Help with Alameda County TRS / History?

[b52hbuff]

I am trying to understand if the concept of 'local' and 'wide area' still apply to ALCO.

I am also wondering (given the age of the posts), whether this is still an issue with CC-only scanners. Or to turn this into a question...

Does the ALCO system ever simultaneously transmit a control channel over two different frequencies (e.g. one for wide and local?)?

Thanks!

here is a post from Wayne on Bayscan:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bayscan/message/50104
ALCO's system is what you call "half-ass" SmartZone, even though it's
only a Simulcast SmartNet system. Since they don't have all freqs at
all sites they define "user groups" which are then assigned to
specific freqs. So, they have a "WIDE" group (Grp B I think) of freqs
and a "LOCAL" group (Grp A I think) of freqs. Once and a while you can
hear the radio techs testing specific channels. They'll setup one of
the telecom TGs or one of the TEST TGs on its own user group and then
assign that user group to a specific freq. Freqs can have as many user
groups assigned to them as needed.

And here is another reference:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bayscan/message/11189

 

[WayneH]

Yes, it still applies. I recently posted that message and it differs very little from my old one so I think it's safe to assume it's still true.

And I think you're missing the concept of putting talkgroups into User Groups. The WIDE sites do not have all the frequencies, whereas the LOCAL ones do. Talkgroups are assigned a WIDE or LOCAL group, that group is then enabled or disabled per channel based on where that channel is located. So there is no need for more than one control channel, in fact there are two base station identification messages sent for each associated license, which is a very uncommon thing.

-Wayne