Dallas Fire - Trunked System Rollout 2022

Harold

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They are just Site Names. When you see the number of users on this system, you can understand the need to divide the agencies in an organized fashion. And also have the ability to move Public Safety to the other site, should their primary site go down.
 

BenScan

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To scanner users it appears as two simulcast sites. I don't know where the name 'layer' came from. As far as the db and your scanner is concerned layer=site.

The old Fort Worth type II system had a simulcast site for public safety and a non-simulcast site for public works. The talkgroups worked on both systems but if I remember right the users had to manually switch systems if one system was off the air. It amounts to two separate systems for redundancy.

I don't know how the new sites in Dallas are configured or why they are called 'layers'.

The past several days, I've seen many of the talk groups on layer/site 2 also being simulcast on layer/site 1. I think it's probably too soon to know the logic or the layout, but I would assume it's primarily to spread the load over two sites. It may end up being different than I've speculated it in previous posts.
 

riverradio68

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Public Safety (DSO, DPD, DFR) are supposed to have the same TGID's on both layers ... for redundancy. If anyone has been watching lately DSO is using Layer 1 now but constables have both 1 & 2 use.

Is the Dallas Event's group pretty much general city event's such as parades and art festivals?
 

BenScan

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Public Safety (DSO, DPD, DFR) are supposed to have the same TGID's on both layers ... for redundancy. If anyone has been watching lately DSO is using Layer 1 now but constables have both 1 & 2 use.

Is the Dallas Event's group pretty much general city event's such as parades and art festivals?
My understanding is that talk groups A 1 - A 16, B 1 - B 16, C 1 - C 16, and D 1 -D 16 will be similar to Arlington's F and G talk groups. They're talk groups set aside for events with the convenience that they can be assigned as needed. D 1 - D16 will be encrypted.

These talk groups start at A1 - 30501 and go through D-16 at 30564.
 

riverradio68

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My understanding is that talk groups A 1 - A 16, B 1 - B 16, C 1 - C 16, and D 1 -D 16 will be similar to Arlington's F and G talk groups. They're talk groups set aside for events with the convenience that they can be assigned as needed. D 1 - D16 will be encrypted.

These talk groups start at A1 - 30501 and go through D-16 at 30564.

Thanks Ben.
 

BenScan

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The Dallas City Council had this on the 1/9/2023 agenda.
Navigate to the link here, and then click on "Presentation" link.

Bottom line, new ETA is " Complete rollout to Public Safety Departments by March 15, 2023 • Onboard external agencies to the new system as full subscribers starting April 2023 "

I'm sure it's all subject to change like everything else these days, but it does seem to be getting very close.

Happy Scanning,
Ben
 

hiegtx

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The Dallas City Council had this on the 1/9/2023 agenda.
Navigate to the link here, and then click on "Presentation" link.

Bottom line, new ETA is " Complete rollout to Public Safety Departments by March 15, 2023 • Onboard external agencies to the new system as full subscribers starting April 2023 "

I'm sure it's all subject to change like everything else these days, but it does seem to be getting very close.

Happy Scanning,
Ben
Thanks for the note, Ben. I'm seeing more activity logged on unidentified talkgroups, but very little so far that might be Dallas PD or FD. The TGIDs for the Dallas County Sheriff are being used quite a bit, but some of that activity is still only on the Vhf legacy frequencies, and not always simulcast on the trunked system.

(Edit to add) On the list of external agencies in the presentation file, I see Hutchins & Wilmer listed. Up until this point, I was wondering if either of them would join. If they do, then all the cities in Dallas County will be on one of the multiple systems deployed in the Dallas County.
 
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Charlie1068

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Thanks for the note, Ben. I'm seeing more activity logged on unidentified talkgroups, but very little so far that might be Dallas PD or FD. The TGIDs for the Dallas County Sheriff are being used quite a bit, but some of that activity is still only on the Vhf legacy frequencies, and not always simulcast on the trunked system.
I have noticed an uptick in unknown talkgroups as well along with Dallas SO being patched to the system
 

KI5IRE

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Just thought I’d highlight something that caught my eye in the presentation that Ben linked…

Encryption
• New system supports advance encryption
• At current, dispatch channels are not encrypted
• Public Safety Departments will review, test, and consider encryption following implementation

Hopefully this does not mean DPD/DFR may go completely dark..
 

tangier

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I certainly hope they don't either. Last week, I did hear a DSO unit on TG 35051/CH 5 Dispatch asked the dispatcher to "go ENC" which they apparently did...
 

KI5IRE

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Did not find any new activity for DPD/DFR as of last week. The presentation posted above noted that we could start seeing DFR units start to switch over as early as mid-January, as long as that ETA hasn't since been delayed. Will be listening again this week in case "mid-January" means this week.

I am also wondering if they are planning to patch the TG 3 on the NCTCOG system to the NTIRN while they start their testing phase or if maybe that has been a test patch to see how the patch works with legacy equipment to the NTIRN.

Has anyone seen any plans for DFR talkgroup layouts or heard how many talkgroups we could expect? Curious if they will keep it close to how it is currently on the legacy system with only a handful of channels or if we'll see several additional channels now that they will have much more capabilities on the NTIRN.
 
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t5333

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They were doing more testing on these talkgroups:

32001 - radio check

35082 - radio check - one person said they're still having problems with the radio
35084 - testing - one location given was Cliff Creek Dr
35085 - radio check - one location given sounded like the corner of Trace Rd and Chariot Dr
 
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BenScan

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They were doing more testing on these talkgroups:

32001 - radio check

35082 - radio check - one person said they're still having problems with the radio
35084 - testing - one location given was Cliff Creek Dr
35085 - radio check - one location given sounded like the corner of Trace Rd and Chariot Dr

From listening, I believe 35081, 35082, 35083, 35084, and 35084 are Constables (Channels 1 through 5).
 

hiegtx

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From listening, I believe 35081, 35082, 35083, 35084, and 35084 are Constables (Channels 1 through 5).
You're probably right, Ben

The pattern, so far, seems to be TGIDs in the 35xxx range are Dallas County.
Various Dallas Services, such as DWU, the Convention Center, as well as some streets & sanitation, are in the 33xxx range, with some specific TGIDs for Dallas City Security in the 326xx range.
Dallas (city) events, so far, are in the 30501 to 30516 range. Just a wild guess, but I would not be surprised to see State Fair of Texas talkgroups in this range (305xx?).

Once we start hearing PD & Fire talkgroups, I would expect them to also stake out a specific range of TGIDs.

The other unknowns are where will the smaller cities end up. Cockrell Hill is currently using 6200 ->6202 on the Dallas Simulcast site of the Dallas P25/NCTCOG system. Other cities yet to be heard from include Hutchins & Wilmer, along with the 'Best Southwest' cities (Cedar Hill, Desoto, Duncanville, & Lancaster) which will transition from their existing NXDN systems.
 

BenScan

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You're probably right, Ben

The pattern, so far, seems to be TGIDs in the 35xxx range are Dallas County.
Various Dallas Services, such as DWU, the Convention Center, as well as some streets & sanitation, are in the 33xxx range, with some specific TGIDs for Dallas City Security in the 326xx range.
Dallas (city) events, so far, are in the 30501 to 30516 range. Just a wild guess, but I would not be surprised to see State Fair of Texas talkgroups in this range (305xx?).

Once we start hearing PD & Fire talkgroups, I would expect them to also stake out a specific range of TGIDs.

The other unknowns are where will the smaller cities end up. Cockrell Hill is currently using 6200 ->6202 on the Dallas Simulcast site of the Dallas P25/NCTCOG system. Other cities yet to be heard from include Hutchins & Wilmer, along with the 'Best Southwest' cities (Cedar Hill, Desoto, Duncanville, & Lancaster) which will transition from their existing NXDN systems.

I'm pretty sure I've heard Cedar Hill fire on 36008, and imagine 36000-33999 will be the non-city, non-county users.
 

KI5IRE

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Definitely a lot more testing has started this week. Still nothing that appears to be directly DPD/DFR related at least as far as what they are saying in testing.

Lots of new talkgroups showing up. My SDS shows several TGs keying up patched.

Not seeing much ENC yet, so hopefully they'll test anything they plan to ENC in the clear. But I also am not able to lock on the Dallas Layer 1 CC on my 996xt that I use for logging on Pro96Com and only able to see when a talkgroup is keyed up.

It appears the DSO dispatchers have possibly moved over, their UIDs are now popping up and their audio does not sound like it is a patch from the legacy VHF system.
 

mwjones

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Not seeing much ENC yet, so hopefully they'll test anything they plan to ENC in the clear.
When they changed over Collin County from their Analog system onto PAWMCo, the encryption was set up from the start, but other than just testing the encrypted talkgroups, all of the coverage testing, and other general testing was being done on unencrypted channels.
 

hiegtx

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I'm pretty sure I've heard Cedar Hill fire on 36008, and imagine 36000-33999 will be the non-city, non-county users.
I went back & reviewed my logs from the 436HP I have set on the system in ID Search, as well as recording everything. So far, I have not logged anything in the 36xxx series. But, of course, the scanner could have been stopped on a different TGID while 36008 was active.

If the three cities currently on the SWRCC NXDN system continue their current pattern, 36008 (or whatever other TGID) would be used as a combined dispatch. That's the way they are for now., The call comes out on the dispatch channel, and as part of the alarm announcement, their dispatcher names the city where the incident is located.
 
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