Kent County and MPSCS article

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slash

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Ottawa County is not on MPSCS and Allegan is on Provoice

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Ronaldski

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Those in Kent county, if you don't have one, start looking for a digital scanner. One thing for sure in a year or so from now users will need to start identifying the talkgroups being used.
Last few counties to go digital, once those counties ok'd the money, it was approximately one year later when they switch was made.
I realize the article shows 40% but was on a 3- 1 yes vote.

The results as of today at 11:42am
Enhanced 911 public safety dispatch surcharge

Yes 205,112
No 74,726

Kent County voters approve surcharge for 911 dispatch system | MLive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Kent County voters approved an additional 70-cent surcharge on their telephone and internet connections that is aimed at funding improvements to the county's emergency dispatch service.

Half of the new money will be used to pay for a countywide fire dispatch services while the other half will be used to convert the county's outdated dispatching system to the Michigan Public Safety Communications System, a network currently used by most neighboring counties and the Michigan State Police, Stelma said.
 

Gpmorris62

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Kent County is quite open to scanner listeners, they even put their frequencies on their web page.
Hopefully that policy of openness continues when they switch to MPSCS.
 

lakeboatnut

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There is a lot of talk regarding encryption if you read through all of the above, it is making me a little nervous. Does anyone more familiar with the system know how the encrypted agencies interoperate with non encrypted agencies. Example, MSP does not encrypt most communication at this time. Would they be able to interoperate with GRPD if they choose to encrypt? What I am getting at is this, does encryption have to be everything or nothing? Or can you pick and choose certain channels such as LEIN or MED channels to be encrypted while leaving other channels open and still maintain interoperability.


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mikey60

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It can be on a per-talkgroup basis. It can also be user selected. How that's done is completely up to the jurisdiction.

As far as interacting with other agencies, if they don't have the proper encryption key, they will not be able to communicate with the agencies on those talkgroups that are encrypted. There will normally be some kind of mutual aid talkgroup though that may be used if needed.

Mike
 

jack3726

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This seems like a huge undertaking to roll this out, even if they decided just to roll it out for KCSD. I would guess it would be setup in the clear with some encrypted TG's for specific things. There are several agencies represented at these discussions, can't really find any information that says which ones and by when though. I had asked a few days ago about tower locations and the amount of towers. If the system requires additional towers how long would it take to install/set these up. Overall though it sounds like this is the way they are going to go though.
 

Gpmorris62

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For Midland County, it was nearly 2 years between contracts being signed and the final switchover.
That involved 2 new towers, and radios for all Midland City & County Law Enforcement departments, all Midland City & County Fire departments, and Midland City DPW & Dial-a-Ride.
The first article on Kent County mentions 3 new towers, the only question is how many agencies will be involved.
 

gpp10x

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There are currently 2 MPSCS towers in Kent County at 12781 Shaner Road (Cedar Spring) & 2707 Honey Creek Road NE (Ada-Cannonsburg). Both are C4FM modulation and would likely be upgraded to CQPSK modulation as part of a simulcast system.
 

ScanKent

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KCSD dispatch channels will not be encrypted. It will be a 12 site simulcast system, 3 of which are existing; Cedar, Cannonsburg, and Downtown.
 

mikey60

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There are currently 2 MPSCS towers in Kent County at 12781 Shaner Road (Cedar Spring) & 2707 Honey Creek Road NE (Ada-Cannonsburg). Both are C4FM modulation and would likely be upgraded to CQPSK modulation as part of a simulcast system.

There's also one listed in Grand Rapids (840 Fairview NE) although I can't confirm if it's on the air or not as I don't live there. So that would be three that would likely be upgraded to simulcast.

Mike
 

lakeboatnut

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There are currently 2 MPSCS towers in Kent County at 12781 Shaner Road (Cedar Spring) & 2707 Honey Creek Road NE (Ada-Cannonsburg). Both are C4FM modulation and would likely be upgraded to CQPSK modulation as part of a simulcast system.



Thanks for the information, what do the different types of modulation mean for us as scanner listeners?


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lakeboatnut

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KCSD dispatch channels will not be encrypted. It will be a 12 site simulcast system, 3 of which are existing; Cedar, Cannonsburg, and Downtown.



You seem to have inside information, or at least know how/where to find the existing information, thank you for sharing. It seems I have been mistaken, I was under the impression for some reason that this would involve all agencies in Kent county including the cities of Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Walker, Kentwood, East Grand Rapids and so forth, both police and fire departments, perhaps even including Life EMS and AMR. It being a simulcast system would seem to suggest that this is not the case. Maybe the fire departments will stay on VHF? It will be interesting to see how this all comes together over the next year or two. There is going to be a lot for us to learn about monitoring such a system and how it works, it's a big leap from the VHF channels we are used to.


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gpp10x

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Thanks for the information, what do the different types of modulation mean for us as scanner listeners?


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That I am not sure of. The simulcast systems all seem to use CQPSK which causes issues for scanner listeners as opposed to C4FM used by the single site towers. The newer scanners seem to handle the simulcast systems better. Let me add I am not an expert and have no insider info. Just seems in reading the forums and listening for the past several years its the conclusion I have come to.
 

ScanKent

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You are correct, this is for the whole county, police and fire for sure. Not sure about the ambulance companies. I've been told that the current 6 Kent County dispatch channels will not be encrypted. I haven't heard anything on the GR channels or individual municipal channels.
 
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