Champaign County METCAD - Digital Interoperable Communication Environment (MDICE)

[greeneyes965]

Whats the difference between apco25 and astro?

 

[cubn]

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/ASTRO
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/ASTRO-25

 

[greeneyes965]

I still dont get it so what do we have here in champaign county-Project25 orAstro?

 

[Starcom21]

Astro

I just asked this the other day.

Was basically told ASTRO is the Motorola Brand name.

It is on wikipedia here (did not look at it)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_(Motorola)

 

[greeneyes965]

What about project25 whats that one?

 

[thomasyu]

It appears that Rural Fire Agencies are now up and running on MDICE. It also looks like Urbana Public Works is on as well. For those using Pro96Com I have identified the fallowing prefixes not yet listed:
40220** Bondville Fire
40222** Carroll Fire
40224** Edge- Scott Fire
40225** Homer Fire
40228** Ogden- Royal Fire
40231** Rantoul Fire
40233** St. Joe Fire
40236** Savoy Fire
40240** Sidney Fire
40243** Ludlow Fire
40244** Thomasboro Fire
40246** Cornbelt Fire
42005** Urbana PW
42006** Champaign PW

 

[chet1]

gre psr 500/600

Just a heads up on the PSR 500/600. I live in Rantoul and recently bought a 600 and it won't decode MDICE. GRE sent me all of the freqs and I loaded them(I had already manually loaded them) but no talkgroups to be heard. I took the radio to Urbana about a block from a tower and still no luck. GRE said it was a CQPSK SIMULCAST signal and difficult for the radio to decode. I told them I had a PRO 96 that did a fair job in the same room. They said send the radio in. They bench tested it and said no problems;sent me a new one with the same results. Unless they upgrade the firmware the radio is useless in Champaign county. It picks up state police great.

 

[KC8RFE]

Just a heads up on the PSR 500/600. I live in Rantoul and recently bought a 600 and it won't decode MDICE. GRE sent me all of the freqs and I loaded them(I had already manually loaded them) but no talkgroups to be heard. I took the radio to Urbana about a block from a tower and still no luck. GRE said it was a CQPSK SIMULCAST signal and difficult for the radio to decode. I told them I had a PRO 96 that did a fair job in the same room. They said send the radio in. They bench tested it and said no problems;sent me a new one with the same results. Unless they upgrade the firmware the radio is useless in Champaign county. It picks up state police great.

Yes rantoul i not a great place for the MDICE system and commercial APCO scanners. Some areas are okay others are not. Just depends. I have a 396 and it does "okay" at home there are only a couple spots i can reliably listen to the system and a lot of spots of nothing. Location is everything.

I'm wanting to try a small 800 beam and point it towards the thomasboro site and see if that helps. Rantoul is the only place i have an issue with the MDICE otherwise it works fine until you get out towards the fringes and then it will drop like a rock.

 

[c-ubuff]

Champaign Public Works now seems to be online. Their ID numbers appear to be 42000##, the 42006## numbers reported on the wiki appear to be Urbana radios. Also I have confirmed 22014 as Fire Command 2, this channel is secure but I have tracked several conversations with units switching to Fire Command 2 and then showing up on this TG.

 

[c-ubuff]

Almost forgot, 22713 seems to be Champaign Parking Enforcement.

 

[cubn]

Champaign Public Works now seems to be online. Their ID numbers appear to be 42000##, the 42006## numbers reported on the wiki appear to be Urbana radios.

Does TG 22702 appear to be a replacement for TG 336 on the old system which was listed as "Engineering"? I still hear the snow plows using TG 16 on the old system. Have you heard anything definitive on 22701 or 22702 as far as how those talkgroups are being utilized?

 

[c-ubuff]

22701 is in use tonight and does seem to replace TG 16 on the old system. Pro96Com logs indicate that 22702 and 22703 are Champaign PW groups but I have not had a chance to listen for their use.

 

[i_galbreath]

I live in Douglas County and monitor Champaign Fire, PRO, and Arrow ambulance. I am wondering when the official switch to the new 800 system is suppost to be.
Also, I am wondering what would be a good handheld scanner and a good mobile scanner and antenna for monitoring the new system. I would be putting the mobile scanner and antenna in my car.

Thanks,

Ian

 

[c-ubuff]

Champaign Fire switched over to the system almost a year ago, METRO Fire is paging only. Arrow and Pro have MDICE radios for METCAD calls but their dispatch is staying where it is for now. There is some talk that they might switch their dispatch but that would be very costly for them.

 

[i_galbreath]

Ok thank you for the update.

 

[c-ubuff]

Based on radio traffic it appears that TG22702 (PW2) is City of Champaign building services or facilities. They were talking about various repair work including HVAC repairs and clearing snow at city owned buildings. I also heard TG22703 (PW3) referred to as the Engineering channel several times on the channel as well as hearing some being told that Engineering was on “channel 3”.

 

[Highlander_821]

I am thinking about getting a RadioShack Pro-197 at the sale price.

Has anyone tried the Pro-197 or the GRE 500/600 with the MDICE system and, if so, how well does it work?

My Pro-2096 does really well with MDICE lately, but I'd like to try one of these next generation GRE sets.

 

[cubn]

Has anyone tried the Pro-197 or the GRE 500/600 with the MDICE system and, if so, how well does it work?

chet1 had posted that he tried one of the GRE units and it couldn't decode MDICE.

 

[Highlander_821]

Thanks, cubn. I browsed through this thread but somehow missed chet1's post.

 

[ab9fj]

GRE scanners and MDICE

chet1 had posted that he tried one of the GRE units and it couldn't decode MDICE.

I picked up a Pro-106 and a Pro-197 during the Christmas sale. They both work fine on MDICE (and Starcom21). i'm in Urbana and mobile around C-U. YMMV.

Wayne