Trenton PD

trentbob · Jun 3, 2015

...just want to thank Bob and Dan for the info on Trenton PD... as the retired Chief Photographer for The Trentonian newspaper it's posts like Bob's that we all depend on and enjoy... if we can all "just get along"... this is an important thread to some subscribers and is exactly why this site (and it's mods) exist... even though I monitored as part of my job for 40 years I enjoy it as a hobby too... if anybody has any more info on Trenton radio please keep us up to date on this thread... it's been many years since we have been able to hear Trenton PD... thanks again... 73's... Bob Castelli...

phillydjdan · Jun 4, 2015

Does anyone have the capability (or time) to put an analyzer like pro96com or unitrunker on the system control channel and check the status? They are still down as of this morning, which leads me to believe either the control channel is down completely or is transmitting in failsoft or some other weird mode. This is pretty significant to be down this long. I'm very curious to know what happened? I heard an announcement around 8 am on the police side that just said they were operating on their backup system and only have 1 channel.

I'm also wondering why they are only using 1 channel for fire and 1 for police if there are 4 8TAC and 1 8CALL channel available to use? One would hope they have all of these in thier 800 radios and have the repeaters in service. I'm also curious as to why there is a patch to UHF. Are some units using UHF radios while others are using 800 radios? It seems odd to me.

trentbob · Jun 4, 2015

...Ditto Dan...

... I am wondering the same as you... I remember the day they went silent way back when... they gave 453,325 to Hopewell... I complained to Mayor Palmer and they gave us (The Trentonian) a police radio disabled for transmit that mostly I carried (very heavy)... it only had dispatch on it and if anything got interesting they switched to F-2... just a tidbit on Trenton radio... I heard the announcement today also... look forward to anything you can find out... thanks again... Bob...

Septa3371CSX1 · Jun 4, 2015

Wonder if Trenton is eventually planning to upgrade their current system to 9600 Baud P-25, migrate to the Mercer County P25 system, or moving over to the Bordentown site of the NJICS? This isn't the first time I've heard of Trenton having issues with their TRS.

Only having one channel for police and one channel for fire definitely sounds terrible for a city of Trenton's size and the volume of 911 calls. Does Trenton FD have radios for Mercer County (whether it be the old VHF or the current UHF TRS) on the trucks (or even in the stations at all)? Are there any simplex channels available for their use on their current radios?

phillydjdan · Jun 4, 2015

Trenton has plans in the works to transition to a UHF system comprised of Kenwood radios with NXDN in them, so my guess would be an NXDN system. There was discussion about Trenton joining the Mercer system but they cannot do so because Mercer lacks the capacity for that many units. I know Rescue 1 has a radio with Bucks's UHF system in it, so I would assume they have Mercer as well at least for interop purposes. To my knowledge they do not have any simplex channels but I could be mistaken.

rr60 · Jun 5, 2015

Trenton Radio System Woes & Update

This article explains the patches heard recently and talks about a move to a "new" radio system.
Trenton radio system still on the fritz, city says repairs on way | NJ.com

Skypilot007 · Jun 5, 2015

Trenton has one radio tech? That's crazy. That system is old and they probably won't get any help from Motorola but they were glad to sell them a new system which of course doesn't work yet either. Gota love Motorola!

phillydjdan · Jun 5, 2015

Actually, I don't believe Motorola sold them the new system. It's comprised of UHF Kenwood NXDN radios. If I recall, the system is actually supposed to be ran and maintained by an outside company, like a leased system.

magic_lantern · Jun 5, 2015

I never heard of so many radio problems in all my years of scanning and monitoring with so many towns, county's, states or agency's until they all signed on to these "systems" How often do you hear about a problem with NYPD's radios? all analog conventional. how much tax payer money has to be wasted before the city managers wake up. Newark PD, Paterson PD, UHF conventional repeaters for all these years and no problem. soon they will probably be bamboozled into the radio trap and build super systems that will need to be upgraded every three years just to keep up where their conventional radios just keep working and working.

timekeeper · Jun 5, 2015

Hi all.. magic lantern you hit the nail on the head, I agree with you a 110%. I know that at some point in time all public safety communications systems will be digital,trunked and/encrypted (Hopefully not in our lifetime). I for one don't even like the sound of digital voice, I'm also not to thrilled about the signal drop on digital. We all can remember the incident in Queens NY around 2000. The FDNY was useing new UHF digital HTs for firegrounds operations when a call for mayday was never heard by Command, but heard by a firehouse nowhere near the fire. I know a communication system may work well in one place and not work well somewhere else. I've experienced that firsthand. Well have a great weekend everyone, happy monitoring. God Bless and all the best. 73's

Monoxide16 · Jun 5, 2015

I can't stand to listen to the Burlington co system, soon as they get on that portable radio that's it they come in all broken up most of the time... I hear central dispatch say please repeat your portable radio is unreadable. I also hate digital voice.

APX8000 · Jun 6, 2015

Merged the Trenton threads...please don't start another thread discussing the same system.

phillydjdan · Jun 8, 2015

The Monday morning update is everything is still on backup. One interesting tidbit I noticed on Friday was that on the PD side they are using both UHF and 800 radios. I noticed that the squelch tails were different depending on which unit was transmitting. It sounded like dispatch was using the 800 side. Another interesting note is that Trenton does not hold any licenses that I could find for the conventional 8 Tac frequencies. I'm guessing they have authorization under an NJSP license?

bailly2 · Jun 8, 2015

im just glad no one posted this to the database. last time someone did that when trenton pd got on the county trunked system they went encrypted almost immediately

phillydjdan · Jun 8, 2015

SHHHHHH!

Well now you went and blew it... lol

rr60 · Jun 27, 2015

More Trenton Info

r60 said:
This article explains the patches heard recently and talks about a move to a "new" radio system.
Trenton radio system still on the fritz, city says repairs on way | NJ.com

Another update on Trenton Fire radio system

Technical issues keep Trenton firefighters on one-channel, backup radio system | NJ.com

wa3ysu · Jun 28, 2015

One of the potential issues that Trenton would need to deal with as they work to replay their very old system, is related to all of the installed distributed antenna (DAS) and bi-directional antenna (BDA) systems in buildings throughout the city. These are currently 800 MHz and a move out of the 800 MHz band would create a real issue for these in-building systems which currently provide communications capability for PD/FD operations inside of them. I was told a few years ago that these DAS/BDA systems were required by ordinance in Trenton for any building that presented any issue with trunk system coverage inside. (Today the State DCA has specific post -9/11 interops requirements on several types of NEW construction to insure public safety can communicate both in and out of newly constructed buildings.)

plato · Jun 28, 2015

Trenton Radio System.

I remember in the 70's Trenton P.D. was on low band. Heard them loud and clear in Camden County!! This so called " state of the art" trunked system can't be heard outside of Trenton!!!!! Who is kidding who??? It uses the same freq's New Castle County in Delaware uses. The controll channel is the same even after rebanding!!! I found this out when I went to Trenton a few years ago and picked-up Trenton's TRS analog channels on my BCD-396XT. The name tag New Castle Co. Delaware came up on my screen!!

phillydjdan · Jul 10, 2015

So on the police side I'm noticing quite a bit of the radios now have that distinct NXDN digital sound to them. It appears some of the police now have new radios but the analog patch to 8Tac93 is still active. Since I couldn't find anything licensed to the city of Trenton for NXDN I can only assume they will be on a commercial NexEdge system. I'm not sure how good of an idea that would be.

trentbob · Jul 10, 2015

Dan..

... I am still getting them loud and clear on 460.600 from Bristol and all over Mercer in the car... I also note the different sounds in modulation... if the simulcast stops I'd like to talk with you about some options to be able to keep monitoring them... it's been great to hear them again... you should be getting the new radio on Saturday?...

Trenton PD

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA

Member

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA

Member

Member

Active Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Sarcastic Member

Member

Member

Member

Active Member

Member

Member

Member

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA

Similar threads