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Anyone know if the Anne Arundel Fire Department Open MHZ is going to be back up and running?
Anne Arundel County Radio System Upgrade
- Thread starter ThePhotoGuy
- Start date
I see that talk groups have been published on RR for the P25 system for the Fire Department. I have programmed them into my Unication G5 and have not received any traffic on them yet. I have received transmissions on the Test Groups that were previously published.
I have seen an internal talk group plan for the P25 system that differs from what has been published on RR. It leads me to believe that they initially will simulcast the current SmartZone system onto the new P25 system, but unless I programmed something incorrectly, the simulcasting has not started. Does anyone have anything further??
I have seen an internal talk group plan for the P25 system that differs from what has been published on RR. It leads me to believe that they initially will simulcast the current SmartZone system onto the new P25 system, but unless I programmed something incorrectly, the simulcasting has not started. Does anyone have anything further??
The system is still being configured. The rebroadcast of the existing fire talk groups is for load testing and does not represent a final configuration nor are they always enabled. I would also add that the labels in the RRDB entry are not what are programmed in the radios.
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I had Unitrunker running yesterday with both systems and also noticed that they are load testing the police dispatch talk groups since I saw them pop up on both... I believe they are: 8843 PD North Disp; 8844 PD East Disp; 8845 PD West Disp; and 8846 PD South Disp, but have not been confirmed yet; although they were popping up as P4 encrypted.
Fire was also doing a lot of testing on Mike, which was 8755.
Fire was also doing a lot of testing on Mike, which was 8755.
Analog Fire talk groups have been up today, with the occasional breakup in audio decoding - not sure what's causing this. The Department of Aging senior transportation has been using 8616 patching to 8617 for a while now. This *may* be a permanent assignment, not sure.
The proposed FY2024 county capital budget is out today, and funding for the 800 system upgrade is winding down to the last $2M. Total expended or encumbered thus far is $12,865,870, project cost is estimated to be $31.9M. The new ECC project has been pushed a year, and the purchase of land for a future fire training facility has been zeroed out in favor of county-owned land on Generals Hwy near Rams Head Roadhouse (which *may* also co-locate the new ECC aka "Joint 911 Public Safety Center".)
Under OIT's Key Objectives it states "Install one additional 800 MHz radio tower: site TBD"
We switched our Openmhz feed to a Digital RDIO Subscription. It is a better platform for the user.
Listened to the budget hearing from OIT. No updates of when users will go live.
They stated that all towers are in place. The project is "on time and on budget." The radio tests throughout the county "is looking good." The request for $2 million is for the final part of the radio project which includes 130 sites that need to be tested for radio connectivity. Based on testing of these sites, BDA's are then placed. Based on the contract with Motorola, the county is responsible for the first $5.3 million worth of the repeater installs. Sounds like this will be a multi year project of installing BDA's in these critical buildings.
Link to the recording. The volume is very low. Video Library - County Council Budget Presentations | May 3rd, 2023
They stated that all towers are in place. The project is "on time and on budget." The radio tests throughout the county "is looking good." The request for $2 million is for the final part of the radio project which includes 130 sites that need to be tested for radio connectivity. Based on testing of these sites, BDA's are then placed. Based on the contract with Motorola, the county is responsible for the first $5.3 million worth of the repeater installs. Sounds like this will be a multi year project of installing BDA's in these critical buildings.
Link to the recording. The volume is very low. Video Library - County Council Budget Presentations | May 3rd, 2023
$2M ≠ $5.3M lol. Has the county already spent $3.3M on BDAs, or are they being hopeful?
I recently downloaded the RDIO program. How would I be able to use it for AACo ? I know there’s a few pieces of required information to ge the connection completed. What do I need to do to get that info ?
The county police's helo "Air 1" is assisting in a water search and rescue this evening coming up on a fire talk group - that doesn't happen every day. I think I heard a Baltimore County helo as well, but they went out of ADSB range (too low probably.)
Annapolis Police were chasing an armed carjacker into PG County until the lead officer wrecked at Walker Mill Rd and Shady Glen. They stayed on Edward and had OK performance on the SmartZone system. Radio wanted him to switch over to either a FIRST or PG channel (not sure what the dispatcher was saying) but the officer said he could not at the speeds they were going. Sounds like the knuckleheads got away, although PG was launching a helo. Took place at ~2345. Okay so apparently PG is now (2356) chasing and the suspects just bailed out. Description from the victim: 3 black males wearing dark hoodies; small silver handgun. Footchase is in the Beechnut Road area. At least they recovered the vehicle. Now 2 are in custody (0004.). It sort of sounds like the officer struck the carjacked vehicle and eventually disabled it as they are requesting a tow for the carjacked vehicle and the department vehicle is driveable... The weapon has been recovered.
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Most likely the Waysons channel AACo uses on the PG system.
Chris52
Member
I’m still trying to understand why AA County has a chuck of the first system dedicated to them when they have their own radio system and a newer one coming out soon. What is being gained by this ? Speaking of the Wayson’s TG, I often hear AAPD on it, not sure what district it was the hand full of time I’ve listen to it.
I'm not understanding what you mean - all the metropolitan counties have their own systems, yet also have coverage by FIRST. Southern District uses the Waysons talk group. Do you mean the backup talk groups? Several counties have them on FIRST.
Chris52
Member
Yes but it seems they have more than others and always wondered why. I don’t want to want to change the subject but was just curious.
Who knows why the county requested that number of talk groups - I guess they want to be prepared for a total meltdown of their system? There was an issue with coverage in south county a few days ago and they moved the Southern District to one of their FIRST backup talk groups, while a few fire stations in the Deale / Lothian area used a FIRST Tac channel. I'm not sure if everyone's radios are flashed with the most up-to-date fleetmaps.
Considering that Zone 5 just came online, we may not have seen Montgomery and PG backup talk groups being tested yet. PG just dumped all their RIDs to FIRST in the past few months, which is why there was a significant increase of users on FIRST.
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