Jonesboro AWIN Help

[bubbaearle]

.....I am not for sure how many C&C radios are distributed statewide.......

I'm in Wynne in Cross Co. and I have no TGID info for us.

I do know that there is an AWIN radio at the shreiff's department and I'm told Parkin PD has one as well several handhelds.

I'm pretty sure if they're using AWIN their units would be used for interop and would be C&C radios for our county.

 

[wrr20891]

dave90000 (hope I got enough zeros in there ) is probably right on target. While MAC call and the others are not Statewide per se, they are heavily monitored by some users and it is a good bet you will pick up at least some of the traffic. There is one exception, the controller only activates the tower for the primary channel the user radio is set for, not for any scanned channels. Let us say user 1 has their radio primarily on MAC call and has MAC 5 in their scan list. Unless there is another user on the same tower as user 1 using MAC 5 as a primary channel, user 1's radio will not pick up the transmission on MAC 5 while in scan. Now if user 1 were to switch to MAC 5, that would become the new primary channel and the controller would forward any transmissions made on MAC 5. If user 1 is in range of the tower that the person on MAC 5 was using, he could switch his radio to that tower and hear MAC 5 in the scan list. The system is set up this way on purpose to reduce on air time congestion. If a user has 5 or 10 different channels from all areas of the State in the scan list, it could quickly overload the available voice channels if all of them were forwarded, especially during an event like the February 2008 tornadoes. Hence the primary channel forwarding only.

There is a plan on how the MAC channels are regionally assigned, but I don't recall it off the top of my head. It is listed on the AWIN webpage under the Templates link.

 

[dave90000]

Will have to check with the DIS and get a clairification on the active tower and scan list. When we went to the training on AWIN I thought the towers would go active for all scanned channels. I do know the DIS doesnt want the radios used in scan nor do they want you to drag a local talkgroup with you when your out of your local area due to tying up towers with un-necessary traffic.

We have regionally assigned talkgroups along with the MAC channels. We use the central channels here for weather alerts and resource roll call between our local OEM and the Fire Depts.

 

[bubbaearle]

How do y'all have your scanners programmed?

wrr20891 & dave90000 ......what scanners do y'all have and how do y'all have them programmed?

I have a PSR 500 and I have assigned each ASP Troop to a V-folder with each county in the troop.....

One TSYS for AWIN with all TGID's related to that troop & all statewide TGID's (as listed in the RR DB). I also have wildcards to catch unknown TGID's (usually out of troop known TGID's).

Scanlist for Troop D:

1 ASP – Troop…………………..same set-up for each troop - ASP Troop specific TGID'S
2 ADEM / MAC………………….. same set-up for each troop
3 Highway Police………………….. same set-up for each troop
4 Federal Agencies………………….. same set-up for each troop – some analog
5 State Agencies ………………….. same set-up for each troop – some analog
6 Statewide Events………………….. AWIN
7 Business / Misc. ………………….. local VHF/UHF
8 AeroComms ………………….. AM civil air comms
9 Military Comms………………….. MilAir comms
10 EMS/AeroMedical………………….. ambulance / hospital / helicopter
11 Cross Co………………….. conv. analog - no AWIN TGID
12 Crittenden Co. ………………….. conv. analog & AWIN TGID
13 St Francis Co. ………………….. conv. analog & AWIN TGID
14 Woodruff Co. ………………….. conv. analog & AWIN TGID
15 Lee Co. ………………….. conv. analog & AWIN TGID
16 Phillips Co. ………………….. conv. analog & AWIN TGID
17 Monroe Co. ………………….. conv. analog & AWIN TGID
18 Prairie Co…………………... conv. analog & AWIN TGID
19 Utilities ………………….. Entergy MOTO TRS / misc. utilities
20 Amateur Radio/WX…………………..skywarn nets @ 2m nets

These are not all on all the time......usually 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, & 11 or 12 - commute to work.

1, 2, 5, 6, 10, & 11 - sitting at the house

4 -9 depending where I'm at......

This has worked well for me so far. Any suggestions?

 

[dave90000]

I use a xts5000r for AWIN and another smartnet system

PR400 for the local VHF systems.

As far as scanner charts I have no idea

 

[wrr20891]

I don't have a digital scanner, just ASP radios on AWIN.

Dave, scan won't effect it, only primary is forwarded. This is from the Motorola engineers when they were installing the system and from using it. I've got one of Troop A's dispatch channels that you will hear in scan if listening to one tower site (one adjacent to Troop A and active with their traffic), but it will not pick up on the other tower sites as none of their units are primary on those towers, too far away in normal circumstances.

You are correct on them not wanting a channel monitored outside its area, as it will tie up a voice channel. I'm sure no one would ever do that...

 

[dave90000]

The gentleman from DIS may have been mis-informed. I do have a question for you. When the rebanding happens are they going to be able to reprogram the radios over the air or will they have to go back to grace ?

 

[wrr20891]

I haven't heard yet on what will be required on rebanding, which towers may have to change and which will not. I know new radios are being installed when issuing cars for the Troop C area that have the 700 MHz frequencies for the towers using them up there instead of reprogramming the radios already in the cars. By that, I figure the mobiles and handhelds would have to be physically reprogrammed instead of it being something that can be done over the air. Maybe they'll do like when the second controller was added and go around the State reprogramming radios in groups. Better than everyone having to go to Grace, Smith and wherever the other shops are.

If you talk to DIS, speak to Randy. He goes back to the beginning days of the first 800 MHz Statewide system and knows what's what.

 

[bubbaearle]

When will rebanding take place?

Do y'all recon we'll see more 700 MHz channels in all troops?

 

[wrr20891]

I saw something a few months ago that AWIN was researching frequencies, but it did not say which ones. I guess we'll have to wait for the licenses to come out to get an idea.

I used to check the freqofnature FCC daily report once a week or so to get a heads up on new license issued, but I have not been able to get anything on it for a couple of months now. Link comes back page not found.

 

[btritch]

So If I'm understanding this correctly, Only certain areas are supposed to broadcast their traffic, Hence in Say Chicot county you would hear their sheriff's office from Greene county obviously but I was listening on Wednesday and heard ADEM Southeast Talking to dispatch about being en route to an overturned log tuck in chicot county, i heard this traffic from Greene County.. Opposite end of the state..In the Northeast District. So if it's set up like you guys say, specific areas and towers, Should I have still heard that traffic from here?

 

[wrr20891]

Hence in Say Chicot county you would hear their sheriff's office from Greene county obviously

Actually, that's not anything like what has been described. You might want to review the previous posts.

but I was listening on Wednesday and heard ADEM Southeast Talking to dispatch about being en route to an overturned log tuck in chicot county, i heard this traffic from Greene County.. Opposite end of the state..In the Northeast District. So if it's set up like you guys say, specific areas and towers, Should I have still heard that traffic from here?

More than likely, someone using a tower you are scanning heard about the crash on MAC call or another channel and switched their radio over to hear the comms. Therefore that tower would repeat the comms and your scanner would pick it up. It is against AWIN policy to monitor a channel outside of your home area, but it certainly happens. Happened a lot during the tornado's last February.

 

[btritch]

Actually, that's not anything like what has been described. You might want to review the previous posts..

Wouldn't, I meant Wouldn't, I got that part, lol It was the part below that had me.. That explains it a lot.. thanks wrr

 

[wrr20891]

Ah, the dreaded missing " N'T ".
Glad someone else does that from time to time besides me...