Macomb PD (McDonough County) switch to DMR

stewie2552 · Aug 20, 2015

I'm assuming this is the right place to post this. The Macomb Police Department seems to have officially switched to DMR. They've been doing random testing for the last year or so, but as of today it seems to be complete.

That also now makes the live feed unusable unfortunately.

RoninJoliet · Aug 20, 2015

That's too bad on loosing that dept....On some web sites people ask "what was scanning like back in the day"....Well, it was da* good , people were loud and clear.....Now I have total "ENC" here to deal with and those I can hear I need a hearing aid because the radios are junk and so are the techs maintaining them....

Awesomeman92 · Aug 20, 2015

I'll be back Sunday sometime so I'll check to see what I can find out about it.

Interesting that it comes almost exactly a year since OPS switched. Probably a coincidence.

stewie2552 · Aug 20, 2015

Awesomeman92 said:
I'll be back Sunday sometime so I'll check to see what I can find out about it.

Interesting that it comes almost exactly a year since OPS switched. Probably a coincidence.

Yeah, unfortunately I knew it was coming eventually. I can pick it up using SDR# and DSD+ thankfully. That would be problematic for my job if I couldn't listen in anymore! Setting up for OPS gave me some time to prepare at least.

KampingAnthony1AolCo · Aug 21, 2015

Macomb PD Repeater Mixed Mode

I can confirm that I heard calls on their repeater with the 186.2 PL and also heard TRBO on it. I believe it is a mixed mode repeater. My mistake. I meant TRBO.

RADIOGUY2002 · Aug 21, 2015

NOT NXDN, TRBO

Awesomeman92 · Aug 21, 2015

It wouldn't be out of place to hear NXDN on 453.250, one of the last times I was down there in July I had a major problem with Jacksonville PD coming in via ducting at night and actually overpowering the MPD transmitter every once in a while.

KampingAnthony1AolCo · Aug 23, 2015

Awesomeman92 said:
It wouldn't be out of place to hear NXDN on 453.250, one of the last times I was down there in July I had a major problem with Jacksonville PD coming in via ducting at night and actually overpowering the MPD transmitter every once in a while.

Thank you for reminding me of Jacksonville PD

. I forgot they were NXDN. I have logged TRBO and NXDN on that freq along with the 186.2 PL.

ahaas · Aug 27, 2015

I saw someone testing on TG 2006 on the MPD freak last night. Anyone else see this? Otherwise I've only seen TG 2000 for MPD.

2004 is OPS while 2005 is WEMS. Has anyone seen any others or got more frequencies? Supreme Radio Communications is running this. Per the FCC WIU has a freak for "library ops" that has Supreme as the contact info. Guessing this is TRBO too, but haven't heard anything on it.

Awesomeman92 · Aug 27, 2015

2006 if I'm not mistaken is from Jacksonville. Sure way to tell is whether there is encryption or not. I'll check my DSD log when I get home, but that's my gut feeling.

Unless anything has changed since Spring, the library ops frequency is in use but very low power (2 watts I believe) simplex and analog.

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ahaas · Aug 27, 2015

Awesomeman92 said:
2006 if I'm not mistaken is from Jacksonville. Sure way to tell is whether there is encryption or not. I'll check my DSD log when I get home, but that's my gut feeling.

Unless anything has changed since Spring, the library ops frequency is in use but very low power (2 watts I believe) simplex and analog.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! I've been out of town for awhile now and need to catch up on the TRBO. I'm right by the Macomb PD and heard someone doing the test 12, test 1,2 etc on 2006 the other day. Do you know if they're using 2001, 2002 or 2003? I have not seem them in my DSD logs.

Awesomeman92 · Aug 27, 2015

I've only got hits on the one right now. I did however log a hit on the 2nd slot at some point this afternoon, but I couldn't scroll up high enough in the log to see anything about it. I can go back through the recordings later and see if there's anything.

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ahaas · Aug 27, 2015

Awesomeman92 said:
I've only got hits on the one right now. I did however log a hit on the 2nd slot at some point this afternoon, but I couldn't scroll up high enough in the log to see anything about it. I can go back through the recordings later and see if there's anything.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you know of any other WIU frequencies that are TRBO besides the OPS/WEMS one? Maybe one for housing/RAs (UHDS)? Before the switch a year ago I got the RAs radios as well.

Awesomeman92 · Aug 27, 2015

ahaas said:
Do you know of any other WIU frequencies that are TRBO besides the OPS/WEMS one? Maybe one for housing/RAs (UHDS)? Before the switch a year ago I got the RAs radios as well.

Not to my knowledge. If I had to guess, I'd say the Maintenance repeater or Go West would be the next to switch. I believe some of the buses might have TRBO-capable radios already installed.

Went back through all my recordings from various days this week, and the only thing I had on the 2nd slot is encryption noise. It would then probably be fair to assume that Macomb now has a secure channel for use. However, I still hear traffic on 154.100 100.0 PL, so it didn't replace that.

Macomb actually was just granted a license for a fire repeater on 151.265, emission designators for narrowband FM and TRBO. I haven't seen/heard anything on this frequency yet, but that license WAS granted and don't be surprised if MFD goes digital. There's also an application pending for a repeater I believe for use by the water department or public works, but only narrowband data on that one.

ahaas · Aug 27, 2015

Awesomeman92 said:
Not to my knowledge. If I had to guess, I'd say the Maintenance repeater or Go West would be the next to switch. I believe some of the buses might have TRBO-capable radios already installed.

Went back through all my recordings from various days this week, and the only thing I had on the 2nd slot is encryption noise. It would then probably be fair to assume that Macomb now has a secure channel for use. However, I still hear traffic on 154.100 100.0 PL, so it didn't replace that.

Macomb actually was just granted a license for a fire repeater on 151.265, emission designators for narrowband FM and TRBO. I haven't seen/heard anything on this frequency yet, but that license WAS granted and don't be surprised if MFD goes digital. There's also an application pending for a repeater I believe for use by the water department or public works, but only narrowband data on that one.

That makes sense. On move in weekend I heard a maintenance person from WIU advise an OPS officer he was "going to switch back to his channel [analog] but still scan OPS [TRBO]" so the radio must be rolling out slowly

K9JLR · Aug 31, 2015

Awesomeman92 said:
Went back through all my recordings from various days this week, and the only thing I had on the 2nd slot is encryption noise. It would then probably be fair to assume that Macomb now has a secure channel for use. However, I still hear traffic on 154.100 100.0 PL, so it didn't replace that.

It has long been planned that there would be some secure comm channels for tactical usage and so forth.

As an aside, as it was explained to me, what information is disseminated publicly may influence the decision to keep all communications in the clear going forward, so proceed cautiously with sharing TGs, etc.

RADIOGUY2002 · Aug 31, 2015

Going clear

Be careful the radio police out on this one. Cant wait to see the end results. We know whats coming

Dana9112 · Dec 9, 2015

Any suggestions

Is it possible to get Macomb PD on a scanner anymore and if so what type of scanner is needed thanks for your time

RADIOGUY2002 · Dec 10, 2015

SCANNER

Sorry, no. This will be this way for several reasons. Roll out for more trbo is coming, budget restraints is what is holding up the roll out completely. City Fd at some point will be rolling over next, don't forgot you have multiple agencies in the area the need at least one radio to communicate with fd, unless you use the city fire repeater as a staging point.

Dana9112 · Dec 10, 2015

Thank you for responding I don't understand the terminology trbo however I can only assume that it is a encoding that is scrambling the signal besides just being digital. I was looking at getting a digital scanner and didn't want to waste the money so I really do appreciate your response.

Macomb PD (McDonough County) switch to DMR

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