UMESC Current Status

[maus92]

I've been doing some monitoring of this system over the past few days. It seems that they have reduced active channels to six, even though they are licensed for 10 frequencies. The active channels are: 851.5875; 851.8000; 852.5750; 853.4250; 853.6750; 853.9875. The current cch is 853.6750. This *seems* to indicate that the system may have replaced old base radios with a GTR8000 "six-pack" config that is typically seen with recent Moto systems (enabling any more channels would require another GTR8000 subsystem + associated hardware.) Please post if anyone has any more details before I submit this data to the RRDB.

TG 304 Transportation 3 (TC) was the only active user I noted - MSP doesn't seem to patch to this system any more.

 

[jkahn]

If you are referring to the Tri-County Eastern Shore Consortium It was my understanding that they started moving all Police/Sheriff trafff\ic to FiRST system about 6-8 months ago., and most was being encrypted. MSP was already on FiRST. The fire/EMS and local government wee still active on old system late last year.

 

[maus92]

Indeed. All the local LEOs moved to FIRST and are now fully encrypted - seems to be a fetish with smaller departments in more rural areas (also fewer licenses that need to be purchased.) MSP routine ops remain in the clear, but they are no longer crosslinked on UMESC.

 

[boatbod]

Coincidentally I was just playing around with the control channel last night...
I haven't heard any official updates regarding plans for this system in a while. Originally it was going to be fully upgraded to a P25 core and repurposed for digital paging and backup in case FiRST failed, but then digital paging moved directly to FiRST which is altogether more useful. Last I heard there were still some Caroline stations using UESC for siren control, and maybe some (DCT?) buses.

 

[maus92]

Coincidentally I was just playing around with the control channel last night...
I haven't heard any official updates regarding plans for this system in a while. Originally it was going to be fully upgraded to a P25 core and repurposed for digital paging and backup in case FiRST failed, but then digital paging moved directly to FiRST which is altogether more useful. Last I heard there were still some Caroline stations using UESC for siren control, and maybe some (DCT?) buses.

Is there any talk about / need for Talbot Fire installing DVRS in vehicles to provide better indoor coverage for portable subscribers? That *could* be a use for orphaned 800 freqs.

 

[boatbod]

Is there any talk about / need for Talbot Fire installing DVRS in vehicles to provide better indoor coverage for portable subscribers? That *could* be a use for orphaned 800 freqs.

Last time the subject came up I recall tech services were looking in to equipping one DES vehicle with a mobile FiRST repeater (possibly a DVRS?) which could be brought on site for an incident if needed. For the most part the only coverage issues I'm aware of have been dealt with by deploying ASRs (e.g. Bozman) and building-specific repeaters (e.g. St Michaels School). There was talk of possibly needing something for the new Easton Elementary buildings, but that was a few months back before they were finished.