen Burnie on MDTAP BAY DISP this morning with a lookout announcement. So... if not necessarily trickling down to the portables and mobiles YET, at least P dispatch has a 700 radio.

[troymail]

Picked up Kent fire on the Queen Anne site this morning.... I think it was a rollover accident in the Betterton first due area... Fly out...

[boatbod]

Originally Posted by troymail

Picked up Kent fire on the Queen Anne site this morning.... I think it was a rollover accident in the Betterton first due area... Fly out...

Yup, I heard some of that incident too. Coverage from the QA site is a bit weak here in Oxford with just a rubber ducky, but I could mostly follow what was going on.

[troymail]

Sitting at a restaurant in Salisbury and saw a guy here wearing a Communications Electronics Maryland FiRST t-shirt!

[dpcain]

That's pretty damn funny.. lol what are the chances?

[troymail]

Originally Posted by boatbod

Yup, I heard some of that incident too. Coverage from the QA site is a bit weak here in Oxford with just a rubber ducky, but I could mostly follow what was going on.

That's a pretty good distance from the Matapeake tower ... not bad. The water is on your side...

On drives up and down Route 50, I seem to get the QA site until about the Talbot County line heading south... On the return, it seems to reappear fairly solid around the 50/301 split.

[boatbod]

Originally Posted by troymail

That's a pretty good distance from the Matapeake tower ... not bad. The water is on your side...

On drives up and down Route 50, I seem to get the QA site until about the Talbot County line heading south... On the return, it seems to reappear fairly solid around the 50/301 split.

I really need to get a better antenna setup, but I do like the portability of my current rig since I'm mostly just listening to UESC Talbot Fire.

[baydog]

Around on TG 7101 off of the Anne Arundel site, I heard the dispatcher telling an MdTPA unit to switch one of his radios to Barrack A. The unit asked if that was in the southern or central communications region. I'm assuming that Barrack A meant MSP Waterloo.