Newington Police Issues

About two weeks ago, I noticed that the radio service was doing a lot of on air testing for the Newington Police.

About a week ago, a majority of the calls from dispatch have very low audio, in order to hear dispatch I need to turn my scanners volume way up, however the problem with this is when the officers speak their volume is a LOT higher then the dispatcher.

In speaking with others in town which listen to the Newington Police they have mentioned the same issue.

Over the last week since this has started happening I have heard a lot of officers asking for dispatch to repeat what they said. However for others they don't seem to have a problem hearing them.

Does anyone know if there is something wrong with the Newington system? Or is this some kind of technology which will help stop scanner listeners from listening?

I broadcast the Newington Police Fire & EMS here on Broadcastify and I have received emails from listners wondering whats up? I don't know if I should ask the Police Chief "what's Up?" or not.

Thanks.

A nearby department I scan has the same issue occasionally. In our case its just the Dispatcher being too quiet. I hate having to turn the radio up to hear what Dispatch is saying, then back down for the Officers. Here is what I heard one time:

Officer: "xxx on 2."
Dispatch: "Go ahead."
Officer: "Hey just so you know its very hard to hear you, I have my radio turned all the way it can go."
Dispatch adjusts mic..
Dispatch: "Is that better?"
Officer: "A little bit but not much, thank you."

So it seems just to be our mics sometimes, but then that conversation makes it sound like the system. I'm not sure.

Yeah this is for almost all police dispatches and just not an issue with one dispatcher.

If I could figure how to setup two scanners and have one only pick up the dispatcher and raise the volume on that one and have a second scanner which ignores the dispatcher and mix them together then that would solve the issue.

I have a total of 4 scanners here but not sure if I can do this...

Homepatrol 1
BCT996
BCT15X
and BCD396T.

Not sure if any of them are programmable just so I can pick out the radios (or ignore other certain radios)

This happened after the Newington dispatch center got flooded after a pipe broke and water got into the equipment. It has not been right since.

Sounds like a level setting issue in their dispatch center.

The connection between the dispatch radio consoles and the radio systems are often done by a 4 wire circuit. One pair of wires is for received audio, the other pair is for transmitted audio. Audio levels can be set independently at several points through the system.
The 4 wire links might be copper wire all the way. There may be fiber optics, microwave, telephone circuits, etc, or any combination of those.
Changing out any piece of equipment along the way can require setting levels again.
This is usually done using a TIMS set, Transmission Impairment Measurement Set. An audio tone is injected at one end of the circuit at a known frequency and level. At the far end is another TIMS set that shows the received audio frequency and signal level. The technicians would adjust the circuit to overcome circuit loss.
Some repeaters have the ability to change audio levels internally, either using manual adjustments or settings in the software.

Likely what you are hearing is that the audio level for the dispatchers transmitted audio path is not set up correctly. If the dispatch center has their own technicians they should be able to take care of this. If they don't have their own technicians they may be relying on contractors or a radio shop. Unfortunately there are some shops/technicians that either don't understand this, or don't care. Someone in the dispatch center should be making sure this get fixed.


It's a bit late, but back in 2013 when the narrow banding mandate happened, there were a lot of systems getting changed from wide band to narrow band. During these transitions it was often necessary to make the changes in stages. Sometimes the repeaters would get changed to narrow band while the officers radios would get changed later. This created some temporary audio level issues.

Since that was 3 years ago, I doubt that is the issue you are hearing. However there are some radio systems that ignored the narrow banding mandate that are now feeling the heat and having to make their transition.

You may have a solution. Depending on what scanner and what software you are using, you might be able to adjust a volume offset feature through software for that agency. I do it on my 436 sometimes when departments make audio changes like that. Just a thought!

Manny

Good news, the dispatch audio is back to normal as of today.

After speaking with the Chief of Police a few weeks ago, the issue was caused by a burst pipe which flooded the dispatch center. This caused them to move dispatch out and had them using regular handheld radios.

As of today they are back in their dispatch center using their consoles again so the audio is MUCH better.

MFCJR said:

This happened after the Newington dispatch center got flooded after a pipe broke and water got into the equipment. It has not been right since.

Click to expand...

Thank you "MFCJR" for a simple, correct answer, to a very good question.

You're welcome MrAntiDigital.