City of Gastonia PD now on Charmeck TRS

[bonus1331]

859.5375



9:52pm edit

Still linking CH 1 UHF to Gastonia and southpoint sites and CH 2 UHF to Gastonia site only....

Looks like they went off on Ch. 1 at around midnight last night.
Will atttempt to see if I can pick-up the Gastonia site on the 780 that is tapped and running UT tonight when I get home.

Interesting that they are only simulcasting 1 of the 2 TG's on the South site.
Kind of excited to hear some new action on the TRS, hoping they through the remaining channels on the system.
Did anyone know that Gastonia PD were on their way to the Charmeck TRS?
Do we think that FD or the SO will follow over?
Gastonia PD does sound pretty rough, whether on the 800 TRS or their conventional channels. Old equipment?

I live in Union County and was reading a budget meeting .pdf from earlier in the year and it looks like Union County is looking to joing this TRS as well. Monroe FD already has 1 TG on the system.

 

[Grog]

Looks like they went off on Ch. 1 at around midnight last night.

That's about when I shut it down, there was a delay from the UHF to the 800 and with it coming from three scanners it was giving me a headache :lol:

Did anyone know that Gastonia PD were on their way to the Charmeck TRS?

Yes, there was some discussion on a few threads, I mentioned it sometime last fall after talking with the dude in charge with Gaston County 911

Gastonia PD does sound pretty rough, whether on the 800 TRS or their conventional channels. Old equipment?

I am not sure on the consoles (at county) or the repeaters, but all the HTs I have seen are HT1250s, and they honestly sound fine here. I would say they sound much better than the patch to 800, or 800mhz trunked in general.

Do we think that FD or the SO will follow over?

The city fire department going to 800mhz would be a stupid idea since they communicate directly with the county departments (a couple have automatic mutual aid with the city on certain calls) as well as EMS all on a daily basis.

<opinion>
I also think it's stupid for three of the counties police departments to switch to a band that is not compatible with the rest of the county, but no one here asked my opinion.
<opinion>

They have Belmont and Mt Holly joining as well, but I do not see anyone else joining anytime soon. You have the county sheriff as well as county police, Ranlo, Lowell, Cramerton & McAndenville all dispatched by the county on their CH 1, Stanley does their own thing as well as Cherryville and Dallas on their own repeaters dispatched by their own people.


If EVERYONE in the county joined forces and had ONE combined PSAP, then I could see all of them moving together to some compatible radio system. As it stands they have seven different locations dispatching law enforcement personnel while all fire/EMS is dispatched by the county.


If there is a VIPER site installed in Gastonia (plus the future Belmont site), then I would say they might have good enough coverage for the county to use for real law enforcement uses. Until that happens, the char/meck thing looks to be the best they can get as far as 800mhz trunked goes. I still wonder about the SW part of Gastonia, that might be a good haul from all three of the Gaston County char/meck sites from an HT.

I'm just glad I don't have to depend on it :lol:

 

[Grog]

No real update, but they seem to have CH-1 & CH-2 linked to the Gastonia site full time. I have not heard them back on the southpoint site for awhile though. When I can sit at home and listen more (Tuesday after working three 16hr shifts) then I will setup my 2053 on the Gastonia site, the 2055 on the southpoint site and my UHF maxtrac scanning UHF CHs 1-3. I was just too busy to set all of that up this past week....

 

[qball]

UHF &gt; 800MHz patch

My understanding is that there are console patches to the Charlotte trunked system...only UHF channels 1 and 2. I think that some of the command staff are using 800MHz radios, and everyone else on UHF.

I sorta confirmed the 800MHz use by command staff the other afternoon by listening and watching unit IDs on the 800MHz side of the patch.

I have not heard a schedule for the full implementation of 800MHz!

 

[Grog]

That's ok, command staff don't do real police work anyway so they can be the guinea pigs


Are you watching the Cherryville site, the Gastonia site, or the southpoint/everywhere else sites?

 

[bonus1331]

Channel 1 (TG 21424) is full time now on South site.
Channel 2 (TG 21456) is now part time on South site, where last week only Grog could monitor on the Gaston site.
I would agree it is definitely a patch. I see no change in user ID between dispatch and patrol while monitoring with UT. This is not usually the case.

 

[Grog]

Thanks for the update, I'll work on listening to the Gastonia site to see if/when they link CH-3 to the 800mhz side. It's not used that often, so it will be a good catch to make.

 

[Phillipsc84]

update

I finally had a chance to talk to a friend with GPD and foundthis information out. As you all know only admin staff has 800 radios. All three channels are "linked" or "patched", whichever you chose,.

GPD-1 (21424)
GPD-2 (21456)
GPD-3 (21488)

They are mostly on site 2 I believe its now named in the database. after listening and other monitoring practices I found that it's a constant link between UHF and 800 but it seems inconsisten when monitoring the "South" site as they only come across that tower is someone happens to be in range for their radio to affiliate with it. If no one is on it then you wont hear them. I was able to have a friend (who works for GPD) bring his radio down to Rock Hill when he came by one day and I tested it. I had the scanner on and tuned to their main dispatch on 800. I heard nothing. As soon as his radio was on and had affiliated i started hearing their traffic on the scanner. As soon as it went off the traffic stopped. I'm sure mosst of you may have known this already. Just adding confirmation/

 

[yardbird]

Well that is good that Gastonia Police is using the Char/Meck 800 Mhz.

I talked with some of the local agencies and officials today at the hamfest, and what I could get out of them is that the county agencies are in no way interested in switching to the 800 Mhz system.

Some told me that the county has spent way to much money on the current system and they were not about to change now.

I will try to find out more

David

 

[Grog]

Well that is good that Gastonia Police is using the Char/Meck 800 Mhz.

Well, the admin are. The street cops are still using their UHF system.

I talked with some of the local agencies and officials today at the hamfest, and what I could get out of them is that the county agencies are in no way interested in switching to the 800 Mhz system.

Some told me that the county has spent way to much money on the current system and they were not about to change now.

That's pretty much what I reported last year, and I really don't see it changing anytime soon. Mt Holly and Belmont are about all I expect to see, and they are both right next to each other and Charlotte so they would not be working with many Gaston agencies besides the county.

 

[bonus1331]

I finally had a chance to talk to a friend with GPD and foundthis information out. As you all know only admin staff has 800 radios. All three channels are "linked" or "patched", whichever you chose,.

GPD-1 (21424)
GPD-2 (21456)
GPD-3 (21488)

They are mostly on site 2 I believe its now named in the database. after listening and other monitoring practices I found that it's a constant link between UHF and 800 but it seems inconsisten when monitoring the "South" site as they only come across that tower is someone happens to be in range for their radio to affiliate with it. If no one is on it then you wont hear them. I was able to have a friend (who works for GPD) bring his radio down to Rock Hill when he came by one day and I tested it. I had the scanner on and tuned to their main dispatch on 800. I heard nothing. As soon as his radio was on and had affiliated i started hearing their traffic on the scanner. As soon as it went off the traffic stopped. I'm sure mosst of you may have known this already. Just adding confirmation/

Thanks for the update. That explains why the intermittent use on the South tower.
Only have about 4 hits from Ch. 3 over a 5 day period.

Article in our local "rag" states that Union County will not hitch a ride; and will have their own TRS with 16 towers within 24 months. Delays due to certain towns balking at tower locations.

 

[Grog]

Article in our local "rag" states that Union County will not hitch a ride; and will have their own TRS with 16 towers within 24 months. Delays due to certain towns balking at tower locations.

Once again I say WOW....


It's bad enough to spend a ton of money going to a trunked system when it's likely not needed, it's even worse to build out your own when they have the options of going with either char/meck or viper. How much you want to bet they'll go to opensky or some other gay protocol (MPT1327 etc) :lol:


To keep this on topic, I will say the 800mhz audio quality sounds a lot beter than the first few days when it was just horrible. There have been transmission where the UHF repeater traffic never made it to 800, not sure what the deal is there.

One thing I know the street cops will miss is the talkaround abilities, it's just a fundamentally easier way to communicate with someone across a parking lot or other close range scene. I know the cops will have other TGs to use, and conventional as well, but you know they won;t be well trained in all of that and it defeats the best part of conventional talkaround in that they can still monitor the repeater output for dispatch and other users.


I could just picture five street cops on a scene using T/A and one admin type on 800 not hearing anything they say :lol:


On another note, I wonder how long they will keep the UHF system in operational condition, and how long they will keep the UHF to 800mhz link running. It sure would make it easy for the old folks who like to listen on their older than dirt scanners.


Interoperability with granny

 

[Grog]

Was able to confirm UHF CH-3 being 21488 because something locked up for a minute or two a few minutes ago, not sure if it was from the UHF or 800 side but it sure sounded harsh on both sides.

On CH 1 & 2 the 800mhz side audio is higher than the UHF side. Still a few times where the 800 side is not getting what is coming over UHF or mangling it so bad that it's unreadable.

 

[bonus1331]

We are rarely getting hits from the South site on Channels 2 or 3.
These TG's are still showing patched into the Charmeck system (meaning no individual user ID's are showing with Unitrunker).

 

[Grog]

CH-3 does not have a lot of traffic on it anyway so you won't see much on it unless they start doing a lot of testing.

Anyone in the Charlotte area than can tap a scanner?

 

[bonus1331]

CH-3 does not have a lot of traffic on it anyway so you won't see much on it unless they start doing a lot of testing.

Anyone in the Charlotte area than can tap a scanner?

Wish I could.
Ended up buying a BC780 off these forums that was already tapped.
Well worth it, Unitrunker brought a whole new level of enjoyment and information to a hobby I've had for 30 years.

 

[Grog]

I'm trying to not spend too much on this hobby as it is, don't need anymore scanners around here :lol: I do have a couple of oldies that would work well for this and not much more (pro2046, 94, etc).

 

[bonus1331]

I'm trying to not spend too much on this hobby as it is, don't need anymore scanners around here :lol: I do have a couple of oldies that would work well for this and not much more (pro2046, 94, etc).

I've been on a buying moratorium for about 8 months with no changes to the current line-up.
I will sell one and then by with the funds.
Waiting for what Uniden announces for new models at the end of the month..

780 tapped in the FS forum:
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118399