KSICS Anchor Thread

[factorone]

Rebanding in the south central has definitely taken place. I drove from Overland Park, down through Emporia and Wichita while stopping to see the GF's relatives, and then continued to Garden City for the remainder of the trip. I caught nearly zero traffic on the scanner between Ottawa and Wichita, and had relatively the same results until we got to Dodge City (but I chalk this up to the fact that I haven't had time to update my profiles on either my Pro-96 or my Pro 197).

We'll be taking the same route back, so I'm updating tonight, and will keep my ears open on new/old traffic.

 

[mrkevin02]

I noticed Troop E Garden City has went dark as well as KDOT for the south west corner to. I think this happened friday but I'm not sure. Still hearing troop D Hays so they have not rebanded yet. In fact KHP is in a chase right now. I'll reprogram tomorrow to see what I pick up.

 

[mrkevin02]

I made a mistake

My mistake Garden City Highway Patrol must of taken the weekend off after the blizzard last week. They are coming in loud and clear on the old channels. So I'm guessing they have not rebanded yet.

 

[dgruver911]

Western Kansas already IS rebanded. They were rebanded as soon as they went trunked. The only question in western Kansas is have the remaining dozen or so conventional towers been switched to trunked.

 

[blueangel-eric]

any word on went Chase county is actually rebanding? i updated the freqs last summer to the new ones posted and never heard anything and i just put the old ones back in and now i can hear stuff on that tower again.

 

[joekansas]

Here recently, I have heard Labette County sheriffs' office mentioning going "to the 800" more often than in the past.. They still talk nonstop on the VHF, but when doing different things like going out of county or when a deputy is out of the car and on his walkie talkie they'll go to the 800mhz. radio..

So, they are using it sporadically (I guess, cause I still don't have a scanner capable of hearing it!) but haven't quite made the leap to 100%. Thank god Parsons PD is still VHF so I have something to listen to!

 

[dgruver911]

any word on went Chase county is actually rebanding? i updated the freqs last summer to the new ones posted and never heard anything and i just put the old ones back in and now i can hear stuff on that tower again.

Cottonwood Falls tower in Chase County was rebanded about a month ago. The only tower around Chase County that is NOT rebanded already is Reading in Lyon County, and based on direction they're heading and what was rebanded last week, I would bet that it will be done in this week.

 

[n0lqt]

any word on went Chase county is actually rebanding? i updated the freqs last summer to the new ones posted and never heard anything and i just put the old ones back in and now i can hear stuff on that tower again.

Also, noticed that for Cottonwood Falls you might put in the Alternate control channel (852.7750) as well. I believe it has been in use a lot of the time....

 

[kenabos]

I noticed Troop E Garden City has went dark as well as KDOT for the south west corner to. I think this happened friday but I'm not sure. Still hearing troop D Hays so they have not rebanded yet. In fact KHP is in a chase right now. I'll reprogram tomorrow to see what I pick up.

Ever since about this time I have been hearing constant troop E traffic on the butler county simulcast.

 

[blueangel-eric]

Also, noticed that for Cottonwood Falls you might put in the Alternate control channel (852.7750) as well. I believe it has been in use a lot of the time....

why or when do they use an alternate channel? I've always wondered about that.

 

[cinsu]

why or when do they use an alternate channel? I've always wondered about that.

In the simplest form:
The control channel occupies a repeater with 100% usage. It will rotate to the alternate control channels to give the primary a break.

 

[blueangel-eric]

In the simplest form:
The control channel occupies a repeater with 100% usage. It will rotate to the alternate control channels to give the primary a break.

Are you talking about if the transmitter is running too much it has to cool down so they use the alternate to let it rest?

 

[KAA951]

Are you talking about if the transmitter is running too much it has to cool down so they use the alternate to let it rest?

Not really, this simply spreads the wear and tear on the repeaters around so one of the isn't carrying the load all the time. The repeater carrying the control channel transmits at full strength constantly, so it makes sense to rotate them.

 

[cinsu]

Are you talking about if the transmitter is running too much it has to cool down so they use the alternate to let it rest?

The computed should, in theory, switch control channels before it reaches this point. It is built to do that. I don't monitor KSICS enough to know but I know the control channel for the Shawnee County analog system switches about every 24 hours.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk

 

[joekansas]

Here's some news from Labette County

copied from the Parsons Sun....sorry it is the form it is. I don't know how to correct it~ it stays in newspaper format.

....PARSONS SUN
Scanner enthusiasts have a
little more than two weeks to
decide if they still wish to listen
to the Labette County Sheriff’s
Department’s radio transmissions.
On Jan. 16, when the 911
dispatch center gets new equipment
installed, the sheriff’s department
will make the switch
to its new digital 800 megahertz
trunked radios, which have been
installed in all their vehicles and
tested. The deputies and offi -
cers are now using VHF radios,
which broadcast on a different
frequency.
The vehicles carry repeaters.
This allows some fl exibility
when a deputy is outside of his
or her car and broadcasts on a
handheld radio. The handheld
radios are VHF, but the vehicle
repeater will broadcast the conversation
to the dispatcher or
other cars on the 800 mz radio.
In recent years the older VHF
radios have broken down and
needed replaced or repaired and
interference has limited the dependability
of the radios. With
the Federal Communications
Commission requiring law enforcement
and others to narrow
their band usage by 2013 (an
effort to limit bleed-over and
open up more frequencies), now
seemed like a good time to consider
changing radio systems,
Sheriff Robert Sims said.
Sims said he could have spent
close to $50,000 to replace 19
VHF radios, make them compatible
with the FCC rules and
make other changes to the radio
network. Even then, he said
he wasn’t guaranteed that the
broadcast problems the VHF radios
have in Parsons and other
areas of the county would end.
The 800 radios seem to alleviate
all those problems and
testing has proved that they
work in Parsons and as far away
as Welch, Okla. The cost for the
new 800 radios for all vehicles,
changes to trunk repeater units
and other system improvements
was around $24,000.
The fi nal cost to update the
dispatch equipment in January
is unknown at this time. This
work will be paid for out of 911
funds, which come from fees
paid by cell phone users and
land line users.
The Kansas Highway Patrol
and Kansas Department of
Wildlife, Parks and Tourism use
800 mz radios in their vehicles.
Sims said the state has allotted
a block of frequencies for the
sheriff’s department to use.
Communications will be trunked, which means conversations will
be bounced around various frequencies during each broadcast and
can only be heard by a digital scanner with trunking capability.
Sims said the department will continue to use digital encryption
for broadcasting sensitive information, but would not encrypt all
traffi c.
The ability to communicate with Wildlife and Parks agents is
more important with the sheriff’s department responsible for law enforcement
activities at the Great Plains Industrial Park, formerly the
Kansas Army Ammunition Plant, starting Jan. 1. Wildlife and Parks
has 3,000 acres of land on the plant grounds that may eventually be
opened for hunting and fi shing. It’s used now for special hunts.
“So it will give us better communication,” Sims said.
As part of the state network, Sims said offi cers eventually would
be able to travel across the state and maintain contact with the dispatch
center in Oswego. This would be benefi cial for prisoner transports,
when a deputy generally would lose radio contact with the
dispatcher once he or she leaves the county.
Sims said he plans on separating repeater antennas in Altamont
and broadcast antennas on the courthouse in Oswego in the near
future to alleviate broadcast problems on the sheriff’s frequency,
which is used by other city police departments, as well as the road
and bridge department, rural fi re and emergency management frequencies.
Sims said he will work with Altamont, Chetopa and Oswego police
in 2012 on completing the narrow banding of their radios to
comply with the FCC rule and make them more compatible with the
improvements to the county’s radio system. The sheriff’s department
dispatches calls for these departments, as well as rural fi refi
ghters and the ambulance service.
Sims said he hasn’t tested the 800 mz radios to hear what can be
picked up on a police scanner. He’s been told that digital trunked
scanners would be required to listen to the radio traffi c.
But he’s pleased with the performance of the radios. A Labette
County deputy who was working in the Coffeyville area on a theft
case used his 800 mz radio to keep in contact with the dispatch
center in Oswego.
“So far I’m very impressed with it. We’re online and so far we’re
not having any troubles,” Sims said.

 

[keithb]

Shawnee County Rebanded

Looks like SN County was changed over today:

System ID : 1B2
System Name :
WACN : BEE00
Tower Number (Decimal): 204
Tower Number (Hex) : T0204
Tower Description : (null)
Control Capabilities : Data,Voice,Registration
Call Sign(s) :
Timestamp : Mon Jan 9 20:38:51 2012

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,851.00625,0.00625,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1
01,762.00625,0.00625,30.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"00-0157","c",851.98750,"00-0157",806.98750,0,0
"00-0217","a",852.36250,"00-0217",807.36250,0,0
"00-0299","v",852.87500,"00-0299",807.87500,0,3
"00-0353","v",853.21250,"00-0353",808.21250,0,4
"00-0407","v",853.55000,"00-0407",808.55000,0,3

-Neighbors
#Format: TowerID,TowerIDHex,System ID,Channel,Frequency,Tower Name
102,"T0102",1b2,"00-0209",852.31250,""
106,"T0106",1b2,"00-0091",851.57500,""
136,"T0124",1b2,"00-2557",866.98750,""
201,"T0201",1b2,"00-2577",867.11250,""
202,"T0202",1b2,"00-2553",866.96250,""
205,"T0205",1b2,"00-2597",867.23750,""
208,"T0208",1b2,"00-2637",867.48750,""
209,"T0209",1b2,"00-2657",867.61250,""
212,"T020C",1b2,"00-2621",867.38750,""
241,"T0229",1b2,"00-2535",866.85000,""

 

[cinsu]

Looks like SN County was changed over today:

Thanks for the info! Anybody know if the techs have been performing any software updates while doing the rebanding? There is a noticable voice quality improvement today. Previously the KHP dispatchers had much lower audio compared to troopers and their audio is now more equal. Their audio also sounds clearer.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

 

[mancow]

They didn't bump any firmware when they did ours. All that I have seen are still version 12.

 

[dgruver911]

Just saw Reading is off-line this morning. Must be it's turn today! Only 9 more to go...

 

[keithb]

Just saw Reading is off-line this morning. Must be it's turn today! Only 9 more to go...

Can't hear Reading tonight but Eskridge has been switched (852.3875) and Flush (852.6125). Seems like I'm hearing more towers now - maybe my PSR500 is a little more sensitive in the 850 range.