Jackson County on Ohio MARCS

[DanKC8PAE]

Hello everyone in or near Jackson County. I have been seeing a lot of talk groups popping up on the Ohio MARCS page of RR for Jackson County. I am assuming Jackson County is leaving their Jackson County Ohio Public Safety DMR system. I travel down that way two to three times a year to visit family in West Virginia. Just wondering if I should delete the DMR system from my Jackson County favorites list?
Thank you for any help.

Dan KC8PAE WROJ491
Butler County.

 

[W8UU]

The DMR system is still operational but Jackson County is rapidly moving toward MARCS. The holdout, as you might imagine, is the underfunded volunteer fire departments that have struggled to buy trunked P25 radios, replace pagers, and find the money in very tight budgets for user fees. But it's happening.

Law enforcement, with the exception of Wellston PD, is fully operational on MARCS. Wellston is waiting on additional MARCS radios and mobile repeaters before making the switch. For now, find them on 453.675 MHz with MotoTrbo emissions.

EMS is 100% on MARCS including paging.

The county engineer is moving to MARCS. No timeline that I know about but they were very active on their talkgroup last week during flash flooding with lots of closed roads and debris that needed cleared.

Fire still dispatches on 453.625 MHz analog countywide with the exception of Madison-Jefferson FD in Oak Hill which uses 453.125 MHz. All fire departments hope to be on MARCS by September 1st but the 453.625 simulcast of alerts is expected to continue indefinitely. This is to allow the departments to transition to 700/800 paging after the UHF radios are replaced.

Jackson city public works is still using 154.115 MHz. I have no idea if they'll eventually join MARCS.

The DMR system will probably bite the dust within a year or so. Jackson County isn't paying to maintain it so when something breaks, it stays broken. The sheriff (who oversees the county 911 Center) has been telling everyone that the UHF radios will be pulled from the dispatch consoles soon and everything will be on MARCS.

Personal opinion: MARCS works reasonably well in Jackson County. There are a few dead spots that, if addressed, would make MARCS a great system for public safety.

 

[DanKC8PAE]

The DMR system is still operational but Jackson County is rapidly moving toward MARCS. The holdout, as you might imagine, is the underfunded volunteer fire departments that have struggled to buy trunked P25 radios, replace pagers, and find the money in very tight budgets for user fees. But it's happening.

Law enforcement, with the exception of Wellston PD, is fully operational on MARCS. Wellston is waiting on additional MARCS radios and mobile repeaters before making the switch. For now, find them on 453.675 MHz with MotoTrbo emissions.

EMS is 100% on MARCS including paging.

The county engineer is moving to MARCS. No timeline that I know about but they were very active on their talkgroup last week during flash flooding with lots of closed roads and debris that needed cleared.

Fire still dispatches on 453.625 MHz analog countywide with the exception of Madison-Jefferson FD in Oak Hill which uses 453.125 MHz. All fire departments hope to be on MARCS by September 1st but the 453.625 simulcast of alerts is expected to continue indefinitely. This is to allow the departments to transition to 700/800 paging after the UHF radios are replaced.

Jackson city public works is still using 154.115 MHz. I have no idea if they'll eventually join MARCS.

The DMR system will probably bite the dust within a year or so. Jackson County isn't paying to maintain it so when something breaks, it stays broken. The sheriff (who oversees the county 911 Center) has been telling everyone that the UHF radios will be pulled from the dispatch consoles soon and everything will be on MARCS.

Personal opinion: MARCS works reasonably well in Jackson County. There are a few dead spots that, if addressed, would make MARCS a great system for public safety.

Thanks Rick. That is very helpful. I will update my Jackson County Favorite list in my SDS radios.
Dan

 

[saioke]

Yeah I would keep them in your radio for the time being. I'm going to assume that everyone in the county may be on MARCs by the end of this year or early next year but that's just my guess. I still regularly hear Wellston PD talk over DMR, and occasionally Jackson Co. Fire. Everyone else seems to have already moved to MARCS, including the Engineer. Heard him speaking just last week on MARCS after some flooding. EMS is on MARCS, as is Holzer Medical.

Anyway, the moment I start hearing Wellston PD and Jackson County fire on MARCS more than usual, I'll try to let everyone know. but I am curious, you can pick their DMR system up in WV? Guessing your family is near the Ohio river, but that's still impressive! That being said, you unfortunately probably won't be able to pick up the Indian Camp or Jackson P25 towers in the area. If you do, I'd be even more impressed and would love to know your antenna setup lol.

 

[DanKC8PAE]

Yeah I would keep them in your radio for the time being. I'm going to assume that everyone in the county may be on MARCs by the end of this year or early next year but that's just my guess. I still regularly hear Wellston PD talk over DMR, and occasionally Jackson Co. Fire. Everyone else seems to have already moved to MARCS, including the Engineer. Heard him speaking just last week on MARCS after some flooding. EMS is on MARCS, as is Holzer Medical.

Anyway, the moment I start hearing Wellston PD and Jackson County fire on MARCS more than usual, I'll try to let everyone know. but I am curious, you can pick their DMR system up in WV? Guessing your family is near the Ohio river, but that's still impressive! That being said, you unfortunately probably won't be able to pick up the Indian Camp or Jackson P25 towers in the area. If you do, I'd be even more impressed and would love to know your antenna setup lol.

Thank you for the update. I am not able to pick up the DMR system from West Virginia. My Family is in the Beckley area of West Virginia. I have an SDS 200 that is mounted in my truck and an SDS 100 for when out in the field. I have a profile that I upload to the radios when we travel to to different parts of Ohio or different states. When we travel to West Virginia I have every County on US 35 from from Montgomery County all the way down to the Ohio and West Virginia boarder. I also have Every county that we travel through from the state line to were we stay in Beckley. All of the counties have a pre set number so I can turn them on and off as we go. All of my Ohio Counties have there state assigned numbers as there quick key. All of my west Virginia Counties are assigned a number by me in the 90's. and I put them in alphabetical order.

 

[saioke]

Thank you for the update. I am not able to pick up the DMR system from West Virginia. My Family is in the Beckley area of West Virginia. I have an SDS 200 that is mounted in my truck and an SDS 100 for when out in the field. I have a profile that I upload to the radios when we travel to to different parts of Ohio or different states. When we travel to West Virginia I have every County on US 35 from from Montgomery County all the way down to the Ohio and West Virginia boarder. I also have Every county that we travel through from the state line to were we stay in Beckley. All of the counties have a pre set number so I can turn them on and off as we go. All of my Ohio Counties have there state assigned numbers as there quick key. All of my west Virginia Counties are assigned a number by me in the 90's. and I put them in alphabetical order.

I gotcha, I keep forgetting that people often slap a scanner in their vehicles, it's a great idea!
And the SDS line seem like amazing scanners and I even literally dreamed of owning one months back. My brain loves to torture me with things that I couldn't ever afford. Guess it's for the best though. If I could put something as advanced as a SDS in my vehicle, I'd constantly want to drive cross country lol.

Anyway, I haven't heard Wellston PD much today, or yesterday. Likely because of this excessive heat keeping everyone in the "I don't want to run from police" state of mind. I do wonder if they have another frequency other than 453.675 that they use, but I haven't found it if they do, and I doubt they do. I just hope it's a sign that they'll be on MARCS full-time soon. Not only is MARCs good for these departments but it's also great for us listeners, at least in my opinion. My only gripe with MARCS is that it sounds muddy and sometimes they're hard to understand, but I think that really comes down to their radios. DMR sounds so much cleaner and clearer to my ears though.

 

[saioke]

Just wanted to add an update to say that Wellston PD's DMR system is very much still active. I uhh, finally realized after 3+ days that I had my MLA-30+ hooked up instead of a proper antenna for UHF. Surprisingly my rdio-scanner instance was still recording/picking them up once or twice.
So no, pardon my message above. I'll still add an update if I notice any changes, and I'll be labeling my coax so I know which is which.