Catawba county viper system update

[chuckinnc]

Does anyone know what they are going to change this week? All county services must have their radios
in for reprograming, All they were told was that a team of techs would be there Dec 10-12th and all radios from every service would need to be scheduled for programing.

[kd8x]

I would imagine that they are getting the narrow band Fm update to comply with the FCC mandate by the Jan 1st deadline....

[99A1]

It's to add the VIPER P25 system to the radios. Narrowbanding has long been completed.

[trumpetman]

Originally Posted by 99A1

It's to add the VIPER P25 system to the radios. Narrowbanding has long been completed.

I didn't think VIPER was that far along... I'm thinking this has something to do with touching the radios for rebanding or template updates. VIPER P25 has to have a bit of a better game plan before they start touching radios for that. Control channels, site names, talkgroups, etc need to be assigned, and as far as I know, Durham County was the most recent addition to the system.... it's not quite made it here yet.

[chuckinnc]

Catawba county has been on the Viper P25 system for about a year now, they still simo cast on a few
vhf fm frequencys but only a couple county vehicles still have vhf. All viper p25 radios must be in for the
reprograming this week, must be big because usually there is only tech to do reprograming, now they are going to have a group doing it.

[KE4ZNR]

Ok, lets do some clarification here:
There is NO "VIPER P25" in Catawba County. There is VIPER 3600bps Mixed Mode Analog/Digital voice service in Catawba County. Catawba County uses Digital Voice Talkgroups on this 3600bps system which is NOT a "P25 system". "VIPER P25" should refer only to the 9600bps Full P25 System that currently only has coverage in Wake and Durham Counties.
The confusion lies in the fact for so long the terms "digital voice talkgroup" and "P25" have been mistakenly used interchangeably. They should not as they refer to 2 different system types.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Originally Posted by chuckinnc

Catawba county has been on the Viper P25 system for about a year now, they still simo cast on a few
vhf fm frequencys but only a couple county vehicles still have vhf. All viper p25 radios must be in for the
reprograming this week, must be big because usually there is only tech to do reprograming, now they are going to have a group doing it.

[Drafin]

I heard that it was as 99A1 said above to add the 9600 P25 system to the radios from a fairly reliable source. I just figured that this was the natural progression of the P25 phasing in deal for VIPER. Is the end goal not to have the entire system 9600?

Can the radios do both P25 and 3600 mixed mode at the same time?

Draf

[KE4ZNR]

Originally Posted by Drafin

I heard that it was as 99A1 said above to add the 9600 P25 system to the radios from a fairly reliable source. I just figured that this was the natural progression of the P25 phasing in deal for VIPER. Is the end goal not to have the entire system 9600?

Has been from day one.
Considering that there is a major backlog of folks needing VIPER RIDs that can't get them until VIPER is full P25 I am sure there has been extra emphasis placed on getting the system upgraded. And now that I think back to one of the last NCSUN (Smartnet User Network) Meetings I remember hearing about the P25 transition schedule. Have to dig up my notes from that meeting. I guess folks are gonna have to let us know about any new SysIDs or any reception of 1FC folks see in the Catawba Co area in either 800Mhz or 700Mhz.

Originally Posted by Drafin

Can the radios do both P25 and 3600 mixed mode at the same time?Draf

Just depends on the radio and the flashcode within.
My Moto XTS5K handles it just fine. Just a different system type in the codeplug. I can switch from our Mixed Mode Analog/Digital 3600bps system to the new(er) VIPER P25 system with the switch of a zone or two.
My shop is still the only folks with the Durham TGIDs loaded into our radios. Duke has their own group of TGIDs of course.
Marshall KE4ZNR

[bonk83]

going to reband viper system this week

[msigmon3306]

Let me just confirm that the reprogramming is for P25; I have to take all my Motorola's in tomorrow. EFJ's will be reprogrammed at some unknown later date.

There will initially be two systems in our radios--the current SZ system and the P25 system. For every SZ zone there will be a mirror image of that zone in P25. When we're given the word to switch over, you simply select up on the P25 zone and keep going (oh God I hope). Rebanding will also be done in this programming session.

I've already instructed our people that if you happen to accidentally select up "CCEMS 1 P25"--you're radio won't work (idle paramedics tend to play with stuff).

Then, at some even later date after we've switched to P25 we will do another reprogramming and take out the SZ system and TG's.

And yes, we've run out of ID's on SZ. I installed a radio in the Fire Marshall's truck back in September and I'm still waiting on an ID. I had to program one of my unused ID's in to get his radio to work.

[trumpetman]

Well, I stand corrected. Thanks for all the input folks.

Now, the goal is to search the 700/800 bands every few days and listen for new 1FC sites.

[KE4ZNR]

Thanks Brother. I know I could count on you to give the accurate 411 as far as C-County.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Originally Posted by msigmon3306

Let me just confirm that the reprogramming is for P25; I have to take all my Motorola's in tomorrow. EFJ's will be reprogrammed at some unknown later date.

There will initially be two systems in our radios--the current SZ system and the P25 system. For every SZ zone there will be a mirror image of that zone in P25. When we're given the word to switch over, you simply select up on the P25 zone and keep going (oh God I hope). Rebanding will also be done in this programming session.

I've already instructed our people that if you happen to accidentally select up "CCEMS 1 P25"--you're radio won't work (idle paramedics tend to play with stuff).

Then, at some even later date after we've switched to P25 we will do another reprogramming and take out the SZ system and TG's.

And yes, we've run out of ID's on SZ. I installed a radio in the Fire Marshall's truck back in September and I'm still waiting on an ID. I had to program one of my unused ID's in to get his radio to work.

[msigmon3306]

You are welcome Marshall. Check your email. Hopefully will know more by tomorrow.

[msigmon3306]

Well guys, the reprogramming in Catawba County is moving along at lightening speed. I worked with a really great guy from Wireless Communications yesterday who banged through my radios two at a time even though some of the older radios took a different codeplug.

Will have 867 radios done by Friday. Can't pick up anything on P25. I'm getting ready to fire a radio up and see what's in it.

My EFJ vendor says he has a meeting with the powers that be in January so I imagine we'll be seeing him later on next year.

In our radios, the Smartzone Zone designators is now in lower case letters, P25 is in uppercase---otherwise everything is exactly the same. I thought that was cute n stuff.

[ts548]

Originally Posted by msigmon3306

Can't pick up anything on P25. I'm getting ready to fire a radio up and see what's in it.

And you won't pick anything up in P25 for a while. Maybe and that's a big maybe by the end of 2013.

[KE4ZNR]

Originally Posted by ts548

And you won't pick anything up in P25 for a while. Maybe and that's a big maybe by the end of 2013.

If he ever makes the trek up here to Wake/Durham Cos to let me buy him a brew or two he will find a few sites on which to affiliate to
Marshall KE4ZNR