Chapel Hill PD moved to Viper today....

[redclay]

Was driving my wife to work just before 9am 7/31 and heard the call for CHPD to switch to 800mhz. and check in.....later found out that the CHPD chief Brian Curran told town officials that CHPD officially switched over to Viper system radios as of today (thursday), and will be keeping the legacy radios/gear for emergencies.....fellow that attended the meeting said that CHPD wanted to go ahead and move to Viper since many other local/co. agencies have been using the radios for a while now (Hillsborough PD, Carrboro PD, Orange Co. fire/rescue for example).

Not sure about the CHFD, though I hear them on Viper radios now & then. The Orange Co. Sheriff hasn't switched over as yet. Chief Curran cited the example of the need for coordinated LEO coverage of, say the annual halloween celebration in downtown chapel hill yearly - when outside LEOs came into town to help in coverage in the past, Curran had to station one CHPD officer with old radio with an outside LEO with Viper radio to coordinate between all the depts....

Just fyi - Redclay 7/31/08

 

[barefootdipole]

redclay--
thanks for the update....i wonder about Carrboro PD/FD...what percentage of their traffic is on Viper ? Inevitable that they will go over 100% sooner or later to match CH ??? Or are they gonna use Viper as it was intended, INTEROP, and keep local town comms on existing systems ?
thanks

Barefootdipole

 

[BCasto]

Orange County Viper

I have been trying to monitor Orange Co (and cities) from my location near the RDU airport. I have a Uniden BCD996T with a discone antenna in the attic. I can receive the Orange County site - 918 in Chapel Hill but not strongly. I have learned Orange County only broadcasts on the Orange County sites (918-112 and 120). Their traffic is not rebroadcast on the Wake Viper site (101) which I receive a strong signal from.

I must have been mistaken to believe monitoring the Wake site would get me all traffic anywhere in NC on the Viper system. What are your experiences with this?

 

[Grog]

You're going to need a better antenna (likely a beam would be best) to hear a site from another area that you are getting weakly now.

 

[FireCop]

You will only be able to hear radios that are either affiliated with a particular site or hear talkgroups that are area/tower specific. In other words, the Orange County talkgroups will be broadcast on the towers in their locale. If you hear talkgroups from other areas of the state on the sites you monitor, that means someone has a radio tuned to that talkgroup in or around that tower site(s).

As far as reception, Grog's suggestion is the best to offer.

 

[murrayustud]

I'm in North Raleigh and am using a 800mhz beam 60+ feet up,, lmr400 cable, and a pre amp and still can barely receive the Chapel Hill sites, guess my Orange County monitoring days are over....

 

[BCasto]

Is the beam antenna omni directional?

 

[murrayustud]

Is the beam antenna omni directional?

No, it's highly directional, it allows me to receive Durham's system quite well, I figured it might bring in Chapel Hill sites too but no such luck....I'm over near Falls of Neuse/Spring Forest Road...I can get the control channel on the Chapel Hill site but only faintly. On their old UHF system I could receive them on just a little whip antenna, ahhh, another of the many cons of 800mhz changeovers, less and less for us to monitor...