Burlington County 700 MHz Project 25 TRS

[howie38]

Yep, I'm 66 and I started when I was about 12. Slide rule tunable monitors, so when Crystal controlled scanners came out it was quite the craze.

The bearcat Crystal controlled radios made by the Electra company in Cumberland, Indiana were a superb radio in the 60s. I had them all. Got my first Bearcat 101 programmable scanner in my third year of college in late 74.

I'll be sorry to see police dispatch gone in Burco, I know there's other things to listen to but people basically buy a police scanner for...

It's a sad situation.

Still got my crystals and a Radio Shack 8ch mobile & 4ch portable. Started out with what looked like a portable transistor radio receiver that you set behind your AM radio, tuned all the way down to broadcast what that receiver picked up. Still got 2 table top programables and 2 portables.
If all this new stuff crashes in an EMP or something, I'm still good

 

[rrpratt]

Still got my crystals and a Radio Shack 8ch mobile & 4ch portable. Started out with what looked like a portable transistor radio receiver that you set behind your AM radio, tuned all the way down to broadcast what that receiver picked up. Still got 2 table top programables and 2 portables.
If all this new stuff crashes in an EMP or something, I'm still good

Won't be the first time .....

 

[rrpratt]

This page is difficult to understand and this is fire and EMS. Each dispatched call will include an assigned Response channel. When the call is complete and companies are available Response 1 will be reverted back to for further comms with Central.
Looks Response 1 will be a primary. Also, the plan is to utilize Response channels up to 4 for the time being even though there are twelve. So, consensus is there will beote of an overlap amongst different companies at times.
Training as described through some companies has it as mostly Power Point presentation.
County Fire Chiefs meet tonight.

 

[phillydjdan]

It appeared that 3201 from the new system was patched in with (I think) North Response 1 on the old system this afternoon. Didn't get a good enough look at the UHF radio to confirm that for sure. Definitely heard identical traffic out of both radios, though.

 

[W2SJW]

rrprat beat me to it today with most of the new info!

The info I got today from my friend in Medford mirrors his info. They have not given out the TGID's yet, but that document is 100% legit for what the channel names are on the radio screens. Mobiles will not be installed until at least late fall/early winter.

ALL agencies make the switch on 7/9. The FD/EMS radios on Zone D have 2 TG for every surrounding county that touches Burlington for interop purposes, and the 'Schools' TG in the last zone is for multi-agency response for incidents there.

Response 1 through 5 are assigned on 'first come-first serve' basis, with 6 through 12 allocated for major incidents (disasters/severe weather/MCI's, etc). If enough incidents start occuring within the county, they will start handing out assignments on 6 and above as needed.

I told him you guys would most likely figure out the TGID's before he could get the official list!

The radio are provisioned with WiFi programming via RM, and the FD's have been told to leave active-duty portables powered on in the chargers at the stations at all times. OTAP is also available, but as a last-ditch option if the units are not in range of the WAP at the station houses.

Not sure about EMS portables, but the fire portables will activate the emergency feature if the unit is horizontal for more than 5 minutes.

 

[Skypilot007]

Yep, we'll have the TG list figured out in short order when they start using more of them. So far it's been pretty easy to figure out.

 

[rrpratt]

rrprat beat me to it today with most of the new info!

The info I got today from my friend in Medford mirrors his info. They have not given out the TGID's yet, but that document is 100% legit for what the channel names are on the radio screens. Mobiles will not be installed until at least late fall/early winter.

ALL agencies make the switch on 7/9. The FD/EMS radios on Zone D have 2 TG for every surrounding county that touches Burlington for interop purposes, and the 'Schools' TG in the last zone is for multi-agency response for incidents there.

Response 1 through 5 are assigned on 'first come-first serve' basis, with 6 through 12 allocated for major incidents (disasters/severe weather/MCI's, etc). If enough incidents start occuring within the county, they will start handing out assignments on 6 and above as needed.

I told him you guys would most likely figure out the TGID's before he could get the official list!

The radio are provisioned with WiFi programming via RM, and the FD's have been told to leave active-duty portables powered on in the chargers at the stations at all times. OTAP is also available, but as a last-ditch option if the units are not in range of the WAP at the station houses.

Not sure about EMS portables, but the fire portables will activate the emergency feature if the unit is horizontal for more than 5 minutes.

You got some more than I did. Great job. I think it's going to be more difficult to the users and more so for Central to maintain control.

 

[W2SJW]

One last tidbit - fireground ops are going to be analog simplex on 700MHz. He said the tests they ran got them about 2500ft max from one HT to another on high power.

The radios also have RF AGC enabled, and will automatically adjust their power based on how close to a tower the radio senses it is (he said the screens have 'T' and 'R' RSSI indicators on them.

I haven't touched an APX in over 5 years, so I'm sorely lacking in the latest & greatest feature sets since I sold my VHF/UHF 7000...

 

[phillydjdan]

5 minutes for man-down? Thats a long time to be lying in a burning room with a ceiling on top of you...

 

[Skypilot007]

5 minutes for man-down? Thats a long time to be lying in a burning room with a ceiling on top of you...

I heard from another source it's 45 seconds on the man down feature.

 

[W2SJW]

Yes, there was some confusion on the actual timer setting, but it's active only on the fireground ops channels, I believe.

 

[jeff]

I have also submitted some TG info to the database

 

[policefreak]

Thanks for the informative post. It will be interesting to see if the additional response channels will be needed full time.

 

[W2SJW]

I just owned the submission, and will work it tomorrow morning (off for the holiday). Outstanding job on getting that info, jeff!

Here's a much cleaner version of the channel layout plan my friend sent me today:

 

[phillydjdan]

Glad to see the Fire Police getting their own channel. Shame they couldn't have separated the EMS side...

 

[policefreak]

Just a heads up it looks like the implementation of the new system for Fire/EMS has been delayed until at least July 29.

 

[rrpratt]

Not surprised. Is that official?

 

[policefreak]

Also noticing no activity on County Highway Dept patch channel. Has patch been taken down? Was there an issue with the system?

 

[rrpratt]

Earlier this morning I heard district 32 on the new.

 

[rrpratt]

On top of that I believe alot of folks are off today.