KSICS Anchor Thread

[loumaag]

This is a sticky thread that should be used to discuss the Kansas Statewide Interoperable Communication System (KSICS). There have been several threads started in the Kansas forum on different topics or informational points in relation to this system and it would be best if there is one thread to discuss these different aspects. Please post all future KSICS related topics in this sticky thread so that information can be consolidated in one spot, thanks.

When posting new information here, please include a title on your post; those replying please reference that title.

 

[KAA951]

Did anyone pick up any new or interesting talkgroups yesterday during the annual Wolf Creek drill?

 

[keithb]

Did anyone pick up any new or interesting talkgroups yesterday during the annual Wolf Creek drill?

I was hearing traffic on TG501 last evening which I don't have on my list. Their transmissions were very short, too short in fact to make a guess who it might be. It was coming across the Wabaunsee tower.

 

[jereck_99]

has anyone pick up anything on tg239?

 

[KAA951]

I received the following "error message" about my audio feed:

Feed Description: Topeka Tower- Kansas State Digital Trunked Radio System
Problem: Audio Does Not Match Description
Details: There are several of the southeast Kansas KSICS links that do not match
the description, including Montgomery County, Neosho County and Labette County.
Neosho sometimes is accurate, but all of the sites ocassionally alternate from
Kansas Highway Patrol Troop H (southeast Kansas) to locations in central and
western Kansas.

My APCO 25 scanner will only pick up the tower it is in range of, and the
transmissions for all of Troop H from any one of those towers. It won't,
however, pick up any transmissions from any other Troops' dispatch. Yet Radio
Reference online scanners are doing just that. Any suggestions?

I will do my best to explain- anyone else feel free to jump in if you have a better analogy.

In order to scan the State of Kansas P-25 system it is important to understand how if functions. The easiest way I have found to explain it is that it works in a fashion similar to a cellular phone network. While you are talking on your cellular phone it moves from tower to tower (cell) as you travel (normally) without any interuption of service. You conversation moves from tower to tower as you "affiliate" with it- it does not repeat your conversation over every cellular tower in yourcarriers whole network- only the one you are on.

The KSIC system is similar. A user (lets say a Trooper assigned to Troop C in McPherson County) starts his shift, his 800 radio automatically affiliates with the nearest tower site and he tells the dispatcher on C-KHP-1 that he is enroute to Kansas City to assist with the NASCAR race. As the trooper travels east on Interstate 70, his radio begins to lose the signal from the tower that he began his shift on and seeks a stronger signal. Without the trooper changing talkgroups or really knowing his radio has done so, the radio affiliates to a new tower (lets say the Minneapolis site) and continues to monitor C-KHP-1.

If dispatch calls this trooper, or another trooper anywhere on talkgroup C-KHP-1 keys their radio, the trunking system controller sends that signal to each tower site where a radio is affiliated with C-KHP-1. A continuous data channel tells the troopers radio that a radio transmission is coming and which of the trunked radio frequencies on the tower is carrying it. The trooper has no idea all this is going on in the background- all he knows is that when someone calls him on C-KHP-1, he hears it no matter where he goes.

Now, lets say the trooper continues on his trip east of Kansas City and forgets to change his talkgroup from C-KHP-1. He will "drag" the radio traffic on that talkgroup with him from tower to tower all the way to Kansas City. So, someone scanning the Leavenworth County simulcast system in open mode may be surprised to hear radio traffic from an injury car crash near Ellsworth being transmitted on C-KHP-1 all the way in Kansas City. (By the way- this is one of KDOTs pet peeves about the system- users not changing talkgroups and dragging their home radio traffic with them across the state. Think about the example above, the trooper does not even realize that they are busying out a frequency on the Leavenworth County system every time Troop C transmits.)

Due to the number of units transiting areas (busy highways, gathering for meetings or inservice training etc), there are several towers that will have much more of this "dragged" traffic. The Topeka tower (as the state capitol and its proximity to the busiest stretch of the turnpike) is one of them and I would hazard to guess the Minneapolis tower near Salina would be another good one due to its proximity to the KHP academy. This is why you will hear specific traffic on your tower some days and other traffic on the next.

If you are in a corner of the state where there is little traffic coming through except local units you probably won't hear much except local radio traffic.

Hope this helps.

 

[jhwker]

has anyone pick up anything on tg239?

I heard radio techs on that talkgroup late last month doing roaming RSSI checks off the Bennington tower. The scanner logged 35 hits in one afternoon and nothing since.

 

[n0lqt]

Yeah, I can hardly wait for the State Fair this year. We should just about max out the system if Hutch doesn't have their 2nd site up by then......

 

[nec911]

Kaa951

That is an excellent statement about the system. Might have to borrow your examples when I try to explain it to folks here. It is a good attribute yet can be a bad attribute of the system. Still it is great to be able to talk to someone from 10 counties away when you compare it to the old days of troopers and emergency workers going through three repeaters when on a portable just to get to the dispatcher. Thanks for the information.

 

[dgruver911]

One really has to wonder about the thinking that went into making some talkgroups statewide instead of just specific to certain towers within their territory. Are they trying to make the system crash???? Of course there are a LOT of aspects to the system that makes one wonder what someone was thinking.

 

[jereck_99]

it was nice to hear south central EOC this afternoon

 

[jereck_99]

I pickup up traffic on tg 663 anyone have any idea what area of the state this is covering?

 

[fmon]

I pickup up traffic on tg 663 anyone have any idea what area of the state this is covering?

Appears to be Reno County EMS Dispatch.

 

[N0JRD]

Ksics

Does anyone know if Osage, Jackson, Jefferson or Wabaunsee counties will abandoned their old vhf and uhf systems and move to KSICS? I know they all have talk groups on the system but are they going to move to the KSICS completely? If not what all do they use the talk groups for? Thanks

 

[fmon]

Does anyone know if Osage, Jackson, Jefferson or Wabaunsee counties will abandoned their old vhf and uhf systems and move to KSICS?

Likely will keep and use them for a long time but the TG in KSICS is more definitive (ID in Alpha Text) for scanner listening.

I know they all have talk groups on the system but are they going to move to the KSICS completely? If not what all do they use the talk groups for? Thanks

Key word is Interoperable

 

[dgruver911]

Has anyone stumbled upon the 700 MHz trunking frequencies being used by either of the state COW's? Hard to believe they aren't licensed but I sure can't find them...

 

[rabidmoose57]

Sac and Fox TG?

I monitored a conversation between what were apparently two sheriff's units which had a TG of 04335. In the course of that conversation they refered to it as the " Sac and Fox channel". I can't find the TG in the database, so there is no way to verify by a conversation alone. I also have been hearing activity from a courthouse on TG 0239. They discuss the judges lunch orders and such, but I have no idea where it's coming from.

 

[n0lqt]

Has anyone stumbled upon the 700 MHz trunking frequencies being used by either of the state COW's? Hard to believe they aren't licensed but I sure can't find them...

The only thing I can find is the general State License:

WPTZ799 - 769.00000, 775.00000, 799.00000, 805.00000

It is showing as still in build-out stage thru 2012

 

[compubandit]

New talkgroup

I picked up talkgroup 510 this morning on the Buffalo or West Mineral tower. They referenced it by the "City" channel. They were going to investigate a "PFA Violation". One guy said the was at 4th and Neosho... Anyone have any ideas what this TG might be?

 

[n0lqt]

Neosho St & 4th St, Neosho Rapids, Lyon, KS 66864
Neosho St & 4th St, New Strawn, Coffey, KS 66839
S 4th St & Neosho St, Burlington, Coffey, KS 66839
Neosho St & W 4th Ave, Emporia, Lyon, KS 66801
Neosho St & N 4th St, Humboldt, Allen, KS 66748

can probably rule out Emporia and maybe Humboldt (although it is kind of right "between" those two towers). TG501 has been associated with a Wolf Creek drill message recently, so my best guess is going to be Burlington or New Strawn..... Burlington has about 2800 people and New Strawn about 450. So far, Coffey County's talkgroups have been in the 470 to 490 range, but that doesn't mean they don't have others assigned to them. A "PFA" is a Protection From Abuse Order, so it would definitely be Law Enforcement of some type. I'm almost wondering if TG 500 - 510 might not be the Wolf Creek facility itself.

 

[kb0gus]

Kansas City / Johnson County KHP

All,

Should I be hearing the same thing on KSICS on the troop A talk groups that I hear on the JoCo 800 system?

It seems that I hear a ton of KHP traffic on the JoCo 800 system and not much on the KSICS talkgroups (olathe, paola towers)

thoughts?

Thanks,
Josh