Lee County GA to go to an 800MHz system

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kg4ojj

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From the Albany Herald: Albany Herald | Lee set for communications upgrade

Again, it appears that narrowbanding is locally defined as "move to a trunked radio system."

On a technical note, I have watched the shifting of frequencies allocated to the Albany/Dougherty (and Thomas/Crisp County regional) system, even since the change to the digital system. Per the article, Lee County will roam to the two Albany sites: Turner Field and Gillionville. Additionally, Lee County gets to put a tower up on Hwy 32, which is just outside the county seat of Leesburg.

According to a search of the FCC ULS, there are no 800 MHz frequencies assigned to Lee County (yet). However, during the Thanksgiving holiday, I monitored the Albany system via UniTrunker and found 5 sites in total: Site 1 is Turner Field, Site 2 is Gillionville, Site 3 is Thomas County, Site 4 was unknown, and Site 5 was Crisp County.

The Site 4 had one frequency assigned to it: 860.8375. Could this be a temporary "placeholder" for Lee County? Only time and listening will tell.....
 

kg4ojj

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From today's online Albany Herald: Albany Herald | Lee Commission OKs radio, jail security systems

Commissioners unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement with the city of Albany that will allow Lee County to link with a communications tower owned by the city, OK'd a purchase/installation/training agreement with Motorola for radio system equipment, and approved an agreement that will allow for a cell tower to be constructed on county-owned land.

County Administrator Tony Massey gave Motorola representatives a down payment check for a fourth of the $1.2 million the company will receive for the system.

"This is the culmination of several months of good-faith negotiations," Massey said. "We are now ready to enter a new phase of communications in Lee County."

Commissioner Rick Muggridge praised Albany officials for their part in the system upgrade.

"I'd like to publicly express my thanks to the city of Albany and their City Commission for their support in this matter," he said. "This is a great step toward regionalism and the betterment of our community."
 

MTS2000des

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According to the 2007, Lee county has a total population of 33,000 people. Not 330,000- but 33,000. I live in a city (Smyrna) with twice that population. Our PD/FD uses radios on the CCDTRS, they barely use three talkgroups,maybe four if there's a chase or the occasional structure fire. If Cobb county did NOT operate a TRS, it would have been an ABUSE of taxpayer money to buy 3,000 dollar radios for a town our size- and we're DOUBLE the population of this county (which being a lifelong Georgia resident, I've never even HEARD of).

At least they have the sense to work with another nearby jurisdiction to become subscribers, but you can bet they are gonna wizz a ton o' bucks more money down the drain buying overpriced digital trunking radios that will be underutilized.

But that's how do things down here in the great state of Georgia! Working out real well for us, record high unemployment, state's broke...we really should legalize gambling so we can pay for all this junk.

BTW: total cost to narrowband Lee county's VHF system including radio replacement and repeater replacement would cost less than 35 grand- based on their current FCC ULS licenses using industry cost average street price on mid/high tier analog radios and repeater.

They'll blow that much on 10 radios alone. What a rape off.
 

bwigg

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Lee County active

Lee County just went "hot" as of 7/23/12 for testing. The site ID is BC30 Site 6. Control channel is 851.200 and they have second channel broadcasting some kind of continuous data on 852.4375.
 

kg4ojj

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Lee County Sheriff, Fire & EMS are now active on talkgroup 22416. I was in Albany (albenny) today and monitored their traffic (voice and UniTrunker analysis) on the Turner Field site of the Dougherty/Thomas County TRS.

Simulcasted from individual VHF channels, including Fire/EMS paging, EMS response, FD response, and Sheriff dispatch. (Dbase admins - hold off on adding this talkgroup to Dougherty/Thomas County TRS. I will submit after week-long analysis of system).

More to come..........
 

kg4ojj

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Lee County 800MHz site active and is passing simulcast traffic from Albany. Nice portable (receive only) coverage to the northern end of the county and southern Sumter County.
 

rapidcharger

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The land of broken calculators.
800mhz... that means it's better, right?
Better range? Makes it work real good?
Newer technology to keep us safe from terrorists and molestors.

The question is not, can you afford to have everyone walking around with a $3500 radio...
The question is... can you afford not to have everyone walking around with a $3500 radio.











sarcasm.gif
 

MTS2000des

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well, maybe they don't want the daily activities of the no doubt bustling metropolis of Lee county to be coming out of everyone's iPhone. I see in the RFP they called for (and got) ADP encryption. Anyone confirm if they are using this?

if so, rest assured the citizens of Lee county, all 34K of them, will be safe from terrorists and evil do-ers nosing in on their government workers, thanks to their newly acquired ASTRO 25 800MHz encrypted (about as secure as WEP encryption mind you) digital public safety radio network.

Your tax dollars at work!
 

wildbillc

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Does anyone have the entire talkgroup numbers for Lee County 800 MHz?? The talkgroup 22416 is for Sheriffs dispatch only. They are still using the VHF transmitter as a backup and for paging. A local deputy told me they are using handheld radios only (only thing they can afford right now). EMS and Fire must have their own talkgroup since I only hear dispatch and deputies. I have a Pro-106...how can I scan for other talkgroups?

WildBillC
 

wildbillc

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Does anyone know of any other talkgroups for the lee county system?? The talkgroup mentioned is only for the Sheriffs department. No EMS or Fire is transmitting that I hear. Is there a way to scan for talkgroups on a Pro-106?? I looked around the book...nothing makes sense.
 

kg4ojj

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Add a wildcard to your talkgroup list.

Most of the GRE and RadioShack scanners that I have owned defaulted to "wildcard" whenever you add a new talkgroup. I have had to overwrite the "wildcard" designator to add 16000, for example.

However, do that on this system and you will see and hear Albany/Dougherty units on the Lee system.

Are you hand programming?




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wildbillc

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No, using the trial software that came with the download cable. Nifty little cord. Before Christmas, I was programming by hand. Just set up another object with the wildcard? How do you catch the talkgroups? Would they show up on the display as it scrolls? Can I lock out the talkgroups that I don't want to listen to so I can narrow the search? Thanks for you help.

WildBillC
 

kg4ojj

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I have the GRE PSR-500, so we're using similar scanners.

Check this out: Easier to Read Pro-106/197/PSR500/600 Digital Scanner Manual

I always add a wildcard group in any trunked system, like in this attachment:

Also, I add a tone (e.g., chirp) for the wildcard talkgroup. The LED is of a different color, to catch my eye.

Watch and listen to the system and you'll discover new talkgroups. They will display as received.

However, you may have to program all of the Albany/Dougherty County talkgroups and lock them out.

I will be in the area this weekend and can help you program the radio, as needed.

Since you have the programming cable, I would suggest this program: Win500: PSR-500, PSR-600, PRO-106, PRO-197, PSR-310, PSR-410 Scanner Software for Data Management, Monitoring, and Control

Good luck and let us know what you find!!!
 

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wildbillc

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I noticed that there have been some changes to Lee County and Dougherty county trunking systems. I have programmed this in my scanner and monitored the frequencies listed but there is no radio traffic. The posting for the Dougherty county / Thomas County has been removed but that is where all of the radio traffic is (including Lee county). I have verified that the talk group mentioned above is Lee SO and found this talkgroup for EMS (23376). Still looking for the fire dept talkgoup. All of these are on the doughertry/thomas system. Am I missing sonething? Does anyone have some data that I don't have?

WildBillC
 

kg4ojj

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The trunked system is a multi-county, linked system. I think it's all linked with T-1 internet ties.

With Lee County, we have several counties with shared resources on the "SW Georgia Regional" system. This system includes Dougherty, Lee, Thomas, and Crisp Counties. I wish Tifton and Valdosta would be linked in. That way, we could call it a regional system.

Good catch of the EMS talkgroup. Keep listening, especially around shift change (7a-8a/7p-8p).
 

RRR

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Hello, I am using ARC-XT Pro to program my BCD-996XT, and I can't figure out how to program in a "Wildcard" Can anyone be of assistance, please?

Still trying to hear Lee county on either of the 800 systems...
 

N8IAA

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Hello, I am using ARC-XT Pro to program my BCD-996XT, and I can't figure out how to program in a "Wildcard" Can anyone be of assistance, please?

Still trying to hear Lee county on either of the 800 systems...

Switch to ID Scan instead of ID. Then any new TGID's will show on the screen. My mistake, that was for FreeScan, not Arc-XT. Does anyone still listen to the conventional frequencies? Maybe they haven't moved to the new system yet.
HTH,
Larry
 
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shadcall

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Hello, I am using ARC-XT Pro to program my BCD-996XT, and I can't figure out how to program in a "Wildcard" Can anyone be of assistance, please?

Still trying to hear Lee county on either of the 800 systems...

I use ARC 500 for my Pro 106. To program a wildcard in that program you simply put an * (asterisk) in the talkgroup ID column.

If that doesn't work you might want to post your question in the software programming forum located here. The Butel rep will answer your question.

Scanner Programming Software - The RadioReference.com Forums
 
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