ICORRS counties fire and ems dispatch

[jeffm77]

Encryption now on 1752

 

[Drachen_Fire]

Currently, Butler UHF Fire Dispatch, the new Butler UHF Fire Paging, and the Butler Fire Dispatch TG are patched together, and the Butler UHF EMS Response 5 and the Butler EMS Dispatch TG are patched together. Seems to be no patching between fire response channels.

Also, all testing and ops I've seen on the new fire TG's appears to be in Phase II, so possibly correct those entries in the DB from D to T.

 

[Drachen_Fire]

As I say that, Fire South TG sounds patched, and now there is County activity there.

It's going live in chunks. Not much longer now. From what I understand, fire switches over in a week, while the systems will stay patched until 1/1/20, at which point the old UHF system dies.

 

[rolesnevich]

Encryption now on 1752

I listen most of the day. Have not to notice any encryption they have been some Grabel transmission that was very static on the old system. Which might be what you where thinking was encrypted.

 

[IStebleton]

Is Murrysville Medic One now on the Rostraver West Newton/North Huntington EMS Channel? TG 254? I've been hearing them call in on that channel a lot lately.

 

[n3obl]

Is Murrysville Medic One now on the Rostraver West Newton/North Huntington EMS Channel? TG 254? I've been hearing them call in on that channel a lot lately.

For the temporary future yes. Reason I can't go into publicly but has issues with certain director and 911.

 

[IStebleton]

Aren't all sites supposed to carry all of the ICORRS Intercounty channels? I'm not hearing anything from those on the Westmoreland West Site. There's a working fire in Indiana County as on 1737hrs on December 5th, 2019 on ICORRS Fire 2.

 

[Drachen_Fire]

Not to my knowledge, no. If there was no units on that TG affiliated to Westmoreland west, it wouldn't have shown up.

 

[talviar]

ICORRS System wide talkgroups will only lite up a site if radios are affiliated...so if no one on ICORRS Fire 2 is affiliated to WC West.... that set of towers won't carry the talkgroup.

 

[IStebleton]

Cambria County is to join ICORRS, not sure how the channel numbering will go.

 

[Drachen_Fire]

Looks like BC911 is setting up patches to UHF on Fire North and South. Saw North patched to U Tac 41 earlier today.

 

[Dictator17]

Hey guys, I am having issues programming a Uniden BCD996P2 with the ICORRS system. Im in Washington county & my fire department does mutual aid runs with both Westmoreland & Fayette County departments. Im using freescan and im importing straight from RR. Im not hearing anything from anywhere & should definitely be hearing something. Any advise you could give would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[n3obl]

if you are down in a valley you might just be out of range. Coverage drops off significantly outside of counties.

 

[talviar]

if you are down in a valley you might just be out of range. Coverage drops off significantly outside of counties.

Definitely agree with N3OBL here on this one.... location where u are at will help to determine if there is coverage.... And for the record an actual radio works better than a scanner on the fringe areas.....

 

[druhe]

Hey guys, I am having issues programming a Uniden BCD996P2 with the ICORRS system. Im in Washington county & my fire department does mutual aid runs with both Westmoreland & Fayette County departments. Im using freescan and im importing straight from RR. Im not hearing anything from anywhere & should definitely be hearing something. Any advise you could give would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I agree with both N3OBL & talviar, however you do not mention what type of antenna you are utilizing. If you are using a back of set antenna you may want to consider installing an antenna outside. My 2 cents worth

 

[Dictator17]

It’s definitely a programming issue, I can hear both counties crystal clear on a portable radio inside the brick fire station, so I don’t think it’s a location issue. I’m using a multi band scanner antenna mounted on a mast above the fire station (probably 20-30 feet high).

 

[talviar]

It’s definitely a programming issue, I can hear both counties crystal clear on a portable radio inside the brick fire station, so I don’t think it’s a location issue. I’m using a multi band scanner antenna mounted on a mast above the fire station (probably 20-30 feet high).

You haven't answered questions- only brought more info to reinforce what we are saying.... My statement-- portable radio works better than scanner on the fringes.... Doesn't matter in brick fire station or not...

A portable will pick info up crystal clear and the actual RF level of the transmitters hitting that portable will be a very weak signal that the scanner may not be able to hear. Especially if that signal is being received from multiple tower sites.....

Portable works in the station... and scanner is using multi band scanner antenna..... Coax type?? length of coax from bottom of antenna to scanner? #1 losing a lot of signal in your coax, #2 antenna is picking up multiple tower sites from either Westmoreland or Fayette resulting in the typical scanner overload with simulcast transmit sites and the scanner unable to reliable decode. A 996P2 doesn't do well simulcast phasing.

Rather than us blindly trying to help u....
Provide what fire station u are sitting at trying to receive the system?
What ytpe of antenna? manufacturer and model #?
what type of coax?
length of coax?

 

[Dictator17]

You haven't answered questions- only brought more info to reinforce what we are saying.... My statement-- portable radio works better than scanner on the fringes.... Doesn't matter in brick fire station or not...

A portable will pick info up crystal clear and the actual RF level of the transmitters hitting that portable will be a very weak signal that the scanner may not be able to hear. Especially if that signal is being received from multiple tower sites.....

Portable works in the station... and scanner is using multi band scanner antenna..... Coax type?? length of coax from bottom of antenna to scanner? #1 losing a lot of signal in your coax, #2 antenna is picking up multiple tower sites from either Westmoreland or Fayette resulting in the typical scanner overload with simulcast transmit sites and the scanner unable to reliable decode. A 996P2 doesn't do well simulcast phasing.

Rather than us blindly trying to help u....
Provide what fire station u are sitting at trying to receive the system?
What ytpe of antenna? manufacturer and model #?
what type of coax?
length of coax?

I’m at Stockdale Fire Station. Washington county station 17, Westmoreland county station 227. We also do mutual aid runs into Fayette county as well. Unfortunately Washington County is in its own world with the VHF system, and out of county communications is a bit difficult. We did receive 2 new portables but they haven’t been programmed yet. We are redoing our radio room after receiving the fema grant for new radios. I went ahead and ordered the BCD996P2 after researching because we wanted to add a scanner into our radio room. I have a Procomm spider multi band antenna mounted on a 20 foot tall mast above our station, which also has our Washington county VHF base antenna on it as well. I’m using 60 feet of RG58 coax cable. All I want to hear is the area that we would mutual aid into & the tac channels. I’m sorry if I’m not all that knowledgeable with the p25 system, all I’ve ever known was low band and VHF... lol

 

[n3obl]

60 feet of rg-58 is **** ton of loss for 800mhz.

Honestly best and cheapest option for coax for a scanner is to use Quad shield RG-6 TV coax. Yeah its 75 ohm however you are not transmitting on a scanner and it has much better loss reduction at 800mhz.

I have a scantenna mounted about 15-20 feet up ran with RG 6 and a amp as soon as it enters my residence and then used both for TV antenna and one scanner.

 

[IStebleton]

Has anyone else had issues scanning the System while traveling in Westmoreland County and randomly losing the signal for several minutes at a time?