Fountain Police and Fire are having radio problems. Their mobile units can copy radio traffic but when some of them try to transmit, they are getting the "SITE TRUNKING" notification on their radios. It just started happening this morning and I have a suspicion that the problem is popping up on other agency talk groups as well. I don't work for the city but wanted RR listeners to be aware. Does anybody know anything about this?
El Paso county DTRS problems
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I checked and it doesn't look like El Paso County Sheriff's deputies that are working in the area are having the same problems. Fountain units operate on Mt Pittsburg, Ski Summit, Cedar Heights and others. I don't know which site caused the problem or if it was just too many TGs trying to transmit at the same time on the same site. Site trunking problems are not very well understood by most of us, so I was just hoping to get some info from the people on here that have history with DTRS and/or the local El Paso county system.
"Site Trunking" means that the site in use is not connected to the rest of the system. When that happens, the user can only hear other users who are affiliated to the same site, and won't hear users that are affiliated to other sites. It has nothing to do with the number of users (that would result in "busy" signals, not "site trunking").
It was most likely a temporary situation (possibly site maintenance), and nothing to get into much of a lather about. It happens more often that we hear about, although it's not a very common occurrence.
It was most likely a temporary situation (possibly site maintenance), and nothing to get into much of a lather about. It happens more often that we hear about, although it's not a very common occurrence.
Oh, I am sure you are right, Bob. Not that big of a deal, except for that officer on a traffic stop that lost comms with the dispatcher for the 5 minutes he was on the traffic stop. He was the only Fountain PD officer affiliated on that site at the time. That cop was not happy. But yeah, it probably happens a lot.
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I just meant that it's not a big deal for us who monitor...it can certainly be a problem for the officer on the street. On the other hand, a little better knowledge on the part of the end-user would alleviate some of the anxiety...there are ways to work around a "site trunking" problem, if the user knows how.
That's true but I don't think they were, or ever will be, trained on workarounds, like forcing the radio to a different site, or just calling on a cell phone (which would not be an option for deputies working out in rural areas with no cell phone coverage). I am sure if they have the problem more often then they would be trained on it.
There is a deputy that was dragged down the street in Security (south of Colorado Springs) after making contact on a traffic stop. He wasn't able to call for help right away because he couldn't transmit. Neighbors ended up calling it in that a deputy was laying in the road and injured.
Does that emergency button they have still work in the case where they are on a site that is isolated?
And, don't get me wrong, I understand that all these minor annoyance problems are small time and happen very seldom (a lot less than the times I hear "you were digital"), but I was just trying to understand the nuances of the system.
There is a deputy that was dragged down the street in Security (south of Colorado Springs) after making contact on a traffic stop. He wasn't able to call for help right away because he couldn't transmit. Neighbors ended up calling it in that a deputy was laying in the road and injured.
Does that emergency button they have still work in the case where they are on a site that is isolated?
And, don't get me wrong, I understand that all these minor annoyance problems are small time and happen very seldom (a lot less than the times I hear "you were digital"), but I was just trying to understand the nuances of the system.
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I believe that in the situation with the deputy, his inability to transmit was not an equipment or systems issue...
As for the emergency button, it would work, but of course only if dispatch is on the same site...so it would depend.
I think we tend to get too tied into the technology we carry and forget to how to "punt" if things don't work the way they should.
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