help wanting to setup a radio gateway

[bladenfireman22]

im wanting to setup a radio gateway of some sort for my fire dept so we can use our phones to talk on our county p25 system but cant figure out want im going to need we have kenwood mobiles and portables and some motorola mobiles and portable radios any help will be appreciated. Thanks

 

[candlercoso]

Tango tango is a great service for this. We use it to extend our radio system for out of range users. it has a ton of other features. Great for supplemental comms.

 

[mmckenna]

so we can use our phones to talk on our county p25 system...

Is this a trunked radio system?

 

[bladenfireman22]

Yes p25 phase 1

 

[jeepsandradios]

Id have a conversation with your radio administrator. He may not want some zello or other interface on the P25 system...jmho

 

[mmckenna]

Yes p25 phase 1

Yeah, you need to be talking with the system administrator. Adding a bunch of users via a back door into their system is something that needs to be designed and accounted for. Doing this without their permission is likely to get you into some trouble.

Also, there are better ways to do this at the trunking system level rather than via some radio sitting in a closet somewhere. In fact, they may already have such a solution in place.

 

[R8000]

It appears Bladen County NC is on the State of NC VIPER system. You really really really need to reach out to the VIPER administrator and ask about this. They may already have something for this, and just ask for your agency to purchase licenses in order to add phones. There could also be resource limitations on simultaneous connections.

These sorts of solutions are not intended to replace daily use of radios, but to compliment them.

Anything beyond a direct connection to the system will probably result in the audio just sounding like garbage. The high end solutions such as the WAVE system connects direct at a system level and usually sounds pretty good. A mobile connected to a gateway usually ends up just not sounding all that well.

The system admin also need a way to stun/kill/turn off a radio or similar device if there's a problem or if a device/radio falls into the wrong hands.

 

[jim202]

Your first step is to have a sit down with the system administrator. Get the do and dont's that you can work with.

Another consideration is to talk with a company like Sytech Corp. from Alexandria, VA. They build a very flexible gateway that connects 2 radios or more together to allow non compatible radio systems together and allow communications between the systems. You can even connect multiple gateways together over a LAN connection. The gateways are flexible enough to allow some radios to be remotely steered to allow channel and zone changes via the LAN connection from a remote computer. The gateway has internal delays that are adjustable as well as both input and output audio levels.

Many public safety agencies and most of the 3 letter agencies have these gateways installed at their dispatch centers, mobile command vehicles and remote mountain top locations.

Some years back I was able to connect to one of the remote mountain gateways on the weekend and use a VHF base radio and move the radio programmed zones to some ham frequencies. Enjoyed the ability to go to the simplex frequency of 146.520 and talk over great distance to other hams driving the different interstates. It had a great reach out for distance. Then when I was done, put the radio back onto the normal public safety channel. The public safety director for the dispatch center was a ham. He thought programming his remote mountain base to have some ham radio frequencies had advantages if a major storm went through and tore up normal communications.

 

[MTS2000des]

Speaking from a sys admin perspective, you absolutely need to discuss this with him/her or that team (VIPER being a statewide network). Radio gateways need to be controlled and monitored. We typically take the lead on deploying them at my agency, and restrict the number of devices connected so that the gateway users aren't flooding the system with extraneous traffic and have the radio ID in our "hot list" and are ready to shut if off it say, it locks up or becomes an issue.

Remember you are a user on someone else' network and need their consent before connecting anything to a subscriber that may impact the radio system. Haven't read their policy but I would wager my paycheck it's prohibited unless specific authorization is granted. Always better to seek that permission than have to explain later when a problem arises.

 

[AM909]

... Haven't read their policy but I would wager my paycheck it's prohibited unless specific authorization is granted. Always better to seek that permission than have to explain later when a problem arises.

Depends on the organization. Some are so dysfunctional, it's hard to get anyone to make a decision without making it into a giant thing. People in these types of orgs adopt the "better to apologize later than ask permission now" in order to get what they need within any reasonable amount of time/budget. Unfortunately, the consequences may be unproportional in these orgs as well. :|

 

[MTS2000des]

Statewide systems aren't generally run this way. They have a NOC and 24 hour contact. This should be the first step, not going rogue and just throwing something up on a state network. End users wants have to be balanced with the needs of the entire system. Processes are in place for reasons often not understood to end users but they are there to protect the integrity of such a network.
OP should start here:

VIPER | NC DPS

Purpose Interoperable communications was identified in the General Assembly's Criminal Justice Information Network report of 1995 as a critical need

www.ncdps.gov