Douglas county GA - new radio tower

[dannyboyjones]

Does anyone anything about the new tower that was put up in Douglas County off of Fairburn rd and factory shoals rd

 

[relicwr]

See if you can get near it for a FCC ID or any details.

The only thing I'm seeing is for Loudoun Communications @ 585 Factory Shoals but that's near Six Flags Rd.

 

[badeffect10]

I'm pretty sure it's for the new public safety radio system in DC. They put something very similar up in Bill Arp and they are clearing for a tower location in Fairplay as well.

 

[relicwr]

I'm curious. How have they gone so long without a license?

 

[badeffect10]

I'm curious. How have they gone so long without a license?

I believe Metropolitan Communications carries the licenses in their name if nothing has changed.

 

[RRR]

"New public radio system"

Does that mean they're doing away with their DMR system?

 

[MTS2000des]

"New public radio system"

Does that mean they're doing away with their DMR system?

Yes, they're underway implementing a P-25 system that will be a part of the Cobb regional radio system.

 

[RRR]

Isn't Douglasville already on it? How can Douglasville pick it up well, but Douglas county needs a new tower?

I honestly don't know the layout there

 

[gadep]

would it be that they might be trying to expand their radio coverage area

 

[relicwr]

So much for picking up the DMR from Houston County.

It would happen at times and I always listened to it.

 

[MTS2000des]

Isn't Douglasville already on it?

Douglasville has been a stakeholder of the CCRRS for years, they actually merged their licenses from their legacy SmartNet when Cobb migrated to Astro 25.

I honestly don't know the layout there

The county is a wide area, the Douglasville site just covers downtown.

Without going into the TLDR reasoning, the county and city are different PSAPs despite being literally next to each other. The county chose to go to VHF DMR when the narrowband mandate came down, the city of Douglasville has been on the Cobb DTRS since the Smartnet days.

The county put out an RFP a couple years ago after consulting with nearby agencies and chose to join the Cobb core and procure the needed RF sites, and purchase the required subscribers.

 

[badeffect10]

Do you know if it will be encrypted or in the clear?

 

[DanRollman]

Douglasville has been a stakeholder of the CCRRS for years, they actually merged their licenses from their legacy SmartNet when Cobb migrated to Astro 25. The county is a wide area, the Douglasville site just covers downtown. The county put out an RFP a couple years ago after consulting with nearby agencies and chose to join the Cobb core and procure the needed RF sites, and purchase the required subscribers.

To those who may have the inside scoop, is it fair to assume the "downtown Douglasville" site will remain, and Douglasville PD will primarily use that, while the new Douglas County system will be its own separate simulcast zone for sheriff and fire?

Presumably the "County" simulcast cell will need to cover downtown Douglasville just as well as Douglasville's site currently does. Is this sort of overlap unusual in Georgia? I suppose there are both political and technical reasons that might explain this sort of outcome, but would it not otherwise make more sense to end up with a single countywide simulcast cell that the county agencies and the city both use? Marietta doesn't have its own tower on the Cobb system, nor does Decatur have its own tower on the DeKalb system, etc.

One could point to the Conyers / Rockdale example, but at least those are entirely separate systems (I think) - and presumably 'political' is the explanation there.

NFRRSA and Fulton is another example, but that was most certainly political, and again is a completely separate system...

So is 'political' the explanation for a Douglasville / Douglas County separation too, but an even more unusual example of such a separation within the same system?

Just curious.

Dan

 

[MTS2000des]

Dan,

I'd really love to give the details but am not at liberty to discuss it.

What I can say is that it is a project underway and will cover the entire county, with multiple transmit/receive sites around the county and even outside of it (a co-locate on one of ours being built out as I write this). Beyond this, details such as operations, fleet maps, encryption are NDA stuff.
I will tell you this system will be on the air by the first of the year. All subscribers will be TDMA out the gate.

Both the Douglasville (current) site and the new sites will be connected to the Cobb core in the same way Bartow and Forsyth are today.

 

[dannyboyjones]

So much for picking up the DMR from Houston County.

It would happen at times and I always listened to it.

How are you listening to it.... I program them into my scanner and I can hear is the garbled traffic

 

[relicwr]

152.0825 is what I would get when it was bouncing my way. It was in the clear.

Where are you?

 

[dannyboyjones]

I stay down the road from the sheriffs office

Put they sound encrypted

 

[relicwr]

What's your frequency? And talkgroups you can't hear?

 

[dannyboyjones]

I can’t remember

 

[DanRollman]

I stay down the road from the sheriffs office

Put they sound encrypted

Are you using a scanner or radio capable of receiving DMR digital mode?