Daviess County Officials Hear Options to Replace Communication System

estone4009

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What kind of audio quality are you hearing? I am doing some testing with a new SDRtrunk setup and some of the recording I am capturing are less than great so curious what everyone else might be capturing. I dont yet has a SDS100 to try and compare the audio against my setup.
 

daltonadkins

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What kind of audio quality are you hearing? I am doing some testing with a new SDRtrunk setup and some of the recording I am capturing are less than great so curious what everyone else might be capturing. I dont yet has a SDS100 to try and compare the audio against my setup.

My SDS100 was doing quite a bit better than SDR Trunk today with testing. I’m not exactly sure what was causing the discrepancy. Sds100 picked up quite a few transmissions sdrtrunk completely missed. Also the decode seemed to be better on the sdr.
 

estone4009

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My SDS100 was doing quite a bit better than SDR Trunk today with testing. I’m not exactly sure what was causing the discrepancy. Sds100 picked up quite a few transmissions sdrtrunk completely missed. Also the decode seemed to be better on the sdr.
I think they were testing indoors at Apollo so I am curious what type of audio quality we should be expecting. I have SDRtrunk with 3 SDR's monitoring both Owensboro P25 systems and I am trying make sure I am covering the frequency range they are using. With me being a newbie on SDRtrunk and this system being fluid during testing I am learning about audio quality.
 

estone4009

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They seem to be testing heavily Talkgroup ID 9006 today. Is anyone else listening to testing today and what kind of audio quality are you getting? Trying to determine if it is my SDR setup or it is working as expected.
 

dwh367

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Article From the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro)

New county radio system to go online in November​

The multimillion dollar digital radio system for county sheriff’s deputies and firefighters is expected to go into use early next month, once final tests are complete.

Owensboro-Daviess County 911 Director Paul Nave said the hope is to have deputies and emergency responders begin using the system full-time on Nov. 1.

Before then, several “fail tests” will be conducted to make sure responders can keep using the system if any of the four transmission towers are knocked out, Assistant County Treasurer Jordan Johnson said.

Fiscal Court voted to build the digital radio system, which was budgeted at $6.46 million, in response to communications problems deputies and firefighters were having with the obsolete VHF system. The VHF was prone to interference from weather or terrain conditions, and the system was largely running on parts that were old and could not be replaced.

Nave said the digital system is running, while responders use the VHF system for now. The digital system has met its coverage requirements in tests so far. The contract called for 98% coverage of the county for responders in vehicles and 93% of the county when a responder is using a portable radio outdoors.

“The coverage testing was really successful,” Nave said. “Now, we’ll do the infrastructure testing.”

The system relies on three towers, in the east, west and southern part of the county, and one a transmission site at the Owensboro Police Department, where 911 dispatch is housed. It was originally expected to be in use sooner, but the county had to build a new tower at the landfill when a contract to place equipment on an existing tower couldn’t be reached.

The system is providing the coverage required by the contract, Johnson said.

“All of the coverage testing came back as intended,” Jordon said. “Motorola is meeting all of the requirements.”

The “fail testing” will simulate a disaster or issue that knocks out one or more of the transmission sites. The system was designed with redundancies so if some towers are knocked out, transmission signals will reroute to the remaining ones, Johnson said.

“The system could function on one” tower, Johnson said. “That’s one of the huge benefits of a P25 trunked (digital) system.”
 

trido

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So example will ALL COUNTY TG be ONLY on the 3 site sim cluster and NOT on the single CITY site?
Meaning like sheriff TG will NOT be on the CITY site and ONLY on the 3 site cluster? Also no CITY TG will be ON the county cluster?
According to the details above it is the same system. It's a new site acting as a 3-site simulcast cluster but it is still one large countywide system.
 

daltonadkins

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So example will ALL COUNTY TG be ONLY on the 3 site sim cluster and NOT on the single CITY site?
Meaning like sheriff TG will NOT be on the CITY site and ONLY on the 3 site cluster? Also no CITY TG will be ON the county cluster?
This is yet to be known. Currently DCFD is simulcasted on both city and county sites. My guess would be that city traffic and county traffic will stay on their respective sites unless a radio affiliates with the other and causing the traffic to be sent to both sites. Again that is just speculation but that’s my theory in order to reduce total system resources.
 

wa8pyr

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Nave said the digital system is running, while responders use the VHF system for now. The digital system has met its coverage requirements in tests so far. The contract called for 98% coverage of the county for responders in vehicles and 93% of the county when a responder is using a portable radio outdoors.

93% portable outdoor coverage? Sure hope vehicle repeaters were part of the purchase, otherwise they're going to have some very unhappy fire departments when their radios bonk at them when inside a building.
 

kcvanover

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Looks like DCSO went digital today. Anybody having success listening with the downloaded RR file? I can get the Owensboro site to work fine but DC decodes nothing.
 

wa8pyr

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estone4009

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Site 1 "Owensboro" is currently Phase 1 and will be upgrading to Phase 2 in the future. Site 2 "Daviess County" is Phase 2 although you will occasionaly see a radio that is on Site 2 that is not working correctly and coming in as Phase 1.
 

estone4009

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Anyone else using SDRTrunk to monitor the Owensboro P25 Site 1 and Site 2? Would love to compare some setup to resolve some issues.
 
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