Cherokee Co SC selects a new radio system

[brian]

Cherokee Co. getting new 911 dispatch radio system

During an emergency, communication between emergency crews is key. In some spots in Cherokee County, that’s been a problem. A new 911 dispatcher radio system is going to fix that.

www.wspa.com

In the same week that Pickens Co announces a new county-wide radio system, Cherokee Co does the same.

This article lacks technical detail, but I was told a while back that Cherokee Co has selected Fleettalk's networked NXDN system as their radio platform. We'll see if that proves to be true. If so, they will join Fairfield, Chester and Edgefield Cos as those that have more than just school buses on the Fleettalk system.

Again, I understand that budgets are real, and are often limited in smaller counties. And there is great benefit to consolidating emergency services within a county on a single radio system. But I'm surprised by the willingness to forego interoperability with adjacent counties and state agencies. I suppose if they don't have that interoperability now, or have found other ways to accomplish it, then this new radio system isn't much different from the current state.

 

[rescuecomm]

Pickens Couty where I resided for 45 years is a bedroom community for Greenville County. What that means is that if you want 5 million for a radio system, it's coming out of homeowner's pocket's for the most part. For an example, the fire district taxes for Greenville County's Boiling Springs district provided more funds that most whole city budgets in Pickens County.

Greenville Counties multimillion dollar Pal800 transition for Interoperable communications could have been done by providing a cross band UTAC-VTAC repeater at Paris Mountain. However, that doesn't pad the Batforces pockets.

 

[upstatesc]

From tomorrow's "Cherokee Chronicle"- it is Fleet Talk

 

[upstatesc]

The Gaffney Ledger also has more information in today's paper.

‘Aged’ communication system being replaced to eliminate dead spots​

The county’s radio communication system just got better.
Cherokee County Council at its most recent meeting approved contracting for five years with Fleet Talk for its new public safety radio system.
Three companies responded to the county’s Request For Proposals. Fleet Talk’s bid was $2,283,496 for the turn-key system.
For that price, the county will receive 550 hand held radios and 325 mobile radios, Cherokee County Interim Administrator Merv Bishop said.
The county will use its federal relief funds for the radios.
Bishop said there’s still some negotiating to do before the deal is put to bed.
A new radio communication system has been a top priority. Cherokee County 9-1-1 Assistant Director Brandon Peeler has described the present radio system as “aged,” while Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller has said the present system has dead spots which makes it impossible for deputies to speak to one another even though they are close by.
To ensure that all the county’s emergency agencies were involved in the selection, a meeting was held to discuss their individual priorities.
The county’s volunteer fire departments opted out of the talks since the departments have more individual needs.

 

[brian]

I note two new sites of the Fleettalk system are now active in the Cherokee County area. They are listed in the database as 407 and 408. I only monitored for a short time and didn't hear any activity so I only listed control channels. For those in the area with the ability to monitor NXDN, these sites may be worth monitoring in the near future.

 

[upstatesc]

I note two new sites of the Fleettalk system are now active in the Cherokee County area. They are listed in the database as 407 and 408. I only monitored for a short time and didn't hear any activity so I only listed control channels. For those in the area with the ability to monitor NXDN, these sites may be worth monitoring in the near future.

I'm getting strong signals from both new 407 and 408 sites, but haven't picked up any traffic on them at all. I even unlocked a couple of neighboring counties (Cleveland NC and Spartanburg SC) to see if maybe just not much was going on, but after a couple of hours of monitoring on my SDS100 I still haven't heard anything. I'm going to play with it some more when I get more time.

 

[brian]

Talkgroup 11551 is active on site 17 (existing Gaffney site at Thicketty) and site 20 (Moore). It's encrypted, but the radio aliases displayed are indicative of an EMS agency or private ambulance service. Could be Cherokee Co EMS, but could also be Ambustar or something similar.

 

[HikerGuy]

Picking up EMS on 11364, addresses correlate with Cherokee County locations so far.

 

[RICLB]

Picking up EMS on 11364, addresses correlate with Cherokee County locations so far. ?

Noted any encrypted traffic on Cherokee County ?

 

[upstatesc]

Picking up EMS on 11364, addresses correlate with Cherokee County locations so far.

Cherokee County contracts their ambulance service to Thorne Ambulance. Their units are labeled with MEDIC followed by the #. I think it goes from Medic 1-to Medic 5 or Medic 6. They also have two Supervisor units. They were QRV 1 and QRV 2 in the past unless that changed with the new vendor. Does that match any of the traffic you've picked up?

There are multiple private ambulance companies in the county too that it could be. Since they are private though it would be logical that they could move before everyone else in theory as a trial/test run.

 

[HikerGuy]

Cherokee County contracts their ambulance service to Thorne Ambulance. Their units are labeled with MEDIC followed by the #. I think it goes from Medic 1-to Medic 5 or Medic 6. They also have two Supervisor units. They were QRV 1 and QRV 2 in the past unless that changed with the new vendor. Does that match any of the traffic you've picked up?

There are multiple private ambulance companies in the county too that it could be. Since they are private though it would be logical that they could move before everyone else in theory as a trial/test run.

The unit numbers sound right. They've been getting paged out for 911s in the county from what I can tell, so it does appear to be Thorne. This has been coming from the Paris Mountain site which had some discrepancies in the LCN/frequencies on the DB here. I'll be submitting my corrections shortly.

 

[upstatesc]

The unit numbers sound right. They've been getting paged out for 911s in the county from what I can tell, so it does appear to be Thorne. This has been coming from the Paris Mountain site which had some discrepancies in the LCN/frequencies on the DB here. I'll be submitting my corrections shortly.

That makes sense. EMS only has 5-6 units, so switching them over is easy from a logistical standpoint and it also gives them an opportunity to work out bugs in the system before switching everybody. My understanding (unless something has changed) is that they're going to keep the VHF channels for Fire and EMS for paging purposes so I guess those will be simulcast of the main TG, but time will tell.

Looking forward to your frequency corrections too. I talked w/ Brian about that last month as I haven't been getting any traffic on that site in awhile and he came to the same conclusion- that most likely frequencies or LCN's had changed. Unfortunately I don't have a reliable SDR stick at the moment, so I haven't been able to locate the new site information.

 

[brian]

I did some monitoring of Fleettalk sites at Thicketty and Paris Mtn a few weeks ago. Discovered a new site in Roebuck (Spartanburg County) also. And the two new sites in Cherokee Co. There's definitely some updates need to the site frequencies and LCNs. I'll try to move those updates up on my list, but please submit any changes or corrections in the mean time.

 

[BryanTheRed]

They plan to go live next week on Fleettalk. I'm guessing here, but Kenwood has all but assured that NXDN is coming to the VP8000, which if true interop really shouldn't be a concern with neighboring or state agencies.

 

[upstatesc]

I'll be happy to assist in searching for active Talkgroups, etc. if someone can give me the updated Frequencies/LCN info for RAN 17, or any of the other Cherokee County sites now active. I've used the database info with my SDS100 and tried its LCN function, but it doesn't seem to be working correctly. I've run LCN Finder three times on the two new sites and each time each of the frequencies listed in the FCC database for that callsign ends up with a different LCN after the finder process completes.

The USB port broke off of my current SDR stick and I haven't replaced it yet, so the SDS's are all I have to work with right now.

 

[Searay]

I'll be happy to assist in searching for active Talkgroups, etc. if someone can give me the updated Frequencies/LCN info for RAN 17, or any of the other Cherokee County sites now active. I've used the database info with my SDS100 and tried its LCN function, but it doesn't seem to be working correctly. I've run LCN Finder three times on the two new sites and each time each of the frequencies listed in the FCC database for that callsign ends up with a different LCN after the finder process completes.

The USB port broke off of my current SDR stick and I haven't replaced it yet, so the SDS's are all I have to work with right now.

Was able to determine the following.

463.9125. 714. Control
464.9375. 796
451.4000. 113
452.3625. 190
461.2500. 501
463.7250. 699
452.2250. 179
462.4000. 593
463.2875. 664
464.6375. 772

 

[brian]

I have updated the Gaffney site. Searay's information matches mine.

I am hearing talkgroup 11360 active in the clear, law enforcement traffic. Likely Cherokee Co SO or Gaffney PD but I haven't heard enough traffic to be sure. I have seen affiliations to 11364 and 11367 but no voice traffic. One might assume that talkgroups in the 1136x range are related to Cherokee Co.

 

[upstatesc]

Thanks guys, have been on the go all day today but I will try to reprogram manually and tune in tomorrow. To help with identifications here are the patterns Cherokee County units typically use:

Sheriff's Office units are all 100 and up. The Sheriff is 100, Chief Deputy 101, and up in order of seniority from there. I units are investigators.
Blacksburg PD typically has operated on the Sheriff's Office frequency in the UHF world and I assume that is likely to stay the same. All their units use a "Bravo" prefix from Bravo-1 (the Chief) on up.

Gaffney PD units have their own frequency on UHF and typically use a 400 prefix, starting with the Chief (400) and following the same seniority pattern as the Sheriff's office.

Fire traffic should be easy to recognize, but the stations are dispatched by their station # (It runs from 1 to 18 or 19, not sure exactly as some have been added since their website maps were updated).

Stations 1-9 use 1000 unit numbers, while Stations 10 and up use 2000 unit numbers. For example, the chief of station 1 is 1100. Apparatus are all identified by what they are (Engine, Tanker, Tower Ladder) and then the station # and truck number). The City of Gaffney's primary station is 10, so their fire units would be Rescue 101, Ladder 101, etc. Station 13 would be Engine 131, Brush 131, etc.

 

[upstatesc]

The past few nights it appears some of the Fire Departments have begun testing radios and trying things out. There have been Cherokee radios showing up in talkgroups in the 1137x range as well. So far it appears EMS and Gaffney PD have transitioned, with the Sheriff and fire departments still on the old system.

 

[BryanTheRed]

Cherokee went live today.