Spotsylvania

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Dafe1er

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Talked to a buddy who is a Sheriff for Spotsy and got to see the new Harris XG-75 radios they were given last week. Cute little radio but not looking like it will hold up if dropped a few times. This person does not know if they are going to throw encryption on yet or not but said the vehicle units are just about done switching out old radios and so are the Deputies. So, get ready, if they throw the switch we will only have Spotsy and Fredericksburg Fire to hear around town....until something new comes along.

Type of radio:
http://harrisradio.com/products/xg-75p/
 

Dafe1er

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I am having a brain problem today. Can you explain how I would go about scanning for the new Spotsylvania system with my HP-1? I'm thinking I am getting old...lol

For some reason my mind keeps making me select the following;
Select Manage favorites>Database to monitor>Only full database.

Then I do;
Advanced menu>Advanced Option>Discovery>Trunking>And select either the wilderness or simulcast sites.
Now, I am not thinking this is how I will find the new system since it is scanning the EDACS system correct?

So, I setup a conventional discovery for freq's starting at 800.000 all the way up to 900.000 Ran a scan over night the other night and only caught the same channels listed in the DB for the simulcast.

I am currently doing a Conventional discovery for the 700"s freq's the same way as listed above.

So, what am I missing in my pea sized brain?

Thanks.
 

N4VKF

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Spotsylvania Programming

I am having a brain problem today. Can you explain how I would go about scanning for the new Spotsylvania system with my HP-1? I'm thinking I am getting old...lol

For some reason my mind keeps making me select the following;
Select Manage favorites>Database to monitor>Only full database.

Then I do;
Advanced menu>Advanced Option>Discovery>Trunking>And select either the wilderness or simulcast sites.
Now, I am not thinking this is how I will find the new system since it is scanning the EDACS system correct?

So, I setup a conventional discovery for freq's starting at 800.000 all the way up to 900.000 Ran a scan over night the other night and only caught the same channels listed in the DB for the simulcast.

I am currently doing a Conventional discovery for the 700"s freq's the same way as listed above.

So, what am I missing in my pea sized brain?

Thanks.

I know that you have to choose a bank and program all of the frequencies in order they appear in the scanning order listed in the database. Hit scan and let it hit on the control channel. Then I hit the trunk button on my bc 245... I am not familiar with the programming on the HP1
 

Dafe1er

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I know that you have to choose a bank and program all of the frequencies in order they appear in the scanning order listed in the database. Hit scan and let it hit on the control channel. Then I hit the trunk button on my bc 245... I am not familiar with the programming on the HP1


While I know you do not have a HP-1, maybe someone with one could chime in on the following?

So, then I should take and create a folder and only list the freq's from the DB in that folder and scan it that way? In this case I would make two folders, one for Simulcast and the other for Wilderness?

And when you say in order, do you mean start at the top left corner of the listed freq's in the DB and go from left to right and down from there?

I never programed a scanner like that so this is new to me.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!
 

N4VKF

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While I know you do not have a HP-1, maybe someone with one could chime in on the following?

So, then I should take and create a folder and only list the freq's from the DB in that folder and scan it that way? In this case I would make two folders, one for Simulcast and the other for Wilderness?

And when you say in order, do you mean start at the top left corner of the listed freq's in the DB and go from left to right and down from there?

I never programed a scanner like that so this is new to me.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

yes from left to right.
 

fredva

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Keep in mind that when the new system comes online, separate programming for Wilderness and Simulcast may go away. They are greatly expanding the number of towers with the new system, and there is a good chance all those towers will share the same frequencies.
 

Dafe1er

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Keep in mind that when the new system comes online, separate programming for Wilderness and Simulcast may go away. They are greatly expanding the number of towers with the new system, and there is a good chance all those towers will share the same frequencies.

Good point, this is why I was thinking of doing the separate folders to scan each system. If they do away with the two sites would the entire group of listed freq's be used or will they be able to randomly use any of the listed freq's and those not used will be deleted?

Thanks for the help guy's. Merry Christmas,
 

fredva

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Good point, this is why I was thinking of doing the separate folders to scan each system. If they do away with the two sites would the entire group of listed freq's be used or will they be able to randomly use any of the listed freq's and those not used will be deleted?

Thanks for the help guy's. Merry Christmas,

It's hard to say, but I would think they would keep and use as many frequencies as would be technically possible. More frequencies = more capacity.
 

mmiller7

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Any word on when they will switch to P25?

Never -- what our amateur radio club heard (waiting for them to do a tower climb to replace our antenna while installing new CO equipment) is they will convert to ProVoice which AFAIK nothing can scan.
 

fredva

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Never -- what our amateur radio club heard (waiting for them to do a tower climb to replace our antenna while installing new CO equipment) is they will convert to ProVoice which AFAIK nothing can scan.

ProVoice is EDACS digital, which Spotsylvania already has/had on a few talkgroups. EDACS is approaching end of life; it will no longer be supported by the manufacturer after another 3 years or so. Spotsylvania awarded a $20+ million contract to build a P25 trunking system in part because the current EDACS system had to be retired in a few years. Therefore, it doesn't make sense for them to be switching to ProVoice at this point in time.
 

mmiller7

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ProVoice is EDACS digital, which Spotsylvania already has/had on a few talkgroups. EDACS is approaching end of life; it will no longer be supported by the manufacturer after another 3 years or so. Spotsylvania awarded a $20+ million contract to build a P25 trunking system in part because the current EDACS system had to be retired in a few years. Therefore, it doesn't make sense for them to be switching to ProVoice at this point in time.

That's interesting, do you happen to have a link? I'll have to inquire at the next club meeting if anyone has heard more about the possibility of P25 - there was someone on our repeater committee I think had a POC for the county status to coordinate tower climbing with them and last meeting I heard any update they were talking ProVoice. Maybe this also explains the perpetual delays in the tower climb and equipment installs we've been waiting to piggyback on.
 

fredva

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There are also some documents on the Spotsylvania County web site, such as the request for proposals: https://www.google.com/url?q=http:/...ds-cse&usg=AFQjCNEpKKwURchTey87MpJO0dndftuRWA

Your ham club may have some visibility into when the county's new system might be approaching the testing phase. If the county is still putting equipment on towers, then we probably won't be hearing any testing until that's done.
 

mmiller7

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Yes, we share space on a Soptsy tower, and in October-ish 2014 they were climbing "soon" to add antennas and make adjustments in several climbs during which our club was going to have them test coax then replace our ham antenna the next climb. To the best of my knowledge, it has not yet taken place, and we are still waiting for them to do the climb.
 

mmiller7

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Slight update to this, about 2 weeks ago the tower repairs were completed (at the site I'm aware of) so it was safe for climbers to go up. They replaced our Amateur repeater antenna, but I'm not sure the status of the county's stuff. The rep for the county that was organizing the climb for our equipment swap wasn't at the last club meeting so I didn't get a chance to even attempt asking about their "new" system...unfortunately.

I would speculate they probably installed whatever they needed for the county on the tower at the same time, because I doubt they would have the climbers come out more than once. But that's just speculation. I know there's going to be another point our club will have to move our equipment to a new "shed" at the site but I would assume the county wouldn't have to move anything, just install whatever new radios that they are procuring. Again, speculation.
 
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