CMARC Going Live Jan 2?

[troymail]

Got a little bit of readable activity on CMARC (Central Maryland Area Regional Communications Committee (CMARC) Trunking System, Various, Maryland - Scanner Frequencies) TGID 11795 today -- a roll call of counties at approx 1000 hours.

I really only mostly heard the control ("Harford County Cache 3"?) on the Baltimore site calling Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Carroll, etc.

The caller referred to the talkgroup (TGID 11795) as the "Mutual Aid Coordination talkgroup" and that they plan to "cut over" and go live on January 2 @ 0700 hours.

[dcr_inc]

So what is the purpose of the CMARC system if Md is building a statewide system and tying all countys to it?

[troymail]

Originally Posted by dcr_inc

So what is the purpose of the CMARC system if Md is building a statewide system and tying all countys to it?

I thought I read somehwere that eventually CMARC (and I assume the other "regional" systems below) would be "folded into" the Maryland FiRST system (but I'm still looking for that source).

In the mean time, per Governor's Office of Homeland Security :

"While the statewide radio system is under construction, first responders in every county in Maryland are now connected to one of five regional systems that provide radio interoperability with the region. In July 2012, counties in Southern Maryland completed construction of the Southern Maryland Interoperable Emergency Communications (SMIEC) Network, joining the previously completed CMARC (Central Maryland Area Radio Communications), MESIN (Maryland Eastern Shore Interoperability Network), NCR (National Capital Region), and WAGIN (Washington Allegany Garrett Interoperability Network) systems. In September 2012, the State’s Natural Resources Police also completed deployment of TAC STACK, an interoperable radio communications system providing coverage across the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. TAC STACK allows communication between normally incompatible radio systems used by state, local, and federal agencies that operate on Maryland’s waterways. Together, these two interoperable communication tools provide the capability for first responders in any region of the state and on Maryland waterways to have access to interoperable radio channels during mutual aide incidents impacting multiple jurisdictions and agencies."

[Spleen]

Originally Posted by dcr_inc

So what is the purpose of the CMARC system if Md is building a statewide system and tying all countys to it?

Obviously not enough money was spent on the FIRST system...

[Spleen]

I was told that at work, too, but was unconfirmed. Today I parked it on a voice channel and heard nothing but what sounded like refueling operations, TG 11776, I believe.
The blurb from the Gov's office is the latest information anyone seems to want to share publicly...you would think with all the money sunk into these projects they'd be singing its praises every chance they got...

Originally Posted by troymail

I thought I read somehwere that eventually CMARC (and I assume the other "regional" systems below) would be "folded into" the Maryland FiRST system (but I'm still looking for that source).

In the mean time, per Governor's Office of Homeland Security :

"While the statewide radio system is under construction, first responders in every county in Maryland are now connected to one of five regional systems that provide radio interoperability with the region. In July 2012, counties in Southern Maryland completed construction of the Southern Maryland Interoperable Emergency Communications (SMIEC) Network, joining the previously completed CMARC (Central Maryland Area Radio Communications), MESIN (Maryland Eastern Shore Interoperability Network), NCR (National Capital Region), and WAGIN (Washington Allegany Garrett Interoperability Network) systems. In September 2012, the State’s Natural Resources Police also completed deployment of TAC STACK, an interoperable radio communications system providing coverage across the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. TAC STACK allows communication between normally incompatible radio systems used by state, local, and federal agencies that operate on Maryland’s waterways. Together, these two interoperable communication tools provide the capability for first responders in any region of the state and on Maryland waterways to have access to interoperable radio channels during mutual aide incidents impacting multiple jurisdictions and agencies."

[troymail]

I suppose it's all about timing and who gets out the gate first (CMARC did but it seemed to/seems to be taking quite a while to get it up and/or it's purpose seems to be "evolving") and how much money is being dangled in front of people (grants).

The fact that the State is now attempting to build out a statewide system seems like a step in the right direction (sort of). However, as they cross over through central Maryland (and even some places on the Shore and west of central Maryland the state will ikley run into problems with counties who will want to remain autonomous and unwilling to come into the larger system. Instead, they'll somehow be "tied in". Time will tell.

I went chasing signals today between Ft. Meade, over to Crownsville and up to Ravens Stadium trying to figure out what CC frequencies are available where.... It was pretty tough and confusing....

I had three scanners going - the PSR800 (with all freqs listed on RR for CMARC), the PSR500 (with all frequencies listed as CMARC on caprad.org), and a BC396XT in search mode from 769-775mhz.

For the most part, from Crownsville/Millersville (AA County) all the way up to Ravens Stadium, the "Baltimore" site CC of 772.25625 seemed to be covering the area.... fading in and out/weak in the Millersville area but solid as a rock on Hanover St in the city.

One exception -- a frequency listed as Howard/Carroll County (772.33125) seems to be pretty strong in the area of Md Rt 32 and Burns Crossing Rd in the Odenton area but quickly fades as I travel north. I suppose it's possible the signal is just traveling down Rt 32 out of the west -- however, I believe RR is showing this as a Carroll/Howard frequency but caprad.org is showing it as a Carroll County frequency (caprad is showing a set for Carroll and a different set for Howard).

Heard the refueling ("JET-A") activity also -- 11761? Also some testing and reports of radios not being able to transmit (which probably lead to the testing/test counts later while they were troubleshooting).

I'll probably try a bit more testing over the weekend.

[Spleen]

I'm glad you have all those radios...and the wheels....I parked the SDR stick on the Baltimore tower and got slightly different information in Unitrunker than is posted in the RRDB, but then again, I'm not the world's greatest expert on Unitrunker. I'll update the PRO-106 and see what other TGs I can capture in the meantime...tracking TG's with DSD is difficult unless you're looking right at the screen when the channel lights up and the speech starts.

Originally Posted by troymail

I suppose it's all about timing and who gets out the gate first (CMARC did but it seemed to/seems to be taking quite a while to get it up and/or it's purpose seems to be "evolving") and how much money is being dangled in front of people (grants).

The fact that the State is now attempting to build out a statewide system seems like a step in the right direction (sort of). However, as they cross over through central Maryland (and even some places on the Shore and west of central Maryland the state will ikley run into problems with counties who will want to remain autonomous and unwilling to come into the larger system. Instead, they'll somehow be "tied in". Time will tell.

I went chasing signals today between Ft. Meade, over to Crownsville and up to Ravens Stadium trying to figure out what CC frequencies are available where.... It was pretty tough and confusing....

I had three scanners going - the PSR800 (with all freqs listed on RR for CMARC), the PSR500 (with all frequencies listed as CMARC on caprad.org), and a BC396XT in search mode from 769-775mhz.

For the most part, from Crownsville/Millersville (AA County) all the way up to Ravens Stadium, the "Baltimore" site CC of 772.25625 seemed to be covering the area.... fading in and out/weak in the Millersville area but solid as a rock on Hanover St in the city.

One exception -- a frequency listed as Howard/Carroll County (772.33125) seems to be pretty strong in the area of Md Rt 32 and Burns Crossing Rd in the Odenton area but quickly fades as I travel north. I suppose it's possible the signal is just traveling down Rt 32 out of the west -- however, I believe RR is showing this as a Carroll/Howard frequency but caprad.org is showing it as a Carroll County frequency (caprad is showing a set for Carroll and a different set for Howard).

Heard the refueling ("JET-A") activity also -- 11761? Also some testing and reports of radios not being able to transmit (which probably lead to the testing/test counts later while they were troubleshooting).

I'll probably try a bit more testing over the weekend.

[baydog]

Is there an Anne Arundel site? RR has freqs but no control channel.
Baltimore site signal strength in Severna Park is barely 1 bar

[Spleen]

I just heard reports of gallons dispensed or purchased on TG 11776, Troy....dunno if maybe they have two TGs devoted to fueling or what, but that's what came up on the PRO-106, parked on the Baltimore site.

Baydog, I'm not Mr. Unitracker, but when parked on 772.25625 (Baltimore site control channel), the software says that one of the frequencies assigned to Anne Arundel are actually off of the Baltimore site...perhaps that has something to do with it..maybe one of the guys here more experienced has an explanation.

[troymail]

I suspect that some of the original 700mhz freqs were at some point "switched" around from either what was planned or advertised/posted. There was a similar switching of 700mhz freqs on the Md FiRST system as I recall.

As I said earlier, I'm a bit baffled in the fact that the Baltimore site CC freq seems to also be covering a good part of (at least) northeastern AA County (best I can tell) and I have't yet been able to identify a CC freq that is active for AA County in the same area (aside from the Howard/Carroll freq that I hit on in the Odenton area).

I'm hoping when "go live" happens next week, there will be a schedule/pattern to daily roll calls and that can be used to do more controlled testing to see what's what.

As for the refueling -- BWI? Martin State Airport? any thoughts based on what anyone is hearing?

[troymail]

Originally Posted by Spleen

I just heard reports of gallons dispensed or purchased on TG 11776, Troy....dunno if maybe they have two TGs devoted to fueling or what, but that's what came up on the PRO-106, parked on the Baltimore site.

Yup - 11776 was all about fuel.... JET-A ... earlier in the day (1500 hour at least), there was similar activity on 11761... perhaps a patch?

I'll set up Pro96Com today for a while and see what it can see.

[troymail]

I just submitted updates to RR given what I'm seeing on Pro96Com -- it appears that the Baltimore and Anne Arundel sites are merged (making this likely a "south" Baltimore County, Baltimore City and Anne Arundel site -- not yet fully confirmed).

Pro96Com is showing two neighbor sites - 101 (772.45625) and 103 (772.33125)

I suspect that some of the freqs currently listed for Baltimore are actually part of the Harford site and that the Harford site may be north Baltimore County and Harford County - again, suspect it but not yet confirmed....

Edit: Interestingly, the two callsigns appearing for the Baltimore/Anne Arundel site (102) are showing the same 4 tower sites - Annapolis, Dundalk, Catonsville, and Towson---- but----- it doesn't appear that the fcc.gov information is being kept up-to-date for all of this 700mhz activity (CMARC nor Maryland FiRST).

[troymail]

Site 102 just briefly switched to an alternate CC -- 772.71875 -- and then switch back to 772.25625.

[Spleen]

Not much from the Baltimore site today. Though it occurred to me, should the Multisite mode on a PRO-106 be set to OFF or STATIONARY if you're just sitting at home monitoring?

[mlmummert]

Originally Posted by Spleen

Not much from the Baltimore site today. Though it occurred to me, should the Multisite mode on a PRO-106 be set to OFF or STATIONARY if you're just sitting at home monitoring?

Depends. If you're only monitoring one site, then it should be OFF. If you're monitoring multiple sites without entering each system separately then put it on STATIONARY. You'll probably also want to check the box that says to check each control channel found on every pass through.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[troymail]

Ran Pro96Com for about 9 hours yesterday (0800-1700)

Probably not truly representative given a Saturday during the Christmas / New Years weekend.... but it reported "seeing" (+ some audio captured)

TG 11776 - fuel trucks - believe this may be Martin State Airport (Martin State Airport (KMTN) Website Home) - references to "line service", "FBO", fuel trucks, JET-A, and "the farm"... > 99% of the activity was on this talkgroup yesterday activity seem to go from 0700-2230

TG 11762 - "Port 6xx" units; ref fuel farm

24 total radio IDs seen:
21003xx
21109xx < fuel truck related and "port units"
225xxxx < on tg 11795
226xxxx < various tgids
232xxxx

14 talkgroup IDs:
11701, 11704, 11711, 11733, 11742, 11751, 11752, 11762, 11776*, 11791, 11792, 11793, 11795, 11800

Also - as I reported and submitted earlier - it seems the Anne Arundel and Baltimore sites are (now?) one and the same and/or were merged at some point. The Baltimore site was observed using a single CC frequency a majority of the time but did switch for a brief period to an alternate frequency which had been listed as an AA site frequency. Pro96Com also reflected that one other previously listed AA site frequency was active on the Baltimore site.

BTW - with the now routine "LSM/CQPSK" modulation issues, I have loaded the Baltimore site as a "separate" system and locked out all but the two CC frequencies I've sen being used. I've created similar "systems" in my PSR800 for Carroll/Howard and Harford as well but haven't yet been able to check those out since they aren't received at my location. Without this, the scanner constantly loses and tries to reacquire the CCs.

[dpcain]

Sweet. Just a two-bit add you probably already know (especially the first bit): 211 is so far exclusively MdTA radios, 225 is so far exclusively Baltimore County radios and nearly all of them portables, and 226 is Baltimore City radios. 210 and 232 are as-yet unseen sets by my RID-sniffing efforts.

[Spleen]

Thanks...that may explain why I missed the CC change troymail picked up...

Originally Posted by mlmummert

Depends. If you're only monitoring one site, then it should be OFF. If you're monitoring multiple sites without entering each system separately then put it on STATIONARY. You'll probably also want to check the box that says to check each control channel found on every pass through.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[troymail]

Challenge to the group.....

There seems to be three "sites" and the "oddball" right now is Harford County.... "odd" in the sense that I find it hard to believe that Harford is a "Stand-alone" site given the other two cover at least 2 jurisdictions each.

The challenge: help determine the coverage area for the Harford site -- I'm thinking it's Harford plus the northeastern side of Baltimore County.

Someone may want to check traveling up Rt 83 - north of I-695 (the Beltway) and to the east.... Can you receive the Baltimore site, the Harford site? Where does the line appear to be (both going north and east)?

I'm thinking it's really Harford and the "Hereford zone" (Harford and Northern/Northeastern Baltimore County).

...and possibly that the northwestern side of Baltimore County is part of the Carroll/Howard site....

[Spleen]

The most recent update I could find was October 2012: http://doit.maryland.gov/interoperab...Report2012.pdf

But there was nothing tower- or site-specific that I could find...I guess we'll be doing this the old-fashioned way...I have a contact over at another state agency who I believe is mired in this project...I'll make some discreet inquiries.

Perhaps tomorrow while I'm enjoying my hangover I could do some license digging...nothing makes you want some hair of the dog more than navigating the FCC website....

Happy New Year all!

Originally Posted by troymail

Challenge to the group.....

There seems to be three "sites" and the "oddball" right now is Harford County.... "odd" in the sense that I find it hard to believe that Harford is a "Stand-alone" site given the other two cover at least 2 jurisdictions each.

The challenge: help determine the coverage area for the Harford site -- I'm thinking it's Harford plus the northeastern side of Baltimore County.

Someone may want to check traveling up Rt 83 - north of I-695 (the Beltway) and to the east.... Can you receive the Baltimore site, the Harford site? Where does the line appear to be (both going north and east)?

I'm thinking it's really Harford and the "Hereford zone" (Harford and Northern/Northeastern Baltimore County).

...and possibly that the northwestern side of Baltimore County is part of the Carroll/Howard site....