Sheboygan County TRS going P25?

Sheboygan County recently modified the license for its trunked system (WPTS436) to include the modulation mode 8K10F1E (P25). They also recently got a new license (WQYD836) and have two more pending (0007412375 & 0007412376).

Does anyone know if/when they plan on switching to P25, and if this plan includes sharing a zone controller with Manitowoc County?

Yes, they should be starting to test the new P25 system in the next few weeks or months.
No, they are not sharing a controller with Manitowoc County.

In July they were planning on September to start testing.

New control channel on 853.6250 NAC:871 WACN:BEE00 System ID:873 RFSS:001 Site Number:001 Test on talkgroup 60441 852.1500 & 852.7125 also appear to be part of the new trunking system.

The radio technicians are blown away by how much better the coverage is over the analog system. A handheld could be received as far south as I-43 & Good Hope Road in Milwaukee County. The new trunking site at Cedar Grove probably has something to do with it.

otrebla said:

The radio technicians are blown away by how much better the coverage is over the analog system. A handheld could be received as far south as I-43 & Good Hope Road in Milwaukee County. The new trunking site at Cedar Grove probably has something to do with it.

Click to expand...

when is the timeline for switchover to this new system and will their be any E?

Your guess is as good as mine, I haven't heard anything about when they plan on moving to the new radio system.
They are testing encryption.

I don't understand why these eastern Wisconsin counties don't combine these Motorola P25 systems and share zone controllers. It would be fairly easy to do, would save money, increase interop among the members, plus allow roaming throughout.

Today I took a ride on the interstate with a PSR-600 and a magnet mount 800 MHz antenna. I received the control channel as far south as Brown Deer Road and as far north as US 10/WIS 310.

It appears County Highway is the first user with three talkgroups.

60476
60477
60478

60474

Heard co hwy calling on "Shed Channel" assume this would be shed 3

It looks like each Shed is going to have its own talkgroup.

Please can you provide more information as to the concern over not combining the systems and sharing zone controllers!

Matt, I would not say its a concern that would impact the new system. I am sure the coverage will be the same, or better, than the current system. Its just a lost opportunity to save money for members and increase roaming coverage. There are several Motorola P25 system in eastern WI that each are their own island. Each island is controlled by its zone controller. All those systems could be tied together and share one zone controller. So rather than fund one controller for each system it would be fund one zone controller for all of them combined. It would allow radios to seamlessly roam across all systems and increase interop. But there would be an infrastructure investment to do this, all of those systems would need to be connected to each other. Usually that involves microwave hops between towers or fiber, which can get expensive. And perhaps the largest hurdle is to have a governance model for the shared system, and the members contributing to maintain it.

Thank you for the very thorough explanation! I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Not too sure about sharing controllers. Seems like it would suck when a failure or link issue occurs. Then you throw in politics because county A wants things done one way, but county B wants it done different.

I will stick with my stand alone systems

Administration of the systems seems to be in its infancy. I have been spending a considerable amount of my time trying to figure out governing structures and responsibilities and it just gets even more confusing. I like to think simple and don't understand why there is not a single governing body overseeing the myriad of communication endeavors. After all, "emergency" communication should be a top priority!

ARMER works well in Minnesota. 85 of 86 counties participating. Failures are extremely rare and politics not a hinderence, in my opinion. If a simulcast lost zone controller connection it would drop to site trunking so only wide area interop would be impacted. County operations would remain, except the consoles may need to fallback to control stations.

slatescan said:

when is the timeline for switchover to this new system and will their be any E?

Click to expand...

In another forum a link article in news said the chief is going E on all local law enforcement. Fire and ems in clear and sheriff is clear opposed to E.