Hickory P25 System

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I have been monitoring a new P25 system in the Hickory area. I have included a PDF file with the control channel information from WIN500 on a GRE PSR 500. The frequencies are the same ones from the old Hickory EDACS system. Furthermore, I have heard sporadically traffic from the Hickory Police department. I thought this was exciting because of the recent change to OpenSky for the Hickory PD.

856.6375 (Previous Control Channel)
856.9375 (Current Control Channel as of 10/29/2011)

Does OpenSky use P25 as a mutual aid? Why would they need to set up a new system? The chief of police said that OpenSky is fully compliant with P25, if that makes sense.

I have included the Hickory Council Minutes for June 7, 2011. On page 5 the chief of police talks about OpenSky in case any one was interested.
 

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KE4ZNR

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I don't live in the area but my educated guess is that this is part of the migration to
OpenSky. Only a matter of time before the migration is complete and monitoring Hickory
PD is a thing of the past. Enjoy the monitoring while it lasts. :)
Still is mindblowing that Catawba County is using VIPER for the majority of comms but that was not good enough for the city of Hickory. Nope, had to buy into the OpenSky B.S.
Nothing like having to patch disparate systems together to communicate with other agencies in your same county. :roll:
Marshall KE4ZNR
 

SCPD

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Did the sporadic traffic sound like testing or was it normal operational comms?

The system has been dead silent for a couple months since the switch to Opensky. I do know that they have not fully implemented the P25 component of the new system yet. I'll have to give it a listen.
 

trumpetman

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Interesting, you don't see many WACNs that vary from the default BEE00. This one is 336B4.

Ran that and the System ID through this handy decoder:

Project 25 WACN and System ID Conversion to Callsign

and it came back as HICJ0L. Pretty sure I entered the information correctly, 336B4 & 33C, but I feel like it could be an attempt to spell something related to "Hickory" or it could be a complete fluke.
 

jthorpe

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I don't live in the area but my educated guess is that this is part of the migration to
OpenSky. Only a matter of time before the migration is complete and monitoring Hickory
PD is a thing of the past. Enjoy the monitoring while it lasts. :)
Still is mindblowing that Catawba County is using VIPER for the majority of comms but that was not good enough for the city of Hickory. Nope, had to buy into the OpenSky B.S.
Nothing like having to patch disparate systems together to communicate with other agencies in your same county. :roll:
Marshall KE4ZNR

I agree with you 100% on that one. They are going to find out real quick what a bad idea that was if they have a major emergency out there and the majority of their responders are on VIPER. Maybe as well be on VHF and everyone on UHF. There is no difference and patches suck.
 
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In response to 99A1 question: "Did the sporadic traffic sound like testing or was it normal operational comms?"

I am glad you asked that one. I should have been more specific to what I heard. It appeared to be normal operational comms., more specifically the old Ch. 1 Primary by the way there were communicating. I heard the traffic on two separate days during the afternoon (estimated time between 5-6 p.m. or later).

I hope more people could listen and figure out what is going on. Thanks for all the responses.
 

SCPD

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Hickory public safety TRS status

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but does anyone have the scoop on what's happening with the Hickory public safety TRS currently?

I'll be spending some time in the Hickory area in about a week and I'm a bit confused about what's happening there now.

Is the OpenSky system being used now? Is the EDACS system in use at all? What's with the P25 system that is listed below?

Hickory Public Safety (Project 25) System Trunking System, Hickory, North Carolina - Scanner Frequencies

Obviously, I'm SOL if they're primarily on OpenSky, but seeing the info on the P25 system made me wonder if they decided to move away from OpenSky.
 
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In response to loudnclear:

--Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but does anyone have the scoop on what's happening with the Hickory public safety TRS currently?--

Answer: I believe the are using OpenSky (per Hickory City Council minutes), since last year when EDACS went silent.

--Is the OpenSky system being used now? Is the EDACS system in use at all? What's with the P25 system that is listed below?--

OpenSky is their main system as far as I can tell. EDACS is phased out as of 2011. This new P25 system is a mystery to me. I found it when I had the old EDACS channels on my scanner and found that one was a P25 control channel after the switch to OpenSky. It appears to be a patch to the OpenSky system. I am monitoring the P25 system now (Saturday Morning) and hear no traffic; however last night you could hear a lot of traffic. I have heard the public utilities (Street, Water, etc) use a different talkgroup during the weekdays. It appears the system does not operate all the time, which doesn't make sense.

The main reason I requested it to be added to database was I wanted other scanner enthusiasts to monitor it and detail their findings.
 

SCPD

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Thanks much, Charlie. Appreciate the info.

I will be staying in the Hickory area for 3 or 4 days this coming week so I will program that new P25 system in and see if I get anything and report back here.

I guess I'll just blow away the EDACS system and program the new P25 system in its place and hopefully I'll catch something while I am there.
 

Drafin

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**edit - forgot to check the database, the information I posted was already added, a mod can delete this msg **

Draf
 
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KE4ZNR

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In response to loudnclear:

--Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but does anyone have the scoop on what's happening with the Hickory public safety TRS currently?--

Answer: I believe the are using OpenSky (per Hickory City Council minutes), since last year when EDACS went silent.

--Is the OpenSky system being used now? Is the EDACS system in use at all? What's with the P25 system that is listed below?--

OpenSky is their main system as far as I can tell. EDACS is phased out as of 2011. This new P25 system is a mystery to me. I found it when I had the old EDACS channels on my scanner and found that one was a P25 control channel after the switch to OpenSky. It appears to be a patch to the OpenSky system. I am monitoring the P25 system now (Saturday Morning) and hear no traffic; however last night you could hear a lot of traffic. I have heard the public utilities (Street, Water, etc) use a different talkgroup during the weekdays. It appears the system does not operate all the time, which doesn't make sense.

The main reason I requested it to be added to database was I wanted other scanner enthusiasts to monitor it and detail their findings.

Seeing the bolded info above I have gone ahead and pulled the retired EDACS system out of the database. The info is still there for database admins should we need it in the future but it is not viewable to the average user to help prevent confusion.
Sounds like I need to make another trip up to Hickory sometime and try to help cobble together what we can on this new P25 system.
Marshall KE4ZNR
 

msigmon3306

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I've worked with HPD's system administrator on some other projects and might have some useful info......HPD's system is supposed to be a hybrid Opensky/P25 system, the only one in the nation or so they tell me. I can't remember the whole rationale behind it.

Opensky is used for voice and data in Hickory, and the data part of it is lightening fast--I've seen it in action. Voice is OK, a little mechanical which weirded some of the officers out at first. I used their system on my last venture at Octoberfest as Incident Commander and for all the bad press about Opensky, it worked swimmingly. I had no problems at all with the radios and the data moved fast and error free.

There's a toggle switch on the top of the portables that switches it between Opensky and P25. We stayed on Opensky through the event because P25 wasn't fully in place yet.

Their administrator is moving slowly with the entire project--they put a component in place, test it thoroughly, then start using it in the field--one step at a time. I thought P25 was supposed to be fully in place by now but I haven't talked to their administrator in a while so I don't know what the holdup is but any of you who have put new systems in place know it takes a while and nothing goes totally as planned.

In their comm center is a setup to patch county talkgroups and HPD talkgroups together and HPD has VIPER capability in their comm center.

Since I'm not as active in all this as I used to be (state retirement is the greatest thing ever) I have just limited info but I can tell you that their system is working pretty darn well for them
 

Drafin

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So is it safe to assume that the reason we get some sporadic "in the clear" transmissions it's because they are testing a P25 component?

That would be kinda strange though, as most of the in the clear transmissions I hear tend to be on weekends or after 5pm.

Draf
 

msigmon3306

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So is it safe to assume that the reason we get some sporadic "in the clear" transmissions it's because they are testing a P25 component?

That would be kinda strange though, as most of the in the clear transmissions I hear tend to be on weekends or after 5pm.

Draf

That would be my guess. I spent a few hours at their comm center prior to the last Octoberfest and was told that they would be moving slowly on each component and not fully put it in place until they were assured that it was working as planned.

Or, maybe someone just inadvertently flipped the toggle switch to "P25" for a while. The content of the transmissions you're hearing and possibly the location of the officer might have something to do with it but that's just a guess. It could be that some of the talkgroups are programmed as straight P25. Haven't really talked to any of their guys in the know since last year.
 
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