Am posting this out here because I got asked from a few of you about it from another post where I was referring to some issues with the current RR database regarding the GATRRS Interop channels.
I haven't submitted the changes yet because I am still working on getting all of it actually assembled and verified before I do it. I probably have 97% of it and if anyone here is able and willing to review it, that would be greatly appreciated.
Just for some background, I am a retired chief fire officer that worked fairly extensively with both Travis and Williamson Counties and was responsible for my department's radio system for several years so I had some insider knowledge on how this system was originally designed. The key issue is that I have been out of it for well over a decade and nothing on these systems ever remains static.
The key to understanding GATRRS and its Interop levels is that the original design has 6 layers:
1. Internal Agency TGIDs: this is the lowest level, "owned" by each agency, used for normal day-to-day operations. Examples are: AT PD ADM-IDA sectors for APD, AT FCOM N/S for AFD, and AT EMS CTL/AT MCOM N/S/C/W for ATCEMS.
2. County Service-wide TGIDs: This is the first "INTEROP" Level--per the original architecture. For Travis County, these are the MEDCOM 1-15 channels and FTAC 201-415; Williamson County now uses Fire/Scene channel groups (a change from their original design) and "WC FIRE 01-15" (the original design, these are almost never used, but are still in the radios) for FDs, EMS used to use MedOps 01-15 but are mostly on the same Fire/Scene channel as FD now. Austin PD/TCSO and the local PDs used to have channels called B1 AT LE 01 - B1 AT LE 15 but those are apparently no longer used. I do not know if they still exist in their radios. Austin FD actually used to use FCOM B01-15, ARFF1-3, and FCOM C04-15 for fire ground channels...but that was ditched in favor of the current 3 channel group FCOM 201/204/207....format used now. For all intents and purposes, at least with the ATX/Wilco area, this layer has been completely changed from the original architecture due to operational requirements.
3. County Operations TGID: These channels are required to be in every radio for a specific county. Austin actually has 2 full banks of them, they are D1 AT OP 01 - D1 AT OP 15 for Bank 1 and Bank 2 is D2 AT OP 16 - D2 AT OP 30 ("D1" and "D2" refer to the bank in the radio). Williamson County uses D3 WC OP 01 - D3 WC OP 15. Other counties would be assigned another "D#" number. These channels for Austin are all currently mis-labeled in RR as "AusK R OP01-31" "Regional Interop" channels. To my knowledge, there is no "AusK R OP31" ...because there is no channel "31", at least by the original design. Channel 16 on the selector knob is always 8TAC95 simplex, usually called "DIRECT 16", with the idea being that if you could not see your radio and could only operate it by touch, you could spin the knob all the way to the right and always be on the same simplex channel that bypasses the system, no matter what bank you were on.
4. GATRRS (System-wide) / Regional Service-wide TGIDs: These Interop TGIDs provide common communications among all agencies in GATRRS and with other regional radio systems. All agencies in GATRRS are required to have these TGIDs in each radio. The three services are Public Safety (E1 R PS 01-15); Law Enforcement (A1 R LE 01-14 + a channel called "A1 R LE ALERT") and Public Works (F1 R PW 01-08). These TGIDs are pretty hit and miss right now in RR; they are scattered in several different places and most of them are mis-labeled as belonging to "Aus".
5. GATRRS (System-wide) / Regional Operations TGIDs: These TGIDs provide common communications among all agencies in GATRRS and with selected other radio systems. All agencies/radios in GATRRS are required to have these TGIDs in every radio. These channels are G1 R OP 01 - G1 R OP 15; they are mostly correct in RR other than they are labeled as associated with "Aus" and one channel is listed as being assigned to the State EOC (which it is not, but they probably used it at least once in the past)
6. This is the National "NPSPAC" Mutual Aid level, is the highest level, and technically is outside the scope of GATRRS as they are not system trunked channels; The only key point is that GATRRS radio Zones H, J and K ("I" is not used) are assigned to freqs at this level. There are "K" zone TGIDs in the database that do not belong there because those are (or were) mapped to national mutual aid 8CALL and 8TAC freqs in GATRRS radios.
I will get some more posts out there in the next few days with some more details and some specific TGIDs mapped against it. I think the key is find someone that has current knowledge of the system architecture that can validate any of this, particularly any major changes made over the past decade since i was last involved in any of this.
I haven't submitted the changes yet because I am still working on getting all of it actually assembled and verified before I do it. I probably have 97% of it and if anyone here is able and willing to review it, that would be greatly appreciated.
Just for some background, I am a retired chief fire officer that worked fairly extensively with both Travis and Williamson Counties and was responsible for my department's radio system for several years so I had some insider knowledge on how this system was originally designed. The key issue is that I have been out of it for well over a decade and nothing on these systems ever remains static.
The key to understanding GATRRS and its Interop levels is that the original design has 6 layers:
1. Internal Agency TGIDs: this is the lowest level, "owned" by each agency, used for normal day-to-day operations. Examples are: AT PD ADM-IDA sectors for APD, AT FCOM N/S for AFD, and AT EMS CTL/AT MCOM N/S/C/W for ATCEMS.
2. County Service-wide TGIDs: This is the first "INTEROP" Level--per the original architecture. For Travis County, these are the MEDCOM 1-15 channels and FTAC 201-415; Williamson County now uses Fire/Scene channel groups (a change from their original design) and "WC FIRE 01-15" (the original design, these are almost never used, but are still in the radios) for FDs, EMS used to use MedOps 01-15 but are mostly on the same Fire/Scene channel as FD now. Austin PD/TCSO and the local PDs used to have channels called B1 AT LE 01 - B1 AT LE 15 but those are apparently no longer used. I do not know if they still exist in their radios. Austin FD actually used to use FCOM B01-15, ARFF1-3, and FCOM C04-15 for fire ground channels...but that was ditched in favor of the current 3 channel group FCOM 201/204/207....format used now. For all intents and purposes, at least with the ATX/Wilco area, this layer has been completely changed from the original architecture due to operational requirements.
3. County Operations TGID: These channels are required to be in every radio for a specific county. Austin actually has 2 full banks of them, they are D1 AT OP 01 - D1 AT OP 15 for Bank 1 and Bank 2 is D2 AT OP 16 - D2 AT OP 30 ("D1" and "D2" refer to the bank in the radio). Williamson County uses D3 WC OP 01 - D3 WC OP 15. Other counties would be assigned another "D#" number. These channels for Austin are all currently mis-labeled in RR as "AusK R OP01-31" "Regional Interop" channels. To my knowledge, there is no "AusK R OP31" ...because there is no channel "31", at least by the original design. Channel 16 on the selector knob is always 8TAC95 simplex, usually called "DIRECT 16", with the idea being that if you could not see your radio and could only operate it by touch, you could spin the knob all the way to the right and always be on the same simplex channel that bypasses the system, no matter what bank you were on.
4. GATRRS (System-wide) / Regional Service-wide TGIDs: These Interop TGIDs provide common communications among all agencies in GATRRS and with other regional radio systems. All agencies in GATRRS are required to have these TGIDs in each radio. The three services are Public Safety (E1 R PS 01-15); Law Enforcement (A1 R LE 01-14 + a channel called "A1 R LE ALERT") and Public Works (F1 R PW 01-08). These TGIDs are pretty hit and miss right now in RR; they are scattered in several different places and most of them are mis-labeled as belonging to "Aus".
5. GATRRS (System-wide) / Regional Operations TGIDs: These TGIDs provide common communications among all agencies in GATRRS and with selected other radio systems. All agencies/radios in GATRRS are required to have these TGIDs in every radio. These channels are G1 R OP 01 - G1 R OP 15; they are mostly correct in RR other than they are labeled as associated with "Aus" and one channel is listed as being assigned to the State EOC (which it is not, but they probably used it at least once in the past)
6. This is the National "NPSPAC" Mutual Aid level, is the highest level, and technically is outside the scope of GATRRS as they are not system trunked channels; The only key point is that GATRRS radio Zones H, J and K ("I" is not used) are assigned to freqs at this level. There are "K" zone TGIDs in the database that do not belong there because those are (or were) mapped to national mutual aid 8CALL and 8TAC freqs in GATRRS radios.
I will get some more posts out there in the next few days with some more details and some specific TGIDs mapped against it. I think the key is find someone that has current knowledge of the system architecture that can validate any of this, particularly any major changes made over the past decade since i was last involved in any of this.
