Rome / Floyd P25 System

[RomeRon]

Floyd County & Cities debate funding for annual maintenance costs for the new 800 MHz countywide communications system.

Read more: RN-T.com news article.
RN-T.com - Cities county debate radio system funding

It's a shame it has come to this, fussing and arguing about who should pay the most when I don't remember anybody complaining when they were wanting a new system, that is a lame excuse for the City Manager to say we don't need ten tower because we don't cover that much area, but the city traffic will be ten times as much as the county's usage of the wear and tear on the equipment.

Calm down children you know mom and dad (citizens of floyd county) is going to pay for the up keep of your shiny new toy, that is what grown ups do, it's worth an extra dollar or two on the phone bill to keep a pacifier in the kids mouths, but I think they are spoiled beyond repair next the grown up will have to fork out another dollar or two to pacify their off the wall excuse for encryption software next.

Well I guess we can take Animal Control out of the RR database because I know they won't be able to pay to stay on the system, I was excited seeing all the talkgroups on the Cobb County Ga and the Alabama p25 systems and was thinking Floyd county and Rome, the school systems etc there will be alot to listen to, but burst my bubble, it doesn't look like we will have a whole lot of TG's to listen to after all.

 

[MTS2000des]

This is often one of the most overlooked factors of these complex digital radio systems, the long term operating costs per radio. Like anything, it sometimes doesn't make fiscal sense when you add up the cost over time.

I can't speak for the city of Marietta, but I suspect this is one of the main reasons why the city opted NOT to join the then new Cobb county DTRS for their non-public safety users (BLW, DOT, etc). The long term per radio cost was just too high. So high that the alternative of procuring and using their own VHF Passport system made better economic sense in the long run.

The cities in Floyd county are looking down the same pipe and seeing the same money sucking vacuum cleaner and have to make some tough decisions.

 

[kermit]

THE NEW P25 SYSTEM should be up and running on jan 22nd per a article on wrga radio wed site.

 

[codeplug]

As of today, Tuesday January 22, 2013.
Rome / Floyd County Police, Sheriff, Fire & EMS are now using the new 800 trunked radio system.

 

[rapidcharger]

Is it in the clear or are they hiding?

 

[dcr_inc]

It should be a standard P25 C-QPSK system (Linear Simulcast)..Very little encryption..

 

[codeplug]

Deleted.



.

 

[codeplug]

So far all of the TG's I have heard are in the clear but I did see a few TG's that had encryption.
They may be running mobile data some, have noticed private radio to radio traffic and some telephone interconnect calls.
Since they only have ten freq's it appears that the system may get overwhelmed pretty soon, there is a lot of traffic and not enough
freq.'s to go around to accommodate all of the TG's.
In my opinion they need at lest 15 or twenty freq.'s now or some of of them want be able to talk during peak radio usage.




.

 

[gfkeith]

Rome's New Trunking Systems went live today

Rome/Floyd County, Georgia's New $26 million dollar went live today. Listening one can tell that it is a work still in progress. It is a mixture of simulcast, conventional and digital communications. It appears that all public safety, public works, EMS(with the exception of Redmond) are all on board in some form or other. I hope that Williams Communications will get the Harris radios tune correctly before to long. I hear them still doing tests. I am using a GRE PSR 800 to listen.

 

[RomeRon]

Pro 106

My Pro 106 is useless while mobile, tried two different 800 MHz antennas and they are as useless as the 800 MHz rubber duck antenna that I bought for it. I think the 800 MHz rubber duck may be a little better than they are.

 

[gfkeith]

Rome/Floyd CountyTalk Groups for PSR 800

I have a list of all talk groups for Rome, however I can not figure out how to load them into my PSR800. I do have the partial list from GRE and RR loaded but not the ones that went live on 22 Jan. Do I need to wait until GRE updates the library? Help

 

[RomeRon]

I have a list of all talk groups for Rome, however I can not figure out how to load them into my PSR800. I do have the partial list from GRE and RR loaded but not the ones that went live on 22 Jan. Do I need to wait until GRE updates the library? Help

I sent you a PM.

 

[TheHaydenator]

Update and a few questions

Hey Everyone! I finally got my Uniden BCD396XT yesterday, and easily manually programmed it and its loud and as clear as the digital signal allows the voices to be lol.

I've also heard from my public safety friends that there are still many bugs in the system, but that Williams Comm. is giving people the time frame of 2 weeks before these issues are worked out and cleared up for both the system users, and scanner listeners.

So far, I've got the main public safety talkgroups working in it, meaning the ones listed here the other day when I inquired. I discovered this morning in addition to these, the alternate fireground channel for Rome Fire Department (Which used to be Tac-4 and was talkaround). The new Tactical/Fire Ground Fire Department Talk Group ID is 201, and can of course now be heard county wide.

I have also come across Talk Group ID 101, which occasionally has traffic and even radio tests, but I cannot identify who the talk group belongs to.

Finally, I for some reason cannot get the FC Prison or Jail frequencies to work. I know that they both have their own frequencies for each facility (both are listed on the main RR Floyd Co. Conventional Freq page now under the 800 section) but I cannot pick up any traffic. I know this for a fact, as one of my buddies is on duty at the jail, and was texting me when they had radio traffic, though my scanner which was on hold on the indicated frequency (853.3500) was totally silent. I tried to program it as a conventional frequency and then as another site on my scanner under the Floyd system, but still found silence. Can anyone help me with this? I could be programming it wrong, or the newly listed frequencies for the jail and prison might be incorrect.

 

[RomeRon]

Hey Everyone! I finally got my Uniden BCD396XT yesterday, and easily manually programmed it and its loud and as clear as the digital signal allows the voices to be lol.

I've also heard from my public safety friends that there are still many bugs in the system, but that Williams Comm. is giving people the time frame of 2 weeks before these issues are worked out and cleared up for both the system users, and scanner listeners.

So far, I've got the main public safety talkgroups working in it, meaning the ones listed here the other day when I inquired. I discovered this morning in addition to these, the alternate fireground channel for Rome Fire Department (Which used to be Tac-4 and was talkaround). The new Tactical/Fire Ground Fire Department Talk Group ID is 201, and can of course now be heard county wide.

I have also come across Talk Group ID 101, which occasionally has traffic and even radio tests, but I cannot identify who the talk group belongs to.

Finally, I for some reason cannot get the FC Prison or Jail frequencies to work. I know that they both have their own frequencies for each facility (both are listed on the main RR Floyd Co. Conventional Freq page now under the 800 section) but I cannot pick up any traffic. I know this for a fact, as one of my buddies is on duty at the jail, and was texting me when they had radio traffic, though my scanner which was on hold on the indicated frequency (853.3500) was totally silent. I tried to program it as a conventional frequency and then as another site on my scanner under the Floyd system, but still found silence. Can anyone help me with this? I could be programming it wrong, or the newly listed frequencies for the jail and prison might be incorrect.

101 is Berry College Police

 

[TheHaydenator]

Another little update: FCPD just reported they found a dead spot for the new system on Booger Hollow Road, and it was added to the list with the Bauxite Mine area in Shannon and Texas Valley, which goes to show theres still some more work and adjusting to do with the system

 

[rapidcharger]

Another little update: FCPD just reported they found a dead spot for the new system on Booger Hollow Road, and it was added to the list with the Bauxite Mine area in Shannon and Texas Valley, which goes to show theres still some more work and adjusting to do with the system

Well in fairness, it is Booger Hollow Road afterall. Dead spots are too be expected.:lol:

 

[RomeRon]

Well in fairness, it is Booger Hollow Road afterall. Dead spots are too be expected.:lol:

LOL, They will be ok as long as they don't see any headless horseman.

 

[gfkeith]

Rome/Floyd County has no secrets(very few) when it comes to the new radio system. I wish other citys felt the same way!
For Floyd County residents who listen to police and emergency radio traffic, their old analog scanners went the way of the 8-track player after last week’s switch to the countywide digital radio system.

Analog scanners that worked fine before are not compatible with the county’s new state-of-the-art APCO P-25 digital trunking system.

That’s a national standard for digital wireless communications products and shoppers should specifically ask merchants for a P-25-compliant scanner. Large chain retailers in the county like Kmart and Walmart said they don’t carry police scanners, but electronics stores do.

The new equipment won’t come cheap, according to two local merchants. “Scanners compatible with the new system cost three to four times as much as the old analog units, which are now completely obsolete,” said George Saade, owner of AC Specialty Electronics, 1038 N. Broad St.

AC Specialty Electronics carries two items — a handheld scanner and a unit that can be used as a base or mobile scanner — that are compatible with the county’s new system. Both types cost about $550.

Radio Shack, 2204 Shorter Ave., has had trouble keeping digital scanners in stock since the switch, according to sales associate Justin Stang.

Stang said his store has scanners compatible with the local digital trunking system on sale through Sunday for $379 and $499. The regular prices are $424.99 and $524.99.

One big difference between analog and digital scanners is the older units were much easier to program. Newer units have to be programmed with computer software and connecting cables.

“Most older scanners were fairly easy to program, but that’s not the case with these,” Saade said. “It’s virtually impossible to program them if you are not into electronics.”

Saade said scanners sold at his store are already programmed to pick up local frequencies.

“All you need when you get them from me is to turn them on,” Saade said.

At Radio Shack, their scanners are not programmed due to time restraints, Stang said.

“As soon as we have them in the store, they are gone,” he said.

Some customers have complained that their new scanner was too difficult to program, Stang confirmed.

Frequency codes needed to program digital scanners so they pick up local traffic are available on web sites like RadioReference.com - Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference.

Read more: RN-T.com

 

[TheHaydenator]

Another quick update to everyone. I decided to take my new scanner along on my trip to Atlanta yesterday to see how it did with the P-25 systems there and in Cobb. It did excellent. Even at interstate speeds there was barely any interference at all unlike what we all experiencing here in Floyd. It was all crystal clear with the exception of the digital voice distortion that happens everywhere. It's not just us scanner listeners either finding bugs with the Floyd System either, as I've heard too many complaints to count from my public safety friends.

All I can say, and I'm no expert on it, but everyone who's talked to Williams Comm. say that they've been told to give it time (The date of Valentine's Day has been tentatively thrown around) and these problems will clear up, as they are daily working on and fine tuning the system on everything from power and signal to volume. I believe them too, and I hope that when they do get it fined tuned finally, that it will be and sound just as good as those systems in Metro Atlanta.

When you think about it, it's a complicated and advanced system, so it's got to be tuned before it's perfect. You could buy the nicest and most accurate hunting rifle ever, but it's still not going to be perfect for you until you take it to the gun range and zero it in, lol. Same thing goes for the radio system. Just because they've worked on it for a year now, still doesn't mean it would be perfect as soon as they switched it on for public safety last month. It was then that the time to try it out and fine tune it actually began, and it will be a process that I expect will continue for a few weeks from now.

 

[Metrofire31]

Traveled thru Rome twice this weekend. Picked up the following:
402 - Floyd EMS Dispatch
54 - Rome Police
13 - Floyd County PD Dispatch
206 - Rome Fire Dispatch