Weird, I started hearing some chatter around Noon today but nothing like usual. Who knows, probably bumped my coax or something. Thank you.
Iowa Statewide Interoperability Communication System (ISICS)
Prairie Rose is a sub station east of Harlan....
MCWKen
Member
I have a question about Interop on ISICS with other states. Is there a plan to have TG's that could connect with other states and Agencies, directly? Such as a TG that patches into say, STAR21 (IL) or ARMER (MN).
I cannot speak definitively about ISICS or the other systems you mention, but cross-jurisdiction interoperability can be handled by operating directly on a neighboring jurisdiction's system/tgs without the use of dedicated talk groups. The users would need compatible subscribers and the necessary permissions. This technique is used daily in our area (DC/MD/VA/DE/PA), particularly with fire departments, not as much with police departments.
from what I have seen locally it is mainly by local agencies on the border.
As far as MN's ARMER system, I live in a border county, and they have a dedicated talkgroup on the ARMER system to talk to our dispatch. But I'm sure the cars don't have it. Technically, dispatch might be able to patch the ARMER group with our frequencies or talkgroups but I've never heard them do that. They test the talkgroup fairly frequently -- once or twice a day -- but I'm not sure I've ever even heard them use it for real traffic. It's basically like the old point-to-point, except it's just those two border counties (or sometimes three) that use it. (I think they use the modern equivalent of the old TTY a lot for cross-border stuff) Rock County MN, directly north of most of Lyon County, IA has a Lyon Iowa TG, and so does Nobles County, MN, which borders the remainder of Lyon. Osceola County, IA has a TG on ARMER too, and from what I can tell it is used the same way. Osceola Co borders Nobles MN and Jackson MN, both of which have the TG in their dispatch. Pretty sure Jackson MN and Dickinson IA are the same, and I would imagine it continues for the entire border. They could certainly do a lot more with it if the cars had access somehow. Maybe that's in the future. Also, I suppose the ISICS folks decided they probably didn't need to duplicate efforts and have dedicated MN county TGs on ISICS... BTW, MN ARMER has the same thing with Sioux Falls Metro. There's a Sioux Falls Metro TG that both Rock and Pipestone MN counties have in their dispatch. Interestingly, they test this a lot too, but it's Sioux Falls Metro that does the tests on the (foreign to them) ARMER system . . .
Something on these lines. Last summer I heard a chase on ISICS Statewide TAC 2 that ended going into Minnesota at least two counties in. The mobiles never lost contact/ Not sure if they switched to AMER, maybe the Worth Co deputies just had great coverage into Minnesota.
One of the major issues with interoperability wrt to policing is the complexity of field units having to change channels to remain in radio contact while operating at high speeds during a pursuit. This is a huge safety problem. Best practice is to not require officers to change channels during a pursuit when leaving a coverage area, but this results in poor radio performance. There is a technology called ISSI that is defined in the P25 standard that can address this issue, but suffers from limited compatibility between vendors. It basically allows a unit from another system to remain on their home channel when moving to the coverage area of another system. We have ISSI here between out statewide system and one of the counties' system - both Motorola and both 700 MHz.
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MCWKen
Member
Northwood, Joice, and Leland have pretty good coverage north of the border in that area, so it's not surprising they stayed with IA TAC2.
Changing the topic a little -- budget scanning, without a GPS puck. Would it be possible to program the whole ISICS system into a scanner and not have to change sites? I know with the old RACOM system, you could conceivably program the whole thing, as sites were duplicated throughout the state. But it doesn't seem like ISICS is exactly like that. Some frequency sets are duplicated on other sites, but some have the same CC, but not the same voice channels . . . it doesn't look like it would work too well without programming every site separately. A few times a year, I go on trips to other parts of the state, and it would be nice not to have to program every site along the way and switch manually. I suppose I should just buy a GPS puck and be done with it . . . Hard to justify for a few times a year, but . . .
MCWKen
Member
You can program scanners like the BCD325P2 to scan each different tower, and load the TalkGroups into one database, and travel that way. There are many sites that use the same CC as others in a different area, so there is no need to duplicate them. I am not sure about other models.
I don't use the scanner at home, instead an SDR and OP25. Now with OP25, you can program different frequencies into the CC, however I have not tried it.
I will be getting a Raspberry Pi and learn to program it for the van. That is where it would need to scan more than one CC. I know it works since some systems that use as many as six frequencies as moving CC's. But that would be a nice winter project for me. I do know, that each site has a NAC, and not sure you can double up NAC's on a same instance of OP25.
It is possible to program all sites (you only have to program the control channels) and have all enabled, but it would be inefficient and slow down scanning - and you would probably miss a lot of voice traffic. It's best to only enable the site that covers the location where you are at as it makes no sense attempting to receive an out-of-range site. Using a GPS is a highly recommend as a method to control what sites the scanner is monitoring - it's worth the money.
Got a question about Iowa National Guard on ISICS. Occasionally I hear a Chinook flying to or from Twin-Cities. How are they getting to ISICS because it's a fair distance back to a ISICS site. I see them on ADS-B near Minneapolis and hear them on ISICS.
BTW while I still think the TG is "Statewide" but I only hear the Davenport Aviation Support Facility on it.
BTW while I still think the TG is "Statewide" but I only hear the Davenport Aviation Support Facility on it.
Other than the obvious possibility that because of altitude they are able to reach the system, there are ISICS users with APX Next radios that connect using LTE, so technically they can talk from anywhere with cell service, back into their normal talkgroups. So you might hear it on your scanner if there is a "normal" user affiliated on your local tower. I have no idea if they have it, but there are users that do.
I suppose the other possibility is that they also have Minnesota's ARMER system in their radios and the two TGs are patched together somewhere that can receive both systems . . .
I heard one yesterday traveling from Davenport and stopped in Iowa City due to weather.
MCWKen
Member
I hear ANG quite a bit on "State Wide". The other day, heard 817 talking with Waterloo giving updates. Oft times they will have a flight to places like Galesburg and Sioux City. A majority of the time, they talk with Davenport giving updates, fuel, and status.
Last year heard them over Rochester talking to Davenport, and another day enroute to Camp Douglas (Volk Field) over Madison.
During events such as the Bluejays football in Iowa City, they will coordinate the flyover on State Wide.
Last year heard them over Rochester talking to Davenport, and another day enroute to Camp Douglas (Volk Field) over Madison.
During events such as the Bluejays football in Iowa City, they will coordinate the flyover on State Wide.
This is the likely answer as I know in the bordering counties it has been presented as an option in the past.
So I finally have a computer with two dongles and sdrtrunk running. Liking it a lot. One of the things I haven't figured out yet though is the "long" user ID numbers. Most user IDs are seven digits or less. Like Ida County dispatch is 4799992. Some are much shorter than that. Troopers (351 in this case) have unit IDs like 11351. But sometimes a unit ID (I think) comes up that seems to be for admin functions or something -- I've never heard them talking. But something like 16777213 - 8 digits - will show up. Anyone know what that is? Also, a few more strange numbers pop up. Not sure if they're similar to unit IDs or talkgroups -- but 49516. What's that? Comes up often. And 65535. Any clues?
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