New info about the Somerset Cty. TRS

[W2SJW]

Guys,

I had a few minutes last night at the Somerset County Fire Academy to talk to our county OEM coordinator before my amateur radio club meeting about the TRS. I was able to gleam two new bits of info from him:

#1 - Martinsville FD is in final prep to move operations to the TRS in analog mode and use UHF for alerting.

#2 - In regards to the north county PD's - Far Hills, Bedminister, & Peapack-Gladstone were supposed to all move up to the TRS simultaneously to allow continued mutual-aid inter-op as they do now on 506.3125, but I believe he told me that Far Hills is dragging their feet in getting their radios in for reprogramming. Bedminister & Peapack are about ready to move up without them. He also told me that Bernardsville is forever the stalwart - they were offered the TRS, but refuse to leave 39 MHz (somebody want to explain that one to me? It's not like that town can't afford the radios!)

The north PD's will be analog on the PD NORTH TGID, even though I've seen Peapack officers carrying XTS-1500's as portables...

 

[mikea7531]

Ahh, very good information. Nothing like getting the information directly from Roy. I also saw you updated the database with Watchung Police Ch. 2, do you have any more info on that?

Good work!

 

[W2SJW]

Not much more on Watchung. I was originally tipped off to the usage by Jim Robbins, and I heard them doing a bit of testing on the afternoon I made the update.

Their console has the channel as well. The last few HT's from some of the officers will be re-programmed for the new channel next week, I heard them say...

 

[robbinsj2]

The north PD's will be analog on the PD NORTH TGID, even though I've seen Peapack officers carrying XTS-1500's as portables...

XTS-1500 doesn't always mean digital trunking, right? I spec'ed out either a -1500 or -2500 (don't remember now) recently and the base model was digital conventional, with flash upgrades to analog trunking ($, includes dig/conv still) or digital trunking ($$). There was no outward indication what the firmware abilities were.

Watchung PD: F-4 is 12048. 12016 is somewhere in the mix, maybe F-8. F-3 is a digital tac (conventional) channel. F-14 is some ES channel, probably the 460.625 repeater.

Jim

 

[W2SJW]

Jim,

Thanks for the reply. I know on your page that 64016 is listed as F-3, but I heard them multiple times calling that TGID 'Channel 2'.

How did you figure out that this was Watchung? Were you able to hear locations/addresses that tipped you of to it being them?

Roy also said that he was trying to talk N Plainfield FD/EMS into the TRS or UHF-T for paging, because they are having to double-tone a lot these days on the current 460 MHz channel...

 

[robbinsj2]

I don't know how I had 64016 listed as F-3 -- maybe an error in transcribing my notes. I corrected it on my page Wednesday night. At one point (months ago) it was referred to as F-6, but more recently as F-2 and I heard the same stuff you did the other day. Did you hear their channel identifier for 12016?

The giveaway tying 64016 to Watchung was the identifier "328" (KUY328) when they were testing the consollettes, and finally confirming the F-1 they referred to is 472.125. I used to think, erroneously, that it was NPPD (also corrected on my site Wednesday).

I think I heard that Stn45 will be doing some coverage testing on the UHF paging channel tomorrow morning, and that they plan on fully switching over pretty soon. I thought all their routine ops are already trunked, so I guess that means paging is moving up too. As far as I know Stn46 is still all high-band (PL=100.0) except for a couple radios for coordination with 45.

Jim

 

[mikea7531]

Roy also said that he was trying to talk N Plainfield FD/EMS into the TRS or UHF-T for paging, because they are having to double-tone a lot these days on the current 460 MHz channel...

He can try to talk people into it, but most places just don't have the money for the radios. Even in my town, our squad and FD want to get onto trunking because Police is already there. At a few $1k per radio, it would just be an enormous burdon for the town. I just recently purchased VHF-Hi radios and pagers for the squad (8 CP-200's and 6 Min V, programming cradles and programming interface for the pagers) for just under $5k - paid by the squad, not by tax dollars.

Our local OEM is in the process of licensing a VHF-Hi repeater pair (weather or not we get the license because of the crowding in this area, we'll see). They're in the process of at least trying to get all of our agencies a common channel for where they can all communicate with each other in an emergency. As it stands now, FD and Squad have to go through County to talk to PD, DPW has to use nextels to talk to anyone, so it's a mess.

To make Somerset County totally interoperable, i think the Freeholders need to step up and start purchasing the radios for the agencies, or provide the funding for the municipalities to purchase them. For years to come, we're going to have a mix match of radios with people on Highband, UHF, Trunking, and for one police dept - Lowband .

We'll see what goes on....

 

[W2SJW]

BTW, talk about trying to save money - have you seen my latest update for Middlesex Boro? They're using the OEM repeater input freq. with a digital PL instead of 173.8 to facilitate the new FD repeater...

 

[nosoup4u]

I caught the DPL on the new UHF Paging freq today (470.1375). DCS074.

 

[W2SJW]

You caught action on the new paging channel? Who was getting toned-out if I might ask...

 

[nosoup4u]

I don't remember who was being paged out...I was paying more attention to the DCS code at the time. Whoever it was, it was a pager test around 12:30 this afternoon.

 

[mikea7531]

I don't believe there's a PL tone on the UHF paging frequency - I was searching for one too, but sometimes when the tones drop, the PL decoder mistakes them for PL and/or DPL tones, i remember seeing DCS074, PL186.2, PL88.3 - but they flipped around alot when tones were being broadcasted. As of today, here is who's being paged on UHF:

County HazMat
North Plainfield Fire - General Only

Future users are Martinsville Fire, and 45 Fire - Montgomery.

 

[mikea7531]

BTW, talk about trying to save money - have you seen my latest update for Middlesex Boro? They're using the OEM repeater input freq. with a digital PL instead of 173.8 to facilitate the new FD repeater...

Yes, i've known about the input for their Fire Repeater since they've came online, i had to reprogram some radios for the FD. I'm very confused on why they went that route.

 

[nabutes]

Montgomery EMS and Police will make a full transition to country TRS by Jan 1st, 2007.

Hopefully Sta46 will make a complete move by Feb '07. They are apparently having some funding issues...

 

[robbinsj2]

I just submitted some County and Franklin stuff to the database. One thing I haven't yet confirmed is 10128 -- the other day I heard a unit on there calling Vehicle Maintenance, asking if anyone was around. No response and no second attempt. I'm not sure if it is Vehicle Maintenance, or if they were on the wrong talkgroup.

Can anyone confirm?

Jim

 

[W2SJW]

I didn't see anything from you in the submissions section. Could you send it to me via PM and I'll get it entered...

 

[Newark777]

I've been listening to the Somerset County system on my Pro-97, and all the TG's are showing up in the XXX-XX format, usually starting with 101, and not the format in the database. I'm pretty sure I've entered everything correctly, as I am hearing conversations. Any advice?

 

[robbinsj2]

The update posted. I should clarify that 49904 was referred to by Franklin's fire inspectors as "FD 2", not Fire 2. Presumably FD stands for fire district or fire dispatch; so far it's just been used for chit-chat.

Also, for anyone keeping track, "Township Main Analog" is currently channel 2 in the inspectors portables.

Jim

 

[robbinsj2]

I don't believe there's a PL tone on the UHF paging frequency - I was searching for one too, but sometimes when the tones drop, the PL decoder mistakes them for PL and/or DPL tones, i remember seeing DCS074, PL186.2, PL88.3 - but they flipped around alot when tones were being broadcasted.

For the past couple weeks I thought I had been seeing a PL out of the corner of my eye, but never looked quickly enough to be 100% sure. Just now, though, they put out an open carrier then tones (no voice message), both of which came over with 167.9. Strong signal, no wobbling with the PL/DPL search, and it matches the PL on their interop repeater. I'll try to keep checking with other scanners, to make sure it is consistent.

Jim

 

[mikea7531]

I'm starting to notice a consistent PL tone on the UHF paging frequency as well - I've been noticing 167.9 as the PL - Maybe they finally added a PL to the freq?