New Buncombe County Communication System

[trumpetman]

Chris, or anyone else listening for that matter, can you verify which frequencies are the control channel, and what channel goes to which zone? The downtown site was for testing only and no longer in service, so I'll remove that later on tonight.

T88 won't work on a full P25 system, I recommend Pro96Com. Check your PMs when you get a minute.

[radioguyWNC]

The control channel seems to change on a random basis. Also, unitracker is saying the WACN is 4563D vice the BEE07 listed on the Radio Red info.

Originally Posted by trumpetman

Chris, or anyone else listening for that matter, can you verify which frequencies are the control channel, and what channel goes to which zone? The downtown site was for testing only and no longer in service, so I'll remove that later on tonight.

T88 won't work on a full P25 system, I recommend Pro96Com. Check your PMs when you get a minute.

[fcfd988]

Check out this video promoting the new Consoles and Radio System. Lots of footage from inside the Buncombe County 911 Center.

Providing Premiere 911 Service - Avtec and Buncombe County, NC - YouTube

Wes

[trumpetman]

Originally Posted by radioguyWNC

The control channel seems to change on a random basis. Also, unitracker is saying the WACN is 4563D vice the BEE07 listed on the Radio Red info.

I'll get that updated shortly, after running that through a decoder....it comes back as KDC300, their current VHF callsign. How cool is that?

Originally Posted by fcfd988

Check out this video promoting the new Consoles and Radio System. Lots of footage from inside the Buncombe County 911 Center.

Providing Premiere 911 Service - Avtec and Buncombe County, NC - YouTube

Wes

Thanks for posting that Wes, seems like a fairly new video. They're a lot closer to switching over than I anticipated.

[ts548]

I know over half the people in that video. Most were shot at West Buncombe FD and the EOC.

[trumpetman]

Finally back in the good ol' mountains. Pro96Com isn't showing any activity this morning. But it did allow me to do a little house keeping in the database and get everything confirmed and listed properly. Thanks for all those who added to the system with your submissions!

The system has really good coverage from what I've seen so far, and it can only be better when using an actual public safety radio. Had a solid decode all over South and West Asheville last night. I'm receiving both zones even out to the edge of the county in a few places as well.

There is a constant tone going out over one of the frequencies (can't remember which) and my guess is it's providing grid coverage testing data, but it could be just about anything. No TG information or RID can be found when monitoring it.

Let's just hope things keep working as well as they are for the new system and we start seeing some use out of it soon. No sign of Phase II yet. No TG activity on Pro96Com either, but from what I've heard, encryption will be little to none on the system as far as the county goes.

[kc0vgj]

1. Question? When using the 700 and 800 band in digital mode you need two or more towers for converged do to the mountains Right?

2. Question? If the answer is yes: Why stop using analog?

Reason for asking is that when I was a Vol. Fire fighter in Texas we used vhf band analog band then went to the digital 800 Band. With the new radio they won't work all the time depending on the location we were at, But our old system would. If we was in a heavily metal our radios would say "out of rang"

So why spend all that money for the bell and whiles when the old tech worked better?

[trumpetman]

1. Short answer: yes.

2. Short answer: Digital adds capacity and capabilities and it was a good deal.

Usually, when increasing frequency, you have to increase the number of towers to ensure proper saturation as far as coverage goes. VHF tends to carry better over distance and handle better in more mountainous terrain, while 800 is better for in-building penetration in larger cities. They can be used differently, and work effectively, it just takes a good team of engineers and technicians to get it to work.

The current VHF simulcast (KDC300) is getting old. And although it has worked well for many years, it is bound to start having issues (more so than it already is now) soon. EADS approached the County with a testbed offer to implement a new system for cheap. The idea is to get their name out on the market and prove themselves. Although it IS possible with VHF/UHF, 700 & 800 are more prominent as far as trunking goes. Trunking also allows for more capacity and more features that are useful in public safety: man-down/emergency button features, GPS tracking, etc. Digital allows for extra features as well. TDMA modulation, built in radio ID, encryption, etc. The county would spend almost the same, if not more, on a multi-site conventional network than they would to take EADS up on this offer with the new trunked system.

700 MHz also allows all the county users to have VIPER capabilities, and are capable of using the Asheville City 800 system (and vice versa) while maintaining VHF as a backup.

[kc0vgj]

Ok. I do understand what your talking about and learned some-thing new. But on question needs to be answer then. Why would you use a band like 700 and 800 if the radio wave can't go through buildings well or mountains. Why not use the vhf band? "not trolling but learning"

[trumpetman]

Well, I don't know the whole story behind it but like I mentioned above, it will give interoperability to the county.

VIPER = 800
Asheville = 800

So why not go to something that will give them access to a backup system in an emergency, and also allow them to travel to SC, TN, and anywhere in NC.

I imagine EADS might be more familiar with that setup as well, even though they did the UHF system in Cumberland County, TN. Inteorp seems to be the key point in my opinion, but who knows.

[radioguyWNC]

On TG201 you can sometimes hear BCSO VHF patch (ID 0). TG202 has been FIRECOMM patch (also ID 0) when up. TG203 seems to be used by IT techs for radio checks. The BCSO and FIRECOMM patches go down when no 700 user is affiliated with those TGs. The handful of 700 IDs seems to be mostly IT techs, so nothing to hear on most weekends and at night (or after noon on Fridays for that matter) when they turn their radios off.

Originally Posted by trumpetman

Finally back in the good ol' mountains. Pro96Com isn't showing any activity this morning. But it did allow me to do a little house keeping in the database and get everything confirmed and listed properly. Thanks for all those who added to the system with your submissions!

The system has really good coverage from what I've seen so far, and it can only be better when using an actual public safety radio. Had a solid decode all over South and West Asheville last night. I'm receiving both zones even out to the edge of the county in a few places as well.

There is a constant tone going out over one of the frequencies (can't remember which) and my guess is it's providing grid coverage testing data, but it could be just about anything. No TG information or RID can be found when monitoring it.

Let's just hope things keep working as well as they are for the new system and we start seeing some use out of it soon. No sign of Phase II yet. No TG activity on Pro96Com either, but from what I've heard, encryption will be little to none on the system as far as the county goes.

[trumpetman]

RID 0 suggests the patch is on the back end of the system instead a two radio RICK solution. Saw TG 201 with RID 1024 affiliated for about half an hour today. Looks like it might be selected only during active testing.

Anyone else hearing the solid tone on one of the frequencies? Or is that just on my end of town in the south?

[kd8x]

Hearing BCSO for the past 2 days on new 700 system....sounding good.

[radioguyWNC]

BCSO is still just a patch to VHF, no BCSO users on 700 yet. Techs are still the only 700 users. Bit Error Rate test tone still up on 773.43125 for drive around testing. Firecomm also sometime patched to TG202 if one of the techs affiliates on that TG. Six sites funtioning so far.