Van Zandt County new 700 on its way

[WB5UOM]

For all those who like the adventure of discovering new systems and figuring them out , VZC's new toy is in the works.
5 Sites, 4 new towers and 1 leased.
FAA approval on 3 of the 4 with the 4th in the mill waiting to pop out.
Both LE and FIRE will be encrypted.
(Can't have those burn ban calls going out in the clear)
So, you all have fun, supposed to be turned up 3rd qtr 24.

Also, probably need someone to start a GoFund Me accout to get money to pay for annual maint on it.

 

[kmartin]

And how do you know that LE and FD will be encrypted ?

 

[WB5UOM]

Ok, I will restate that....
They are modeling after the Henderson County system, and it has pretty much been ouy there that 'E' will be used.

there.

 

[tomtexan]

There is no encryption on Henderson County fire TG's.

 

[WB5UOM]

Correct, they are not. And why VZC thinks fire should be is beyond me.
It may change before it gets started
time will tell.

 

[WB5UOM]

Have a feeling the Fire side encryption might go away...
LE side, I would say small chance of dispatch primary being clear...

Almost a half mil on Smartphone Licenses for world saving BeOn
in little, somewhat poor Van Zandt County. smh

 

[robinsonad]

There is no encryption on Henderson County fire TG's.

What scanner are you using to monitor HC?

 

[tomtexan]

Uniden SDS 200.

 

[Para078]

Have they moved to the new system? I'm not hearing anything on VHF.

 

[WB5UOM]

nope, still on 155.685.
supposed to move to new system I think 1st of January.

 

[nd5y]

ULS Application - PubSafty/SpecEmer/PubSaftyNtlPlan,806-817/851-862MHz,Trunked - 0011370232 - VAN ZANDT COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICE

 

[WB5UOM]

Yup finally....
and the mw backhaul was granted a week or so ago....
it'll be interesting to watch

 

[WB5UOM]

So the VZC Canton site is apparently up and using 851.0500 as cc.
000Ah-1101
guess the other 4 locations will start to pop up in the near future.

 

[Russell]

Van Zandt County P25 is staged. Keep the info and any corrections coming.

 

[KevinVZC]

Van Zandt County P25 is staged. Keep the info and any corrections coming.

I haven’t run my scanner (bcd436hp) in a while, so I just discovered this system yesterday through ULS search. I typically just use my scanner to listen to TVEC during power outages. I heard a couple radio checks from “radio service” on TG 995 yesterday. The response sounded like one of the county dispatchers, maybe Canton. County is still using the VHF channels. There have been numerous articles in the Van Zandt News about this system as recently as January ‘25. I’m not a subscriber, so I couldn’t read them. Now I have a reason to keep my scanner running.

 

[Russell]

Van Zandt County P25 is now public in the DB. Keep the info and any corrections coming.

 

[mwjones]

Van Zandt County P25 is now public in the DB. Keep the info and any corrections coming.

I just did a road trip down through Kaufman and Van Zandt counties today, and it looks like there's some inconsistencies between what is showing over the air vs. the license vs. RRDB.

First, here's the raw data as I received it today (was sitting on the North side of Canton logging this):

Network: 92BE9.00A

Bandplan #0: Base=851.01250 Offset=-45 Spacing=12.5 BW=12.5
Bandplan #8: Base=851.01250 Offset=-45 Spacing=12.5 BW=12.5 Slots=2


Site: 11.1 NAC=3F3

Channel 0-3: 851.05000 CC
Channel 0-47: 851.60000 SCC
Channel 0-87: 852.10000 SCC
Channel 0-129: 852.62500 SCC
Channel 0-189: 853.37500 SCC

As you can see, the WACN is reporting OTA 92BE9 and SysID of 00A, whereas RRDB is showing a WACN of 0000A and a SysID of 44D.

Site number OTA is RFSS 11 Site 1, whereas RRDB is showing RFSS 1 Site 1 (And I know L3/Harris typically has the RFSS and Site numbers the same, so what's showing OTA seems odd).

Finally, while 851.05 and 853.375 are on the license, the other three frequencies (851.6, 852.1, and 852.625) are not (nor are they licensed for anybody in North-East Texas). And of course, all 5 reports as Control Channel or Secondary Control Channel, as is typical in L3/Harris.

Could this be because they haven't finished configuring the system (especially since I didn't log any radios affiliating with it in the over an hour I was running logging on it)? I don't know the answer. But I also didn't want to just blindly submit an update to RRDB without some other's input.

 

[Russell]

I may not may not have had all the info when initially set up in the DB - so, I guessed.

 

[mwjones]

I may not may not have had all the info when initially set up in the DB - so, I guessed.

I think my call out in the previous message was more aimed at the L3/Harris team, since no radios affiliated with it, I would presume they are still in build out phase. The admins here at RRDB are all vulnerable to "Garbage In, Garbage Out", you can only use what you're given.

I tend to work on facts (I guess that's why I'm an engineer in my respective field) - you've seen the detailed submissions I send in, I leave nothing to chance. That's why I brought this discussion up in this thread, as my suspicions are still leaning on the errors being on the L3/Harris side, and RRDB is unfortunately stuck echoing what they've been given.

EDIT: I might add, at this time, I'm holding off submitting the above data as an update - I think I'll wait until there's reports of actual traffic on the system (either testing or production) and pay them another visit, where I will lock down what should be submitted to RRDB.

 

[WB5UOM]

Well I reported what I saw...
if I get home tonight at a reasonable hour I will see ehat I see.
Up until mid week last week I had my scanner in the truck parked on the 851.050 and seeing when it would lock on and decode the 000AH-1101 and it was very predictable on hwy 64 comming from Tyler.
We shall see