MBTA EDACS - Standard or Pro-Voice?

transitman · May 17, 2012

The MBTA EDACS system shown on the Suffolk County (MA) page is listed as EDACS Standard with several TG's shown. However there have been numerous postings on RR and other blogs that the MBTA system is Pro-Voice and cannot be monitored with a current scanner. Which system is in use?

ecps92 · May 17, 2012

I think it Might be some confussion, based on terminology.

Monitored vs Tracked. I'm sure someon who has submitted the info will pop in

I listen to them in conventional mode from time-time, but considering they are still on UHF T-Band that covers much better it's rare to listen to the 800 System

transitman said:
The MBTA EDACS system shown on the Suffolk County (MA) page is listed as EDACS Standard with several TG's shown. However there have been numerous postings on RR and other blogs that the MBTA system is Pro-Voice and cannot be monitored with a current scanner. Which system is in use?

garys · May 18, 2012

From a thread a few years ago on Scan-ne.net, the audio is Pro Voice and the control is ESK extended. The TGs can be decoded, but the audio can not be monitored. They are using the system, but as Bill points out, they still simulcast on the UHF-T system.

The build out of the EDACS system has been going on for several years as there are multiple phases to the project and most of them are individual contracts that have to be put out to bid.

mmisk · May 18, 2012

DSD for Windows and EDACS Provoice

You can listen to non-encrypted EDACS provoice comms using DSD for Windows.
DSD for Windows may be found on another forum on RR, and it works quite well.

Mike

walter900 · Aug 28, 2015

Hi, so does this still hold true?? No current scanner can monitor the Massachusetts MBTA standard edacs system? It appears to be listed as a standard edacs system on the RR page and doesn't mention that it is MaComm or Provoice.. So did something change and they can now be scanned using a standard edacs scanner like the BCD396XT? Is it a Provoice system or not? As a Provoive system makes no sense at all as it would keep neighboring police departments from also scanning them and knowing what's going on in real time.

garys · Aug 28, 2015

It is Pro Voice, but the Transit Police are not (as far as I know) on that system. They still use UHF and have several talk groups on the MSP Motorola trunk. They may be primarily on the trunk and simulcasting on UHF, but I'm not sure.

If you have MSP Zone 5 programmed into a scanner, you can hear Transit PD traffic all over eastern MA. The information is listed in the database here and at scan-ne.net.

walter900 said:
Hi, so does this still hold true?? No current scanner can monitor the Massachusetts MBTA standard edacs system? It appears to be listed as a standard edacs system on the RR page and doesn't mention that it is MaComm or Provoice.. So did something change and they can now be scanned using a standard edacs scanner like the BCD396XT? Is it a Provoice system or not? As a Provoive system makes no sense at all as it would keep neighboring police departments from also scanning them and knowing what's going on in real time.

ElroyJetson · Aug 28, 2015

For interoperability purposes, neighboring departments will have the ability to talk with this department via talkgroups that are in analog mode, using either a few dedicated edacs radios for talking to their neighbors, or using either the national mutual aid channels in analog mode, or, most likely, patching into the system via a gateway.

No commercially available scanner today decodes ProVoice. But DSD does!

walter900 · Aug 29, 2015

ElroyJetson said:
For interoperability purposes, neighboring departments will have the ability to talk with this department via talkgroups that are in analog mode, using either a few dedicated edacs radios for talking to their neighbors, or using either the national mutual aid channels in analog mode, or, most likely, patching into the system via a gateway.

No commercially available scanner today decodes ProVoice. But DSD does!

What about this Provoice scanner everyone's raving about? What is DSD?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/M-A-Com-Har...5-DIGITAL-SCANNER-W-PROGRAMMING-/201393266525

ecps92 · Aug 29, 2015

Not sure whose system you are referencing, but here (Boston) the Interop is T-Band, called BAPERN

NEMLEC & BAPERN - Scan New England Wiki

Local Cities/Towns can contact each other, including the MSP. many College Campus PD's and the MBTA on the network, which covers EASTERN Massachusetts from the NH Border to the Rhode Island Border

ElroyJetson said:
For interoperability purposes, neighboring departments will have the ability to talk with this department via talkgroups that are in analog mode, using either a few dedicated edacs radios for talking to their neighbors, or using either the national mutual aid channels in analog mode, or, most likely, patching into the system via a gateway.

No commercially available scanner today decodes ProVoice. But DSD does!

garys · Aug 29, 2015

You should mention that agencies on 800 trunk system (MSP, Cambridge, MassPort) have talk groups patched to the UHF channels.

I haven't seen a T Police portable in a while, but my guess is that they are using dual band Motorola radios. The reason being that they need coverage all the way down to the MA/RI line which is way beyond the coverage of the UHF system. They also need coverage north and west, for that matter.

ecps92 said:
Not sure whose system you are referencing, but here (Boston) the Interop is T-Band, called BAPERN

NEMLEC & BAPERN - Scan New England Wiki

Local Cities/Towns can contact each other, including the MSP. many College Campus PD's and the MBTA on the network, which covers EASTERN Massachusetts from the NH Border to the Rhode Island Border

MBTA EDACS - Standard or Pro-Voice?

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