L/A will be goingn to new 800 trunk system

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northstarfire0693

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Ive done some googling trying to find more info. We know it will be an 800 system, but unknown as to what type. I am going to guess P25. They may use encryption. I guess we will find out more as time goes by.
 

ME343

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Looking at the license and going by what the emissions will be it looks like it'll be a P25 Phase II system.
 

zerg901

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Crazy. 99% of the state is on VHF highband. Absolutely crazy.
 

ecps92

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And since the MSComnet had to beg and borrow frequencies [NTIA and RailRoad] it shows there is nothing available, so a 700/800 does make sense
State Police is on p25 trunked. but its VHF. Portland and L/A will be the only areas 800mhz
 

12dbsinad

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They'll be better off at 800, the noise floor on VHF especially in city's is insane, regardless if frequencies are available or not. I've been to VHF sites in small to moderate sized city's that the noise floor is so bad it's like having a 5 microvolt receiver.
 

zerg901

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Last time I looked at unused frequencies (freq) in Maine, there were many unused VHF highband freqs in the state. I just checked the FCC ULS again 5 minutes ago. The first freq I looked at is 153.9575. 153.9575 shows only 2 users in the state of Maine. In both cases it is used as a repeater input channel. Biddeford is 43 air miles away and South Berwick is 70 air miles away. And that is the very first channel that I checked today.

In regards to the noise floor, it seems that the noise floor should be low on VHF high band (150 mhz to 170 mhz) in the Lewiston area. Lewiston population (pop) is 38,000. Auburn population is 23,000. Androscoggin County pop is 107,000. Portland is 30 air miles away and its pop is only 67,000. Portland is the largest city in Maine and Lewiston is number 2. Also - the rest of the state manages to operate on VHF highband some how.

The only way to have effective mutual aid communications is to give trunked radios to all of the mutual aid agencies. Or to set up extensive patches. Supplying trunked radios to public safety agencies in just Androscoggin County would be very expensive. Seems to me that patches rarely work. For example - https://forums.radioreference.com/t...-will-be-encrypted.363183/page-8#post-3112477 - 'improper patch config' - does not seem to be a foreign concept.
 

ME343

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Patches are used a lot on MSCommNet they are able to patch into most county dispatch channels and have little to no issues and the regionnets also play part in that. It seems only L/A will be on the 800mhz system probably with patched channels or they'll keep the channels they use now for inter-op plus they also have the statewide ConOps channels available for use.
 

ecps92

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Or L/A consoles will have direct access to the CORE and they will have permanent patches [similar to something we have in MA, with Cambridge and Boston patches]


Patches are used a lot on MSCommNet they are able to patch into most county dispatch channels and have little to no issues and the regionnets also play part in that. It seems only L/A will be on the 800mhz system probably with patched channels or they'll keep the channels they use now for inter-op plus they also have the statewide ConOps channels available for use.
 

zerg901

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If L/A units leave the L/A area, they will need mutual radios on VHF highband. If mutual aid units go into L/A, they will all have to share a couple of patch channels and rely on a functional patch. In all cases I think we can all agree that everything is much simpler and resilient when all radios are in the same band.

Two units trying to talk to each other inside the same building but on different bands probably wont work very well. Whenever I hear Boston FD operating at a suburban fire, they routinely swtch over to the suburban FD channel. I have never heard them use a patch of any sort for fireground (FG) comms. (Boston FD channels are always patched to the state TRS but I dont think that anyone trusts those patches for FG comms.) When Boston FD units go to Logan Airport (which uses 800), all BFD units seem to stay on the regular BFD UHF channels - except that the Boston District Chief uses 453.90R to talk to Logan FD units). Similarly, when BFD units go to Cambridge (which uses 800). the BFD units seem to stay on the regular BFD UHF channels. IIRC Cambridge FD only has 3 channels patched - UHF/800/UHF - but they are a very rich city.

I cant think of any VHF highband to 800 patches that are regularly used in Massachusetts - especially not for short range onscene comms. Bottom line for Massachusetts is that any scene with 10 agencies operating will probably have 10 onscene channels in use. Most interband patching in Massachusetts pertains to "travel channel" type comms.
 

northstarfire0693

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Now that EFJ has been awarded the contract, I wonder when the system will start to go online. Being that everyone else is VHF I can see L/A using multi band radios and patches.
 

ME343

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Now that EFJ has been awarded the contract, I wonder when the system will start to go online. Being that everyone else is VHF I can see L/A using multi band radios and patches.
I know there is a timeline somewhere. It won't be online for a few years but in the documentation i'm pretty sure it showed they were getting multiband.
 

jimbois1

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I ran into the vendor owner for the upcoming new 800 MHz TRS for Lewiston - Auburn recently. Based on side bar discussion, preliminary work will begin on installation of radio infrastructure for the new system starting in the fall (approx. October forward). Initial efforts will likely be on console replacements at the Comm Center. Also, the decision has been made to go from a 5 site system to a 4 site system to try to save on costs. The last of the new towers has just gone out to bid in the past couple of weeks...this will be for the tower at the former Lewiston landfill / waste shredder plant site in South Lewiston, which will cover both South Lewiston and the Danville / Airport areas of Auburn. Also, locations of repeater control stations (separate from the Comm Center) including Androscoggin County EMA EOC are being decided upon. Since EF Johnson is now part of JVC / Kenwood there may end up being a mix of EFJ and Kenwood radios on this new system. As an official in the Lewiston Purchasing Agent's office put it to me...it was Motorola's contract to lose...and they did....to the tune of almost $ 1.5 million over budget. We'll see how it goes with EFJ / Kenwood
 
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