HERO units now on Ga Tech Phase II System!

[petty4305]

I think part of the confusion is that Alpha Dispatch has nothing to do with Alpha Shift. There's A, B, C and D shifts, and there is A, B, and C Dispatch, but they aren't correlated.

So far as I can tell, A Dispatch, Northwest Dispatch, and South Dispatch are operating 24/7/365. The zones within B Dispatch and C Dispatch when those channels are open, are on A Dispatch when those channels aren't open. A Dispatch is always open. B Dispatch is open sometimes, typically covering 285 from about 400 east to I-20, Highway 78, and 85 from around NDH up into Gwinnett. C Dispatch is very rarely open, but when it is I have heard operators on 400, and a little on 285 between 400 and 85.

Northwest Corridor channel seems to cover 285 from 400 west to around I-20, and 75 from 285 out, plus 575. It may also cover 75 inside 285 a bit.

South Metro channel seems to cover 75 south outside 285.

A Dispatch always covers I-20 inside 285 and the connector inside 285, plus 75 and 85 inside 285 on the south end (as noted, I can't tell how much of 75 north of Brookwood is on Northwest Corridor, or how much of 85 north of Brookwood is on B Dispatch).

And of course, as noted, when B Dispatch and C Dispatch don't have a dispatcher working, the trucks that would otherwise be on those channels are on A Dispatch. I recently heard a supervisor on B Dispatch agreeing with the dispatcher that since they would only have 4 trucks working their area after a certain time they might as well all switch to A Dispatch at that time. So it is fluid.

Yes, this is imprecise at this point. But that's a sketch. I welcome any comments, clarifications, corrections.

I remain impressed just how well this system is serving HERO from a single tower on top of the 2 Peachtree Street building downtown. My Uniden SDS100 loses coverage in some pockets, but my KNG and KNG2 P800 radios (and presumably their APX radios) do better. Interestingly, I loose coverage even on my KNG radios for a half mile or so at the bottom of the valley on 400 between Lenox and Genridge, around the old toll booth, which I think I have heard might someday become the new HERO HQ (to replace Plaster Ave when they get out from underneath I-85). Would be interesting for HQ to be located in a radio dead zone!

Dan

In reference to the dispatch channels, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie Dispatch are always open and active. You just might hear more on one dispatch channel or the other, it depends on the call volume in those specific zones on each Dispatch channel. I think that the ones you are calling Northwest and South dispatch are actually Bravo and Charlie Dispatch.

 

[DanRollman]

In reference to the dispatch channels, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie Dispatch are always open and active. You just might hear more on one dispatch channel or the other, it depends on the call volume in those specific zones on each Dispatch channel.

Thanks. If that's true, we definitely have more work to do to figure out what other radio system (or perhaps still SoLinc) they are using.

On the state DTRS, Bravo channel is generally completely silent all weekend and a lot of Mondays and Fridays, and completely silent in the middle of the night. Charlie channel I have only heard traffic on a few times - it is definitely silent 95-99% of the time. You go a day or two without hearing anything on Bravo at times. I have gone many days and nights in a row without hearing a single word on Charlie. I wonder whether what is now known as Northwest Dispatch and South Dispatch were Bravo and Charlie dispatch when you worked there?

Alpha, Northwest and South are definitely always open and active. But on the DTRS at least, the channels they call Bravo Dispatch and Charlie Dispatch definitely are not always open. Again, I've heard supervisors on Alpha specifically talking with the dispatcher about what time they want to open the Bravo channel, and talking on Bravo about what time they will close Bravo and everyone working that zone will switch to Alpha.

 

[petty4305]

Thanks. If that's true, we definitely have more work to do to figure out what other radio system (or perhaps still SoLinc) they are using.

On the state DTRS, Bravo channel is generally completely silent all weekend and a lot of Mondays and Fridays, and completely silent in the middle of the night. Charlie channel I have only heard traffic on a few times - it is definitely silent 95-99% of the time. You go a day or two without hearing anything on Bravo at times. I have gone many days and nights in a row without hearing a single word on Charlie. I wonder whether what is now known as Northwest Dispatch and South Dispatch were Bravo and Charlie dispatch when you worked there?

Alpha, Northwest and South are definitely always open and active. But on the DTRS at least, the channels they call Bravo Dispatch and Charlie Dispatch definitely are not always open. Again, I've heard supervisors on Alpha specifically talking with the dispatcher about what time they want to open the Bravo channel, and talking on Bravo about what time they will close Bravo and everyone working that zone will switch to Alpha.

Well, it has been two and a half years since I left HERO. I know they just switched to the P25 system, but still carry the So. Linc radios as a backup. A lot could have changed. I do remember that the Charlie Disp channel was generally used for the Delta(overnight) shift. A majority of this shift is silent. Charlie (weekend- Friday-Monday) shifts would normally use the disp channel that corresponded with their shift. That might be why you don't hear as much on the Charlie Disp channel. Now in reference to when the Supv. would mention opening and closing the Bravo Disp channel, I don't know.

 

[DanRollman]

Seems like HERO units may be on the move again.

About 30 minutes ago on Alpha Dispatch (on the State of Georgia Atlanta P25 system) I heard a supervisor tell all units to turn on their "Sonim radios and check in and use those for 30 minutes". Then silence for several minutes, until one unit called another unit and told him that the supervisor is calling him on Sonim and that he should be using his Sonim radio. Then nothing for the last 25 minutes or so. Now I am hearing all units check back in and say "back on primary radio" or "back on Harris".

So it seems they have Sonim LTE devices they can use (unknown which network). Unclear whether these will just be backup devices or whether they will migrate to that network as primary. In any event, their channel on their Sonim devices does not appear to (currently) be patched to their talkgroup on the P25 system.

 

[MTS2000des]

The Harris VIDA core includes BeON, which if the state chooses to implement (they may have, I'm not in the loop) would certainly be able to use Sonim (or any Android/iOS device) to BE ON the state's P25 network. I got a Harris VIDA core shipped in and had it running on our system (via donor radios) and XL200s (connected to WiFi hotspots on our county phones) running BeON on the XL200 itself as well as the app on the phones. It's sounded very good, even going through donor radios, and you should have seen the reaction from some (unnamed vendor here) to see me walking around at IWCE2017 talking back to our dispatch calling out "I'll be on a detail at McCarran International Airport for the next 4 days" and one of our seasoned folks stuttering "uh...received....show you out at (long pause) McCarran Int'l Airport." (back when we were on our old InterACT CAD it was fun to force an address in that wasn't geo verified. You can bet nothing in Nevada was!)

Would not surprise me if this is the route HERO goes. It would make PERFECT sense as the single site that is 2 Peachtree, while covers far and wide, would give them essentially statewide (and beyond) reach with BeON. Harris' pricing is very good. If you have a core, the BeON service comes standard as an application running on a VM on the VIDA core, you just pay for license packs for client licenses and they're concurrent. I'm sure with core integration, things like radio IDs, statuses, and such are transparent. Encryption is too. Very neat setup. The XL series will seamlessly switch between LMR and LTE/WiFi and the user doesn't have to start the app on the LMR device.

 

[DanRollman]

The Harris VIDA core includes BeON, which if the state chooses to implement (they may have, I'm not in the loop) would certainly be able to use Sonim (or any Android/iOS device) to BE ON the state's P25 network.

Yes, a few months ago I heard what sounded like radio techs doing range testing on an alternate HERO talkgroup on the P25 system. One of them was loud and clear and told the other that he was in Cumming (an area I know first hand the system on top of 2 Peachtree doesn't reach) "on LTE". So there is clearly an ability for the LTE side to link back to the P25 core. So what was interesting tonight was not so much that they apparently switched to LTE devices, but that I did not simultaneously hear them on the P25 talkgroup that is Alpha Dispatch. I agree that BeON would be a great way for the state to expand the reach of the system - as would adding the P25 system run by the Stone Mountain Memorial Association into their core as a Site 2, but I digress. I just hope, selfishly, they link their LTE channels to the P25 talkgroups.

 

[MTS2000des]

they could simply have been using BeON talkgroups on the BeON app side only with no LMR presence. It's like any other PTT over cellular, in fact when we had the long run demo, we had several talkgroups that were "LTE only".
Harris' VIDA includes BeON as part of the VIDA product. One only needs to purchase client licenses. Really a great way to get LMR and LTE converged without having to roll out a new server, gateway, etc. Their competitors are just now warming up to this and they had it "back then".

 

[petty4305]

When the HERO units were told to switch over to the Sonim, it was like the old Nextel or the Southern Linc. That is a totally different type of system then the P25 system. BeON is a Harris product and if they were on the BeON app on their Sonims, you would have heard them on the P25 side. I would be willing to bet that the Sonim is on the So. Linc radio system and is their backup radio system. The P25 system is the newest system for them and with BeON they can increase their coverage range.