The Tollway radio lab has been a very busy place lately, and seems to be especially more today. I've documented at least 15 to 20 "old" Troop 15 cars and portables being reprogrammed to Zone 1/Troop 3 radio ID's today alone and quite a few in the past week. A few weeks after the changeover, the radio lab was reprogramming to Troop 3 talk groups on the radios, but didn't modify the radio ID's. That seemed to have changed today, as if a deadline was given since MACH is being updated but I'm only guessing. When leaving the radio lab, they're advising the telecommunicators to log them into the newly programmed cars today.
The "old" Troop 15 radio reprogramming is still ongoing, and it appears they're being slotted in by seniority to the Troop 3 radio programming structure based on my ever-updated radio ID list. If they go to the radio lab, the tollway radio techs update them to Zone1/Troop 3 radio ID's and if they return to patrol, continue to use the old "Car xxx" until they are 10-42 for the day. The next 10-41, they're updated in MACH and will now use Troop 3 radio signatures.
A couple oddities I noticed. The radio lab updated a couple of the 15-300 series cars, and Oak Brook reported the ID's show as 3-8xxx and 3-9xxx. When one of them came up today, 3-8307 was now 3-307. Not sure if this was an error or by design?
In the past hour, I saw a key up-no voice from radio ID 1904101 on Tollway-North talk group. The 190xxxx would fall in line with the radio consoles used, and wondering if this was going to by used by ISP Troop 3 telecommunicators on the tollway talk groups? Just an observation, but something to watch considering all the radio reprogramming going on recently.
Less and less "Car xxx" radio signatures, and more "3-xxx" radio signatures being heard on the tollway talk groups.
Heard some key-ups of radio ID's 19044xx on 3-SE, and 3-Middle today. A couple days ago, it was 19041xx radio ID's on the tollway talk groups. The 190xxxx series coincides with Zone 1 radio consoles radio ID's.
Many changes have taken place this month:
"Old" Troop 15 radio signatures and radio ID's are almost non-existent and have been converted to Zone 1/Troop 3 radio structure. Still a few out there, either haven't been updated in MACH or just can't part with the changes...LOL!
The "10-41" patrol announcements have returned this week at 0500, 1300, 2100 hours across all Troop 3 patrol channels: North, Middle, SE, SW, Tollway North, Tollway South. This lines up with the new patrols previously documented too.
Oak Brook is still dispatching the tollways, but hearing "training at Oak Brook" quite a few times this week, so might be the next update.
Channel references are now being made to the "updated" radio programming: "3-102 show me 10-42 Mary-10, now show me 10-41 Mary 15 switching to Southwest" is an example.
IDOT 1995 that is assigned to I-80, either no longer has the "old" District 5 car-to-car talk group channel programmed, or isn't monitoring it anymore and can be frequently heard on Troop 3's Southwest channel with activity.
Might be time to update the database to reflect the changes since it's been over a year since the Districts have been eliminated and I think the talk groups have been updated by now. "Old" District 2,5, Chicago and now District/Troop 15 can be combined into one Troop 3 listing:
| 3-A | - | 9005 |
| 3-B | - | 9006 |
| 3-North | - | 9002 |
| 3-Middle | - | 9007 |
| 3-SE | - | 9008 |
| 3-SW | - | 9013 |
| 3-Tollway North | - | 9098 |
| 3-Tollway South | - | 9099 |
| 3 Car-to-Car | - | 9067 |
| 3-ISPERN | - | 9051 |
| 3 B-5 | - | 9014 |
| 5 Car-to-Car | - | 9068 |
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