Berks County - Proposed 700/800mhz Digital Trunked Radio System

[iamhere300]

Where to begin...Some of you from out of the area may be wondering about this subject. I do believe the facts of the matter are this, the county's communications director, and members of his staff, had been floating this idea around. The fist step was to transfer all EMS and Fire dispatching to one dispatch channel, with operations on the current channels, as many other counties do. This channel was to be up by October 2007, that's right LAST YEAR! It's still not close to completion. Problem is they had Fire Companies and Ambulance squads buy new pagers, some through State Grants, which are now stored in a room somewhere, and they need to negotiate warranty deals with Motorola. To make matters worse, they were telling those on low band (mostly Fire Companies) that the FCC was going to force services off of the low band channels, and Motorola wasn't going to be making or serviceing low band radios in the near future. Not true!

The most recent developement to come out of this, is a rumor that the Director was being releaved of his duties in the not too distant future.

I have seen nothing about the director or anyone else in county government stating that the FCC was
forcing them off low band. Now, it IS true that Motorola has been dumping, as well as the other manufacturers, support and equipment for low band. None of the major manufacturers make a true low band base station anymore, and I don't know if any of the others make one also. Mobile offerings, and portable offerings are very limited.

Dlays on the paging system have been mainly related to co-channel users, both licensed and unlicensed. There is also some issues with some of the tower companies (Major companies) and the leases - totally out of control of the county.

Pagers? Although there was concern about the warranty, it is a non issue now.

The CTA report is actually a very well thought out report. I usually complain that they are too MA/Com
orientated, but they totally went the other way with a well thought out OPEN system.

 

[Steveradio]

EMS and some fire are now using 151.2200 CSQ for paging/alerting services. 155.295 and 33.94 are still being used. Data burst are being sent out once in awhile, unknown if this was always on the frequency or something new. I never monitored this frequency CSQ before.

Southeast Police are now on what was called F-5 155.2500 Police Northeast. EMA may still have a repeater set-up on 151.220 but I do not listen enough to tell.

New Unit numbering is being used for EMS, Stations have not changed. For example; Instead of 576 being a medic unit its now 5751.

A copy from the Berks County newsletter:
http://www.co.berks.pa.us/911/site/default.asp

Six Sites Reading to Begin Testing
Radios, antennas and other infrastructure have now been installed at Mt. Penn, North Mt. Penn,
Fancy Hill, Kutztown, West Penn Township and Centre Township. Initial system testing is
expected to begin during the coming week, with field performance testing to follow. Once
operational, County, technical and consulting personnel will be able to evaluate the results of
what has been dubbed “Phase 1-A” of the alert-paging project.
Phase 1-B can proceed as soon as leases are completed with Crown Castle, Inc. for the Bethel,
Gring’s Hill and Bally sites. Progress has been stymied for more than six-months while the
County has waited for Crown Castle to provide lease documents, although a draft for the Bethel
site did finally arrive last week.
Consultants Working on “Phase 2”
Blue Wing Consulting, Inc. is working to identify acceptable sites in the Topton and Hamburg-
Lenhartsville areas after AT&T, the owner of the sites originally proposed, became reluctant to
cooperate with the County. Blue Wing may re-engage in discussions with AT&T or seek
alternative locations for towers in these two areas.


Ambulance Stations:
Bally Ambulance 505
Bethel Ambulance Station 1 585
Bethel Ambulance Station 2 585
Blandon Ambulance 520
Boyertown Ambulance 525
Elverson Ambulance 89
Exeter Ambulance 630
Fleetwood Fire Co. Ambulance 535
Hamburg Ambulance 545
Kutztown Area Transport Service 590
Kutztown University QRS 635
Lower Alsace Ambulance 555
Muhlenberg Ambulance 560
Oley Fire Co. Ambulance 565
Reading Fire Dept. EMS 600
Schuylkill Valley Ambulance 670
Southern Berks Regional EMS
Station 1 680
Southern Berks Regional EMS
Station 2 680
Topton Ambulance 575
Western Berks Ambulance
Station 1 650
Western Berks Ambulance
Station 2 650
Western Berks Ambulance
Station 3 650

 

[scanman78]

Just to let everyone know the county director has been left go. Its my understanding that there will be a major reorganization going on in the department. A different reporting structure may be instituted. We will have to wait and see what they announce.

 

[DUANEGOOD]

Is the new VHF digital?

 

[DUANEGOOD]

Well the news is now according to an e-mail sent out to the chiefs that by 2013 Berks is switching to a whole new system. They are saying we are going to an 800 mhz system. They are to be using MaCom if I am correct.

 

[JimBobTerp]

Hi
I am a little confussed can someone give a little help. I am looking to program the trunking for City of Reading to see if I can pick it up from my house in Easton. Now I see it says they are maybe rebanding it so how should I program the system in my free scan software. EDACS WIDE or MOT I or MOT TYPE II or what? thanks I hope I can hear the system before 2013 they switch.

 

[car54whereru]

Don't waste your time. The repeaters are located rather low, on top of the courthouse. There are multiple 1000ft + hills between you and Reading. Most of what is done in Reading is digital and/or encrypted. Unless you are into listening to public works there is really nothing to hear. The PD runs digital and encrypted all the time. Ems is a mix, and the FD still runs analog.

I would not count on a new radio system being in place by 2013. The 30-40 million dollar price tag is going to a tough one for the commissioners to justify given the financial status of the county. Couple that with the unknown number of radios needed and there is no firm price for this system.

 

[TheJerk]

Costs high but safety issues seen more important

In there today...

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=233836&obref=obinsite

And another...

 

[NgoraSweatr]

Berks chooses moto!

As of 11/15, all parties involved are recommending the award go to Moto. Doc courtesy of the Berks County Dept. of Em. Svcs. website.

http://www.co.berks.pa.us/ema/lib/e..._Safety_Radio_Procurement_Recommendations.pdf

No OpenSkrap for Berks!

 

[HarrisRF]

I would have enjoyed working in berks considering its a 10 minute morning commute. Gotta love politics!

 

[brey1234]

Tower woes

Maxatawny supervisors urged to back county radio plans

 

[resq2]

Yeah, and don't forget that channel 17 will be moving to another frequency next year. I also think 470-480 band would work well for berks. But why do some people think that 700/800 MHz wouldn't cover the county well? Doesn't it have about the same terrain as chester county and montgomery county? 800 seems to work well in those areas.

800 stinks in chester county many municipalities have purchased their own radios in the 450 band tredyffrin pd eastown berwyn fire paoli fire radnor fire upper merion fire and pd are all proposed users of this system which tpd has licensed rumor has it that schuylkill pd is also thinking about using this system as well....as back up interops incase the 800 goes south

 

[DEPUTY11]

800 stinks in chester county many municipalities have purchased their own radios in the 450 band tredyffrin pd eastown berwyn fire paoli fire radnor fire upper merion fire and pd are all proposed users of this system which tpd has licensed rumor has it that schuylkill pd is also thinking about using this system as well....as back up interops incase the 800 goes south

so what good is a 450 band gonna do when the county doesn't have it? or am I missing something here?

 

[jjimenez01]

The system will be a 700/800MHz P25 Phase II 9600baud TDMA system. The frequencies for the system will include those from the City of Reading. The city signed over its current frequencies to the county to be incorporated into the DTRS. The system will have (2) zones, North & South. The dividing line will be the Road to Nowhere. Some talk groups will be present in both.

All police talkgroups will utilize encryption. Fire and EMS will be in the clear. The only radios being sold and allowed onto the system will be the Motorola APX series of radios. The portable radios are being specified to have POP25, GPS interface, OTAR and multikey capabilities. POP25 is motorola's new feature called Programming over P25. They will be able to reprogram any radio on the system in the matter of minutes. Mobile radios do not have to have the GPS interface.

The system has to be accepted by January of 2013.

JJ

 

[RFEngineering101]

Berks update?

Been forever since anyone posted a Berks update.

Anyone know what's going on over there? I've heard rumors that the buildout has run into some big delays.

The odds of this system being fully accepted by January 2013 are pretty slim if my information is correct.

Sounds like Motorola's guarantee of a fully functional Phase 2 system was perhaps a little premature.

 

[n3qam]

I have not heard anything new. Hope the system fails miserably. It was sold on lies and deception and the powers to be took it hook line and sinker.

 

[iamhere300]

I have not heard anything new. Hope the system fails miserably. It was sold on lies and deception and the powers to be took it hook line and sinker.

Wow. Although I don't like that Motorola has effectively locked out other manufactures equipment, other than that I think it is going to be a tremendous system.

But what do I know.

 

[n3qam]

It is not a matter of how cool the system might be, it's the point that the director of emergency management , Motorola and their associates flat out lied to the tax payers , commissioners and emergency service responders. They used the narrow band mandate to push their personal agendas to implement this 60 million plus dollar pet project. They went on record stating the FCC was requiring them to switch over to this system when in fact that was not the case.

The DES went as far to tell municipalities that bordered Lancaster County , that they now are going to have to run lower power with the new system because RF is prohibitqed to pass across municipal
boundries.

 

[RFEngineering101]

The DES went as far to tell municipalities that bordered Lancaster County , that they now are going to have to run lower power with the new system because RF is prohibitqed to pass across municipal
boundries.

Lower power levels and directional antennas around county border areas are very common for new 700/800 MHz systems. TIA and TSB88 as well as regional 700 MHz plans clearly spell out contours and curves that need to be considered when designing a new regional system. Rule of thumb is generally don't broacast more than 5 miles outside your county border.

I know very little about Berks and how the system was sold nor do I know what DES told the lower Berks municipalities, but it's possible this is a case of "password" where you got the rumor from someone that got the rumor that DES told those people "such and such" when all they were doing was due diligence on how the new system would be constructed.

The border power issue is also somewhat of a moot point since Lancaster is putting in UHF trunking while Berks is going 700/800.

 

[n3qam]

Considering the another push was "interoperability" . ( seems like what you said about Lanco kinda blows that out of the water.) I'll have to hit the archives of the local paper where he was quoted at a Municipal meeting.