Knox County public safety radio system

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INDY72

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Yes they are upgrading as the current system is very old, and Motorola discontinuing support for it. Holdup: Good Ole Boy Political Games! Same Stuff Different Day in the South.
 

WX4BLF

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Yes they are upgrading as the current system is very old, and Motorola discontinuing support for it. Holdup: Good Ole Boy Political Games! Same Stuff Different Day in the South.
I hear that.

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zachgallop

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I hope they pick it soon. The patch between Blount and Knox County for the Air Showis causing garbled radio traffic. People are getting clipped off and not getting all the radio traffic. Which is frustrating for the officers and the communication staff. Once command started using encryption and others officers the patch was lagging bad. Knox County Sheriff Office has digital capable units (APXS) why do they just not program them to Blount County's Talk groups on TACN into their radios?
 

WX4JCW

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I hope they pick it soon. The patch between Blount and Knox County for the Air Showis causing garbled radio traffic. People are getting clipped off and not getting all the radio traffic. Which is frustrating for the officers and the communication staff. Once command started using encryption and others officers the patch was lagging bad. Knox County Sheriff Office has digital capable units (APXS) why do they just not program them to Blount County's Talk groups on TACN into their radios?


could be political issues, if Blount is encrypted the system manager may be paranoid to put the keys into other departments radios, but i do see the inter-operability benefits of these statewide systems being a benefit, but its a matter of control with some people, being a public safety dispatcher for years i really hate political crap, i just want a system that works and will not fail officers/ firefighters or EMT's and Medics, if they need help i want the call to go out the first time every time as clear as possible, i personally dont care about all the bells and whistles or who wants to be the dog with the big nuts
 

WX4JCW

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An Example was a certain Major metropolitan city in TN yesterday, they use MDT's and the dispatchers are insistent that the units push the buttons to put them enroute, on scene, etc, the only problem is the system had a problem, the statuses weren't being registered, this caused a lot of extra work for the units and dispatchers while they argued back and forth as to why the unit wasn't hitting the buttons, units had to switch tacs in the middle of a call to get sorted out. why does it have to be that complicated?
 

WX4BLF

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Hopefully Knox County will join TACN. It's a great system. Sadly EMS and County fire will likely remain analog uhf and vhf as Rural Metro won't pay the money to buy new radios I don't believe.

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INDY72

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I hope they pick it soon. The patch between Blount and Knox County for the Air Showis causing garbled radio traffic. People are getting clipped off and not getting all the radio traffic. Which is frustrating for the officers and the communication staff. Once command started using encryption and others officers the patch was lagging bad. Knox County Sheriff Office has digital capable units (APXS) why do they just not program them to Blount County's Talk groups on TACN into their radios?

Blount TG's are for Blount. There are an entire set of Event/Interop/Mutual Aid TG's on the TACN just for this. There are also the conventional 8-Call/8-Tacs just for this also. But you have an bunch of numbnuts in charge that can't wind their rears much less scratch a watch if you get the drift. Its all political games as usual until folks die! Knox TRS could simply be patched into the TACN Event/MA/IO TG's and Blount has them in ALL radios also.... So you should be asking why were they not using them?
 

INDY72

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Also not to mention, as of now, Knox County does not have an MOU to use the TACN. They have the radios, at least HT's and Mobiles for it (I don't think they have the consoles yet.), but before they can program the system in them, they must have an MOU with TN DPS. Until then, they must have patches in place, or use the conventional 800 MHz. But it is still retarded to not have the patches set up for the Event/Mutual Aid/Interop specifically, since ALLTACN radios have these programmed into one of the zones.
 

zachgallop

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In Blount County the officers, firefighters, and dispatchers have a choice on wether or not they want to use encryption. Most only use it when they feel absolutely necessary. The patch did not work well yesterday they had to change talk groups to KCSO 2N-Special Events the lagg quit but audio quality got terriable. They patched this channel to Alcoa Pd Dispatch.
 
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WX4BLF

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Knox County announced today that they will join TACN if they are allowed to have their own master site. They don't want the control in Chattanooga.

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WX4BLF

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According to the Knoxville News Sentinel they announce they would join TACN if they are allowed to have their own Master Site

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INDY72

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They have no idea what they are asking. Petty little numbskulls! Knoxville wants to be the big dogs when they are pups on the porch. Are they willing to foot the bill to reprogram the ENTIRE TACN if they were to get an Master? Do they not know this isn't just about one region? Really? So petty! They think to hold the keys to the kingdom like its a game. Nashville once thought as they do. But surprise surprise they are no longer as petty with the Mid TN RTRS about to get built as an sector of the TACN.

Does Knox not know just how much cost and difficulties are involved with adding another MC and dividing up the TACN into 5 zones?
 

WX4BLF

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Knox County says they want the master site so they can pull away from TACN and stand along if there is a disagreement. It did sound like they were interested in it because Motorola offered a discounted deal over Harris.

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acs680

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Blount TG's are for Blount.

Not necessarily. All counties surrounding Knox who are part of the system have the capability to program each others talkgroups with their own system key, as part of the MOU.

Also not to mention, as of now, Knox County does not have an MOU to use the TACN.
False. Knox County joined early on and is still a part of the TVR system. They even have some talkgroups on the system. While they might not have many radios turned on, they are very much a part of it. They obviously can't use it full time without tying in all of their sites and that is why isn't hasn't gotten further.

As far as wanting the master site, it does boil down to them wanting the option to pull the plug in the event they cut ties with TVR. But as mentioned to them, not having their own master site also prevents some politician from coming in and yanking them off the system without a big cost being involved, which essentially hurts both Knox public safety and surrounding agencies on the system.
 
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