MSP Maryland State Police tips

Bote · Aug 22, 2016

I stopped at the "Bay Country" rest area on US301 and Hayden Rd/MD834 on the Eastern Shore yesterday morning and heard an MSP unit talking to another directly on the McHenry low band channel 39.08 MHz

This is remarkable because
1) this was pretty much as far from Garrett County as you can get, so pretty sneaky on their part to use the McHenry barrack W channel;

2) it's on low band and not on the FiRST trunked system.

They were running RADAR speed enforcement based on the conversation, which was fairly loose in nature.

So I'm glad I had all the MSP low band frequencies opened up in my scanner otherwise I would've missed that neat little gem. I know he was moving because there was mobile flutter and even complete fade out of his signal while I was parked listening to this over about a 15 minute period. Verrrry interesting.

troymail · Aug 22, 2016

Interesting - Queen Anne's is 39.80 but you say you heard them on 39.08.... using it as a talk-around (direct) perhaps?

wmbio · Aug 22, 2016

In Cumberland you might hear a MSP mobile using any of their low band channels to talk direct to each other, seems they pick a channel that has no base traffic on it.... EX: 39.08 at the bay. PS..I can hear 39.08 from Mchenry...there is no patching to first, it's coming but slowly

Enjoy
Wmbio

emtLarmy15 · Aug 22, 2016

This happens at a lot of barracks. Side note: several of the MSP cars on the lower shore have had their low band mobiles and their repeaters removed because the state didn't want to buy more for new cars destined for barracks without first.

Bote · Aug 22, 2016

emtLarmy15 said:
Side note: several of the MSP cars on the lower shore have had their low band mobiles and their repeaters removed because the state didn't want to buy more for new cars destined for barracks without first.

Makes sense. Perhaps they couldn't buy more since I doubt any manufacturers are making low band radios these days.

In some cases the MSP trunked talkgroup is being gatewayed to the old low band frequency which is nice, since I don't live around here any more and don't want to put all the trunked systems in just for very limited use. That was the case for Centreville, for example.

ThePhotoGuy · Aug 22, 2016

emtLarmy15 said:
Side note: several of the MSP cars on the lower shore have had their low band mobiles and their repeaters removed because the state didn't want to buy more for new cars destined for barracks without first.

Makes sense in the long. So many of the Barracks are either on FiRST or on County 800/700 mhz systems.

Already on FiRST: Bel Air, Salisbury, North East, Westminster, Easton, JFK, Golden Ring, Centreville, Berlin, Princess Anne

County Based Systems: Waterloo, Frederick, La Plata, Forestville, Rockville, Hagerstown, Glen Burnie, Annapolis, College Park, Leonardtown, Prince Frederick

Low-Band: Cumberland, McHenry

Bote · Aug 22, 2016

Then those should be submitted to the MSP database page. It still shows a number of those on FiRST to be operating on local trunked systems.

ThePhotoGuy · Aug 22, 2016

Bote said:
Then those should be submitted to the MSP database page. It still shows a number of those on FiRST to be operating on local trunked systems.

The Barracks that are on FiRST in most cases are patched back to low-band and also patched back to the county based systems. An example would be MSP S Centreville, it is active on FiRST and then it is patched back to the Queen Anne/Talbot/Caroline System and then it is also patched to low-band.

In the next 1.5 years, Queen Anne, Talbot, and Caroline Fire/Police/Services will operate on FiRST so there will be no need to patch it to that system once that happens.

Bote · Aug 22, 2016

ThePhotoGuy said:
In the next 1.5 years, Queen Anne, Talbot, and Caroline Fire/Police/Services will operate on FiRST so there will be no need to patch it to that system once that happens.

My goodness, Motorola must LOVE these boys for putting up trunked systems left and right only to retire them in a few years. Eh, it's only money!

emtLarmy15 · Aug 22, 2016

Bote said:
My goodness, Motorola must LOVE these boys for putting up trunked systems left and right only to retire them in a few years. Eh, it's only money!

Whose putting up new systems that are going to be retired in a few years?

Bote · Aug 22, 2016

If the counties that have been using that Eastern Shore system move to FiRST, who will be left to use the Eastern Shore system?

See the 16:43 post from ThePhotoGuy for the list of counties.

emtLarmy15 · Aug 22, 2016

Yes, but the USEC is far from a few years old. It's been around for quite a few years. It's a Motorola type 2 which end of life is either here or coming...

ResQguy · Aug 22, 2016

emtLarmy15 said:
Yes, but the USEC is far from a few years old. It's been around for quite a few years. It's a Motorola type 2 which end of life is either here or coming...

It's well beyond that. The system has been on the air since at least 2000.

ScanXO · Aug 23, 2016

was in DELMARVA 2 weeks ago and last fall - State had new cars out on RT 50 & 113 - all new cars had new low band antennas installed....

emtLarmy15 · Aug 23, 2016

ScanXO said:
was in DELMARVA 2 weeks ago and last fall - State had new cars out on RT 50 & 113 - all new cars had new low band antennas installed....

I work with Troopers everyday... Many are losing their lowlands... Not all...

W2SJW · Aug 26, 2016

ThePhotoGuy said:
The Barracks that are on FiRST in most cases are patched back to low-band and also patched back to the county based systems. An example would be MSP S Centreville, it is active on FiRST and then it is patched back to the Queen Anne/Talbot/Caroline System and then it is also patched to low-band.

In the next 1.5 years, Queen Anne, Talbot, and Caroline Fire/Police/Services will operate on FiRST so there will be no need to patch it to that system once that happens.

The easiest way to tell that is look at the RID on the county-level system - I was vacationing in Cambridge in late June & all the MSP transmissions carried on the UMESC & Dorchester systems had the exact same RID on every transmission. That's the patch.

Pull them up on the Dorchester & Talbot FiRST sites & you'll see the real full-time operations...

MdListener · Aug 31, 2016

ThePhotoGuy said:
Makes sense in the long. So many of the Barracks are either on FiRST or on County 800/700 mhz systems.

Already on FiRST: Bel Air, Salisbury, North East, Westminster, Easton, JFK, Golden Ring, Centreville, Berlin, Princess Anne

County Based Systems: Waterloo, Frederick, La Plata, Forestville, Rockville, Hagerstown, Glen Burnie, Annapolis, College Park, Leonardtown, Prince Frederick

Low-Band: Cumberland, McHenry

I'd be very surprised if any MSP cars have only a county trunked system radio installed, and not a state lowband or FiRST radio, too. While troopers normally assigned to a particular county may routinely use the county radio, they must have the means to directly talk to other barracks and to troopers assigned to other barracks.

They are, after all, the state police and are criss-crossing the state all the time. Whether commuting between home and their assigned barrack 3 or 4 counties away, or working a special detail in a county away from their normal assignment, troopers must be able to communicate with each other and all barracks. This would not be possible at all in some cases, or at least not efficiently in others, if some troopers had only a county radio in the car. In fact, since FiRST infrastructure is not statewide yet, it's also surprising that any MSP cars would have only a 700 MHz radio.

emtLarmy15 · Sep 1, 2016

The only ones I am aware of that are losing lowband mobiles are lower shore cars.

In theory unless they are going west, they can operate with just their FiRST radio. Even the barracks that are operating on county systems are operating on Motorola county systems or p25 so their FiRST mobile can handle it. As stated above the only two counties strictly with just low band are garret and Allegany.

In the counties where they are still operating lowband with just a patch to a county system, it's a Motorola system so they can operate on the county system to get back to lowband (not saying their FiRST radios are actually programmed for this but they are certainly capable.

maus92 · Sep 1, 2016

My understanding is that the Barracks that routinely operate on county systems use portable subscriber units rather than mobile units - is this the case?

I can see that when a Barrack is transitioned to the FiRST system that compatible P25 county systems could be programmed into the mobile radios (as well as the portables.)

Can anyone point me to al resource that explains "patching" in detail? I've always wondered about the technical aspects of patching vs. the logical construct.

riveter · Sep 1, 2016

Typically troopers have a portable capable of using the local trunked system (whether it's an MSP legacy 800 portable, county portable, or FIRST portable) plus at least a 39mhz mobile... and possibly a 7/800 mobile as well if provided by the county or ESD.

There's a lot of variation in this theme, but having worked around them quite a bit and taken a good few glances in their cars that appears to be about standard.

Stand by for a long PM about patching, which will hopefully fill in the gaps.

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