VSP - Hogback Mnt. Down

[mike_s104]

While on Skyline Drive, I was hearing VSP on their Tac freq stated there was problems with the Hogback site, stated it was completely down. While on RT211, heard two troopers talking. Once said that SIRS was being used a lot and if the other trooper wanted, to stop at a local PD and see if he could borrow a radio (I guess the local agencies' radio to have at least something).

 

[rfburns]

Pinnacle was also down for about three hours. Hq could hear, but not transmit.
Warren Co also moved off of the Linden SMR to the Emergency Channel yesterday during the fatal shooting incident. Units said they could not hear dispatch. It sounded like a problem with the control station being quite noisy into the system. They were still off the SMR this morning. Front Royal PD stayed on the SMR. Tonight during the manhunt Warren Co is operating on 39.84.

 

[mike_s104]

Pinnacle was also down for about three hours. Hq could hear, but not transmit.
Warren Co also moved off of the Linden SMR to the Emergency Channel yesterday during the fatal shooting incident. Units said they could not hear dispatch. It sounded like a problem with the control station being quite noisy into the system. They were still off the SMR this morning. Front Royal PD stayed on the SMR. Tonight during the manhunt Warren Co is operating on 39.84.

Don't you love that the old 40 YO technology is the "backup" for todays technology. Clarke Co. better hand on to their old systems

Is all the above on the Hogback Mountain tower/site? They all seem to be having the same issue.

 

[AES-256]

Linden SMR is located on Blue Mountain along with 90 other services covering everything fom DC to Sunlight in the RF spectrum. Hogback MTN. is located 15+ miles to the SW.

Emergency for Warren County SO is another talkgroup on the Linden SMR as is Sheriff 2....I don't know what the Talkgroup is for these two since I listen in on the South End Conventional repeater that repeats whatever talkgroup is being used.

I aggree with control station issue yesterday.......dispatch had trouble getting into the repeater while units in the field had no issue.

 

[rfburns]

Emergency for Warren County SO is another talkgroup

I'm not sure, but I believe it is 1-12-060. That is what they are operating on this morning.

 

[WA4MJF]

Didn't VSP keep their lowband system like NCSHP did for problems like this?

Gee, can't remember but 39.50 rings a bell.

 

[MOTORHEAD3902]

No LowBand in VSP comms except for SIRS 39.54.
SIRS only provides a link with localities and other SIRS users, and VSP dispatch centers do not have that capability.

 

[mike_s104]

No LowBand in VSP comms except for SIRS 39.54.
SIRS only provides a link with localities and other SIRS users, and VSP dispatch centers do not have that capability.

I remember 39.5000MHz as another common freq. from a long time ago.

 

[Samuel]

No LowBand in VSP comms except for SIRS 39.54.
SIRS only provides a link with localities and other SIRS users, and VSP dispatch centers do not have that capability.

Thats interesting....I would have thought the dispatchers would have had access to SIRS in case they needed communicate with localities in a disaster / major incident where landlines were unavailable or impracticable. I know Division 7 has PMARS capability but hey its a trade off because none of us local agencies up here have SIRS in our cars so we cant talk to the troopers directly....oh well such is life

 

[AES-256]

Sam,
why doesn't Prince William put SIRS back on? They are the only DISP. Center that doesn't have it. Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax Disp. Centers and select SO vehicles for these counties all have SIRS.

I know that in many conversations with Troopers, they were not aware of all of us having SIRS online. For us in Fairfax, putting SIRS back online was nothing more then a Motorola CDM 1250 on Tone remote and a new antenna 150 feet up in the air.

I know there is going to be question, for the SO in Fairfax, I place Kenwood TK-6110 in the cars and no they just don't have SIRS programmed in them.

 

[Samuel]

To be honest I wasnt even aware that PSCC didnt still have access to SIRS until you told me. I just know that none of us in the field have lo-band radios for it or even a patch like fairfax has. I don't know why we dont have a patch. My guess would be they dont want a permanent patch taking up air time. As an aside...you can have all the mutual aid frequencies in the world but if they are not used it doesnt matter. My dispatchers have told me numerous times that it is impossible to raise Fairfax on PMARS.

 

[ACU1000]

you can have all the mutual aid frequencies in the world but if they are not used it doesnt matter

There has always been a disconnect with SIRS and the big metro areas who tried to implement thier own mutual aid nets (NoVA and Tidewater.) The result is the above effect - one or the other or both don't get used by all and the system(s) become ineffective. Its amazing that rural Virginia towns, counties, and cities dont have these problems and SIRS remains an effective tool for Inter-departmental communications.

 

[mike_s104]

There has always been a disconnect with SIRS and the big metro areas who tried to implement thier own mutual aid nets (NoVA and Tidewater.) The result is the above effect - one or the other or both don't get used by all and the system(s) become ineffective. Its amazing that rural Virginia towns, counties, and cities dont have these problems and SIRS remains an effective tool for Inter-departmental communications.

rural VA towns, cities, and counties don't try to improve what works. OR, they don't have the funding to draw the interest of contractor that sells them something they don't need or will use.

 

[ACU1000]

rural VA towns, cities, and counties don't try to improve what works

Amen friend.

 

[Samuel]

I agree...however to be fair, for what its intended for PMARS is great...It gets used when major incidents occur for the comm centers to communicate effectively and they do roll calls to ensure everyone's equipment works. During the sniper incident it was used very effectively to clearly communicate info between agencies at all levels in VA, DC and MD. I just believe there is a place for both. SIRS would be nice to have to communicate with VSP and Stafford as they are the only two jurisdictions in the area that are on 800mhz. It also would be nice to have when everything else fails since it doesnt require a repeater. Overall we have pretty good interop capability here in NoVa. I have just about every other jurisdiction in my radio.