Franklin County Failsoft

[gtaman]

At 5:13 PM what may seem to be lightning has caused the Franklin county public safety system to initiate the FAILSOFT. The system is currently running conventional at this time. The controller is currently down.

Everything is running on the FC PUBLIC SERVICE SYSTEM at this time. Using the back up talkgroups.

 

[chandler]

AS OF 5:55PM ITS BACK UP

 

[gtaman]

WOW omg its happening again I remember it did it back in june of last year what conventional freqs are they on?

I couldn't remember. Also at 5:53 PM the system is running normal again with just a few MDC issues.
Also police were on the FC service system other police and fire were on conventional FAILSOFT.

 

[chandler]

At 6:02 their tower must of been hit again!

It was off for about 2 minutes than kicked on again they are having major issues today.

 

[gtaman]

At 6:02 their tower must of been hit again!

It was off for about 2 minutes than kicked on again they are having major issues today.

Yeah and some of the subscriber units are be stuck on FAILSOFT they're saying. All they need to do is turn off then on thier radio.

 

[W8RMH]

It seems to be back up now.

 

[gtaman]

Yes everything is working as normal. Man you gotta love the FAILSOFT it takes 3 seconds after the detection and switches. Lightning fast.

 

[W8RMH]

I was setting up the FCCA backup system for my feed and, of course when I finish it all comes back up.

 

[gtaman]

I was setting up the FCCA backup system for my feed and, of course when I finish it all comes back up.

That sucks. I was able to moniter the system still with my xts5000as it switch over to FAILSOFT and worked like it should.

 

[W8RMH]

I could still receive all as usual on the FCCA public service system on another scanner, but I did not have it set up on my feed scanner as it only has the feed talk groups programmed.

 

[gtaman]

I could still receive all as usual on the FCCA public service system on another scanner, but I did not have it set up on my feed scanner as it only has the feed talk groups programmed.

Oh. I also managed to find most of the FAILSOFT frequencies. Thier are a few.

 

[wa8pyr]

Oh. I also managed to find most of the FAILSOFT frequencies. Thier are a few.

All system channels are used as failsoft voice channels. If you want to hear everything you'll need to have all 28 channels programmed in conventional mode.

 

[gtaman]

All system channels are used as failsoft voice channels. If you want to hear everything you'll need to have all 28 channels programmed in conventional mode.

Not necessarily. It could be the case with this system but most have a set of pre programmed frequencies a specific set. Mostly main channels. Not all are used.

Failsoft - The RadioReference Wiki

Batboard • View topic - Failsoft

I think franklin has about 10 reserved for FAILSOFT. As when I was running through them some had zero traffic as many were highly active. This was the same on my xts 5000 as it only had traffic on the same FAILSOFT channels I had on my scanner.

Technically all 28 frequencies were transmitting the tone but only around 10 were used.

 

[W8RMH]

When the system went down I began to monitor the public service system and was able to monitor all 5 CPD dispatch TGs.

 

[wa8pyr]

Not necessarily. It could be the case with this system but most have a set of pre programmed frequencies a specific set. Mostly main channels. Not all are used.

Failsoft - The RadioReference Wiki

Batboard • View topic - Failsoft

I think franklin has about 10 reserved for FAILSOFT. As when I was running through them some had zero traffic as many were highly active. This was the same on my xts 5000 as it only had traffic on the same FAILSOFT channels I had on my scanner.

Technically all 28 frequencies were transmitting the tone but only around 10 were used.

I don't know how other areas do it, but around here nearly all talkgroups have an assigned failsoft; very few do not. And pretty much all system frequencies have at least one or two talkgroups assigned for failsoft. Trust me on this.

 

[gtaman]

I don't know how other areas do it, but around here nearly all talkgroups have an assigned failsoft; very few do not. And pretty much all system frequencies have at least one or two talkgroups assigned for failsoft. Trust me on this.

Yes this is true. But franklin doesn't use all of thier freqs. I read my xts 5000 and it only had 12 freqs registers for failsoft. The tgs that have assigned freq usually are put in by priority. 10-fire and 10-disp both had the same freq as some pd channels. This makes that freq a large chatterbox as the fd can hear pd and vice versa. I see where your going though. I think if it may just be how my radio is programmed. then I believe thier must be at most 24 freqs being used. The other 4 the control channels wild not be used because when the system switches back to normal. the radios may lock up on the control channels as data is only broadcasted for the failsoft command and decommand on 24 of the 28.

 

[wa8pyr]

Yes this is true. But franklin doesn't use all of thier freqs. I read my xts 5000 and it only had 12 freqs registers for failsoft. The tgs that have assigned freq usually are put in by priority. 10-fire and 10-disp both had the same freq as some pd channels. This makes that freq a large chatterbox as the fd can hear pd and vice versa. I see where your going though. I think if it may just be how my radio is programmed. then I believe thier must be at most 24 freqs being used. The other 4 the control channels wild not be used because when the system switches back to normal. the radios may lock up on the control channels as data is only broadcasted for the failsoft command and decommand on 24 of the 28.

It appears you have an incorrectly programmed radio. I can guarantee you that nearly every talkgroup has a failsoft assignment.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

So is there anything that I need to do to get my radio to switch over to failsoft? I was not on duty that night, but I was unaware that anything needed to be done to the radio to switchover to the failsoft frequencies. Does the system somehow communicate to my radio that it needs to go into failsoft mode?

 

[wa8pyr]

So is there anything that I need to do to get my radio to switch over to failsoft? I was not on duty that night, but I was unaware that anything needed to be done to the radio to switchover to the failsoft frequencies. Does the system somehow communicate to my radio that it needs to go into failsoft mode?

It will do it automatically if it's properly programmed.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

It will do it automatically if it's properly programmed.

I figured as much as they never covered that in the training. They did say that when the city fails, we can go to a different zone (20 maybe?) which accesses the "Fallback channels". Does the screen on the radio show anything different when this happens? And how does the radio know to go into this mode? Is there a "kill signal" or "fail signal" that is sent from the towers?

All very cool stuff since it usually doesn't happen in day to day operations!