Rowan County Public Safety Feed

[FD5722]

Hey folks,

I'll post this in the live feed area as well (and have updated the status message on my feed page to reflect this), but if you hear stuff that seems out of the norm for my feed for Rowan County / Salisbury City it is because I am working on implementing a second scanner into my feed offerings. The plan for the second radio is to offer VHF & UHF coverage of surrounding counties for Fire and EMS dispatch. What counties I'm not exactly sure just yet what I will offer. Once a list is nailed down I will update everyone appropriately. The Rowan feed will play out of one side (i.e. Right Speaker) and the second radio for the surroundings stuff will play out of the left side.

Right now I have Kannapolis Fire Dispatch and Cabarrus County Fire Dispatch that I am testing with for now.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone that uses the feed and for the positive feedback I have received from some of you. I hope everyone continues to enjoy it !!!

[adams_jb]

A feed for Cabarrus County would be AWESOME. I was running the feed until they rebanded. I was hoping to start it again when the budget allows for a new scanner.

[FD5722]

Originally Posted by adams_jb

A feed for Cabarrus County would be AWESOME. I was running the feed until they rebanded. I was hoping to start it again when the budget allows for a new scanner.

Well it would only be Kannapolis Fire and Cabarrus County Fire on the VHF side because I am not close enough to get a good enough decode for the trunked system. Right now I've got the secondary scanner set to Kannapolis Fire Dispatch (154.4300) just to test things out and see how the audio sounds for 2 radios on one feed.

I hate I can't offer a feed for the Cabarrus TRS as well but I live about 2 miles from downtown Salisbury, so again I'm just not close enough to pick it up, even with a great antenna.

[trumpetman]

Daniel,

The feed sounds great! Thanks for setting that up, you've done an excellent job with it so far. I'm in the same boat with Cabarrus County; I'm 2 and miles from the county line, and 5 miles from a transmitter, and I can still barely pick up the system. It's great when you're in county, but disappears once you cross out of Cabarrus.

Thanks again for setting up your feed, and keep up the good work.

[FD5722]

Originally Posted by trumpetman

Daniel,

The feed sounds great! Thanks for setting that up, you've done an excellent job with it so far. I'm in the same boat with Cabarrus County; I'm 2 and miles from the county line, and 5 miles from a transmitter, and I can still barely pick up the system. It's great when you're in county, but disappears once you cross out of Cabarrus.

Thanks again for setting up your feed, and keep up the good work.

Thanks Chris !

I've noticed on my Pro-164 (which is my primary handheld at the moment) it seems like one minute it's picking up great, and then you take a breath and the signal bottoms out. Not sure whats up with that. I've got a commercial 800 stubby that I usually use which does great for up here in Salisbury on our system, even on the fringe areas, but with the Concord system I've tried my stubby, another commercial 800 whip, a RS 800 whip, and even a commercial 800 dipole type antenna and get the same performance with the Concord system.

Maybe they have some sort of "geofence" up and know if you're in the county or not and if not then you can't play, LOL

Once I get done playing around with the second scanner for the time being I'm probably going to monitor the following with it : Kannapolis Fire Disp, Cabarrus County Fire Dispatch & Stanly County Fire Dispatch. The reason for those 3 starting off is the fact they all have departments that respond into Rowan County, and Rowan County has departments with districts that overlap into those counties. The idea is to have "seamless" coverage if someone responds to an incident in their district but in another county, or if they run mutual aid with another county in a neighboring district.

Hope I didn't lose anyone there, LOL.

[FD5722]

Originally Posted by adams_jb

A feed for Cabarrus County would be AWESOME. I was running the feed until they rebanded. I was hoping to start it again when the budget allows for a new scanner.

I hope things work out to where you can do that. What kind of unit were you using to provide the feed before?

BTW, I looked at your feed badge to see what feeds you are providing. I noticed they are for Maryland. How are you doing that, assuming you still live in Concord/Cabarrus County? I'm guessing by remote or something along those lines?

I know that's kinda off this topic, but I'm just curious

[yardbird]

Before you start adding feeds for the Cabarrus County system.

Within the next year all analog scanners will not work for Cabarrus County.

After the first of the year the Cabarrus System will be migrated into the Char/Meck P-25 digital system.

This means all talkgroup id's will change and everybody that is wanting to listen to the system will be forced to buy a digital scanner.

More info to come when I get it from my source.

David

[FD5722]

Originally Posted by yardbird

Before you start adding feeds for the Cabarrus County system.

Within the next year all analog scanners will not work for Cabarrus County.

After the first of the year the Cabarrus System will be migrated into the Char/Meck P-25 digital system.

This means all talkgroup id's will change and everybody that is wanting to listen to the system will be forced to buy a digital scanner.

More info to come when I get it from my source.

David

I knew they were in the works of moving to the other system. I've appreciated the info you've given us so far on the Cabarrus system. I'm not going to be in any type of position to offer a feed for the Cabarrus system as stated just because of my location. I'm guessing that they will still use the VHF stuff for Kannapolis and Cabarrus Fire though? I could understand if Kannapolis City moves away from it, but I'm guessing since Cabarrus still has a good deal of volunteer departments they'll still be using VHF for paging right?

I hope I didn't confuse anyone as to why I said I was going to include Kannapolis Fire, Cabarrus Fire, and Stanly Fire in with the current Rowan feed that I have up now. Again the reason I'm doing it is because we have several departments here in Rowan that respond into Cabarrus and Stanly, and departments that have district(s) here inside Rowan County. Kannapolis Fire is a perfect example because their city straddle the Rowan/Cabarrus line.

David, any light you could shed on the Kannapolis Fire & Cabarrus fire VHF future(s) would be helpful on my end so I can move farther along in my feed rework in the coming week.

Thanks bud !!

[adams_jb]

Originally Posted by FD5722

I hope things work out to where you can do that. What kind of unit were you using to provide the feed before?

BTW, I looked at your feed badge to see what feeds you are providing. I noticed they are for Maryland. How are you doing that, assuming you still live in Concord/Cabarrus County? I'm guessing by remote or something along those lines?

I know that's kinda off this topic, but I'm just curious

I was using a Pro-2051 to monitor Cabarrus County. Yes I do have two feeds in Maryland that I run remotely from here. I was a VFD member up there for 20 + years and still run their website from down here (Concord) and remotely run two feeds from the firehouse.

Look forward to monitoring your stream!

Have a GREAT night.

Jason

[FD5722]

Originally Posted by adams_jb

I was using a Pro-2051 to monitor Cabarrus County. Yes I do have two feeds in Maryland that I run remotely from here. I was a VFD member up there for 20 + years and still run their website from down here (Concord) and remotely run two feeds from the firehouse.

Look forward to monitoring your stream!

Have a GREAT night.

Jason

I kinda figured you were running them remotely. I think that's great that you can still do that. I was a firefighter up here in Rowan for about 16 years. We'll have to get together and do lunch one day or something and talk shop.

If you guys have any suggestions for the feed or anything you would like me to add (within reason and that I can pick up from Salisbury) I'll surely consider it. I want it to be something everyone enjoys.

[FD5722]

FYI I'm taking the feed down here in about 10 minutes to install new antennas and do some maintenance. Getting 2 new antennas up (higher) to get better coverage to improve reception for both radios that are running the feed. It'll be back up later this afternoon.

Thanks guys. I'll post back here when it's up & running again.

[FD5722]

The feed is back up and running on the 800 side. I moved the 800 antenna from roughly 3 1/2 to 4 foot up to almost 17 feet up. I've also installed a "modified" RS discone for the VHF and used RG-6 as my feed line for it.

The VHF scanner is unhooked from the feed as of right now because I've got to get a connector from RS tomorrow for it (for the RG-6). There should be a lot of noticeable improvement in performance on the 800 side.

You guys give it a listen and let me know what you think. Once the VHF scanner is back up (which hopefully will be tomorrow morning) it will be monitoring Kannapolis Fire, Cabarrus Fire, and Stanly Fire. If there is anything else you guys would like to hear (on the VHF side) let me know. I'm getting a "new to me" desktop and considering adding a whole new second feed. Whatda you guys think? Tell me what you'd like to hear (near Rowan County).

And yes, I will be posting new shack pics once I get my desk cleaned up and have the desktop computer setup.

[FD5722]

If anyone is listening to my feed I'm aware there seems to be done audio issues. I won't be home until about 2200 tonight to be able to check it. If anyone sees this and can give me a little more specifics as to what the audio issue is. All the reports I'm getting is there is a low audio problem. I've not adjusted the volume any. Thanks in advance folks!!

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

[hamstang]

A quick listen, and I noticed low audio indeed. The background hum is pretty loud also.

[FD5722]

Alrighty I'm not sure what's going on. I just listened to it on my Droid and it sounded OK. I'll check it out when i get home. Thanks hamstang!

Sent from my HTC Rezound using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

[NC4DX]

The hum may be because the one scanner is unhooked. Audio level sounds ok to me. The reason you are probably not hearing the hum is because the little speaker in the Droid won't reproduce it.

[jeffmulter]

Originally Posted by yardbird

Before you start adding feeds for the Cabarrus County system. Within the next year all analog scanners will not work for Cabarrus County.

After the first of the year the Cabarrus System will be migrated into the Char/Meck P-25 digital system. This means all talkgroup id's will change and everybody that is wanting to listen to the system will be forced to buy a digital scanner.

More info to come when I get it from my source.

David

Some additional information, which recently appeared in Urgent Communications:

N.C. CITY USES TAIT SOLUTION FOR P25 MIGRATION

May 8, 2012 6:38 PM, By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

Concord, N.C., has implemented a Tait Communications open-standards solution to support its public-safety agencies migrating from conventional analog systems to P25 digital technology, according to an official with the city.

Previously, Concord had a Motorola system but turned to Tait’s TB9100 dual-mode base stations to enable the migration to P25, said Chris Linker, Concord’s radio communications manager.

“As I started looking at what’s available on the market, I found out that Motorola was doing away with the only station they had that would work in mixed mode, where we could run analog or digital without going out and reprogramming it,” Linker said, noting that the Tait solution “seemed to be about the only one that could do what we were looking for, and they were within the budget we had set for this project.”

This Tait solution is used to support P25 digital 800 MHz channels, as well as UHF and VHF systems, Linker said. The approach also satisfies the FCC narrowbanding mandate for the UHF and VHF networks, which was a priority for the city, he said.

In addition, the installation of the equipment was straightforward, Linker said. “I’ve never worked with Tait before, but I … took it out of the box, plugged it in, loaded the software up and didn’t have any problems at all,” he said.

[FD5722]

Originally Posted by NC4DX

The hum may be because the one scanner is unhooked. Audio level sounds ok to me. The reason you are probably not hearing the hum is because the little speaker in the Droid won't reproduce it.

That's a very good point. I'm headed home now and I'll work on it then. Get reception issues fixed and something else surfaces, lol

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Xparent Red Tapatalk 2

[FD5722]

Alrighty folks,

I have bumped up the audio on the feed just a touch and it sounds fine my laptop for daily use (HP Pavilion g7 with the Altec Lansing Premium Sound Package), my wife's Toshiba laptop, the Sony Vaio laptop that is used to run the feed, as well as my HTC Rezound, and my wifes HTC Thunderbolt using the Scanner Radio app from Google Play Store.

Here is how I have things set up :

I have a Uniden BCT 8 and a Radio Shack Pro-2037 each with a "patch cord" plugged into the speaker/headphone out jack ran to a Y Splitter that is plugged into the Vaio laptop's mic in jack. I don't have an external speaker plugged into the scanners for monitoring them but instead I use Audacity to monitor both radios. The benefit to using a program like Audacity for monitoring the radios instead of just a speaker is that I can record the audio of big incidents. If I'm not at home and need to record something I've got remote PC access when I'm away from home.

I've tried to do some adjusting and everything sounds ok to me. Please give it a listen if you'd like and if you hear something that you think needs to be addressed please let me know.

Thanks again guys for all your feedback !!!!!!!