Garland County/Hot Springs

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INDY72

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All you folks in the area start checking at least once a day for the 700 MHz CCs for the new AWIN Simulcast, and Hot Springs TRS.
 

wbswetnam

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All you folks in the area start checking at least once a day for the 700 MHz CCs for the new AWIN Simulcast, and Hot Springs TRS.

I'll be there in a week for some vacation time. I'll take my laptop + dongle + DSD+ and see what it can sniff out.
 

INDY72

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Bet he also catches a lot of DMR for the casino/track.. And maybe some of the DMR use for the FDs... Though they are supposedly strapped for encryption. And surprisingly when I was there in November, that SMR was still a Type IIi Mixed system. Had me scratching my head that those are still alive in 2017/18...
 

wbswetnam

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Well, I was in Hot Springs for a few days, but there is no activity in the 765 - 775 MHz range. Maybe in a few weeks. I hope that Hot Springs PD doesn't go "E".
 

wbswetnam

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I am able to receive the Garland County Sheriff's Office VHF dispatch channel from my location in Russellville, pretty good considering it's about 50 miles away! Anyway I keep monitoring it so that I will know when the Garland County AWIN switchover takes place. When I stop hearing traffic on the VHF channel, I will know that it has occurred.
 

jhsands

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Bet he also catches a lot of DMR for the casino/track.. And maybe some of the DMR use for the FDs... Though they are supposedly strapped for encryption. And surprisingly when I was there in November, that SMR was still a Type IIi Mixed system. Had me scratching my head that those are still alive in 2017/18...
Don't even get me started.

Texarkana's system was a System II that the last time (before this) the controller broke they got it off eBay. I forgot the reason why it was a specialized model controller.

The area was still two months out for the GTA/AWIN system until the site went into failsafe again.

Ironically, the "press release" stated they switched two months early but it was really two years late.

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jhsands

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I'll be on i30 Tuesday and will take my TRX-2 with me. I forgot how to use pro96com with it...

There are not any other 700 systems in the area, so it will be easy to spot.

Fun fact: the Magnet tower works better in Caddo Valley than the Gurdon tower.


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wrr20891

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Spoke to one of the ranking HS FD guys yesterday at lunch. He said they have completed testing with Motorola engineering and are moving toward equipment acquisition and install. He said the target date for the city simulcast system going live full time is early December.
 

INDY72

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That puts them both within about a month of each other. County is aiming for the period between Nov 2018, Jan 2019. If everything goes right, and weather plays nice etc....
 

wrr20891

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I've only heard this 3rd hand, so not sure how accurate it is, but being told one of the issues to be resolved is the microwave links to go on West Mountain. Apparently the existing towers are loaded almost to capacity. Some of the antennas for the old systems can be removed once they switch to the new systems, but they need them until the switch is made.
 
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INDY72

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I learned to Ant spot within a year of learning how to us a scanner. :) It used to be REALLY easy.. Now, it can get harder with Low Profile Antenna in use... With those stubby nubby you literally need to climb up its butt to know.
 

bpckty1

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The fun part is identification when the car is equipped with the Yahtzee cups (usually trunk mounted, sometimes roof mounted), hockey puck discs (same as the YCs), and shark fins (usually roof mounted). All roof mounted on the SUVs.
 

Scanningar

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Thought I would toss this out there. I just found this interesting license ( WRBL469 ), while I was researching another 700Mhz frequency for AWIN. This license lists Mountain Pine, Jessieville, and Pearcy locations all with the same 4 700 Mhz frequencies of 769.33125, 769.58125, 769.83125, and 770.09375 .

The same transmitter site location of 5 MI W MOUNTAIN PINE, AR GARLAND County is also listed under the Blowout site's current 800Mhz license ( WQDC588 ). As of 7-23-2018 I did not show the Blowout site using any 700Mhz frequencies when I ran Unitrunker on it.

Unfortunately, I am not in the Garland County area at this time to try out the 700Mhz frequencies listed and see if they are operational.

ULS License - Trunked Public Safety 700 MHz License - WRBL469 - ARKANSAS, STATE OF
 

INDY72

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A: There are 2 new 700 MHz systems.. One is an 3 tower AWIN simulcast site. The other is an 3 tower City of Hot Springs simulcast site... B: The Hot Springs 700 is replacing the old 800, and is to be linked to the AWIN. C: Once the new AWIN 700 simulcast is up, all agencies in Garland County will go full time AWIN using that site, and the 800 sites. D The first testing of the new sites should be before November, with full online and use by December. Once we have confirmation of the new AWIN site online I can add it to the DB,.. We will need the CC, ACC, Site Number, and Site NAC. For the Hot Springs 700, once its found to be online, once we verify the SysID, that will tell us if its AWIN or not. Then of course, if it is AWIN, Site Number, Site NAC and the usual other.. If it has an unique SysID, then we go with its WACN, NAC, and the usual other info. We also will need the new TGs if GCSO changes, and the TGs for all the rest of the PDs, FDs, LifeNet etc.... And the TG line up for HSPD and HSFD as they ARE going to the 700.
 

jhsands

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**AWIN Site Changeover**

**Wednesday, September 5th 2018**

Work will be performed to change the current Blowout (K06) over to a
new Garland County Simulcast site.

The work is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM and should be completed by
10:30 AM. There could be brief outages for the area around the Blowout
site during this time period.

After the changeover has been completed Blowout will be operating on
700 MHz frequencies instead of the current 800 MHz frequencies.
 

ad5kl

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Hot Springs Village, AR
I’m in Hot Springs Village & I can no longer hear the old control channel, which I expected. But now, I can’t hear any of the new 700 MHz frequencies. I’m just listening on analog to see if I hear the data channel rattling.

I have a BCD996XT and maybe it’s a rounding issue. I think it might be rounding up the extra last digit of the new frequencies. I did with direct entry & verified I was doing it correctly with the NOAA 162.550 out of Little Rock.
 
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