Franklin county

[NCFire11]

This is not something that I am 100% sure of, but a general timeline:

Present-January 2012: additional towers sites being contructed, equipment being delivered to the sites

Late October: VHF mobiles installed in apparatus and patrol cars. They will continue to operate just like the current mobiles in VHF conventional mode on the same frequencies.

Mid-November: VHF portables issued out to the departments(not necessarily to personnel).

Beginning January 2012 testing on the system will begin. Making sure we have 95% coverage 95% of the time.

Late spring/early summer 2012 we should be throwing the switch.

 

[NCFire11]

Second section & jig:

 

[NCFire11]

All tower sites are complete except for the one at the Franklin county sheriff's office. That one will be complete by the end of the month.

The equipment is being installed at the tower sites now, and mobiles are being installed in apparatus on a need based basis(ie if a current radio breaks, the P-25 radios will be installed instead of another conventional radio). Mass installs will take place in December. By January, all apparatus will have the new radios in them, with the same channels that we have now, plus a few Talkgroups on the new system(to allow testing and to let us get our feet wet with the new system).

The changeover date will be sometime in June.

 

[radiostrobe]

Hope they do more testing and get independent confirmation that the system is ready unlike what they did here in Wayne County with this "incredible" Harris P25 system which hasn't worked anywhere near the way is should since day one, but they killed all the old radio equipment and left us with this as our only option working or not before they even finished the new system completely. Our old system had its issues but we worked around them, this system either works or it doesn't, there's no plan B. Send some of the Franklin County folks to Wayne County and talk to the people who use the system, not the ones who helped buy it and put a gag order on anyone who talks bad about it. They will get an earful.

 

[NCFire11]

The great county commissioners(sarc) contracted that we have 95% coverage 95% of the time. We will see.

 

[jaolson101]

So to those on this thread that may be in the know, what is the interoperability solution that Franklin County will use for communications with the surrounding Viper counties?

 

[WA4MJF]

So to those on this thread that may be in the know, what is the interoperability solution that Franklin County will use for communications with the surrounding Viper counties?

Are your VHF radios new enough to narrow band? If so, put the VTAC channels in them. I'll look at
Eastern Wake EMS VHF radios next time I get a chance and see what they have. I'm on the fireside,
but my M1225 was able to narrow band and do the VTACs. So are the radios on the dept vehicles,
but we haven't done that yet and still use the wide band state fire for comms when we MA to Franklin.
Hopefully, someone from Franklin knows if they're gonna have the VTACs. That is the whole purpose
of the VTACs, UTACS, etc

 

[kb4mdz]

It would be really surprising if the new radios WEREN'T narrowband compliant; NB compliant radios have been out for years, and mfr's haven't been selling non-NB radios for a few years less than that; last cutoff date for manufacturing non-NB radios is lonnnnng past.

 

[NCFire11]

I can only speak for the fire departments, but each department will have several unity full spectrum radios. Usually the chief, assistant chiefs and two main apparatus will have them. They will have viper programmed.

 

[MASTRTECH]

Correct me if I'm wrong but, Isn't VIPER Smart Zone/Smart net. If so the unity won't work on VIPER.

 

[NCFire11]

Don't shoot the messenger! They said they will work so we will see for $10 million I hope so.

 

[NCFire11]

Our secondary paging tower, that alerts the north-eastern departments in the county a second time after they are paged off of the primary tower, has been down for about two weeks now. We are waiting to rent the equipment that we need to fix it.

This can be crippling to coverage on that side of the county, so hopefully it will be addressed soon.

But back on the new stuff:

Mobiles are going on the vehicles now, and portables are being delivered to departments. In January, all the new stuff will be in place to start testing. We will have the same channels that we have now(fire dispatch, tac 1/2/3, fc sheriff, ems dispatch, etc), but we will have several talkgroups that serve to allow the members to "play" with the system without interrupting anything, and for Harris to test the system.

 

[ts548]

Don't shoot the messenger! They said they will work so we will see for $10 million I hope so.

In the current staus of VIPER the Unity's won't work as they don't have the ability to do SmatZone. Once VIPER goes P25 then yes the Unity will work then.

 

[NCFire11]

In the current staus of VIPER the Unity's won't work as they don't have the ability to do SmatZone. Once VIPER goes P25 then yes the Unity will work then.

When is the due date for that?

 

[ts548]

When is the due date for that?

Testing 3 sites right now, other then that I've not heard.

 

[NCFire11]

Yep just confirmed thats their plan,but who knows how long it is going to take before it is online.. We are still going to have some way to interop with the local counties on VIPER, just not widespread.

 

[jaolson101]

The VHF equipment in the vehicles will narrowband, however I am seeking a solution utilizing the VIPER portables and mobiles.

 

[jthorpe]

Why we didnt go with Viper, I have no clue. But I know P25 is something we have wanted for a long time and seems to give us what we need. I think most counties that we run mutual aid with have P25 with the exception of Wake, dont quote me on this.

Kelly Harris is the chief of my mutual aid department and he has been around and knows what is good for the county.

It won't give you what you need when a major disaster comes and you can't talk to anyone but your own county units because everyone else will be on VIPER. that or you're going to have to be issued VIPER radios for the duration of the event which means your system will be pretty much quiet. In the end, you guys could have bought VIPER radios for less money and been on a system where you actually have interop instead of having to use patches, which suck.

 

[jthorpe]

There are no P25 Counties around you. Nash, Halifax and Warren still run VHF with the capabilty of VIPER. Vance and Wake are running on VIPER in Digital mode.
I am not trying to be a smart a@# here, please do not take it that way. I am just stating facts that's all. I agree with you about the county switching over to VIPER. I also see where the county would like complete control over its radio infrastructure.

Wake County has a huge amount of control over the infrastructure here because they formed the proper agreements with the state. Any county can do this. Not just Wake. The system works beautifully here, and mutual aid is easy. I'm listening to an incident right now with three different agencies all talking on the same talkgroup with no issues.

 

[jthorpe]

I can only speak for the fire departments, but each department will have several unity full spectrum radios. Usually the chief, assistant chiefs and two main apparatus will have them. They will have viper programmed.

They won't work on VIPER.