Texas Statewide Comm Interoperability Plan

[texasemt13]

I don't know if this has been linked before: Texas SCIP. It has a lot of good resources and talks about wehre interop is going in the next few years.

This document jumps around a lot, but has much good information on DPS and there rumored 700MHz trunking. It talks about San Antonio non-interoperability with everyone around them and how they plan to correct it. The document discusses ETMC and there tie-in to HCRRS. It also discusses where HCRRS is going. It discusses a 700MHz overlay for interop on LCRA. In fact, there is information for all over the state here. It discusses El Paso, Plano/Frisco, Greater DFW, Harris County-Galcatraz, Bryan/College Station, Texas DPS and veryone in between.

The pdf gets real good on page 89/147 (actual page, not adobe pdf page). Even talks about all the obscure state agencies...

 

[K5RYA]

Thanks for the link. Most of what I deal with and listen to is on HCRRS (AKA STARNET).

From what I gather, the entire state will be digital by 2015 to comply with interoperability standards. I know my city is expected to go digital within the next year.

I do know this though, with these statewide systems becoming more and more popular, Uniden is going to have to step up their Group limits and Talkgroup limits per system. I would much rather have one very large system then have to switch systems for different areas even though they are technically the same system just because my scanner only supports XXX talkgroups or groups per system. Seems that with dynamic memory allocation, this would be a common sense feature, I don't understand the reasoning behind it not already being in place on these new line of scanners they just put out.

What is killer, is the cost burden this whole digital switch is putting on these smaller municipalities, Big M rapes these cities on the pricing for their digital radios.

 

[blantonl]

Check out this document, which outlines the current grants made to Texas COGs...

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/psic/IJ/tx.pdf

Most notable for me is that 3 million bucks was granted to the Alamo Area COG to, what appears to me, is to convert the MA/COM ProVoice system to P25 and to add 700 MHz overlay sites.

That would be awesome!!

 

[texasemt13]

Most notable for me is that 3 million bucks was granted to the Alamo Area COG to, what appears to me, is to convert the MA/COM ProVoice system to P25 and to add 700 MHz overlay sites.

That would be awesome!!

Yes, the SCIP mentions that also- that one big problem in Central Texas is that:
a. San Antonio uses ProVoice w/ ESK- and no one else does;
b. LCRA is hardly interoperable with the myriad of other agencies that work around the myriad of agencies using this TRS, and patches don't count.

So a bunch of grants should be on the way... and a bunch of changes. This could be a fun state to be a radio enthusiast in for the next few years... (or more like 10-15 years knowing Texas).

 

[rockag41]

Most notable for me is that 3 million bucks was granted to the Alamo Area COG to, what appears to me, is to convert the MA/COM ProVoice system to P25 and to add 700 MHz overlay sites.

That would be awesome!!

That is a huge understatement. I can only hope....

 

[blantonl]

Check out the PSIC document on the AACOG Web site:

http://www.aacog.com/homelandsecurity/PDFFiles/SAUAP25700MhzMulti-RegionalPSIC2007.pdf

They have a list of milestones for the project that includes procuring P25 radios and having 700 MHz sites up and running by now. I wonder what the real status is of this project.

 

[kkn50]

Is it to convert the existing system or to add interconnection with an new 700 mhz system that provides coverage from SA to Laredo & CC?

Most notable for me is that 3 million bucks was granted to the Alamo Area COG to, what appears to me, is to convert the MA/COM ProVoice system to P25 and to add 700 MHz overlay sites.

 

[blantonl]

I believe it is going to be both.

I've been doing some additional research on this. In May, the city council approved a an ordinance to purchase radios from Dailey Wells...

2009-05-07 -0346 Item 9. AN ORDINANCE ACCEPTING THE OFFER FROM DAILEY & WELLS COMMUNICATIONS, INC. TO PROVIDE THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES DEPARTMENT WITH THE PURCHASE OF 700/800 MHZ PORTABLE RADIOS, ACCESSORIES AND OTHER RELATED ITEMS FOR AN ESTIMATED ANNUAL COST OF $2,500,000.00.

 

[texasemt13]

I'll pull a few quotes out of the SCIP:

"San Antonio plans to overlay their existing 800 MHz radio system with a 700 MHz P25 system to provide interoperable communications to a wide variety of regional, state, and federal responders."

"Bexar Metro 9-1-1 District, Bexar County and the City of San Antonio were recently awarded a 2007 COPS Tech grant. This award will be used to implement a Regional Emergency Communications Information sharing, and Mobile data system (RECIM). Phase I of the project will provide CAD and Mobile Data for public safety agencies in Bexar, Comal, and Guadalupe Counties. Phase II will integrate agencies in Wilson, Atascosa, Bandera, Medina, and Kendall Counties. Phase III will push the system into the 12 Counties comprising the Alamo Area Council of Governments. Ultimately, Phase IV will extend information sharing capabilities to agencies along the I-35 corridor."

"San Antonio is exploring the use of 700 MHz for system enhancements and partnerships which leverage existing infrastructure and resources to increase the coverage area and agencies served."

"San Antonio Urban Area San Antonio Area has a comprehensive enhancement strategy. They intend to
enhance their existing 800MHz coverage area by consolidating several non-simulcast sites into new simulcast sites. This will improve coverage, especially in the rapidly growing southern areas of the County due to Toyota, but will also add capacity and flexibility; they will be able to re-utilize frequencies at other existing sites and be able to build-out several new sites in adjoining counties based on population growth. They also intend to migrate their infrastructure to more recent technology that will allow them to make the transition to P25 quicker and easier over the next several years. In addition, they plan to improve system interoperability by creating 700MHz interoperability overlays and establish switch-to-switch connections with several public safety and critical infrastructure agencies (LCRA, VIA Transit, Corpus Christi / Nueces
County, AEP, etc.) locally and regionally. These overlays and connections will leverage existing 800MHz and 900MHz coverage areas, existing infrastructure and resources throughout multiple regions but especially along major evacuation routes, logistical support corridors and between regional medical centers. Specifically, they intend to:
• Acquire an IP-based, P25 switch to provide added redundancy to their existing system and to create a platform to gradually upgrade system infrastructure towards the P25 suite of standards. This switch will make the planned switch-toswitch connections easier and more seamless. In fact, through the connection
with LCRA, they will also have seamless connectivity and interoperability with other systems already connected to LCRA to include the Austin / Travis County Texas Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan 2008 – 2010 Version 1.3 Page 83 Regional Radio System and the Montgomery County Hospital District Radio System.
• Expand on existing partnerships with other agencies locally and regionally and develop new partnerships with regional critical infrastructure providers such as AEP and TXU to leverage their expansive systems into additional interoperability capabilities. Partnering with AEP and establishing connectivity between switches could potentially “open up” and make more accessible most of South Texas.
• Migrate existing transmitters and other infrastructure at the sites to the next version which is capable of supporting multiple bands and protocols to include 700MHz and P25.
• Deploy a 700MHz Interoperability Overlay using the existing 800MHz and 900MHz coverage areas of the San Antonio / Bexar County and LCRA Radio Systems. This will provide seamless interoperability across more than 37,000 square miles to include the IH-10 Evacuation corridor. Part of this initiative is dependent on funding LCRA’s 700MHz Interoperability Overlay project also identified in the SCIP.
• Deploy 700MHz Interoperability Corridors between San Antonio and Corpus Christi and between San Antonio and Laredo to better support coastal evacuations and other logistical support operations. By establishing and fostering a partnership with AEP who maintains a huge system throughout South Texas, we will be able to potentially use their infrastructure to support key 700MHz nodes that would provide interoperability along the corridors. This strategy compliments what we plan to do with LCRA.
• Acquire two to four 700MHz Mobile Interoperability Sites / Trailers with on-board, dedicated, multi-band, portable radio caches that could be easily deployed anywhere within the AACOG or LCRA regions to support tactical interoperability. These sites could also be deployed on an as needed basis to augment the
700MHz Interoperability Corridors if additional coverage is required.
In addition, placing Texas shared interoperability channel infrastructure in the rural
areas adjacent to San Antonio will provide both operability and interoperability for local,
regional, state, and federal agencies."

Sorry this was so long.

 

[kkn50]

-That- would be great news.

I believe it is going to be both.

 

[texasemt13]

Didn't want to start a new thread, but I've been digging around the net for a minute and found the Word Doc below.

It mentions that eventually Lee County will be rolled in to the Austin/Travis County TRS.

It also discusses the future of Blanco, Burnet and Llano counties as well (though it isn't definitive), saying they will either go VHF P25 (and will connect to the A/TC master switch that way) or go the LCRA 700MHz P25 and be interoperable to AA/TC through LCRA.

I also ran across references to a past Comm Exercise at Camp Mabry last June (wish I would have known prior) in which the Texas Military Forces and 25 state and local agencies completed interoprability testing. Some documents reference a future interoperability test that will try to connect to other TRSs through IP/Microwave link in the other COGs of Texas (probably HCRRS/ETMC, the MRG, or some of the N. Texas TRSs going up). I hope we can be have prior knowledge of this event...

 

[texasemt13]

Also, I'm reading a whole bunch of docs that refer to the DPS's 700MHz Capitol Site as being the first 700MHz Site in the State of Texas. Since we've seen all these 700MHz P25 TRS's popping up with the State License, how are we going to differentiate when these systems all get "tied" together?

From what I'm reading, the State of Texas and the CAPCOG (for lack of a better term to describe the agencies that the A/TC P25 TRS serves), consider the Capitol's 700MHz Site (what RadioReference calls "Central Austin- Site 1-010") a completely separate TRS from the A/TC one.

All the UASI, SCIP, and TCIP docs I read specifically delineate between the DPS 700MHz Site, the Austin/Travis County TRS and the Middle Rio Grande TRS. As these systems get built out (and all will probably use the State license) how is RR going to differentiate between the systems if they're all going to display the same system info?

I might start creating a wiki about all this information so I can link all the documents I'm finding. The wealth of information to be found in the grant worksheets and updates is amazing. We're all in for some fun monitoring in the near future...

 

[texasemt13]

I might start creating a wiki about all this information so I can link all the documents I'm finding. The wealth of information to be found in the grant worksheets and updates is amazing. We're all in for some fun monitoring in the near future...

Actually, I'll probably just add to nd5y's created "Common/Shared (TX)" in our Collaboration Wiki, here.

 

[texasemt13]

Wow, is all I can say about the information shared in this document. It specifically pertains to the Greater Austin Travis Regional Radio System. It discusses interoprability within the system and how this relates to events requiring interoperable communications (be it on the TRS, or conventional State and Federal Interop frequencies). I haven't finished reading this yet and will post more later.