Delaware County Pa New System

One13Truck

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Street closure notifications now automatically dispatched...interesting
With the addition of what sounds like a broken doorbell in the place of the warble. I kid. I kid. Mostly. 😂
I like the consistency though. My county will give those over the air to staffed stations and hit tones for ones not staffed. Which leads to some (most) dispatchers not knowing to go over the air dropping tones and annoying the duty crews.
 

Whiskey3JMC

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cavmedic

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With the addition of what sounds like a broken doorbell in the place of the warble. I kid. I kid. Mostly. 😂
I like the consistency though. My county will give those over the air to staffed stations and hit tones for ones not staffed. Which leads to some (most) dispatchers not knowing to go over the air dropping tones and annoying the duty crews.
Keep in mind that EFJ is going around optimizing stations and sites and working out kinks and bugs.

I wouldn’t expect anything BUT changes in control channels, signal fluctuations, system reboots up to and including shut downs while the implementation process is ongoing. Any types of troubleshooting on scanners right now could just cause the chasing of your tail or pi$$ing in the wind and then getting a wet leg.
 

policefreak

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Another thing to consider is AFAIK the timing of the transmitter sites has not yet been adjusted. Even my Unication, BK and Harris radios lose the control channel with plenty of reception to spare, typically in spots that are high up and where multiple sites could be coming in. So imagine the havoc playing on a scanner which is already much more susceptible to simulcast distortion even when the sites are timed better. I am curious if all the sites have been turned on yet.
 

Septa3371CSX1

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Put this system into my G5 a few weeks ago and have been monitoring on and off when I can. So far the automated dispatches sound good on TG 160. It seems to go out much the same way the alpha pages go out. Even had a bunch of EMS units getting dispatched to Riddle ER the one day but nothing on the legacy dispatch channels (I only monitor 154.415 and 508.2375) and then I realized it was a status update (probably on or off divert) being sent to all the EMS units in the county. I feel like that could be better done with a general all page but I'm not sure how the pagers actually activate and such.

I pass the Willistown tower just about every day (2-4 times a day actually) and there has been quite a bit of work going on there lately. A couple months ago saw the antennas get installed and now they got a large crane with a man cage at the site and they work 5-6 days a week - no idea what they're actually doing.

My G5 goes in and out of range on the system just about everywhere. I do seem to have better luck staying locked in when mobile vs at home where it doesn't always stay locked in even when in the same spot - I assume this has to do with the simulcast timing not being perfected just yet. I still have to program the system into my APX but I'm not as savvy with the programming of that one plus I got to remove some stuff since that radio is at capacity (only holds 1,000 channels). I'll probably do that closer to go live date so I can have two radios on the system like I do now.

When the new system does go live, will the county sheriff operations at the courthouse go to the system or will they remain on their low power UHF repeaters? On the subject of UHF I wonder how many departments will retain their current private channels (on both the police and fire side) after the switch. I know the DMR system is supposedly being kept as a back up so I'd imagine some UHF radios will stay.

On the subject of the current conventional system, I've had a weird issue with Sector 7 on my XTS. I have to program it as CSQ because not everything comes through with the 192.8 PL. It appears the PL on this one goes out of the tolerance thus causing these issues. Sector 7 works just fine on my HT1250 but I normally only monitor the fire channels on that one (plus for some reason the zone with Sectors 1-3 doesn't work on that radio).

P.S. I know I'm not around as much as I once was. Between my laptop not being reliable and working around 12 hours a day 6 days a week and having a 3 year old and a 10 month old (both girls) I don't have a lot of time to go on here. If you monitor the SEPTA TRS on Sundays between 7:30 and 8:00 you might hear me call in for a radio check.
 

rgchristy

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Put this system into my G5 a few weeks ago and have been monitoring on and off when I can. So far the automated dispatches sound good on TG 160. It seems to go out much the same way the alpha pages go out. Even had a bunch of EMS units getting dispatched to Riddle ER the one day but nothing on the legacy dispatch channels (I only monitor 154.415 and 508.2375) and then I realized it was a status update (probably on or off divert) being sent to all the EMS units in the county. I feel like that could be better done with a general all page but I'm not sure how the pagers actually activate and such.

I pass the Willistown tower just about every day (2-4 times a day actually) and there has been quite a bit of work going on there lately. A couple months ago saw the antennas get installed and now they got a large crane with a man cage at the site and they work 5-6 days a week - no idea what they're actually doing.

My G5 goes in and out of range on the system just about everywhere. I do seem to have better luck staying locked in when mobile vs at home where it doesn't always stay locked in even when in the same spot - I assume this has to do with the simulcast timing not being perfected just yet. I still have to program the system into my APX but I'm not as savvy with the programming of that one plus I got to remove some stuff since that radio is at capacity (only holds 1,000 channels). I'll probably do that closer to go live date so I can have two radios on the system like I do now.

When the new system does go live, will the county sheriff operations at the courthouse go to the system or will they remain on their low power UHF repeaters? On the subject of UHF I wonder how many departments will retain their current private channels (on both the police and fire side) after the switch. I know the DMR system is supposedly being kept as a back up so I'd imagine some UHF radios will stay.

On the subject of the current conventional system, I've had a weird issue with Sector 7 on my XTS. I have to program it as CSQ because not everything comes through with the 192.8 PL. It appears the PL on this one goes out of the tolerance thus causing these issues. Sector 7 works just fine on my HT1250 but I normally only monitor the fire channels on that one (plus for some reason the zone with Sectors 1-3 doesn't work on that radio).

P.S. I know I'm not around as much as I once was. Between my laptop not being reliable and working around 12 hours a day 6 days a week and having a 3 year old and a 10 month old (both girls) I don't have a lot of time to go on here. If you monitor the SEPTA TRS on Sundays between 7:30 and 8:00 you might hear me call in for a radio check.
If you monitor the SEPTA TRS on Sundays between 7:30 and 8:00, you won't hear me any more...I'm collecting my SEPTA pension...:)

I did work in Revenue Control Center for a few years though...

Hang in there Joe, it's worth the wait...

@PhillyPete is a SEPTA person, too.

Also, are you any relation to Mel?

And for another strange coincidence, the two people living above us in the apartment that we just moved into, are SEPTA people. One Regional Rail and the other works for Suburban Division.
 

One13Truck

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Keep in mind that EFJ is going around optimizing stations and sites and working out kinks and bugs.

I wouldn’t expect anything BUT changes in control channels, signal fluctuations, system reboots up to and including shut downs while the implementation process is ongoing. Any types of troubleshooting on scanners right now could just cause the chasing of your tail or pi$$ing in the wind and then getting a wet leg.
No worries. I’m 3 hours away listening part time on my phone while “working”. I’ll do a bit of quick travel through that 20 in a month or two but will have my SDS squawk box out of hand and recording as I drive. So not much to tweak for me except the volume button. 😂
 

policefreak

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So here is a general question I have about TRS's but it applies here. I notice how beautifully the Automated dispatches come in, and no matter what device we listen to, we are all saying it! I use a BKR9000, a Harris radio, and a Unication pager on the system. My signal strength has to be pretty much on the floor for there to be any voice distortion on the Automated dispatches, and any other testing I have heard. Is there some kind of filtering put on each channel or radio that affects the audio quality of the channel even when reception is poor? I have noticed similar things with other systems like Camden County, Chester County, and Monmouth County down the shore. Other systems sound like "caca" (to use more polite language) even with pretty good RSSI values at close range. In those cases the only improvement is less than 5 miles from a transmitter site.
 

rgchristy

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From Providence Road in Secane, I'm getting a nice signal today. And yes, there's no place like home...;)

I'm listening with my SDS200 with an external Compactenna Scan III on a mag mount antenna.

D-Error: 0
RSSI: ~ -45dBm
Signal full 5 bars

Both my TRX-1 & TRX-2 are receiving the transmissions without simulcast distortion.
 

rrbum

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All the slots and multiple chans at once !! Stress test??

It sounds like late 50's to mid 60's Mothers of Invention.

I may have had a slight flashback.
;)
 

rgchristy

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All the slots and multiple chans at once !! Stress test??

It sounds like late 50's to mid 60's Mothers of Invention.

I may have had a slight flashback.
;)
My best advice would be "watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow!" ;)
 

rgchristy

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From Providence Road in Secane, I'm getting a nice signal again today. And yes, it made my day...;)

SDS200:
D-Error: 0
RSSI: Solid -42dBm
Signal full 5 bars

Both my TRX-1 & TRX-2 are receiving the transmissions without simulcast distortion.

My TRX-2 sounds awesome, with a external mag mount with a Laird NMO 150/450/758.

I guess that's an "unofficial" pass from "unofficial" Team Secane.

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