Md Systems

W3DMV · Aug 21, 2015

I watch the posts for both the First system and CMARC since I live
relatively close to the border.
Would someone give me a brief description of the two systems and
what the intention of each will become. Looking at the listed talk
groups, they look like one of those "We build it an they will come"
situations.

CMARC seems to be licensed to counties and First looks like it
utilizes state allocated frequencies and is owned by the state ?

I assume more users are expected in the future ?
---
Thanks..

DisasterGuy · Aug 21, 2015

FiRST is the State of Maryland's radio system. It was designed and purchased for use by state agencies. As it was being built and costs were realized they opened it for local governments to become users (not the original intention of the system).

CMARC as a group dates back to around 2004 and came together to build out 800MHz calling and tactical channels in the Baltimore metro area using PSIC grants. As a UASI, the DHS money flowed and they purchased cache radios, sites on wheels, etc. With plenty of grant money still to spend they decided to build a regional "overlay" system that could be used to back up a local sustem that had failed, be used for roaming, etc. It has never seen much use until Harford County decided to build their P25 migration on the CMARC network.

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troymail · Aug 21, 2015

Definately more users coming:

Agency Onboarding Schedule

It's rumored that Caroline, Talbot, and Queen Anne County are coming on to the system soon also.

I suspect that as the system moves west, far western Maryland counties will come onto the system also.

CMARC - well that's an odd beast.

DisasterGuy · Aug 21, 2015

Western MD is going to be interesting. It is generally public that Allegany County plans to go on the system with s console / subscriber cost of about $7M. One only need to look to their north to see how well 700/800MHz works in that terrain. Western MD counties would do well to retain their respective frequencies when moving to P25. As it is Allegany has significant coverage challenges on analog UHF.

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W3DMV · Aug 21, 2015

Thanks. That helps a lot to understand the mechanics of both systems...
Just looking at the lists gets a little foggy sometimes..

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marksmith · Aug 21, 2015

CMARC has been a little foggy for over a decade now.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

ocguard · Aug 25, 2015

http://wiki.radioreference.com/inde...Area_Regional_Communications_Committee_(CMARC)

maus92 · Aug 26, 2015

ocguard said:
http://wiki.radioreference.com/inde...Area_Regional_Communications_Committee_(CMARC)

Nothing in the linked document.

maus92 · Aug 26, 2015

marksmith said:
CMARC has been a little foggy for over a decade now.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

It seemed that the Feds made HS funding available for communications systems, so the Baltimore Metropolitain Council undertook the CMARC project with somewhat nebulous goals and potential utility. At least Harford has utilized the infrastructure for its local system. Maybe the other county / city partners will integrate CMARC connectivity into their future systems. Seems to be doable since the frequencies are licensed to individual jurisdictions and not to BMC/CMARC.

wmbio · Aug 26, 2015

Allegany county communications has been and still is far less than perfect due to our topography for any agency at any frequency.

At present there are 7-10 main tower sites in the county and nearby Mineral county WV to support the the county 's 450MHZ Passport system. This system has been well criticized in the media simply as inefficient and not a good choice. As the tourist train, dog catcher, school buses, critical law enforcement and fire departments fight for a good connection with the system, they still cannot talk reliably.

We will see, what politics and bickering the 700MHZ state system brings to Allegany county in the build out in 2016. FIRST is well tested and designed until you get in the mountains and they may need to step back and redesign the system in the field for better coverage like they have done in the past.

Enjoy
Wmbio

maus92 · Aug 26, 2015

wmbio said:
Allegany county communications has been and still is far less than perfect due to our topography for any agency at any frequency.

At present there are 7-10 main tower sites in the county and nearby Mineral county WV to support the the county 's 450MHZ Passport system. This system has been well criticized in the media simply as inefficient and not a good choice. As the tourist train, dog catcher, school buses, critical law enforcement and fire departments fight for a good connection with the system, they still cannot talk reliably.

We will see, what politics and bickering the 700MHZ state system brings to Allegany county in the build out in 2016. FIRST is well tested and designed until you get in the mountains and they may need to step back and redesign the system in the field for better coverage like they have done in the past.

Enjoy
Wmbio

The good thing is that the state will be paying for much of the infrastructure. That should allow for county funds to enhance coverage and technology in areas they deem important. Hopefully the state's consultant took into better account the topography and foliage that effects Western Maryland vs. the coastal plain of the Eastern Shore, and learned something from the previous design - whoever cooked up that fiasco. Hopefully. Anyway, building the backhaul infrastructure with redundancy is going to be a (expensive) challenge.

troymail · Aug 26, 2015

maus92 said:
Nothing in the linked document.

The closing paren is getting dropped:

http://wiki.radioreference.com/inde...rea_Regional_Communications_Committee_(CMARC))

badlans · Aug 27, 2015

maus92 said:
The good thing is that the state will be paying for much of the infrastructure. That should allow for county funds to enhance coverage and technology in areas they deem important. Hopefully the state's consultant took into better account the topography and foliage that effects Western Maryland vs. the coastal plain of the Eastern Shore, and learned something from the previous design - whoever cooked up that fiasco. Hopefully. Anyway, building the backhaul infrastructure with redundancy is going to be a (expensive) challenge.

What fiasco? I've heard that FIRST is very expensive, but I didn't realize there were ever design issues. Can you elaborate?

Thanks ...

riveter · Aug 27, 2015

I think he's talking about the prior system in place.

maus92 · Aug 27, 2015

badlans said:
What fiasco? I've heard that FIRST is very expensive, but I didn't realize there were ever design issues. Can you elaborate?

Thanks ...

DPC is correct - I'm referring to the unsat system currently in place in Allegany Co.

troymail · Aug 27, 2015

maus92 said:
DPC is correct - I'm referring to the unsat system currently in place in Allegany Co.

That's how I read it also.

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