Baldwin County

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RevGary

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Slightly Off Topic -

Just wanted to mention that as I was driving through Foley on Highway 59 on March 17, I noticed that two Foley City cruisers on a traffic stop had shiny new 700-800 MHZ. antennas on the roof just behind the light bar.

Their VHF 155.190 Mhz. frequency is no longer in use and no new TRS licensing is showing up in the actual FCC database for "Foley, City of".

Any idea as to which TRS they are on?
 

RADIO-251

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Baldwin County Alabama
Yes , the City of Foley has recently transitioned to a UHF Kenwood NEXEDGE system. The frequencies are licensed under FCC call sign WQJF618. They went to this system about a month ago. Bay Minette is also using UHF NEXEDGE. There is currently a push in Baldwin County for all Public Safety and Emergency Services to go to UHF NEXEDGE. The City of Daphne, Fairhope & Spanish Fort are all looking at going to UHF NEXEDGE. The plan is to network all these city systems together to create a county wide trunked radio system. The down side is that NEXEDGE can't be monitored at this time.
 
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w5wht

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So if their going to go to this great system that no one and monitor, why isn't Loxley,Fairhope, and the rest included in this system.? Seems like pick and choose who does what and get what.

Would kind of figure that once Foley went to NEXDGE that everyone else would follow suite.

That means that all the radios for Baldwin and Mobile will be useless guess I can throw mine in the river and use them for anchors....

What a waste of communications for a system that no one can listen to...trying to keep the crooks from listen to ?????
 

kingpin

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So if their going to go to this great system that no one and monitor, why isn't Loxley,Fairhope, and the rest included in this system.? Seems like pick and choose who does what and get what.

Would kind of figure that once Foley went to NEXDGE that everyone else would follow suite.

That means that all the radios for Baldwin and Mobile will be useless guess I can throw mine in the river and use them for anchors....

What a waste of communications for a system that no one can listen to...trying to keep the crooks from listen to ?????

The systems themselves were purchased by the individual municipalities and not by the county itself. Fairhope is looking at a UHF system contingent on grant funding allocation here in the next few weeks. If they secure the funding, then Daphne may follow the same route.

The Foley and Bay Minette sites were linked together this week, in the 1st steps of creating interoperability between the systems.

I'm not sue why you would consider it a waste of communications if no one can listen to it? The systems are very good and are an effective tool in doing our jobs better here in Baldwin County.
 

RADIO-251

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So if their going to go to this great system that no one and monitor, why isn't Loxley,Fairhope, and the rest included in this system.? Seems like pick and choose who does what and get what.

Would kind of figure that once Foley went to NEXDGE that everyone else would follow suite.

That means that all the radios for Baldwin and Mobile will be useless guess I can throw mine in the river and use them for anchors....

What a waste of communications for a system that no one can listen to...trying to keep the crooks from listen to ?????


From what i understand there is no "pick and choose" as to who uses the system, all law enforcement, paid fire, volunteer fire and any other agency of city or county government will be welcome to use the system. Its not a waste of communications , it will be alot better communications than the VHF conventional systems are presently providing . The system is digital because it seems like everything is going digital. i doubt they are doing it to make the scanner listeners mad ...
 

w5wht

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Baldwin

This the way I look at it , it will put me basically out of a job.... so all the equipment I have will be useless.
and I sure don't plan on going out and spending $$$$$ for a handheld radio much less a mobile..

In answer to your question as to what....work for the media and papers.

So as far as I'm concerened the system is useless to me if all the cities decide to go that way....
 

kingpin

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From what i understand there is no "pick and choose" as to who uses the system, all law enforcement, paid fire, volunteer fire and any other agency of city or county government will be welcome to use the system. Its not a waste of communications , it will be alot better communications than the VHF conventional systems are presently providing . The system is digital because it seems like everything is going digital. i doubt they are doing it to make the scanner listeners mad ...

There's several reasons we are switching to digital systems and to make the scanner users mad is not in the conversation. With the switch to narrowband, over half of our radios are not narrowband capable, so we will need to buy new radios anyway. So when shopping for radios, we look at problems we have in our current communications situation, and what we can do to make it better. We have coverage issues, dead spots, and investing in a TRS would help resolve these safety issues. With the features available from the digital systems we just dont have on analog, it makes better financial sense to spend a little extra and get a communications system, that is going to give us more bang for the buck. The up-sale of some of these systems is that the scanner user can't listen in. It's extra security for the officers / firefighters / SWAT / ETC. A lot of security and features in a $800 radio. Yes, it is dissapointing that I can't hear radio traffic from some departments with the thousands of dollars I've invested in my hobby, but there is still plenty of other stuff to listen in on.
 

radiofan1

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This the way I look at it , it will put me basically out of a job.... so all the equipment I have will be useless.
and I sure don't plan on going out and spending $$$$$ for a handheld radio much less a mobile..

In answer to your question as to what....work for the media and papers.

So as far as I'm concerened the system is useless to me if all the cities decide to go that way....

I've seen agencies program receive only on radios purchased by the media. Maybe you should ask before jumping off a bridge...?
 

kingpin

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I've seen agencies program receive only on radios purchased by the media. Maybe you should ask before jumping off a bridge...?

You are correct. You will need to talk to the chief of the agency you want to monitor, and providing you purchase a radio, they may authorize a reveive only programming setup. All you can do is ask.
 

w5wht

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Houston Texas
Nexedge

First off I bought all the radios I use, second of all their is not that much to listen to once the change is made.
As for jumping of the so called bridge as it were.. It's totally uncalled for that the change is in the process.
The stations are going to get radios for their people. Their for if I am this is to continue I'm the one footing the bill not the stations. All ready had that conversation with them

I know in Florida that the cities will issue radios to the media and the stringers that do for the station....

So what not do that here? not unreasonable to ask that it be done ? Seein how you have a inside on what and when ....
 

RADIO-251

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Baldwin County Alabama
First off I bought all the radios I use, second of all their is not that much to listen to once the change is made.
As for jumping of the so called bridge as it were.. It's totally uncalled for that the change is in the process.
The stations are going to get radios for their people. Their for if I am this is to continue I'm the one footing the bill not the stations. All ready had that conversation with them

I know in Florida that the cities will issue radios to the media and the stringers that do for the station....

So what not do that here? not unreasonable to ask that it be done ? Seein how you have a inside on what and when ....


The new system isn't gonna happen over night so everyone can keep scanning with their current equipment for several years before the digital system is complete.
 

BamaScan

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You are correct. You will need to talk to the chief of the agency you want to monitor, and providing you purchase a radio, they may authorize a reveive only programming setup. All you can do is ask.

Good Luck with that request. One of the reasons they changed to Nexedge is so you could not hear them. At least the fire pages will still be in analog for a while.
 

RADIO-251

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Baldwin County Alabama
Good Luck with that request. One of the reasons they changed to Nexedge is so you could not hear them. At least the fire pages will still be in analog for a while.


I doubt the city fathers sat at the table and said "let's spend $300,000.00 on a new radio system so the scanner listners can't hear us anymore " !! i just don't think the conversation went that way.
 

RADIO-251

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Baldwin County Alabama
With multiple agencies using different digital systems concerns me. As far as inteopibility The AC1000 will tie everything in it will be the savior. If it fails everyone will be in trouble.

I think the push in Baldwin County is to get multiple agencies to go to the same type digital system so that they can be networked together over a WAN (wide area network).
This isnt just for interoperability between agencies, it gives agencis radio coverage in the other cities that are on the system. This means that when a Foley officer goes Bay Minette his radio automatically switches to a tower in Bay Minette and works just as if he were still in Foley.
The systems will not be linked together using an ACU1000. Bay Minette & Foley systems are networked together now over the county's WAN and has nothing to do with an ACU1000.

There are (2) reasons for trying to get everyone on a common system in Baldwin County, 1> interoperoperability between agencies, so everyone can talk to eachother on the same system. 2> A radio system that has coverage everywhere in the county, so if a Daphne officer needs to go to Gulf Shores to pick up someone on warrants , when he gets there he can call his dispatcher and its as if he never left the city because he has radio system coverage anywhere he goes in Baldwin county.
 
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TomServo

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Foley, AL
Yes , the City of Foley has recently transitioned to a UHF Kenwood NEXEDGE system. The frequencies are licensed under FCC call sign WQJF618. They went to this system about a month ago. Bay Minette is also using UHF NEXEDGE. There is currently a push in Baldwin County for all Public Safety and Emergency Services to go to UHF NEXEDGE. The City of Daphne, Fairhope & Spanish Fort are all looking at going to UHF NEXEDGE. The plan is to network all these city systems together to create a county wide trunked radio system. The down side is that NEXEDGE can't be monitored at this time.

That's a shame. If things work out I may wind up living in Foley before the end of the year. I was hoping to get a scanner down there so I could really get back into the hobby. Right now all I have is my trusty but old Kenwood dual band HT. Where I am in Mississippi everything's VHF or VHF-lo so it suits me okay. I'd really like to repurpose it back to strictly being for ham stuff and have a seperate scanner, but now I'm wondering if it'll be worth it if the whole county is trying to go NEXEDGE…
 
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