Sacramento P25 system

[mcjones2013]

Sacramento Sheriff purchase of P25 radios

Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting on September 22, 2015:

Sacramento Sheriff to purchase 1,169 mobile APX6500's and 2,183 portable APX6000's from Motorola.

Board packet attached:

 

[KG7PBS]

I am sad to see SSD buying the APX6000, they should have gotten the APX7000XE 800/700/VHF

 

[mcjones2013]

I am sad to see SSD buying the APX6000, they should have gotten the APX7000XE 800/700/VHF

I thought they would've bought the 7000 800/700/VHF at least to talk to surrounding counties (minus San Joaquin).


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[mkewman]

Not that it matters, but the officers would've HATED that antenna on the 7000XE tribander.

 

[KG7PBS]

I am sick and tired of cops complaining about the size of the antenna on the radio they don't like it then they can go back to the 60's and don't carry a radio at all

 

[mkewman]

I am sick and tired of cops complaining about the size of the antenna on the radio they don't like it then they can go back to the 60's and don't carry a radio at all

From the standpoint of an engineer, I understand your comment. However, from an administrative and political point of view I look at it this way:

It's enough of a nightmare getting some end users to migrate over to new radios and technology (the "I'll give you my MTS2000 when you can pry it from my cold dead hands" mentality) and they're going to complain no matter what. Give them less to complain about and you waste less time and money dealing with BS problems.

Also, the system is patched with other agencies systems and has decent coverage outside of the county. Should the need arise for them to communicate with outside agencies with a handheld, the patch will do a good job. It won't be perfect, but there is VERY LITTLE chance they will be in a foot pursuit outside the jurisdiction (in fact I'm sure most department policies say; outside your jurisdiction, let the department in the jurisdiction take the lead) If protocol is followed, the agency handling the jurisdiction you are entering in a situation should already be aware and have units joining by the time you get there, and if they don't have units involved by the time you are in a fringe area, someone screwed up big-time.
How often do you see a lone SSD unit in rural east placer county by itself (and not transporting a prisoner). Never!

The cost of those patches is much less than upgrading to a dual band or triband radio for every officer. Not sure what the county or city purchased for vehicles... but wouldn't be surprised if it's a dual bander.

Also, remember there are various conventional 800 mhz repeaters all around the state. Those can be easily patched on demand as well. And in the future, CHP's 700mhz repeaters will be networked as well. Everything will be connected. Yeah, it's not ideal, but if something happens, there's still a way (with backup) to be connected to someone and that's existing infrastructure that the federal government paid for with grants anyway. (Post 9/11 Interop Grants) All that has to happen is that it gets patched.

 

[NorCalrescue]

And in the future, CHP's 700mhz repeaters will be networked as well. Everything will be connected.

Do you have anything that can confirm the 700MHz CHP repeater migration? Or is it just hearsay at this point?

 

[mcjones2013]

County Telecom was doing some radio testing on Systemwide Tac 13 this morning with Fire Dispatch Radio Service, somewhere down in the south area it sounds like, both on the analog system and the P25 system (based on radio IDs and what they were saying). Possibly doing some testing for River Delta/Isleton fire, as they are joining on with SRFECC dispatching and leaving Solano Sheriff dispatching. Not sure what they'll do with the numbering on those stations yet.

One thing I found interesting, is the telecom guy said he was coming in on Site 12 Simulcast County South, and then another transmission on Twitchell Island Repeater.

My guess based on that is Site 12 is County South, Site 11 is County North?

Here is a video of the recording: https://youtu.be/tTyKddNfoIE

 

[mkewman]

Do you have anything that can confirm the 700MHz CHP repeater migration? Or is it just hearsay at this point?

Did I say anything about CHP Migrating?

I just said networked to 700 MHz repeater systems.

 

[mcjones2013]

Site 13 has popped up on Unitrunker as a peer site to the P25 system. My guess is it's the Twitchell Island site. I was down in Walnut Grove the other day and a 774.63125 was coming in strong as what appeared to be a P25 trunking signal, but I wasn't able to stay long enough to see if any traffic came over it. I'm planning on taking a laptop down there in the next couple of days to run Unitrunker and see what frequencies pop up for this new site.

FYI, starting today, River Delta Fire and Isleton Fire are now being dispatched by Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center. Their inclusion into the system was dependent on radio coverage being added down in the Delta region, which the Twitchell Island tower was supposed to fulfill. My guess is this Site 13 popping up on Unitrunker is this site. River Delta/Isleton are obviously talking directly on the P25 system according to the unit ids that appear on the system when they talk.

 

[mcjones2013]

Nevermind, guess I won't be needing to head down to the Delta area. I ran Unitrunker on the frequency I found last week and can amazingly get it from my apartment in Rosemont. Here are the frequencies it's showing. Also, Site 11 has disappeared from the list of peer sites from both Site 12 and now Site 13.

EDIT: And now more channels:
769.10625, 770.58125, 771.05625, 771.50625, 771.88125, 772.33125, 772.70625, 773.48125a, 773.88125a, 774.23125a, 774.63125c

 

[SCPD]

I am sad to see SSD buying the APX6000, they should have gotten the APX7000XE 800/700/VHF

Why do you say that? The specs on both look very similar, although the 7000's are an ounce lighter.

 

[mcjones2013]

SRRCS is trying to speed things up

It looks like at the next County Board of Supervisors meeting, that D-Tech (Dept. of Technology) is going to request the funding to speed up the last phases of the project, as many of the subscribers (radios) are ready to transition to the new system.

Here is a copy of the board packet.

 

[mcjones2013]

Sacramento Regional Fire has added and are using their new P25 compliant consoles. That last agencies that need to convert from the Gold Elite consoles are Citrus Heights, Galt and Elk Grove, who have all gone in together and purchased them, they're just needing to be installed.

 

[325xia]

I'm hearing a lot more P25 use on Sacramento Regional. I wonder how much longer before they stop simulcasting analog altogether?

 

[kma371]

I'm hearing a lot more P25 use on Sacramento Regional. I wonder how much longer before they stop simulcasting analog altogether?

I've heard more than a year. SSD and SPD haven't started the migration.

 

[KG7PBS]

I know they system is ready for them, now they just need to add the rest of the prescriber equipment to the Communication Center and vehicles. I know my Harris P7200 works well on non affiliation scanning of the System.

 

[mcjones2013]

Sacramento Regional Fire has added and are using their new P25 compliant consoles. That last agencies that need to convert from the Gold Elite consoles are Citrus Heights, Galt and Elk Grove, who have all gone in together and purchased them, they're just needing to be installed.

All agencies including Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt and Regional Transit have transitioned to the new MCC7500 P25-compliant consoles.

 

[KG7PBS]

Well all they need to do is. Give them the rest of the prescriber units and start using the new system

 

[WB6WQF]

How much of the system is currently active? I monitored all of the city fire TGs for about 4 hours today and didn't hear a peep.