They were approved.
Does that mean they decided not to upgrade the UMES system? That was going to be expensive.
marksmith
Member
What is on the UMESC system now? Anything left?
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Were you able to go to the meeting? Anything interesting? I wonder when Cecil will migrate to the system.
The patch from MSP Glen Burnie/Annapolis on FiRST to the Anne Arundel County System is back up. It has been down for maybe a year or so. A couple days ago MSP Radio Maintenance was doing testing on the talkgroup.
Yes, I attended. I'll post up a summary sometime this weekend.
Have they improved the audio quality?
Radio Control Board Quarterly Mtg 3/20/2019
Coppin State U. application as primary user.
25 TDMA clients
Wants their own TGs plus sharing with BCCC, MSP, MTA, Towson U. etc.
Approved.
BCCC application as primary user.
30 TDMA clients
Wants own TGs plus sharing with MdTA MTA Towson U. Coppin State U. etc.
Some discussion about system capacity but should be ok since they will have no consoles (zone core capacity for consoles is a limiting factor.)
Approved.
Baltimore Metro cell is least densely used cell since the channel expansion.
Carroll County interop user with some primary users on MSP TGs (assuming this is a local police department.)
1100 TDMA subscribers, and 900 FDMA subscribers that will retire in 5 years.
Application accepted.
Perry Point Veterans Admin FD interop user application.
30 TDMA clients.
TG sharing with Cecil County.
Application approved.
Develop SOP for LTE-MD FIRST interface that Missouri is implementing. To investigate, noting that Moto has the WAVE app.
Does the RCB need a specific TG sharing agreement?
Still working on PSAP TG SOP.
Crisfield ASR to be installed on a Somerset owned tower. Will reuse a shelter from another tower site. Will have a fiber connection. DNR has coverage issues over water in the area.
Coverage between Washington and Frederick Cos. needs improvement.
UPS Plus Up - Generators are non-standard between facilities and fail due to different agency mx policies. Want to mitigate by installing UPS with longer battery capacity.
Priority determined by lack of prime site coverage. UPS last about 23 mins at full load - looking to double to 45 minutes.
Concern about mx for non FIRST owned shelter infrastructure.
Warrior Mtn ASR loses pwr frequently, and takes a long time to access the site.
Alle-Gar site microwave repair cost $31k due to storm damage.
The state's 6 St Paul St (Balto) fiber hub - DC power plant failing - mux at risk. Some mitigations needed until new power can be installed. Robbing some equipment from Phase 5 construction to bridge. Should not affect the P5 construction schedule.
FIRST is two networks: RNI radio network interface plus CEN Customer Enterprise Network
CEN is becoming obsolete. Installation of new equipment to occur Dec 2019, and live in Feb 2020.
FIRST "greenfield" tower sites cost 2-3 mil (land acquisition, tower construction, equipment.)
Installing FIRST on an existing tower costs 900k.
Sussex is in process of flashing radios to TDMA.
System upgrade from 7.14 to 7.16 did cause some issues, and the managers are continuing going through the punchlist.
Table Rock ASR due online in Dec 2019 - but FIRST still has good coverage without it. Garrett Sheriff's deputies happy, no longer feel like they are talking to themselves.
Nice Bridge ASR should be built by Summer on former helo pad.
Georgia Ave site - citizens not happy about location, lively emotional public meeting held earlier in March [ed. note: anybody surprised?]. Site property has to be owned by SHA since they are paying for the tower.
Cherrytown Chicken ASR site tower lease with Crown Castle still in process.
House approved FIRST budget request.
7.16 system upgrade completed. FIRST will be upgraded to 7.18 in March 2020, and is the last ver to support T-1 connections.
Dorchester Co. online.
Cecil County to move from Zone 1 to Zone 3 in the next few months. A temporary Elkton site will be installed using equipment borrowed from the Cecilton ASR to support the change.
Cecil sites two channel expansion to occur after July.
Cecil Co. scheduled to switch over on June 24th.
Garrett Co. migration due proposal soon.
MTA Purple Line will fund a 2 channel expansion to Montgomery and PG sites.
TV Hill ASR to be installed to support MTA in the Falls Rd Light Rail Station area. Will benefit other users in the Baltimore region.
The new AA Co. system will include BDAs for 196 level 1 critical bldgs, plus over 100 lvl 2 bldgs. The county will add support for FIRST in their BDAs.
Moto stopping support for T-1 telecommunications.
Phase 1-4 were built using T-1 telecom technology, mainly to save money.
State microwave network is T-1 for the most part.
$16m is budgeted to fund the conversion to ethernet tech, split over FY20/21. This is about double the cost they were expecting, and does not cover individual county costs.
Apparently there was a communications breakdown between the counties, the Motorola FIRST group, and the Motorola regional reps (who are not system guys-basically sales) - The counties did not get the cost to convert to ethernet in time to include in next year's budget requests. The ethernet conversion affects console connectivity at loca dispatch centers.
Board members want a five year plan / roadmap for all members so nobody gets surprised by upgrade costs at budget time. There was some palatable tension between board members and DoIT management.
County ROM pricing for the ethernet conversion:
$500k Talbot
$483 QAC
$470k Kent
$118k Dor
$71k Cecil
$68k Caroline
$79k Allegany
The costs were not broken down and are considered a bit suspect by some.
Coppin State U. application as primary user.
25 TDMA clients
Wants their own TGs plus sharing with BCCC, MSP, MTA, Towson U. etc.
Approved.
BCCC application as primary user.
30 TDMA clients
Wants own TGs plus sharing with MdTA MTA Towson U. Coppin State U. etc.
Some discussion about system capacity but should be ok since they will have no consoles (zone core capacity for consoles is a limiting factor.)
Approved.
Baltimore Metro cell is least densely used cell since the channel expansion.
Carroll County interop user with some primary users on MSP TGs (assuming this is a local police department.)
1100 TDMA subscribers, and 900 FDMA subscribers that will retire in 5 years.
Application accepted.
Perry Point Veterans Admin FD interop user application.
30 TDMA clients.
TG sharing with Cecil County.
Application approved.
Develop SOP for LTE-MD FIRST interface that Missouri is implementing. To investigate, noting that Moto has the WAVE app.
Does the RCB need a specific TG sharing agreement?
Still working on PSAP TG SOP.
Crisfield ASR to be installed on a Somerset owned tower. Will reuse a shelter from another tower site. Will have a fiber connection. DNR has coverage issues over water in the area.
Coverage between Washington and Frederick Cos. needs improvement.
UPS Plus Up - Generators are non-standard between facilities and fail due to different agency mx policies. Want to mitigate by installing UPS with longer battery capacity.
Priority determined by lack of prime site coverage. UPS last about 23 mins at full load - looking to double to 45 minutes.
Concern about mx for non FIRST owned shelter infrastructure.
Warrior Mtn ASR loses pwr frequently, and takes a long time to access the site.
Alle-Gar site microwave repair cost $31k due to storm damage.
The state's 6 St Paul St (Balto) fiber hub - DC power plant failing - mux at risk. Some mitigations needed until new power can be installed. Robbing some equipment from Phase 5 construction to bridge. Should not affect the P5 construction schedule.
FIRST is two networks: RNI radio network interface plus CEN Customer Enterprise Network
CEN is becoming obsolete. Installation of new equipment to occur Dec 2019, and live in Feb 2020.
FIRST "greenfield" tower sites cost 2-3 mil (land acquisition, tower construction, equipment.)
Installing FIRST on an existing tower costs 900k.
Sussex is in process of flashing radios to TDMA.
System upgrade from 7.14 to 7.16 did cause some issues, and the managers are continuing going through the punchlist.
Table Rock ASR due online in Dec 2019 - but FIRST still has good coverage without it. Garrett Sheriff's deputies happy, no longer feel like they are talking to themselves.
Nice Bridge ASR should be built by Summer on former helo pad.
Georgia Ave site - citizens not happy about location, lively emotional public meeting held earlier in March [ed. note: anybody surprised?]. Site property has to be owned by SHA since they are paying for the tower.
Cherrytown Chicken ASR site tower lease with Crown Castle still in process.
House approved FIRST budget request.
7.16 system upgrade completed. FIRST will be upgraded to 7.18 in March 2020, and is the last ver to support T-1 connections.
Dorchester Co. online.
Cecil County to move from Zone 1 to Zone 3 in the next few months. A temporary Elkton site will be installed using equipment borrowed from the Cecilton ASR to support the change.
Cecil sites two channel expansion to occur after July.
Cecil Co. scheduled to switch over on June 24th.
Garrett Co. migration due proposal soon.
MTA Purple Line will fund a 2 channel expansion to Montgomery and PG sites.
TV Hill ASR to be installed to support MTA in the Falls Rd Light Rail Station area. Will benefit other users in the Baltimore region.
The new AA Co. system will include BDAs for 196 level 1 critical bldgs, plus over 100 lvl 2 bldgs. The county will add support for FIRST in their BDAs.
Moto stopping support for T-1 telecommunications.
Phase 1-4 were built using T-1 telecom technology, mainly to save money.
State microwave network is T-1 for the most part.
$16m is budgeted to fund the conversion to ethernet tech, split over FY20/21. This is about double the cost they were expecting, and does not cover individual county costs.
Apparently there was a communications breakdown between the counties, the Motorola FIRST group, and the Motorola regional reps (who are not system guys-basically sales) - The counties did not get the cost to convert to ethernet in time to include in next year's budget requests. The ethernet conversion affects console connectivity at loca dispatch centers.
Board members want a five year plan / roadmap for all members so nobody gets surprised by upgrade costs at budget time. There was some palatable tension between board members and DoIT management.
County ROM pricing for the ethernet conversion:
$500k Talbot
$483 QAC
$470k Kent
$118k Dor
$71k Cecil
$68k Caroline
$79k Allegany
The costs were not broken down and are considered a bit suspect by some.
Last edited:
boatbod
Member
Unclear. From what I can tell, they have yet to transition the other users off the system.
boatbod
Member
A couple months back I was told Caroline fire sirens and some transportation agencies etc.
On Which TG? Can"t find the previous in my listings. Miss hearing the Low Band. Can only hear First from PG, when in range.
marksmith
Member
I thought this was me. Doing firmware upgrades and setting up favorites and clearing avoids, I thought I reactivated it, because I have had it avoided or locked out a year of so because it was such a screeching mess and annoying, especially as they started using First.
It popped up on a couple radios recently and I didn't find myself scrambling to avoid the noise. It actually sounds OK.
The TG on the AACO site is 6544. I notice it is no longer showing on Radio Reference. The tac channel was 18832. I don't know if that is set up to repeat what is on the First Glen Burnie tac channel or not, but it's probably encrypted if it is.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Last edited:
marksmith
Member
Followup.
6544 TGID on AACO site is a repeated ANALOG transmission of P/J Glen Burnie on digital channel 7358 on First.
42219 seems to come up as the Radio ID for all transmissions so definitely a patch.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
6544 TGID on AACO site is a repeated ANALOG transmission of P/J Glen Burnie on digital channel 7358 on First.
42219 seems to come up as the Radio ID for all transmissions so definitely a patch.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
@maus92
I would say the audio is good, probably better than before. Phase II to Analog does make the audio much softer.
@TopFlite
As @marksmith said, it is 6544. It is analog talkgroup. I will submit it to the database tonight. I guess it was removed since it has been inactive for a year plus.
@marksmith
As you said, the tac channel was 18832. It was used before FiRST and it was rarely used by Glen Burnie troopers. Weeks or months without use. It always seemed it was out of a area investigative units using it if I remember correctly. I have heard no activity on since the switchover to FiRST.
I would say the audio is good, probably better than before. Phase II to Analog does make the audio much softer.
@TopFlite
As @marksmith said, it is 6544. It is analog talkgroup. I will submit it to the database tonight. I guess it was removed since it has been inactive for a year plus.
@marksmith
As you said, the tac channel was 18832. It was used before FiRST and it was rarely used by Glen Burnie troopers. Weeks or months without use. It always seemed it was out of a area investigative units using it if I remember correctly. I have heard no activity on since the switchover to FiRST.
marksmith
Member
Has anyone tried using the new filters added to the sds100/sds200 in the last firmware upgrade with regard to monitoring First?
Did you find any particular filter to do a better job than others when monitoring the First system?
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Did you find any particular filter to do a better job than others when monitoring the First system?
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Mine are set to Norm, was previously set Off in the last v. I don't see a difference.
marksmith
Member
I have flipped around between the different filters, and on First I am also not noticing much of a difference. The biggest difference I think I am hearing is between off, normal and wide on phase 1 systems, and that might even be my imagination.
Phase 2, probably becsuse of the narrow nature, seems to have no effect. I seem to also have been defaulting globally to normal, but wide normal appears to be yhe only thing that sounds different.
Thanks. Just wanted to see what someone else thought and you confirmed my thoughts.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
I'm seeing activity on the MSP P/J TAC - TG 18832 on the AACo system this morning, in the clear according to UT2. Source RID prior to this month was either 55513 or 55512; now it is 42219.
marksmith
Member
Pretty strange to patch an encrypted channel on First to a retransmission in the clear.
Either a rare clear transmission on tac, which I doubt, or mistake on AACO?
Have to give a listen.
Mark
SDS100&200/536/436/WS1095/996p2/996xt/325p2/396xt/psr800/396t/HP-1/HP-2 & others
Was the TG unencrypted on the county system previously? I don't remember since I rarely monitor the state police (Annapolis PD is far more entertaining since they do actual small town / community policing vs. traffic stops.)
