SDS100 & IMPD

[NESN]

Gonna step up & get a SDS100 (w/the Remtronics antenna) for future changes with Safe-T (Phase II) & some DMR & NXDN listening in Johnson County (Franklin). Currently using a Pro-197 & Pro 106 for Safe-T & IDPS. Safe-T working great but, IDPS is choppy most of the time. I'm guessing it's simulcasting issues as it was about the same on I-70 & Meridian the other day. Indygo, DPW, AES, Citizens come in better than Public Safety channels. Still learning the differences & quirks between System 1,2,3,& 4.
I'm looking for others experiences with the SDS100 & IMPD. I've read all the threads I could find for background. After much research, I've decided against the Unication G4/5 as the SDS100 has more monitoring flexibility. Mainly concerned with Johnson County Safe-T & IMPD, anything else will be as playtime allows. I see a vast base of knowledge here daily, so thank you in advance.

 

[INDaviation]

System 1 carries all public safety traffic in Marion County while System 2 is everything else in Marion County. System 3 is for Hamilton County and System 4 is for Madison County. I'm surprised you can get S1 at all in Franklin. Simulcast shouldn't be an issue with the SDS, especially considering how far outside of the system you are. I've been using an SDS100 on the Indy system and SAFE-T for over a year and a half and have no complaints. I think you'll find it works well for you. The only thing that you might have trouble with is conventional analog, but everything public safety-wise around here is P25.

 

[NESN]

On IDPS on any given day I can get 3,4, bars consistently and a CC decode of 80-95% with a R/S 800 mhz antenna on the 106 & the stock telescoping antenna on the 197, but it's choppy especially on System 1. I know the 106/197 doesn't do simulcasting but going down I-70 from I-65 to 465, there was little difference.

 

[Mattnik]

I'm curious, has JASO started using NXDN on their old VHF repeaters finally? 155.610 and 159.150? I knew they were tooling up for it when I left Johnson County Dispatch, but don't get down to Johnson County as much as I should. I see the DB shows NXDN but I was still hearing NFM from time to time, and I believe it was set up for some sort of dual use at least initially.

Matt

 

[INDY72]

JCSO does use the NXDN regularly as an admin, and car to car ch. They still use SAFE-T for all primary comms. JCFD rarely uses the NXDN much.

 

[Mattnik]

JCSO does use the NXDN regularly as an admin, and car to car ch. They still use SAFE-T for all primary comms. JCFD rarely uses the NXDN much.

When I was first told they were going to NXDN in mid 2018 (I was a dispatcher at Jo Co until Sept 2018) the assistant center director said that encryption would be available but not turned on by default. Not sure if he was just referring to NXDN as a protocol being DIGITAL or actual encryption, but he was a ham (so pretty radio aware). My bet is that it's not been enabled on the individual radios.

Thanks for the heads up @milf

 

[INDY72]

When I was first told they were going to NXDN in mid 2018 (I was a dispatcher at Jo Co until Sept 2018) the assistant center director said that encryption would be available but not turned on by default. Not sure if he was just referring to NXDN as a protocol being DIGITAL or actual encryption, but he was a ham (so pretty radio aware). My bet is that it's not been enabled on the individual radios.

Thanks for the heads up @milf

Encryption is user selectable, but as far as I can tell, has never been in use on the VHF's.

 

[NESN]

Got the SDS100. Using it happily with Full Database in Franklin, picking up IMPD,MCSO, IFD, Lawrence & Speedway easily. Picking up Barthlomew, Shelby, Morgan, Brown counties, DNR South, ISP Indy, ISP Bloomington easily.
My questions are: 1: on the line showing the Repeater, it samples Knight's Ridge, Wilkinson, Seymour, Rushville, Greenfield, Greensburg, Pendleton , & Hendricks County, along with the local towers. Obviously too far to recieve with a duck antenna. My distance is set to 10 miles. While I don't feel I'm missing too many transmissions, is there a way through Sentinel to omit these faraway repeaters?
2: I'm setting up Favorites Lists in Sentinel. When I download individual counties/agencies should I select the local Safe-T towers within reason or will the database County preset do this for me?
As I said I'm happy scanning the Full Database, but as always a few tweaks may help, but don't want to fix something that's not broken....

 

[ind224]

Would you try Hamilton Co for me as a favor? I'm thinking you are too far but just want to confirm.

 

[NESN]

Would you try Hamilton Co for me as a favor? I'm thinking you are too far but just want to confirm.

No Good, it samples Pendleton , Greenfield, Wilkinson & Hendricks County but does not stop.