help with allegheny county

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plazzmaa

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Jul 15, 2013
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Trying to fix grandfathers scanner. He wants West Jefferson hills police dept...they are located in West Jefferson Hills PA. I cannot locate anywhere..
 

kb3jqz

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Connellsville, PA
Allegheny County

Look on the database and figure out which region of Allegheny county they are in.
most of the channels now are no longer specific to a department or borough, they are all by regional dispatch.
 

kb3jqz

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Connellsville, PA
Jefferson Hills

Also,
check and see if his scanner is capable of narrow band
all Allegheny counties are in the process of being Narrow banded
and I have it on good authority that the county will be going to a regional trunked digital system in the not-too-distant future.
 

ffemt134

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Allegheny wouldn't ever go to a digital trunked system. They took over 20 years to move everyone to UHF.

True, and even then everyone still isn't there yet (i.e. North Boros area fire).

The only way I might see them ever going digital trunked is if the whole T-Band legislation stays put.....I can't see there being enough 450/460 MHz frequencies available out there to replace all of the T-band channels Allegheny currently has.
 

kirkwoodcr

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Beaver County, PA
True, and even then everyone still isn't there yet (i.e. North Boros area fire).

The only way I might see them ever going digital trunked is if the whole T-Band legislation stays put.....I can't see there being enough 450/460 MHz frequencies available out there to replace all of the T-band channels Allegheny currently has.

At least they dropped the old VHF that was interfering with Beaver county's Zn 4 PD on occasion.
 

kb3jqz

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trunked

Ah, news flash gentlemen, the whole of Region 13 will be on a regional trunked system, and yes that includes Allegheny county.
Right now Westmoreland, Armstrong, and Indiana are on it and Fayette will be installing it.
I understand that the first Controller Channels should be on in Fayette before the snow flies.
At least that is the plan right now
 

Drachen_Fire

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Center Township, PA
AC won't sign on. I can promise that. After the fiasco the City had with 800mhz in the 90's, asking them to sign on to that system would be like asking them to set themselves on fire.

Then, of course, comes that whole thing where someone has to come up with enough money to transfer every police officer, fire officer, fire police officer, EMS officer, and every public safety vehicle in the county from the current UHF to 800MHz P25, when County just made everyone buy new UHF gear last year.

Minimum of a decade before any serious discussion happens. Guaranteed.
 

fire42man

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Pittsburgh
As far as I know, Allegheny and Butler will not be joining ICORRS (Region 13's system) anytime soon, as there has not yet been any word of it, and there isn't anything on the Region 13 website regarding the system. I assume the project will take at least another few years. In my opinion, Allegheny would be best off with their own system if they go trunked given how busy the county is on a daily basis.
 

kb3jqz

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Connellsville, PA
well, right now, Fayette is preparing for install of equipment, should have a controller up and running soon.
I believe somerset is in the planning Phase.
don't know who is next on the block after them.
I am sure it will be all the outlying areas 1st.
would imagine Allegheny county might be the last for Migration.
Who knows, by then we might all be moving to something else
 

Drachen_Fire

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Center Township, PA
Allegheny County's government is currently experimenting with a Harris OpenSky 800 system. So far, I've heard nothing good about the technical side, or dealing with Harris. I would hope OenSky gets dropped here before someone thinks we'll be using it.

There is no cheap equipment for it, no easy way onto the system, and it's coverage has a tendency to be trashy at best. The volunteer emergency services would take a HUGE hit.

I think the T-band system is here to stay for a decade or so.
 

Drachen_Fire

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Center Township, PA
Ok, little bit of an update, and to finally put some speculation to bed. I just spoke with the head of Allegheny County Emergency Services. He stated that AC OpenSky is dead in the water, that PGH's 800MHz trunked system has not long left to live, and that the county has committed long-term to UHF. He stated outfitting Allegheny's emergency services would cost $125 Million in end-user equipment, not including infrastructure, and that AC won't be joining the R13 800 system.
 

talviar

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Uniontown, PA
Sigh. . . . SMH. . . .

First, it is not the Region 13 800 MHz radio system . . . . .

It is the ASTRO 7.11 Trunking controller that was purchased thru an upgrade to the Westmoreland 6.x trunking controller a few years back that made the trunking controller a Region Asset. . . . . as region funds purchased it. Region did not pay for radio infrastructure at Armstrong or Indiana or Fayette. Region only bought the upgrades to the trunking controller to allow Armstrong and Indiana to connect. Same with Fayette.
When Somerset connects, most likely the switch will be upgraded again (along with some components in Armstrong, Indiana, Westmoreland, and Fayette) to go to a newer 7.x version. Possibly 7.14 or 7.16 (which ever is decided when the Somerset system gets approved)

Abscence or prescence of equipment on the public web site for Region 13 really doesn't tell you a whole let. . . . .

ASTRO 7.11 trunking controllers support all bands. . . if a county wanted to connect into the switch and use VHF the switch supports it. if a county wanted to connect into the switch and use UHF the switch supports it. if a county wanted 700 mhz, the switch supports it. same with 800. . . .

With that said, nobody, including present administration has a handle on where/what any county using uhf T-band will end up doing. unless the T-band vacate LAW gets overturned, anyone using T-BAND will end up doing something. . . . isn't enough UHF non t-band freqs to go around to supply everyone that is vacating T-BAND
 

Drachen_Fire

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Center Township, PA
It's my understanding that fighting to get the T-Band reclamation law overturned is what's happening on this end. I understand so far that many major cities and counties are using T-band, and that they are the ones fighting it.

That being said, I'm not sure what the Fedgov thinks end-users are going to do. They really slipped this T-band stuff in at the last second, just as everyone was spending millions to switch their T systems to narrowband. The figure I was told today was for end-user equipment, not infrastructure, and it was in excess of $100 Million.
 
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