Is State of Alabama EDACS still in use?

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morganAL

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The system, as used by any State agency, is dead. In certain areas, some of the State freqs are used by local systems. I believe the State still owns a few EDACS sites that are on the air but there are no users on the systems.
 

BamaScan

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I was told by a Alabama DOT Worker who is a good friend of mine that the Alabama Troopers had to turn all of their 800 mhz radios in a few months ago. The State of Alabama built the 800 mhz system years ago in larger cities and was going to connect it. The plan was for the whole state to be 800mhz, Funding was never found to complete the system statewide. The plan now is to get more funding for the new 700 mhz system. The goal of the new 700 mhz system is to be like what Mississipp has now statewide.
 

INDY72

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The old EDACS is pretty much dead, but would need replaced in a year or so anyway since Harris is no longer going to support EDACS in any variation. The new Statewide system being grown is the FRN, which yes eventually will be statewide. It will be linked to the MSWIN, TACN, and possibly even the SLERS P25 via software. It will be part of GulfWIN once completed.
 

codeplug

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Alabama EDACS system.

As of Jan. 2014 the 800 site on Cheaha Mtn. is still active & transmitting a control channel on freq. 855.26250 / CTL 03.
I can pick it up about 30 miles away with a weak signal but it's very strong in Oxford, AL.
I have not seen the freq. change to an alternate control channel as of several months of monitoring.
It's possible it could change every so often as with other systems but I have not seen it change yet.

I can't confirm any activity on that site other than the.control channel.
I do know that one of the listed EDACS freq.'s 856.26250 is an active control channel on the ARCS system.
That freq. does not appear to be connected or active on the AL EDACS system.
 
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INDY72

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Alabama EDACS system.

As of Jan. 2014 the 800 site on Cheaha Mtn. is still active & transmitting a control channel on freq. 855.26250 / CTL 03.
I can pick it up about 30 miles away with a weak signal but it's very strong in Oxford, AL.
I have not seen the freq. change to an alternate control channel as of several months of monitoring.
It's possible it could change every so often as with other systems but I have not seen it change yet.

I can't confirm any activity on that site other than the.control channel.
I do know that one of the listed EDACS freq.'s 856.26250 is an active control channel on the ARCS system.
That freq. does not appear to be connected or active on the AL EDACS system.

Yes, the system still has carrier. But is NOT in use. Kind of like a lot of other systems around the country, especially older EDACS... The system is technically alive because it has not been shut off.. But is not in use and thus is dead. Most of these are being transitioned to P25 systems, or folded as a replacement is built out.
 

wwhitby

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I was told by a Alabama DOT Worker who is a good friend of mine that the Alabama Troopers had to turn all of their 800 mhz radios in a few months ago. The State of Alabama built the 800 mhz system years ago in larger cities and was going to connect it. The plan was for the whole state to be 800mhz, Funding was never found to complete the system statewide. The plan now is to get more funding for the new 700 mhz system. The goal of the new 700 mhz system is to be like what Mississipp has now statewide.

The Troopers are still using 800MHz HTs here as part of the mobile extender system. I was listening to traffic on their mobile extender frequency just last night.

The DPS EDACS system in Montgomery was "merged" with the Montgomery City-County system.

I talked with a radio tech who had done some of the work on the DPS EDACS system back in the 1990s. He told me that there was one particular DPS Major that was pushing hard for the EDACS system. After that Major retired in the late 1990s, no one wanted to continue deploying the system.
 
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