Fredericksburg Considering Joining Stafford's P25 System

fredva · Nov 12, 2015

I was made aware of this by a relative: Fredericksburg city staff is recommending that city council approve a plan for its public safety agencies to move from their VHF frequencies onto Stafford County's 700 Mhz P25 trunking system. The cost of equipment is estimated to be $2.75 million, to be spent in FY16. An annual fee would be paid to Stafford. This plan is an alternative to the city purchasing its own radio system in FY18-19, at an estimated cost of over $4 million.

Here is a link to the staff's recommendation: http://va-fredericksburg.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/2851?fileID=2460

KT4HX · Nov 13, 2015

Mike, has Fburg ever considered joining the new system that Spotsy is currently working towards? Of course, the Stafford system is up and running while the one in Spotsy is still down the road a little.

fredva · Nov 13, 2015

Alan, I can't say for certain, but I would think they would have at least given some thought to that option. As the document indicated though, they know what type of coverage the Stafford system will provide in the city. Spotsy's P25 coverage in the city hasn't been proven, or perhaps they think an additional site would be needed on Spotsy's system.

One consideration may have been the fact that the city tends to rely more heavily on Stafford County for mutual aid due to the close proximity of the fire/EMS station in Falmouth. Spotsylvania does run EMS calls in the city on a daily basis, but I think Stafford is the first choice on mutual aid for most of the calls where it's needed, based on my listening.

BoxAlarm187 · Nov 13, 2015

fredva said:
One consideration may have been the fact that the city tends to rely more heavily on Stafford County for mutual aid due to the close proximity of the fire/EMS station in Falmouth. Spotsylvania does run EMS calls in the city on a daily basis, but I think Stafford is the first choice on mutual aid for most of the calls where it's needed, based on my listening.

You stole the words out of my mouth. The very close working relationship between Stafford County F/R (specifically Company 1 - Falmouth) and the Fredericksburg FD probably helped set the wheels in motion with Stafford more readily than Spotsy.

rlh2005 · Nov 20, 2015

Yet, Spotsy SD is contracted to provide animal control services to the City of Fredericksburg.

djm · Nov 22, 2015

The Free Lance-Star:
Fredericksburg will upgrade its public-radio safety system sooner and for less money if City Council agrees to partner with Stafford County.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/...cle_2d914948-ec8a-53ed-afe9-9ff33217bed3.html

fredva · Nov 27, 2015

City Council voted 6-1 to join with Stafford's system. One council member wanted to wait to get more info about Spotsylvania's new system before making a decision but the rest of council wanted to proceed. There seems to be a sense of urgency to retire the current system coming from the fire department.

http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/...cle_a01b7274-3349-5d4d-beff-472ecba73c63.html

djm · Jun 25, 2016

Fred PD switch to Ch.3 for dispatching

On the occasion of his retirement, the Fredericksburg City Manager says to the Free Lance-Star, "We’re in the process now of installing a new public safety radio system, which will bring our public safety communication to a state-of-the-art level..."

Retiring city manager leaves Fredericksburg on sound fiscal footing - Fredericksburg.com: Work

This may explain Fredericksburg PD's use of their channel-3 (Hospital) for the past couple weeks instead of their usual voice inverted channels (1 and 2) as they prepare to switch to the Stafford system.

fredva · Aug 23, 2016

This afternoon on the city's conventional VHF system I heard someone announce that they would be testing the alert tones on the new radio system's channel 1. I wasn't able to monitor with a wildcard or Unitrunker at the time to see what Talkgroup id that would have on Stafford's system. But evidently they are in the testing phase now.

Dafe1er · Aug 24, 2016

fredva said:
This afternoon on the city's conventional VHF system I heard someone announce that they would be testing the alert tones on the new radio system's channel 1. I wasn't able to monitor with a wildcard or Unitrunker at the time to see what Talkgroup id that would have on Stafford's system. But evidently they are in the testing phase now.

This morning using the wildcard I have a talk group of 5701 popping up but I hear nothing coming through nor do I get the encryption sound on my TRX-2. It shows a long radio ID and voice channel frequency.

Also, who is the admin for the VA database?

KC4ASF · Aug 24, 2016

Dafe1er said:
This morning using the wildcard I have a talk group of 5701 popping up but I hear nothing coming through nor do I get the encryption sound on my TRX-2. It shows a long radio ID and voice channel frequency.

Also, who is the admin for the VA database?

At 0515 this morning two Motorola tech's were let in a secure area to start work on the system.

covert53 · Aug 27, 2016

Spotsylvania Fire Rescue and Emergency Management put out a notice to personnel that Fredericksburg Fire goes live on the Stafford System at 0700 on August 28. (That's tomorrow as I type)

In the same notice they also say the new Spotsy system should be active in "mid-to-late September"

fredva · Aug 28, 2016

The aforementioned 5701 talkgroup is being used for fire/rescue dispatch. Not sure of any others at this point.

KC4ASF · Aug 28, 2016

I was trying to listen to that this morning but no luck. The dispatcher took everyone over to the new system to check their radios and all I got was TG 5701 no audio.

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fredva · Aug 28, 2016

KC4ASF said:
I was trying to listen to that this morning but no luck. The dispatcher took everyone over to the new system to check their radios and all I got was TG 5701 no audio.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Hmm - at least one other person reported that same issue when 5701 popped up in the past. But I've been hearing transmissions today, when I've had a chance to listen.

I used PRO96com for a little while this morning and it logged a few other talkgroups in the 57xx series. But I haven't had a chance to determine their purpose.

djm · Aug 28, 2016

I no longer hear Fred PD on the "Hospital Channel." They were using it as their primary for the past several weeks. I suppose they switched over as well?

KC4ASF · Aug 28, 2016

That is interesting, I will have to experiment tomorrow.

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KC4ASF · Aug 29, 2016

I have recorded audio of Stafford TG 4501 4601 4603 4773 5363 5701. But it is very very choppy. I have good signal strength and using the 996P2. Proscan 11.2. Besides Spotsylvania P25, I don't have it sounding like that on anything else. Is anyone else experiencing this?

This morning around 0700, 1 of the Spotsylvania SO shift Sergeants was trying to get 5 of his people their new radios and handhelds for this "final week". His words.

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Dafe1er · Aug 29, 2016

The choppy audio is due to the encryption. I was hearing it all afternoon yesterday and also this morning.

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KC4ASF · Aug 29, 2016

Fredburg checking new paging system at 1120 today.

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Fredericksburg Considering Joining Stafford's P25 System

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