Fire Depts in Greenville County Testing Palmetto 800 Radios

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RadioSc

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I heard about this a while back. When a fire chief was telling businesses that they'll have to pay for a repeater on their infrastructure due to fire fighters have low or no signal while inside their buildings. So im thinking the new radios have better signal.

P.S. I heard the police is getting their handmedowns. That's Due to SC switching over to the P25 phase 1 back in 2017. Their voice is loud and clear. So if you have any radio that has P25 voice capability. It is a good radio. although NC is upgrading to P25 phase 2 starting of next year. SC is probably not far from them. Having Phase 2 Opens up a world of Encryption for all departments. Voice communication over the radio becomes more Digital and harder to Decode with a scanner.

Firefighters have more critical missions than any other Gov agency. Their radio technology has to be new and updated regularly
 
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brian

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Talkgroup 44362 was added to the database last week. It's what's used for a lot of this testing ongoing at this time. Not sure if it will be a long-term FD use talkgroup or not. Generally heard on the Greenville Simulcast system.

It's not uncommon these days for buildings to have wireless "enhancement" systems installed, especially for large commercial buildings. "DAS" is the industry buzzword that stands for Distributed Antenna System. Mostly for commercial wireless (ie, "cell phones") but also for public safety. They aren't required in most locations at this time, but that will likely change in the near future. That's makes an agency's change of band (ie, VHF to 800) a big deal if lots of buildings have any type of this in place for public safety.

Encryption is no more easier or difficult on P25 Phase II compared to Phase I.

Most in the fire service would tell you that simplest is best for radios on a fireground, ie at an active fire. That's why most fire departments that use a trunked radio system will have plenty of "old technology" - analog, conventional, non-repeated radio channels to use for tactical operations. It sounds like the East Grvl County fire departments are going that route, to the chagrin of us hobbyists.
 

mckinscan

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Most Depts in Spartanburg county when they switch to Tac channel most switch over to the Simplex channel and Spartanburg City also switch over to their Simplex channel on Fire Ground. on it Dispatch ops channel and some times they switch to one of the Tac channel.
 
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