Abilene EDACS Silent

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scanaholic

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I haven't checked this a.m., but last night, I didn't hear one transmission by any service on the EDACS system. Also, twice, I heard this loud foghorn type sound from the system. I've heard that many times years ago on WTU's 800 system. I don't know if EDACS is/was down or not. Usually, there will be something from the city buses or a fire call. It was dead the entire time I had the scanner on. Maybe just an unusually quiet night. I don't know what the city and ProVoice gang would do if the system failed. I checked my scanner, and it was working right.
 

scanaholic

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Yes sir, all the cops are 100% NoVoice (to us) and the fire dept. is, except for dispatch giving out the calls, and fire trucks working wrecks and fires. City buses, Civic Center, Airport, stuff like that are still using the SANE way to talk...Receivable! :)
 

TexScan780D

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Well has the crime rate in Abilene gone down any since the police can not be monitored? It is funny that City of Abilene spent so much money on a system that will soon be out of date.

TexScan780D
 

scanaholic

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Getting worse by the week, 780D. Is it really going to be out of date? A new type system being used? Got me on the edge of my seat about that one!

Back when they got that all going, one of the head guys emailed me all about it and why they started using Pro-No-Voice. He claimed the technology needed for it to work, made it unable to receive by the average public. But hearing the fire dept. on analog tells me that they would still have great communication even on analog. To me, it's not Provoice that makes it work so well, but the high frequency in the 800Mhz. range that allows them to talk from basements all over town. Add to that, towers all around town to pick them up, sure it is better, but it doesn't have to be ProVoice to be that. They had some money to blow, so they blew it in for the best to keep the public out of their business.

It's all about keeping the public in the dark. The city used to have phone patches in the 800 range. The night I heard a cop making a date with a lady other than his wife tells me they need their privacy. Yeah, I bet they do!!

The old system had a code mode when they wanted to air sensitive stuff. You'd hear this hash noise. Other calls like wrecks, routine stops, were clear. It's beyond me why they want even routine stuff kept private. That's just plain paranoid.
 

davidbond21

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Back when they got that all going, one of the head guys emailed me all about it and why they started using Pro-No-Voice. He claimed the technology needed for it to work, made it unable to receive by the average public.
That's only half true. ProVoice uses the same IMBE vocoder that digital scanners use for P-25, but it uses a propriety set of protocols for modulation and error correction, and the company refuses to license these to scanner manufacturers so they can use it as a selling point for their systems(it even says so in the programming software help file, so I'd imagine you could find it in some sales literature too). Basically this is in contrast to the P-25 protocol which necessarily has to be openly published so that all the different radio manufacturers can use it to make their own implementation into radio platforms, yet still be assured it will work with other models of different make.

But hearing the fire dept. on analog tells me that they would still have great communication even on analog. To me, it's not Provoice that makes it work so well, but the high frequency in the 800Mhz. range that allows them to talk from basements all over town. Add to that, towers all around town to pick them up, sure it is better, but it doesn't have to be ProVoice to be that. They had some money to blow, so they blew it in for the best to keep the public out of their business.
Technically, your mostly right on this. It's not digital voice that makes a good system, but a thoroughly well designed and built out infrastructure makes a good radio system. Digital on top of this just works that much better. Unfortunately for you though, that system the city decided upon and built out was EDACS, and the only way to go digital on that is either AEGIS or ProVoice (developed to replace AEGIS). And AEGIS was originally designed in part to provide non-degraded voice when encryption is employed, and ProVoice does the same(as well as any digital voice in practice).

Now I will say this, ProVoice actually does sound pretty good when you listen to it on a radio(but therein lies the problem for the rest of us). In my now seasoned opinion, I would judge ProVoice to be superior in sound quality to P-25 in many instances, and I actually find it's unfortunate that it can't be used except for the very narrow proprietary purposes it's sold for. I would be quite the happy camper if I could use ProVoice with some of my buddies on the 70cm amateur band.

It's all about keeping the public in the dark. The city used to have phone patches in the 800 range. The night I heard a cop making a date with a lady other than his wife tells me they need their privacy. Yeah, I bet they do!!

The old system had a code mode when they wanted to air sensitive stuff. You'd hear this hash noise. Other calls like wrecks, routine stops, were clear. It's beyond me why they want even routine stuff kept private.
The rest of this is all truth brother. They may say it's about keeping criminals from listening and thereby reducing crime, but they really know that it's going to keep everyone, not just a handful of criminals from listening, and they have no problem with that. Well, the results may have been that that handful of perps have gone without eavesdropping on the police, but it's not been accompanied by a promised and/or perceived drop in crime if your assessment of the situation there is accurate. And this has been at the expense of losing all the law abiding citizens such as yourself, who would probably call in a car or person that had been identified by the police over the scanner as being wanted or being searched for, becoming a free set of extra eyes for them, and reinforcing their communications and status with the community at large, not to mention that this does happen and it does help stop crime(by ending the ones in progress). What has happened though, just as they predicted, everybody at large would be in a radio blackout as far as police communications are concerned. For the lucky ones among us, we can get ahold of ProVoice radios and set them them up to listen, but that luck is about to be spread to everyone for free if you have a couple scanners and linux and some computer chops. Go look over in the control channel decoding forum and start reading up.
That's just plain paranoid.
Yeah, but when they catch you acting paranoid, it means you're up to something and they have reason to be suspicious. But oh no! Don't try to reciprocate that logic on them. :wink:
 
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scanaholic

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This (technical) is all way over my head, probably the reason I'm not a ham op. I've got enough analog stuff left to "entertain" me, so this, plus not having enough money to blow on all this stuff anyway, I'll be okay where I'm at with my Pro-433.

Thanks, though, very interesting stuff. I've learned a lot today.
 

TexScan780D

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Getting worse by the week, 780D. Is it really going to be out of date? A new type system being used? Got me on the edge of my seat about that one!

I did not think by the City of Abilene going to ProVoice for the police was going to bring down the crime rate. Criminals are going to do their thing no matter what. Harris will not be making any more EDACS or ProVoice systems anymore because they will be making P-25 systems. The idiots in the City of Abilene should had went to a P-25 system this late in the game. Down the road City of Abilene will have to spend more money on converting to P-25 or get a new system. LOL.
 

scanaholic

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I did not think by the City of Abilene going to ProVoice for the police was going to bring down the crime rate. Criminals are going to do their thing no matter what. Harris will not be making any more EDACS or ProVoice systems anymore because they will be making P-25 systems. The idiots in the City of Abilene should had went to a P-25 system this late in the game. Down the road City of Abilene will have to spend more money on converting to P-25 or get a new system. LOL.

Hee! Serve 'em right.
 

Ensnared

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I agree about cutting off citizen support by using Pro-Voice in Abilene. I have over twenty-two years of experience within TDCJ-ID relative to psychological assessment. I can assure you that not many offenders ever let the thought of getting caught affect their decision to break the law. The criminal thinking error, corrosion, is a process of shutting down the conscience. Having lived in Abilene, I know they have a reason for using Pro-Voice. In my opinion, there are crooked cops in that city. Transparency might expose this.
 

scanaholic

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Very interesting, Ensnared.

I can add a little spice to this subject.

A number of years ago, when the city used phone patches on the 800 band, I once heard an Abilene cop making a date to cheat on his wife. I've never forgotten that, and I always remember it when talk of ProVoice is going.

A motor officer who's name I won't mention but was fat and bald, who isn't there anymore, worked the bad accident me and my wife were in where an 18-wheeler cut us off. No ticket to the 18 wheeler. I didn't get one either, but that semi driver was major league negligent by failure to check his rt. view mirror before turning into Warren Cat on S. Treadway. Justice seldom rules here.
 

Ensnared

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I have bad memories from Abilene. I used to work at the Abilene State School. Thank God I did not work at any of the TDCJ units there because the mental health department is run by the the psychology department at Texas Tech. In comparison to UTMB Correctional Managed Care, Texas Tech are new at the assessment game. A great many of the mental health workers migrated from TDCJ to UTMB-CMC when they assumed control of the lower 2/3 of the state back in 1996. I have worked with Death Row patients at the inpatient psychiatric unit in Richmond, Jester IV. The Robinson Unit in Abilene is the pits of Hades let me tell you. I used to be on a Peer review committee looking into post-mortem documentation. I don't miss it. If I were to live in Abilene now, I would go nuts not having much to monitor. Recently, I was traveling to Waco from Big Spring. On the CB, I heard about a woman walking close to IH20 and getting dangerously close. When I heard this, I looked up and saw her walking on the eastbound service road. So, like a good citizen, I moved to the shoulder to see if she was in distress. Wow. She walked over to the car and stated, "you're the devil" and some other things I cannot recall. She appeared to be floridly psychotic to say the least. Hence, I called Abilene PD. I was with another car attempting to keep her from getting near the interstate and getting killed. Finally, Abilene PD arrived. I promptly left the area after they established contact with her. If I were a guessing man, I bet she initiated an "unauthorized departure" from one of the group homes nearby.
 
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