ICIS - How Do You Do It?

[hotdjdave]

I am curious. How have you set up your ICIS system?

I currently have it all under one group, ICIS; however, I want to make a change. Using my Uniden BCT396D, I want to put each city under its own system.

• Could I put all sites (towers) in the ICIS for each city?
• Or do I have to create a system for each site (tower)?
• For example, can I have the frequencies for all the sites (Glendale, Oat Mountain, Montebello, Burbank, Pomona, Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Hauser Peak) for each city/agency?
• Will this ensure that I get full coverage, or will it cause errors or problems?

 

[hotdjdave]

Icis

This question is open to anyone who can help me with this. I am looking forany of you who have ICIS agencies in you scanner and how you set them up.

 

[RobertW1]

I have each ICIS City setup under it's own "System", even though they may share cell sites (i.e. Burbank and Glendale). Under each "System" I create different "groups" that separate the different agencies or departments so I can turn them on and off if I'm not interested in listening to them (i.e. Burbank Buses).

So My Systems go something like this:

System 1: Burbank ICIS
Group 1: Burbank PD
Group 2: Verdugo Fire
Group 3: Animal Control
Group 4: Water and Power
Group 5: Buses
Group 6: Bob Hope Airport
Group 7: Glendale PD

System 2: Glendale ICIS
Group 1: Glendale PD
Group 2: Verdugo Fire
Group 3: Water and Power
Group 4: Parks and Recreation
Group 5: Other City Dept
Group 6: Burbank PD

System 3: Verdugo Fire Conventional Frequencies

System 4: L.A.F.D

System 5: L.A.Co Fire

System 6: L.A.P.D.

System 7: L.A. Co Sheriff

System 8: San Bernardino Co

System 9: Wrightwood

etc...

 

[landonjensen]

I have each ICIS City setup under it's own "System", even though they may share cell sites (i.e. Burbank and Glendale). Under each "System" I create different "groups" that separate the different agencies or departments so I can turn them on and off if I'm not interested in listening to them (i.e. Burbank Buses).

So My Systems go something like this:

System 1: Burbank ICIS
Group 1: Burbank PD
Group 2: Verdugo Fire
Group 3: Animal Control
Group 4: Water and Power
Group 5: Buses
Group 6: Bob Hope Airport
Group 7: Glendale PD

System 2: Glendale ICIS
Group 1: Glendale PD
Group 2: Verdugo Fire
Group 3: Water and Power
Group 4: Parks and Recreation
Group 5: Other City Dept
Group 6: Burbank PD

System 3: Verdugo Fire Conventional Frequencies

System 4: L.A.F.D

System 5: L.A.Co Fire

System 6: L.A.P.D.

System 7: L.A. Co Sheriff

System 8: San Bernardino Co

System 9: Wrightwood

etc...

Thats a really good system setup at least in my eyes...

PS to all, I am selling my BCD396T soon as I have a XTS5000 now...

 

[hotdjdave]

Frequencies For Each System

I have each ICIS City setup under it's own "System", even though they may share cell sites (i.e. Burbank and Glendale). Under each "System" I create different "groups" that separate the different agencies or departments so I can turn them on and off if I'm not interested in listening to them...

Robert,

Thank you for your response.

In regards to the frequencies, do you put in all the frequencies for all the cell sites (the entire ICIS system frequencies) for each system? For example, for each system (eg. Burbank), what frequencies do you input?



All,

What I would like to do is create a system for each city and input all the ICIS frequencies from each system.
For example:

System 1: Burbank (would include all frequencies for all sites in the ISIS)​

Only TGs for Burbank
Police
Fire
Etc.​

System 2: Culver City (would include all frequencies for all sites in the ISIS - same as above)​

Only TGs for Culver City
Police
Fire
Ect.​

System 3: ETC...​

Would this work?



Thanks again.

 

[Eng74]

All I run is Verdugo that is on ICIS. I do have all the freqs. listed but do run it on control ch. only.

 

[RobertW1]

I input ALL the frequencies assigned to a particular cell, just in case the control channel were to change and I didn't know about it. I will program redundant Talk Groups under each System but separate them into different "groups" so I can keep them turned off when I don't want to listen to Glendale Units on the Burbank Cell, as an example. For instance I have all the Burbank PD talk groups programmed into my System 3 (Glendale), yet that group is normally turned off unless I am in Hollywood and want to hear Burbank PD. I can usually hear the Glendale Cell/Cells from there but cannot hear the Burbank Cell. So switch to System 3 (Glendale) and turn all the "groups" off except for the groups that contain Burbank PD and Verdugo Fire TGs.

So in effect, when I am just listening to System 3 (The Glendale Cell) and I turn off all the Groups except #2 and #6, I am just monitoring Burbank PD and Verdugo Fire even though I'm doing so via the Glendale Cell. Since I understand that a unit needs to be "associated" with a cell before traffic is broadcast through that cell for a particular TG, I suppose this wouldn't work if I wanted to listen to Burbank in Pomona, through the Pomona Cell. But between Burbank and Glendale it seems that all the TGs come through both cells all the time since they are so close together and units are associated with both at the same time.

Then within the Group under a particular System, I program ALL the TGs for that department. So in my System 1 (Burbank) in Group 1 (Burbank PD), ALL the TGs associated with the Burbank PD are in that Group (Dispatch, Tac 3, Detectives, Traffic, etc).

For the BURBANK Cell (my System 1) I program the following frequencies:

Burbank 470.06250c 470.11250a 470.16250a 470.23750a 470.28750 470.32500 471.05000 471.07500

For the GLENDALE Cell (my System 3) I program the following frequencies:

Glendale 470.08750 470.13750 470.21250 470.26250 482.08750 482.13750 482.18750a 482.23750a 482.28750c

For the OAT MOUNTAIN Cell (my System 12) I program the following frequencies:

Oat Mountain 482.06250c 482.16250a 482.26250c 482.36250c 482.46250 482.56250

etc...

 

[hotdjdave]

My Plan

I am going to try creating a system for each ICIS city. In each system, I am going to have all the ICIS freqencies from all the cell sites, but only have the TGs for the city associated with that system. This way, no matter where I am (within the ICIS propogation range), I can monitor the city's TGs.

Here is the example:

Each system has all the ICIS frequencies:

0470.0250
0470.0625
0470.0875
0470.1000
0470.1125
0470.1625
0470.2375
0482.0375
0482.0625
0482.1625
0482.1875
0482.2375
0482.2625
0482.2875
0482.3625
0482.5625
0482.6250
0484.1875


Each system/city has only the TGs for the city assigned to each system/city:

Glendale ICIS
San Fernando ICIS
Montebello ICIS
Burbank ICIS
Pomona ICIS
Beverly Hills ICIS
Culver City ICIS
Pasadena ICIS
San Marino ICIS
Glendale College ICIS
Bob Hope Airport ICIS
Verdugo Fire ICIS
ICIS Radio Techs


System settings:

Data Skip: ON
ID Scan Mode
Icall: ON (not sure what this does)
End Code: YES/DETECT (not sure what this does)
Status Bit On: NO (not sure what this does)
Control Channel Only: YES
Moto Digital End Tone: Ignore (not sure what this does)

Base Config 1:
Frequency: 470.1250
Step: 012.5
Offset Ch: 180

Base Config 2 and 3 are blank


These are the same settings for each ICIS system.



I am not sure if this is going to work, being each system will have all the frequencies. What I am hoping for is the ability to monitor any system from any ICIS site location.

 

[RobertW1]

The way you currently have your settings, I don't know if it will work. Different Cells have different "base frequencies". Using...

Base Config 1:
Frequency: 470.1250
Step: 012.5
Offset Ch: 180

Base Config 2 and 3 are blank

may not work with Systems using a different base. Perhaps if you programmed in the other Base Frequencies in Config 2 and 3, it would work. It will be interesting to find out. Let us know.

 

[Eng74]

Since the 396 does not have multi site you can do this. Set up each cell as a system and then give them all the same qucik key. Then do each each city as a group in each one. You might have to put two citys together to get it down to 10 groups.

 

[hotdjdave]

Base Config

Since the 396 does not have multi site you can do this. Set up each cell as a system and then give them all the same qucik key. Then do each each city as a group in each one. You might have to put two citys together to get it down to 10 groups.

This is what I am trying to avoid. I only want each city with its TGs once...one system for each city. Each system-city will have its own groups (e.g. Groups: Police, Fire, Public Works, etc.).

The way you currently have your settings, I don't know if it will work. Different Cells have different "base frequencies". Using...

Base Config 1:
Frequency: 470.1250
Step: 012.5
Offset Ch: 180

Base Config 2 and 3 are blank

may not work with Systems using a different base. Perhaps if you programmed in the other Base Frequencies in Config 2 and 3, it would work. It will be interesting to find out. Let us know.

So far, I can hear SFPD, Burbank PD, Glendale PD. I live west of all these locations (N/W SFV), so I am not really within range of the others. Also, I am not sure which cities in my list are actully fully operational using ICIS.

In regards to the Base Config, what are the other configurations? When importing the ICIS database using ARC software, I only see the one I show in my previous post for each system: 470.205 - 012.5 - 180.

 

[rgv1971]

Is this a system that can be heard in Santa Clarita. (Saugus) Using a Pro-96 I put in Oat Mountain and hear nothing.

 

[karldotcom]

someone from one of the agencies has to have their radio on to your to hear anything.... keep listening

 

[RobertW1]

someone from one of the agencies has to have their radio on to your to hear anything.... keep listening

rvg1971,

That is what I mean when I say a unit has to be "associated" with the cell. If there aren't any units using ICIS within range of Oat Mountain, there isn't any reason for the Oat Mountain Cell to activate and patch ICIS traffic through.

If Burbank PD was in pursuit on the North 5 freeway, the Oat Mountain Cell would begin broadcasting ICIS traffic when the unit came within range of the cell. Oat Mountain acts somewhat like an extended repeater for ICIS agencies traveling into the Santa Clarita area.

At least that is my understanding of the ICIS system and how I explain it to others. :O