Alabama Interoperable Radio System (was: Alabama First Responder Network)

[BamaScan]

There will be a New Radio System that will tie Baldwin County as well as Mobile County together.

If I had to guess it is a 700 mhz P25 System.

First responders get radio system upgrade |fox10tv.com

 

[puzzleriddle]

hmm, I read the link no info what soever on What band or Digital or such

 

[kingpin]

No need to guess

I can talk more about it now, but it will be a 700 MHz P25 system. There will be some encrypted channels for law enforcement tactical ops, but for the most part, it will be open. I can't speak for Mobile County, but this is the plan for Baldwin County.

 

[Thunderbolt]

We have received reports that this system is now up and running in testing mode.

73's

Ron

 

[garys]

Is there a plan for every city in the county to go to this system? Right now it's a "diverse" collection of radio systems from VHF to UHF, analog, digital, and a variety of different types of trunking. Will all of that go away for one unified system?

 

[KE5TLF]

Curious to know if there is a P25 enabling/upgrade path for all the Mobile City Services radios they bought to put on the county EDACS system?

Put another way, was the eventual transition to P25 a part of the plan when moving the city from their M36 system to the county EDACS?

Seems like a lot of double (triple?) spending and work to do if not.

Is there a plan for every city in the county to go to this system? Right now it's a "diverse" collection of radio systems from VHF to UHF, analog, digital, and a variety of different types of trunking. Will all of that go away for one unified system?

Pretty hard to imagine all those agencies that drank the "non-stadardized" radio platforms kool-aid, pitching their shiny new toys aside to again buy relatively expensive 700/800 radios. More likely there will be a boat load of bridges built to tie them all together, if even that. As you may or, may not, know they are building a statewide 700 system here in MS and there is no requirement, or mass movement to get every place in the state on it. Most agencies, especially EOC/EMA types, have state radios in storage that can, and will, be put in service if a situation calls for it. There is also a rather large cache of relatively low cost, "Type 1", radios held by the state that can be issued to an area affected by some type of "event".

 

[garys]

Curious to know if there is a P25 enabling/upgrade path for all the Mobile City Services radios they bought to put on the county EDACS system?

Put another way, was the eventual transition to P25 a part of the plan when moving the city from their M36 system to the county EDACS?

Seems like a lot of double (triple?) spending and work to do if not.

When I was there last month, the Mobile City Motorola system was going strong and I hear no city traffic on the county trunk system. Then again, I spent more time listening to the radio traffic in Baldwin County.

I don't know of any way that an EDACS radio can work on a Motorola system, or vice versa. I don't know what Mobile City is using for radios, but that gear might not even be upgradeable to true P25 trunking.

Hopefully someone from the area will be able to clarify.

Pretty hard to imagine all those agencies that drank the "non-stadardized" radio platforms kool-aid, pitching their shiny new toys aside to again buy relatively expensive 700/800 radios. More likely there will be a boat load of bridges built to tie them all together, if even that.

It would seem so, but I don't know how old any of those systems are. Fairhope is on LTR VHF, Daphpne LTR 800, most of the rest of the county on a mix of UHF and VHF conventional. Orange Beach is on a 700 Mhz P25 system, so they're probably in the best shape.

Time will tell, I guess.

 

[KE5TLF]

The only thing left on the city M36 is MPD and MFD. Both of which have several ProVoice radios they've also been "testing" on the county EDACS for over a year. Mobile Fire/Rescue's parade ops during Mardi Gras was entirely on the ProVoice "MFD SE" channel I IDed and submitted. Mobile Airport is also full time ProVoice it seems, and there are a still a handful of sporadically active PV TG's out there that have yet to be IDed. Pretty sure one is a second airport channel but never got enough good copy to be exactly sure of it's usage.

Yeah, pretty much what I would think about the radios. I'm not familiar with EDACS radios at all, and only vaguely familiar with some of Moto's stuff. Kinda why I was wondering about what the options are, if any.

I was thinking there was several recent TRBO and NEXEDGE converts over that way, but after actually LOOKING now, I see there isn't. Not sure what made me think that. LOL

 

[garys]

The only thing I'm really interested in listening to in Mobile is the PD and FD, so I definitely would've missed any other traffic. Or wouldn't have missed it, I guess. From what I have in my ARC-XT profile, it seems that most of the non public safety stuff is analog for the city.

At this point I'd have to wonder if the city is going to invest in EDACS gear, wait for the 700 system, or just keep their 3600 system. Time will tell, I guess.

I hope to be back down there mid June, and maybe I'll have time to listen.

The way that incompatible trunk systems around here get around that is by having conventional interoperability channels. Or they patch channels together as needed using that Raytheon ACU interconnect system.

From a radio geek standpoint, the various systems make for interesting listening. Not much EDACS or LTR public safety around my area.

The only thing left on the city M36 is MPD and MFD. Both of which have several ProVoice radios they've also been "testing" on the county EDACS for over a year. Mobile Fire/Rescue's parade ops during Mardi Gras was entirely on the ProVoice "MFD SE" channel I IDed and submitted. Mobile Airport is also full time ProVoice it seems, and there are a still a handful of sporadically active PV TG's out there that have yet to be IDed. Pretty sure one is a second airport channel but never got enough good copy to be exactly sure of it's usage.

Yeah, pretty much what I would think about the radios. I'm not familiar with EDACS radios at all, and only vaguely familiar with some of Moto's stuff. Kinda why I was wondering about what the options are, if any.

I was thinking there was several recent TRBO and NEXEDGE converts over that way, but after actually LOOKING now, I see there isn't. Not sure what made me think that. LOL

 

[KE5TLF]

OK another DUH! moment. Is this something to do with the funky sounding P25 control channels I started noticing a few weeks ago with a SYSID of 00A and a WACN 673AE maybe?

Running Pro96Com or UT on the 2 sites I am receiving now yields some funky results too. Like even though the radio is showing 99% decode rate neither program gets above 68%. Also site neighbors CC's are off by 1 MHz.....???

Been thinking it was something they are screwing around with on MSWIN but now...I dunno. Seems to be coming from AL since signals are strongest with the Yagi aimed that direction. Anyway here's what I logged here just a bit ago. Not sure it belongs here, but maybe someone can shed some light?

Logged 4 radios, 4 TG's, Channel usages for Voice, Telephone interconnect, Private call.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Baldwin County has filed an STA with the FCC to put the system online ASAP. Here is the application to the FCC:

Application

Supporting Letter

One interesting part about this letter that reads:

The County currently has infrastructure in place throughout the County which is also connected to a like system in Northern Alabama.

Does this mean they are going to be part of the "Alabama Regional Communications System (ARCS)" TRS?


73's

Ron

 

[mike36507]

Sounds like a possibility. It will be real interesting if it is.

 

[KE5TLF]

Nice! Applications and eventual licenses sure make things a lot easier than doing it all under the state license.

So Orange Beach will be a part of it. (pretty much a no brainer there)
May be a bit premature assigning it the SYSID and WACN I've found on the Mobile side. That part seems to be in a bit of a mess atm. Not sure what Baldwin Co. got but I'm guessing Mobile Co. is getting Harris' P25IP, given it's EDACS roots, and the fact that the president of the International Harris Wireless Users Group's Board of Directors is a Mobile County official as well.

Been logging that 202 site for about 48 hours now and I'm up to 24 TG's and 19 RID's. Still all the same funkiness with max 68% decode rate and neighbor freqs. being off by 1 MHz.

I'm sure anything P25 in the state that can be, will be eventually tied together. ARCS, The forthcoming MMCCD's P25, etc. Plus MSWIN, LWIN, AWIN, etc. etc.

It will be real interesting if it is.

Not really. At least if by interesting you're thinking you'll be hearing their comms on a regular basis. Which you won't be.

 

[KE5TLF]

Some strong ducting last night enabled me to find these two SYSID 197 WACN 9254A, standalone sites, that sounded and acted exactly the same as the ones I've previously reported.

Site 6301
"00-0000","c",770.20625,"00-0000",800.20625,0,0
"00-0020","a",770.45625,"00-0020",800.45625,0,0
"00-0040","a",770.70625,"00-0040",800.70625,0,0
"00-0060","a",770.95625,"00-0060",800.95625,0,0

Site 8901
"00-0095","c",773.59375,"00-0095",803.59375,0,0
"00-0135","a",773.84375,"00-0135",803.84375,0,0
"00-0175","a",774.09375,"00-0175",804.09375,0,0

No idea if they have anything to do with this system or not.

 

[KE5TLF]

The latest I've been able to come up with..now up to 6 sites total...which I guess sorta adds up. 1 multi-site simulcast for the city and 5 county sites. Pretty much the same as what it is to replace.

Again note that freqs. listed in the site's neighbor lists are not accurate. They are off 1 or more MHz.

Could hear the CC for site 606, which is 769.15625, but couldn't get it strong enough for Pro96Com to get a lock. I'll speculate this will be the Citronelle replacement given the strength and bearing of the signal. Going on signal strengths, and site neighbors somewhat, it appears they are numbered from south to north. (101 being BLB). Spent about 48 hours monitoring 202 which seems to be where most of the action is at. I'll place this one as the N McGregor and/or Mobile Simulcast replacement. Again all just speculation based on comparing signal strengths between these new sites and the current EDACS sites.

 

[KE5TLF]

mmmkay, curious how my Mobile County data, (for what is most likely the BLB site), got applied to the Bay Minette site, for which we have actual FCC data

 

[KE5TLF]

Baldwin County has filed an STA with the FCC to put the system online ASAP. Here is the application to the FCC:

Application

Supporting Letter

73's

Ron

This one has been returned for further clarifications The return letter also mentions the following "regular" application which doesn't include Orange Beach. (one of the points of clarification mentioned in the above STA application's return letter.)

ULS Application - Trunked Public Safety 700 MHz - 0005154797 - BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSION

 

[mike36507]

mmmkay, curious how my Mobile County data, (for what is most likely the BLB site), got applied to the Bay Minette site, for which we have actual FCC data

I just noticed this too. I was wondering if I was missing something.

 

[mike36507]

I see today they finally have been assigned a call sign also.

ULS License - Trunked Public Safety 700 MHz License - WQPF460 - BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSION - Locations Summary

 

[KE5TLF]

Hey another good find. Now if only Mobile County would make some filings...

I searched every FRN I could find for the City, County, and State for something 700 related and found nothing. Just some very recent 800 rebanding related filings for the EDACS site 11.