This afternoon, the AWIN system posted from their Facebook page a link to the current newsletter, including info about some reallocation of frequencies coming, here: https://t.e2ma.net/webview/mhaqp/e26cc4895e073049b79dc70184c508c5
They also posted this from their Facebook page, which only applies to users who have actual radios on the system but I thought some might find it interesting:
They also posted this from their Facebook page, which only applies to users who have actual radios on the system but I thought some might find it interesting:
Dragging Talkgroups is an issue on shared radio systems like AWIN. It can negatively affect system performance. We thought it would be a good time to provide some information about dragging talkgroups.
1) Before getting into talk groups and dragging, you need to understand what a P25 Digital Trunked Radio System is.
a. P25 is the current standard for emergency service grade radio equipment. If a manufacturer makes a product and says it is P25 compliant, then It has to work with other P25 equipment regardless of manufacturer.
b. A Trunked Radio System is a one that has the frequencies in the tower location as a channel, as opposed to a conventional radio system where to channels are in your radio as a frequency. This allows for better allocation of frequencies across larger locations.
c. State Wide Radio Systems work very similar to how cell phones work, you can be anywhere in the state (that has coverage) and talk to another user in a different part of the state that is in the coverage area of a different part of the state, as long as you both are on the same talk group.
2) What is a Talk Group?
a. A Talk Group is an assigned group on the trunked radio system.
3) Why is monitoring/just listening in bad?
a. The trunked system cannot tell when a radio “just listens” and assumes that if you are on the appropriate talk group, then you need to get the broadcast message, ASAP.
b. If you are in the same coverage area as the incident you are “just listening” to then the system is using resources to broadcast to you in addition to the others that need to be using the resources.
c. If you are not in the same coverage area – then you drag the talk group across multiple tower sites to get to you. This dragging uses up 1 channel at each site until it reaches you. The route of towers it takes does not always follow a straight line to get to you. It could loop around the state depending on how the towers are tied together.
Another way to look at it is that on AWIN, the average tower has 5 channels. Due to the nature of trunking, you will lose 1 channel as the control channel. This leaves you with 4 channels to use for your communications. All it would take to cripple the average tower is 4 people, each on a different talk group trying to listen in at the same time. This is very easy to do when there is an incident and people are being curious.
The only real way to combat this is through proper radio training and proper radio discipline.
1) Before getting into talk groups and dragging, you need to understand what a P25 Digital Trunked Radio System is.
a. P25 is the current standard for emergency service grade radio equipment. If a manufacturer makes a product and says it is P25 compliant, then It has to work with other P25 equipment regardless of manufacturer.
b. A Trunked Radio System is a one that has the frequencies in the tower location as a channel, as opposed to a conventional radio system where to channels are in your radio as a frequency. This allows for better allocation of frequencies across larger locations.
c. State Wide Radio Systems work very similar to how cell phones work, you can be anywhere in the state (that has coverage) and talk to another user in a different part of the state that is in the coverage area of a different part of the state, as long as you both are on the same talk group.
2) What is a Talk Group?
a. A Talk Group is an assigned group on the trunked radio system.
3) Why is monitoring/just listening in bad?
a. The trunked system cannot tell when a radio “just listens” and assumes that if you are on the appropriate talk group, then you need to get the broadcast message, ASAP.
b. If you are in the same coverage area as the incident you are “just listening” to then the system is using resources to broadcast to you in addition to the others that need to be using the resources.
c. If you are not in the same coverage area – then you drag the talk group across multiple tower sites to get to you. This dragging uses up 1 channel at each site until it reaches you. The route of towers it takes does not always follow a straight line to get to you. It could loop around the state depending on how the towers are tied together.
Another way to look at it is that on AWIN, the average tower has 5 channels. Due to the nature of trunking, you will lose 1 channel as the control channel. This leaves you with 4 channels to use for your communications. All it would take to cripple the average tower is 4 people, each on a different talk group trying to listen in at the same time. This is very easy to do when there is an incident and people are being curious.
The only real way to combat this is through proper radio training and proper radio discipline.
