Harnett County sheriff, police, fire and ems

[Chris1071]

The Lillington tower is up and running right now but I am not sure about the other ones. There was a staff meeting Wednesday so we should hear more on it as it gets passed along.

 

[GB1952]

VIPER

I HAVE ALL THE TGs LISTED FOR HARNETT VIPER IN ALL THREE BCD-996XT SCANNERS WILL LET EVERYONE KNOW WHEN THEY ARE ACTIVE. I MONITOR SPOUT SPRINGS AND ERWIN TOWERS.

 

[Chris1071]

I'll post up as soon as they tell us when we are going to start using them.

 

[GB1952]

viper

The Lillington tower is up and running right now but I am not sure about the other ones. There was a staff meeting Wednesday so we should hear more on it as it gets passed along.

I am picking up all three towers to include the new Lillington tower

 

[yardbird]

I think I read in one of the State Viper News Letters that Harnett County was going to switch to the Viper

System.

I can't remember if it was the recent newsletter or the one before that.

David

 

[GB1952]

Some solid information the viper date for Harnett Co will be around the first of the new year, no exact time due to everything on communication being switched to Dunn. All three towers or up to include the new one in Lillington on Edwards rd.

 

[GB1952]

Was advised that all Harnett co depts. will more than likely switch to viper, so it will be a interesting time to figure out all of the TGs and I figure their will be a few. Will summit as soon as anything pop up

 

[GB1952]

I do believe Harnett co/Dunn have went active on viper I monitored TG #26003 testing today and now it is active with Dunn police,Benson and Harnett co traffic. Dispatch is central dispatch

 

[GB1952]

Nothing else to report on Harnett Co other that t was told that they were testing the Dunn part of the system for two days and the county will be coming on soon, the new 911 center in Dunn is still in the works, I was receiving the Dunn part of it very well off the Erwin tower, no date of activation to report other that before the first of 2015

 

[Chris1071]

VIPER

We have been given some VIPER portables to play with and get used to using. We also have VIPER mobiles installed in all of our trucks. We are still using the EDACS radios for now but it appears that we will be going hot with VIPER within the next 30-60 days.

These radios are definitely smaller then our other units and have a ton of features. The only law enforcement channels we have programmed on the fire/EMS side are for State Police. But it appears that every county Fire/EMS/Hospital is programmed along with a ton of Event and OPs channels.

 

[Chris1071]

Another tidbit of information...Dunn dispatch has been rolled in with Harnett now and all the Dunn dispatchers are now working for Harnett County. They now work out of Harnett County Communications and all Dunn dispatch is now done by Harnett County.

 

[GB1952]

Nice small radio, I did monitor someone doing distance checks and everything was good., also their maybe school busses on Harnett co

 

[Chris1071]

Here is the DTMF guide I got during training, only lists hospitals but may be useful for some. I will update when I get more.

 

[Chris1071]

From last staff meeting;

"Viper Installation will begin on 1-19-15 and is expected to be completed in late April with us
switching over around May 2015. Lee & Johnston County are not going to the VIPER System
and we will have to be patched to their system to communicate."

 

[GB1952]

Confirmed: Harnett Co Sheriff Dept. part of viper switched over to viper around 6am today talk group #22004 Sheriff Dispatch is active.

 

[Chris1071]

Confirmed: Harnett Co Sheriff Dept. part of viper switched over to viper around 6am today talk group #22004 Sheriff Dispatch is active.

It is in a "test" phase right now and they still have the EDACS units for backup. I sat in dispatch for 4 hours the other night and they told me that there is a patching issue right now that they are working on before they completely stop using the old system. On the fire/EMS side we are still looking at another month or two before going live. They are using LEO as a guinea pig to work the kinks out.

 

[GB1952]

No surprise they did the same thing when I worked for FPD,thanks for the info

 

[jonathan0530]

Viper

Please excuse my ignorance but I am not an advanced scanner user although I have been listening and using an analog scanner since '99. Is the new Viper system going to be digital? I'm just wondering if I need to upgrade to a digital scanner or if I will still be able to listen with my current analog scanner. Can anyone also speak about encrypted channels and whether the Viper transition will completely make monitoring radio traffic in Harnett County a thing of the past?

 

[Chris1071]

VIPER is a digital system and will require a scanner that is able to convert the digital signals. Since currently, VIPER is a P25 Phase 1 system you can get by with an older model digital scanner. I currently use the Uniden BCD396xt and have no problems. I am not going to buy into a Phase 2 scanner unless I absolutely need one.

As far as monitoring radio traffic, there will always be a need for the use of radios. You can't fight a fire or chase bad guys from a computer screen. Will it become encrypted? Only time will tell but I can say that departments have spent a lot of money already on the VIPER upgrades and just can't afford it right now. In fact, there are several departments in NC that can't afford VIPER and will NOT be changing over.

 

[jonathan0530]

Viper

Chris thanks so much for your response. The information was very helpful. I really want to get a digital scanner but with prices starting at around $400 it's an investment that wanted to make sure I had the facts before spending that money. I was looking at the Uniden BCD396XT due to its small size and portability but was also considering the Radio Shack Pro-651 due to its current low price. It's quite a bit larger but at $255 for a digital scanner its hard to pass up. Do you know if the Pro-651 would be acceptable for scanning in Harnett County for the next few years? Thanks.