San Antonio.

[Cowthief]

Hello.

San Antonio had been working on this for about a year now.
They have P25 up and running alongside ProVoice.
The FRN is 0001666833
New portables can do 700 and 800 Mhz, confirmed.
They use the MLK march as a disaster drill, and why not? this ends up in a large city park, closes off several major streets, and has thousands of people.
Did I say thousands? will half a million do?
They set up their command centers, helicopters, the whole bit.
More than once skinheads have tried to disrupt this event, pipe bombs, shotgun blasts, you name it, it has been tried.
As it is one of the largest marches in the nation it is a clear target, and with a black President more so than ever.
So, want to see every agency from the FBI to local cops get together? this is it!
And of course they bring their "toys".

 

[NC5267]

P25 running alongside ProVoice? I know the multi mode radios can do P25, Provoice and analog systems but the only P25 control channels are from the 700mhz SAUA system which has never been used and is not even built out all the way. Bexar County has the new XG-75 radios. I also have a friend who is very familiar with the SA/BC system and he has been told they will be P25 around the end of 2013 beginning of 2014 with the possibility of encryption. As with any systems plans can change at the last minute so we never know what will happen

 

[texasemt13]

P25 running alongside ProVoice? I know the multi mode radios can do P25, Provoice and analog systems but the only P25 control channels are from the 700mhz SAUA system which has never been used and is not even built out all the way.

The SAUA is operational, and was back in July 2011, as I discussed in this thread.

The only reason the PV and P25 work together is the VIDA switch, as I've explained before, in numerous other threads. They have this capability thanks to LCRA and LCRA only. I don't doubt one day thy will have their own functioning P25 system, but it's a ways off, and this satisifes their needs for now and the foreseeable future, because it works.

 

[NC5267]

The system is operational but I haven't logged any voice traffic in over a year. And the Vida switch is a great tool for interop but my source is with the city and says they have plans to change over to P25 around the end of the year and the start of 2014. BCSO has already upgraded to the new XG-75 multi mode radios and SAPD and FD are very slowly upgrading to new radios. I had heard EDACS systems are nearing the end of life around 2017 and the SA/BC system will be about 10 yrs old in 2014 so getting a jump on switching to P25 makes sense. But as with anything money can delay anything so by the end of the year who knows what could happen.

 

[mostinterestingman]

No $$ = no P25, and for sure not by 2014 even if funds were allocated today. Would have been nice to use the 47 Million 2007 bond surplus to upgrade this critical infrastructure, but we will pave a few roads instead.

Also, LCRA has absolutely nothing to do with the 5 700 MHz sites on the SA/BC system, it has the same interconnectivity as the EDACS side does, 6 conventional interfaces from SA to LCRA, period.

Once the ISSI is installed between LCRA & SA/BC things will be a bit more magical, but for now you have to play like the switchboard operator did in the 40's.

 

[otter9309]

100% spot on

 

[NC5267]

All true but the city put out their budget and a section does talk about making the radio system P25. It is a huge file and I lost what page it was on and could not get the full context of it due to my adobe freezing but here is the link.

http://www.sanantonio.gov/budget/documents/FY2013/FY 2013 Adopted Budget Document.pdf

 

[mostinterestingman]

The budget only mentions grant monies received from the assistance to fire firefighters grant, which is a bit over a million and wont even cover all of the Dept's subscriber units, much less the infrastructure. P25 is WAY out for SA. write it on a rock

 

[texasemt13]

Read page 51 under "P25" in this link, which shows the layout and some plans as recognized and paid for by AACOG.

Pages 303 and 304 explain why I believe the rest of AACOG and even SA/BC's P25 system will use LCRA's VIDA gateway. It just makes sense, it has the capacity.

 

[NC5267]

I forgot about that Kimball study, that explains things a little better. It also said Live Oak was going P25 around 2015 but I guess with the LCRA system being built out they made the switch early. All of the agencies got new radios pretty quick so I guess they all found money somewhere. The new 7300's and 5400's are not cheap.

 

[mostinterestingman]

the 5 site SA/BC 700MHz overlay is controlled by the 2 VIDA switches SA/BC got on the 2007 PSIC Grant that funded the 5 sites, redundant switches, and some radios. Nothing at all to do with LCRA.. Once the ISSI's are in place between the major systems in the state then REAL roaming can occur without having to manage a monstrous database of UID's from all over the state.

 

[texasemt13]

Here's another reason I assume, they're connecting through LCRA's VIDA switch (read number 11 on this document). It says "Connecting to the City of Austin through LCRA will allow us to connect to Harris COunty Regional Radio System and East Texas Medical Center Regional Raido System.

Admittedly, under #13, it says "they" will procure 2 VIDA switches... (and CoSA is the lead on this)...

I'm not sure of your sources, and I'll admit mine is pure speculation based on what clues I can dig up (as credible as that may or may not be), but you very well could be right.

So in what way is SA connecting "through" LCRA?