Cook County Interop Channels

[Premises2972]

I just wanted to post this and see if anyone has any info. For the past week, there have been several radio checks and testing on the UHF Cook County Interop channels during the mornings/early afternoons. Most of them have been in analog, but there's been some P25 traffic too. Anyone know what they are testing for, and which agencies are testing? My first thought was maybe DNC testing. Also, are the Starcom21 interop TGs patched or simulcasted to the UHF/VHF channels? If they are, maybe someone with a digital scanner could correlate the Radio IDs on the Starcom side and figure out which agency is transmitting.

 

[Awesomeman92]

Also, are the Starcom21 interop TGs patched or simulcasted to the UHF/VHF channels?

Usually, yes, although I've only seen it done on Interop 1. Not 100% of traffic is simulcast between (and I can't remember off hand which way isn't, it might be from SC to analog that isn't) but virtually all is. The county used the interop repeaters extensively back during the NATO Summit in 2012, so I'm sure it's DNC related.

You may have luck looking for RIDs, and you may not: there's a surprising amount of agencies that use VHF or UHF to access the system (as seen during the weekly testing on Wednesdays) and there will also likely be a lot of cache radios in use for the convention. The agency I used to be with had I/O 1 as a talkgroup in their normal SC21 radios on a mutual aid zone, but I don't know if this is the case for everyone that will be involved because I believe it requires access to the zone 5 Cook County sites (at least our radios would switch over when you turned to that talkgroup and change back when you turned away from it).

 

[Premises2972]

Just to add in an observation, there hasn't been a Cook County interop net the past 2 weeks atleast, instead of that there is coverage testing on these channels in the mornings/afternoons

 

[Premises2972]

Just today I heard some units who were doing radio checks from "Area 4 detective's office" which is referring to CPD's area building. The responding unit was "OEMC" Is it possible they are testing moving CPD citywide (atleast the interop part thats used by lots of outside units) to County interop? Since it looks like the Citywides might be moving up to the 800MHz trunked system. Just a thought

 

[MtGreenRdo]

Testing for the Democratic National Convention. CPD and Cook County comms.

 

[ILjim]

Testing for the Democratic National Convention. CPD and Cook County comms.

Which channels were being used? I've been scanning Conventional stuff for here in Cook Co since this afternoon, and have not received anything from any of the VHF/UHF Interops.

 

[MtGreenRdo]

Which channels were being used? I've been scanning Conventional stuff for here in Cook Co since this afternoon, and have not received anything from any of the VHF/UHF Interops.

UM1 - 453.950 / 458.9500
UM2 - 453.750 / 458.750

 

[Premises2972]

Testing for the Democratic National Convention. CPD and Cook County comms.

Is this confirmed?
Also today I heard "testing from Schaumburg"

 

[Premises2972]

I just wanted to post this and see if anyone has any info. For the past week, there have been several radio checks and testing on the UHF Cook County Interop channels during the mornings/early afternoons. Most of them have been in analog, but there's been some P25 traffic too. Anyone know what they are testing for, and which agencies are testing? My first thought was maybe DNC testing. Also, are the Starcom21 interop TGs patched or simulcasted to the UHF/VHF channels? If they are, maybe someone with a digital scanner could correlate the Radio IDs on the Starcom side and figure out which agency is transmitting.

Alright so some more info. One of the people consistently doing these coverage tests is using a "city radio". The city radios are, according to them, not programmed to RX in P25 and FM mode, only in FM mode. The other person that was doing the coverage tests (this unit has been testing from Schaumburg to ORD to all over the area) has an APX radio that can transmit in P25 and FM.
They also mentioned that they will "test more tomorrow when the downtown transmitter is up"
Any more info on these test would be great!