Franklin county fire and rescue--digital

[bee]

It appears they have gone digital. Cant hear them on my none digital scanners, but can on PSR 500 and Home Patrol.

 

[Avery93]

Departments operating off of the West Repeater switched to P25 last Thursday (the 19th), but departments on the Central and East repeaters are still using analog for now. The frequencies and PLs stayed the same, and the new NAC for digital is 0C0. Paging will be kept analog, but it looks like everything else will be digital.

The new Midland system seems to be working much better after they finally switched to digital; I believe mainly because the new repeaters were just programmed badly on the analog side.

How is your HomePatrol working on the system? I have a 996XT and it is performing very badly. It takes too long to decode voice and clips the first part of transmissions, and the P25 volume levels vary wildly from almost inaudible to "overdriving" something in the radio and chopping up the audio. My PSR-500 however is working flawlessly.

Also of note, the Sheriff's Department has once again replaced their Motorola SecureNet repeater with something else, but I haven't heard any digital tests like the last couple times they did that.

 

[bee]

I believe my 996t picks them up very well. Will let you know later for sure!

Dont have that frequencey programed into my Home Patrol, by mistake, but will add it today and let you know.

 

[bee]

Yes, my 996t and Home Patrol, picks up frankin County Fire and Recue very well. No problems.

Thanks for the information.

 

[RadioJonD]

I think I heard digital transmissions (over an analog scanner) on the sheriff's frequency (155.955) yesterday. The transmissions didn't sound like when they encrypt.

 

[bee]

Avery93, yes there does appear to be a problem with my 996t and the Hiome Patrol, picking up Franklin County fire and rescue.

When running the 996t and the Home Patrol at the same time, sometimes the Home Patrol picks them up fine. At other times, when the 996t picks them, up the Home Parol does not!

Will try monitor them more closely, and try to find out, why.

Sorry i gave you incorrect informatiom, I was wrong.

 

[bee]

When it seems as if franklin fire and rescue transmits "normaly", the 996t and Home Patrol picks them up with out any problems.

But when the trnamission sounds, (for a lack of a better word), "warbling" the 996t picks the up fine, but the Home Patrol does not even stop on that frequency.

 

[Avery93]

When it seems as if franklin fire and rescue transmits "normaly", the 996t and Home Patrol picks them up with out any problems.

But when the trnamission sounds, (for a lack of a better word), "warbling" the 996t picks the up fine, but the Home Patrol does not even stop on that frequency.

Are you talking about when they would page over analog and seem to be keying both the East and West repeaters at the same time? If so, my 996XT would take about 1 1/2 seconds before it would unmute (with the PL programmed on the channel), but all of my other radios worked normally. They seem to have fixed the problem with keying multiple repeaters, however.

The main problem I'm having with my 996 is just simply bad P25 decoding. It takes too long to start decoding voice, it stops decoding for no apparent reason, and even garbles the audio when somebody talks too loudly or softly. All of these problems, particularly the delay in decoding, seem to be magnified when the system is programmed as a "one-freq-trunk" system, which is necessary just to decode radio IDs.

 

[Avery93]

Update

With the exception of Russellville city Fire, all Franklin County fire departments and ambulance services are now operating on digital. Departments operating off of the East repeater switched over about two weeks ago, and the Central repeater was switched yesterday.

All repeaters now have different NACs, but the analog PLs stayed the same at 192.8 PL. Here are the new NACs:

West repeater: $0C0
Central repeater: $29E
East repeater: $375

Initial pages for all fire departments and ambulance services are analog, followed by an announcement on digital, then all traffic after that is digital.

Also, I heard a couple of P25 transmissions this morning on the Sheriff's Department repeater. I didn't catch the NAC and all I heard was background noise.

 

[pony]

I've noticed the change over the last few days also, I'm ready to upgrade to a digital scanner, a handheld. What would be a pretty good one to get? The ratshack models seems to be cheaper. Will the older pro 106 be ok for this area?

 

[bee]

Heard Franklin County Fire and Rescue, at the Mall in Tupelo Ms. yesterday. Loud and clear except for the "warbling" "garbling".

This was on my 996t, the Home Patrol did not stop on that frquency, for some reason!.

 

[bama9999]

Pony, I've got the Pro106 handheld and the Pro197 mobile as well. Both are great digital scanners and either one should do you a good job.