I would love if TWRA was wide open.
The state of Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN)
- Thread starter Thunderbolt
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Ribbon cutting event for TACN (Morristown - Hamblen) is 10/14. The transition from analog to digital will be rapid.
wprileyjr3
Member
Noticed a new TG today, 8585 it appears to be Anderson County EMS. Must be in early testing. The only thing picked up is tone out and initial dispatch. All other traffic dispatch to ambulance and back is still on UHF and not TACN. I noticed a month or so ago that both EMS and County fire and rescue tones changed on UHF. County sheriff and city of Oak Ridge have been on TACN a couple of years now. I have not heard a TG for county fire and rescue yet. May be the start of EMS transition. I don’t see the county having funding to change all volunteer fire and rescue over to TACN anytime soon.
zachgallop
Member
They are now doing their alerting over TACN from what Motorola said back a few months ago. They have been doing it since sometime in June. They did a lot of testing on several unknown TGs back in June and July when they were doing dispatch changes. Anderson 911 took over Dispatching for Rocky Top Police, Rocky Top Fire, Norris Police. There was talks with taking over Dispatch for Oliver Springs Police and Fire as well. The county bought a few digital radios and mobile repeaters for every county fire department from what I have seen and heard but not enough to cover the whole department. If you notice when 8585 pops up 8535 also pops up. It was simulcasting the same traffic on 8535 also in the clear. But 8535 is now secure and it still pops up with 8585 simultaneously. I suspect that will eventually be Anderson County EMS Primary Dispatch channel and I suspect it might stay encrypted when they do. 8585 is probably strictly the alerting TG.
As far as radios are concerned monroe county did something similar supplying most if not all rural fds with all of their mobile radios for their trucks but just 10 or so portable radios per department no vehicle repeaters
surfacemount
Member
And, the Sheriff's Aux got 0 portables. After being told they were accounted for, and that they were just awaiting being programmed. And, they still don't seem to have all the dead zone coverage issues fixed like promised, either.
They are supposed to getting ready to put up a tower in Sweetwater and possibly one on Harlan mountain in the ballplay area
In Monroe County
Hamilton County:
Yesterday (Friday) I was able to hear in the clear (P1) on Windrock (2-17) quite a bit of traffic on TGID 1129. It's in the Hamilton County TG range, and sounded like bus or shuttle operators conversing about routes and checking on rider status. I lean towards school bus, as they named some students(?) that needed status confirmed or brought back to school?
I'm figuring someone with one of their radios was travelling up near Knoxville/Oak Ridge so their TG affiliated on WIndrock.
This specific TG isn't listed in the DB, anyone able to confirm?
Yesterday (Friday) I was able to hear in the clear (P1) on Windrock (2-17) quite a bit of traffic on TGID 1129. It's in the Hamilton County TG range, and sounded like bus or shuttle operators conversing about routes and checking on rider status. I lean towards school bus, as they named some students(?) that needed status confirmed or brought back to school?
I'm figuring someone with one of their radios was travelling up near Knoxville/Oak Ridge so their TG affiliated on WIndrock.
This specific TG isn't listed in the DB, anyone able to confirm?
surfacemount
Member
"they" TACN, or they: monroe county got soaked for the costs? I thought the entire sales pitch was 'help TACN fill in our dead spot and we will help you get radios' lol
All I know is that the rollout has been very bumpy, and the areas we assumed would have crap coverage even with mobile, would remain dead.
Great catch!
It has been TACN's policy that if a City or County needed better coverage the City or County would incur the cost of adding the said site along with adding extra channel capacity to sites already inservice if needed.
surfacemount
Member
I get that. However, in the case of Monroe County, they weren't really seeking to join TACN from my understanding. TACN had a huge dead spot that covered a lot of Federal forest all the way up to the Carolina border (Cherohala / part of the Dragon etc), and so they worked a deal out with Monroe regarding this.
I could be blowing it out my butt; I can inquire Thursday, if it matters.
I could be blowing it out my butt; I can inquire Thursday, if it matters.
Most people have no idea what a site cost until they think they want one. Our county and the next county over are learning.
surfacemount
Member
Very, very true. Back in the day, it was much more simple. Especially when the AHJ owns the land. Now... I wouldn't want to negotiate tower space, much less get the studies and drivearound and now the peach juniper snail darter doesn't like 700mhz because it reflects off of the native burial grounds too much....
In less than ten years, I bet significant segments of TACN uses cellular as preferred and priority.
In less than ten years, I bet significant segments of TACN uses cellular as preferred and priority.
Tgid 1129 active on star mountain site aswell sounds like school bus traffic
It's works ok signal is poor or doesn't exist in some parts of the mountains we rely on our old vhf system for back up but it does come in handy on being able to talk to medical aircraft without tying up a dispatch channel or if we get multiple calls say car accidents we got incident channels and can talk to thp so if we could get a few more sites setup in the county we would be good plus our channels multicast on these towers for traveling to nearby counties Oswald dome, star mountain, no pone, Centerville. And I think look rock
surfacemount
Member
It was supposed to be from-hip capable in over 90% of the county. There's a lot of places where it doesn't work with a mobile!
TACN was built to be mobile coverage that is why all THP cars have in car repeaters so the THP TROOPERS can use their Portables
I will also say buying the cheapest radios that will work on the system well you get what you pay for. If you want the Coverage the THP gets buy the same Car and Portable setups.
surfacemount
Member
No, that's not why they got the in-car setups, unless you have a document you're willing to share. Also, do you have a citation for TACN being laid out to be mobile only? I know I posted in here that it was hip to tower as the primary, and 45w mobile as the secondary, but I don't have time right now to dig through my tacn file and re-find it. Seems like it was in the initial BG&A assessment report.
Disagree. As long as it meets MSI's base standards to get onto the system a $400 subscriber unit should work just as well as a $3k unit. (Unless you are arguing about mtbf)
THP has coverage issues. If I had something to do with the system, I wouldn't want that. I'd want something better. And, if the system is as I say it was presented, I wouldn't want an ancient RICK/IVR setup, I'd want what was promised.
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