Oakland Fire

[kgowen44]

Hello..

I am wondering if anyone is aware of any changes to Oakland fire recently. I was recently in the area and noticed that I was unable to receive any Oakland fire tramsmissions, where as, I was able to search and find many other transmissions in their system. Everything is programmed correctly as per the database, on two seperate scanners, a BCT 15 and BC 296D handheld. Have they gone completely digital? I do not see anything in these forums or the data indicating that. Thanks in advance for any help you may have.

[kma371]

Which Oakland system are you listening to? EDACS or P25?

[sffire]

I have noticed some change. My analog scanners ( Radio Shack pro 162 and Uniden BC346XT) have not been receiving anything lately.

[kgowen44]

EDACS... If I search, I hear PD and other stuff fine, but just no fire

[W8RMH]

This thread my help you out.
.

[kma371]

Originally Posted by kgowen44

EDACS... If I search, I hear PD and other stuff fine, but just no fire

Fire is on the P25 system now I believe

[kma371]

Originally Posted by W8RMH

This thread my help you out.
.

Post 32 specifically.

[inigo88]

Fire moved to the P25 system a LONG time ago. You're going to need to invest in a digital scanner, and then expect it to not work very well (due to Oakland's simulcast issues).

[Ben96cal]

Originally Posted by inigo88

Fire moved to the P25 system a LONG time ago. You're going to need to invest in a digital scanner, and then expect it to not work very well (due to Oakland's simulcast issues).

It appears they completely stopped simulcasting on edacs over the weekend.

[sixtytwo]

Originally Posted by inigo88

Fire moved to the P25 system a LONG time ago. You're going to need to invest in a digital scanner, and then expect it to not work very well (due to Oakland's simulcast issues).

Pretty sure you didn't quite mean it to sound like Oakland has issues with simulcast - rather, it's Uniden and GRE that are marketing and selling radios that they are fully aware cannot correctly decode simulcast P25 audio.

What the users of the system hear is nice and clean audio.

[inigo88]

Originally Posted by sixtytwo

What the users of the system hear is nice and clean audio.

Hehe well that's an awfully generous assessment. I don't suppose you work at the Oakland radio shop?

The first weeks and months following the P25 switch there were MAJOR complaints from officers across the board. I remember because I listened to them. Since the Gwin site was incorporated into the simulcast system (site 202) I believe things have gotten a lot better.

Here's a decent video on the new P25 system: NEW POLICE RADIOS IN OAKLAND - YouTube

But I agree that the root of the problem is scanner manufacturers selling a product marketed to do a job it doesn't do effectively, and essentially deceiving the consumer with false advertising. For a $500-$600 product, it's unforgivable.

Incidentally, if you did happen work there, maybe you could help us understand why site 303 - 852.1125 (licensed at Fire Station 28) is announced as a site neighbor, when no control channel is heard on that frequency. That's a mystery that we've been wondering about for a while.

[sixtytwo]

Whoops - certainly didn't mean to imply I work anywhere around there, I don't.

What I should have typed is the word "typically" or "usually" or "normally" in front of my description.

I can confirm that Motorola P25 gear gives really good decoded audio on simulcast systems, including LSM.... why, I'm listening to such a system right now and it sounds very nice indeed.

Also, there is some work by the techs and engineers to get the simulcasting right, but I'm afraid the typical scanner listener wouldn't be able to notice given the lousy state of P25 scanners these days. You folks in the west have been dodging a bullet on this, those carefree days are coming to a close.