Troop L Talk Groups

[Cheeseburgers]

Anyone else observe this... doesn't matter if I am listening on Troop L Simulcast site or H... everything is usually pretty clear and non offensive sounding but when I do hear some digital distortion or total break up of a call it is almost ALWAYS a Troop L TG..

I am usuing 4 x Nooelec Smart NESDR and SDRTrunk.

Pretty much everything else sounds nice and clear but man... Troop L TGs seem to always go BLEEEERRRRPPPP Ldkjasdlkajsldkjasd anyone observe this?

 

[n1ofj]

L is tough territory. Perhaps it is the units themselves. Personally, I get H, I, L, G, F at better than -65 dBm. With Zero BER

 

[Cheeseburgers]

Yeah I am thinking that it has to be, I dunno... I will say that the only radios capable of listening to Troop H Simulcast from my office have been the P25rx or multiple SDR dongles, they do the best.

 

[n1ofj]

My experience has been it's all in the antenna system, as well as the equipment. My antenna system for 700/800 is fed by hardline using commercial antennas. 700/800 Mhz carries farther than you think. I see that frequently, especially on old smartnet systems. And yes, there can be conflicts on P25.

 

[PD47JD]

L is tough territory. Perhaps it is the units themselves. Personally, I get H, I, L, G, F at better than -65 dBm. With Zero BER

Where are you located? What are you using for receiving equipment? and last but not least, the antenna...height, make and model?

 

[Cheeseburgers]

I am in the Farmington Valley, Troop L Site comes in here the best, strong signal, 4 x NOOELEC Smart SDR dongles, each with a shure 774mhz - 860mhz antenna, its not all the time but always appears to me a Troop L portable

 

[cg]

Perhaps when the new H Simulcast Avon Site goes online you will get it better. I have noticed that H Simulcast freq 852.4125 on my SDS200 (1.5 miles line of sight) and DSDPlus (6 miles) is often crappy signal. I figure interference of some sort.

 

[SVFD440]

Perhaps when the new H Simulcast Avon Site goes online you will get it better.

Where is this going?

 

[Cheeseburgers]

Is Avon itself going on it?

 

[cg]

Huckleberry Hill transfer station. It should also improve coverage in the Burlington/Canton Rt 4/Rt 179 area
All of Avon will be on CLMRN rather than their own trunked system.

 

[MarkB513]

Huckleberry Hill transfer station. It should also improve coverage in the Burlington/Canton Rt 4/Rt 179 area
All of Avon will be on CLMRN rather than their own trunked system.

Great, I look froward to better monitoring of the fire department from Bloomfield. I receive the main tower extremely staticky and of course because of my location, the secondary tower extremely clear. I won't miss that scenario. Any idea of the time period for it all?

 

[Cheeseburgers]

AFAIK I thought Avon never officially signed on but I trust CG to know more than me on this

 

[cg]

No firm time line, sounds like they will try to get it done sooner rather than later.
They just got CT Siting Commission approval so that is probably the last political hurdle.

https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CSC/3_Petitions-medialibrary/Petitions_MediaLibrary/MediaPetitionNos1501-1600/PE1547/PetitionerSubmissions/PE1547-20230113-SBAResponsetoCouncilInterrogs.pdf

 

[55engine]

Question about avon are they going to use the 700 MHz frequencies that they got approved for just like New Britain and Bridgeport and I know this is a different thread, but I was just wondering if Newington is going to be in the process of switching to the state as well? Thank you

 

[cg]

They are going to use the Troop H simulcast Site frequencies. And no, I don't know what they are going to do with the channels they licensed for the system.

 

[55engine]

ok

 

[n1chu]

No firm time line, sounds like they will try to get it done sooner rather than later.
They just got CT Siting Commission approval so that is probably the last political hurdle.

https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CSC/3_Petitions-medialibrary/Petitions_MediaLibrary/MediaPetitionNos1501-1600/PE1547/PetitionerSubmissions/PE1547-20230113-SBAResponsetoCouncilInterrogs.pdf

While I’m pleased that Avon has finally decided their path towards improving comms, it raises a question as how will it relate to other Farmington River Valley towns… when it comes time for system/equipment upgrades. Will Farmington, Canton and Simsbury follow suit and join CLMRN? (Simsbury just went through a review/upgrade on their existing UHF system so they may not be interested, at least not likely to be the first to follow Avon but I suspect when the time comes, all of the surrounding towns will be giving CLMRN a long hard look…

While on the subject, these valley towns heavily depend upon mutual aid. If they were all CLMRN, I suppose different talkgroups would be established. But what happens before all M/A towns are CLMRN? I know this is all hypothetical but the topic is interesting…

 

[Firebuff66]

How do they do it now?
Do the Avon trucks have UHF and VHF radios for Dispatch and M/A now?
If so, you leave those radios and put the new CLMRN radio in and your all set

A few departments around me are upgrading and Putting 1 APX6500 for their primary system and 1 APX8500 all loaded out for M/A
I did see the Price for one of the trucks with that set up with dual heads on both radios (Cab & Pump Panel) and it was a little over $13k
Done and Done

 

[n1chu]

How they do it now is only part of the equation. And while it allows us to know what we have presently and what we will want to keep, my question should ask what’s available with CLMRN? Sorry if I was vague on that. I realize they would utilize existing until they build out the entire system but wondered what others that are already on CLMRN are doing for those county and M/A conventional channels, basically, any patches they currently enjoy and would like to keep. I expect the ideal method would be to assign TG’s to these and have the CLMRN backbone handle patches to those county and M/A channels… but does anyone have knowledge of how? The West Hartford PD has those additional channel radios in a rack, wired to the dispatch consoles. I don’t know if these additional channels can be activated by the on scene IC when needed or if dispatch has to be notified…

Just wondering hypothetically speaking, how Avon would ideally set up their node on the net if money were no object. (You mentioned a $13K install for a single vehicle, Wow!)

 

[cg]

The radios are expensive but when you are putting them into $1,000,000 pumpers is doesn't seem as bad. Of course, that is if there is only one expensive radio and no mobile extender.

This is the big problem with all these departments doing their own thing. Avon FD does more and more automatic aid with neighboring towns yet is going to a band that only the neighbor they utilize the least, West Hartford, uses. So, are they buying a new system and then what, do repairs on the old system to maintain mutual aid communications? Perhaps the neighbors will use Intercity for responses and not monitor the Avon Dispatch but wait for a dispatcher to relay information?

Could be that when Simsbury did their upgrade, they met with all the neighboring towns including Avon and discussed responses and communications and their upgrade and Avon's upgrade is all part of a master plan that will yield seamless communications to all the towns in the valley...
And they lived happily ever after. The End.