City of Mobile on the move to EDACS

[kingpin]

We've known it was coming for awhile but I saw Mobile Fire & Rescue downtown yesterday, sporting their new MA/Com radios. Wife made me leave the 396T in the car so I didn't monitor them yesterday. Mobile PD was still toting their Moto's so they haven't made the switch yet.

I did some searching on the Springhill tower and heard lots of new talkgroups in range from 545 to 1615 so far. I heard Mobile fire on there doing something or another but my county radio was calling and I didn't get to do much more monitoring.

The transition was City Services, then Fire, and finally Police. This gradual transition is to make sure all of the bugs are worked out before PD moves over. I am pleased with the coverage so far from a monitoring standpoint here in Baldwin County. Of course, it was better when the Spanish Fort site was online.....

 

[RandyB]

I had a chance to monitor briefly this afternoon. Mobile Fire dispatch is being simulcasted on EDACS talkgroup 1377. Best I could tell, it sounded as though the transmissions were still on the Motorola system and the use of the EDACS radios had not yet begun. At least, all traffic carried out during the 15 or so minutes I was monitoring seemed to be with Motorola radios. I did not hear the dispatch side, only the units.

Has anyone heard anything new regarding a time line? Is the city still on course to make a fairly rapid transition to EDACS?

 

[SCPD]

HI Guys I hope it will not be pro voice like here in Montgomery , kinda sucks hehehee

 

[ScannerWayne]

I tried monitoring the EDACS for Mobile City systems on Monday the 18th and heard nothing. They could be heard operating on the Moto system. Matter of fact I checked the two new towers and didn't hear any active control data. Could be they are still working the bugs out?

 

[kingpin]

They were doing some work on the tower last week, working on some last minute stuff.

 

[ScannerWayne]

Hmmm... Now this is interesting... After reading your message Kingpin I picked up my scanner, turned it on and activated the bank that contains the freqs for the three new towers. As always, I had the volume turned all the way down as I watched the screen to see if it would lock onto the control channel. It didn't and I was about to activate another bank when I saw that it was acting like it was trying to lock onto something. I turned up the volume figuring maybe the control freq was very weak, but instead I heard MPD.

Where is the control channel?

I used the freqs listed in the database in the order listed. Or am I missing something?

Update to this... I listened to the traffic on the six channels assigned to the three new towers and heard MPD. These freqs appear to be simulcasts of the traffic from the Moto system. But I only heard traffic from precincts two and four. Nothing from one and three. I also confirmed that MFD portables can be heard on 10-121 (don't have my conversion chart handy). Things are getting interesting over here. Am pulling out my BC780xlt from the closet and getting it ready to go again. Just have to find a place for it.