Franklin County 800 Patches

[WuLabsWuTecH]

So now that I got a new scanner and I can easily turn on and off banks, I wanted to start pargramming in more talkgroups into my scanner. But I found a surprising lack of information about the patch channels on the franklin county public safety database page. In particular, I am wondering about the talkgroup ID's for zone 17 (patches to delaware county), zone 18 (patches to grove city), and zone 19 (patches to OSU Police).

These are in my walkie as those particular zones, but they are not listed in radioreference. I would imagine they are not connecting to a whole different system every time I switch zones on my walkie right? Because otherwise, I shouldn't be able to hear Delaware from the south end of the county...

 

[gtaman]

So now that I got a new scanner and I can easily turn on and off banks, I wanted to start pargramming in more talkgroups into my scanner. But I found a surprising lack of information about the patch channels on the franklin county public safety database page. In particular, I am wondering about the talkgroup ID's for zone 17 (patches to delaware county), zone 18 (patches to grove city), and zone 19 (patches to OSU Police).

These are in my walkie as those particular zones, but they are not listed in radioreference. I would imagine they are not connecting to a whole different system every time I switch zones on my walkie right? Because otherwise, I shouldn't be able to hear Delaware from the south end of the county...

What's your walkie affiliated to? Deleware or franklin county public safety?

 

[16b]

I would imagine they are not connecting to a whole different system every time I switch zones on my walkie right?

That's exactly what's happening. When you switch to a channel in your radio that's on a different radio system (Delaware, OSU, etc), your radio un-affiliates with the Columbus system and affiliates with the radio system associated with the channel that you're on. As for why you can hear the Delaware system on the south end of town, it just has good coverage I guess. Dispatchers can (and do) temporarily patch Columbus system talkgroups over to talkgroups on other radio systems (MECC and Westerville come to mind), but I'll let someone with more knowledge of those arrangements comment on that.

 

[gtaman]

That's exactly what's happening. When you switch to a channel in your radio that's on a different radio system (Delaware, OSU, etc), your radio un-affiliates with the Columbus system and affiliates with the radio system associated with the channel that you're on. As for why you can hear the Delaware system on the south end of town, it just has good coverage I guess. Dispatchers can (and do) temporarily patch Columbus system talkgroups over to talkgroups on other radio systems (MECC and Westerville come to mind), but I'll let someone with more knowledge of those arrangements comment on that.

That's what I was thinking it has multi affiliation on that radio. More then one system is in it.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I was under the impression that each portable can only transmit on one system at a time and I was under the impression that I was on the franklin county system. This may be an old misconception since we have xts 2500's and 5000's now and before we had just the 5000's and MTX's but I had thought someone said at some point in time that we couldn't talk to dublin, worthington, and other people on the delaware system hence why we need the WT interop and Worth interop channels on our radios. But if it multi affiliates, that's actually kinda cool!

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

now wait a second, won't this cause an issue with RadioID's not making sense or possible being repeated since I know franklin county has a very well defined unit ID plan (I can radio call pretty much anyone in the county from my radio since I know what their radio number should be)

 

[jds911]

I was under the impression that each portable can only transmit on one system at a time and I was under the impression that I was on the franklin county system. This may be an old misconception since we have xts 2500's and 5000's now and before we had just the 5000's and MTX's but I had thought someone said at some point in time that we couldn't talk to dublin, worthington, and other people on the delaware system hence why we need the WT interop and Worth interop channels on our radios. But if it multi affiliates, that's actually kinda cool!

That is how the template that is programmed into your radio works. Your radio has an ID for each system. In same cases they may be the same ID number. However, the analog & MARCS use one number length, while P25 systems use a longer number.

WT Interop was only there for patching until CFD and other Columbus system users deployed P25 digital equipment. Now you go directly to the COIRS system and the WT talk-groups on that system. There are no Worthington interop talk-groups. WOR EMS and WOR FG are gone. The WOR DISP, WOR FTAC1 and WOR FTAC2 are on the COIRS system.

Hope this helps.

 

[wa8pyr]

So now that I got a new scanner and I can easily turn on and off banks, I wanted to start pargramming in more talkgroups into my scanner. But I found a surprising lack of information about the patch channels on the franklin county public safety database page. In particular, I am wondering about the talkgroup ID's for zone 17 (patches to delaware county), zone 18 (patches to grove city), and zone 19 (patches to OSU Police).

These are in my walkie as those particular zones, but they are not listed in radioreference. I would imagine they are not connecting to a whole different system every time I switch zones on my walkie right? Because otherwise, I shouldn't be able to hear Delaware from the south end of the county...

The radio is connecting to a different system. Those are not patches; it's the system itself programmed in that zone for interoperability purposes.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

That's really neat that my walkie can do that then! Unfortunately I guess this means that I cannot setup my scanner banks the same way as my walkie right? Since they are on different trunked systems, I have to set up a new system for each?

Also, I guess I finally figured out what all these colors mean on the radio templates they sent out when they updated the system. All FC seem to be in bright red, COIRS in pink, grove city in green, OSU in purple, and MARCS in blue. Still not sure what the backup CFD channels in brown are though. Are those just VHF channels? I would guess they don't have an entire 'nother trunked system as a backup...

 

[gtaman]

That's really neat that my walkie can do that then! Unfortunately I guess this means that I cannot setup my scanner banks the same way as my walkie right? Since they are on different trunked systems, I have to set up a new system for each?

Also, I guess I finally figured out what all these colors mean on the radio templates they sent out when they updated the system. All FC seem to be in bright red, COIRS in pink, grove city in green, OSU in purple, and MARCS in blue. Still not sure what the backup CFD channels in brown are though. Are those just VHF channels? I would guess they don't have an entire 'nother trunked system as a backup...

The brown would probibly be the fc public service system.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Ah! So we apparently do have a backup trunking system. good to know! None of this was covered in training, but i guess we don't really need to know about it until the stuff hits the fan.

And here I was thinking that all of these zones were just patches to other systems whereas we're actually accessing the other systems. I guess I know why each one of these black boxes costs $3k now!

 

[gtaman]

Ah! So we apparently do have a backup trunking system. good to know! None of this was covered in training, but i guess we don't really need to know about it until the stuff hits the fan.

And here I was thinking that all of these zones were just patches to other systems whereas we're actually accessing the other systems. I guess I know why each one of these black boxes costs $3k now!

That's correct the franklin county public service system has a lot of the county's backup talk groups on it. All you do is switch to it and it can be fully operational.

 

[wa8pyr]

Ah! So we apparently do have a backup trunking system. good to know! None of this was covered in training, but i guess we don't really need to know about it until the stuff hits the fan.

And here I was thinking that all of these zones were just patches to other systems whereas we're actually accessing the other systems. I guess I know why each one of these black boxes costs $3k now!

Actually the Columbus system is the backup for the Franklin County system, not the other way around.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Actually the Columbus system is the backup for the Franklin County system, not the other way around.

Haha, yeah, it's funny how in every other county "County Fire" is the ubiquitous fire dispatcher but in Columbus, since so many stations use the FAO for dispatching, people think Columbus actually owns the system!

Also, as I was programming in my talkgroup ID and such, I noted some TGID's that were on RR that were not on my department template and vice versa. Is this because I only have the "In-Charge Firefighter" template and not, say, a Battalion Chief's Template?

 

[gtaman]

Haha, yeah, it's funny how in every other county "County Fire" is the ubiquitous fire dispatcher but in Columbus, since so many stations use the FAO for dispatching, people think Columbus actually owns the system!

Also, as I was programming in my talkgroup ID and such, I noted some TGID's that were on RR that were not on my department template and vice versa. Is this because I only have the "In-Charge Firefighter" template and not, say, a Battalion Chief's Template?

That's correct you have a basic programmed radio. The battalions chief radio has a lot more including the chiefs talk group and alternate talk groups including Mecc. He has a more variety of info on his radio. Yours are more basic so they are easier to operate. Because they are all mere clones of other fire mans radios.

 

[wa8pyr]

Haha, yeah, it's funny how in every other county "County Fire" is the ubiquitous fire dispatcher but in Columbus, since so many stations use the FAO for dispatching, people think Columbus actually owns the system!

At this time, Franklin County owns one system, Columbus the other.

Also, as I was programming in my talkgroup ID and such, I noted some TGID's that were on RR that were not on my department template and vice versa. Is this because I only have the "In-Charge Firefighter" template and not, say, a Battalion Chief's Template?

Most likely. Same goes for the countywide law enforcement template being rolled out even now; certain zones are standard in all radios, while others are agency option.

 

[W8RMH]

The Wiki has a good background page on the Franklin County / Columbus systems.

Franklin County Public Safety - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[gtaman]

Just incase confusion occurs.

Franklin County Public Safety- owned by the City of Columbus.

Franklin County Public Service- owned by Franklin County.

Both are administered by the Central Ohio Communications Advisory Committee

 

[wa8pyr]

Just incase confusion occurs.

Franklin County Public Safety- owned by the City of Columbus.

Franklin County Public Service- owned by Franklin County.

Both are administered by the Central Ohio Communications Advisory Committee

Not quite; both systems are administered by their respective owners with advice from the COCAC, which they are not obligated to follow (but usually do in the interest in interoperability).

 

[gtaman]

Not quite; both systems are administered by their respective owners with advice from the COCAC, which they are not obligated to follow (but usually do in the interest in interoperability).

That was from a copy and paste. It may sound wrong. Yes you are correct I couldn't explain exactly. We do follow some guidelines but most we don't. That's why Advisory is in thier name. It's our system not thiers we can do nearly what ever we want unless it affects the safety of the system.