I don’t think they are active yet because they are not a peer to East Palestine.
MARCS-IP ("New MARCS") Site and Talkgroup Discussion
There are actually two of one of them, but I can't remember which. The two that share the same SysID cannot be used at the same time in close proximity to one another; one would have to be at least 50 miles or so away from the other to avoid interference (depending on terrain etc).
You won't see the TOW as a site on the regular system. They're standalone sites intended mainly to offload major incident traffic from the regular system in order to preserve capacity for normal day-to-day operations.
In a pinch, one of them could be tied into the regular system to stand in for a normal site that is damaged, but this is pretty complicated and not likely to happen unless the excreta were really hitting the blades of the rotating cooling device.
Ok, thanks. Good info to know. If you're in the East Palestine area, your best bet is to program in those TOW sites then. I imagine whichever one is active will get a tremendous amount of traffic. The East Palestine site itself is only 6-channels (5 voice) and has a lot of OSP traffic on it. It's really active at times and busting at the seems according to @firemantom26.
JethrowJohnson
I love P25
Are they using the Statewide Interop channels at all, and if so, will the traffic be carried statewide or only at the site in that county and surrounding counties?
Likely not statewide. And they were using at least some MARCS interop channels. Likely no chance of hearing anything from that event unless you are in E Pal area. And, unfortunately pretty much every Columbiana Co feed is garbage -- never has traffic, never had any traffic -- and was likely put up just to get a free subscription to RR. I have never heard anything useful off of a Columbiana Co feed.
JethrowJohnson
I love P25
Okay, thanks
Yea, that funding model was doomed to fail eventually - it's a disincentive to implement interoperability.
It's actually the way the system should have been implemented. The state provides the basic infrastructure at no charge for the jurisdiction to use. Local enhancements can be added at the jurisdiction's expense. The jurisdictions purchase their own equipment from a state contract of approved devices. And the state / feds can award grants to help poor localities pay for subscriber units.
Re: TOW / SOW / COWs: I'd imagine that Ohio has a cache of radios to deploy in emergencies. In the 700 band, there are standardized frequencies set aside for transportable sites. I would think that the SOW and cache radios would be deployed as a package, and that field reprogramming of existing MARCS radios could be done by the MARCS techs.
Hearing some OH NG convoys on 54121 this morning (marked as "?" in the DB) off the Columbus MARCS site. They were preparing to depart, but I left my radio to record so I wouldn't miss anything on the recordings. Would imagine they are headed up to Ravenna, if I had to guess.
Checking recordings, found these RIDs:
9400677 TORCH OIC
9400712 ?
9400812 ADVON
9400835 EOC
MARCS does not allow patches. Period.
OHP761
Member
Yea you can patch. Not for long periods of time.
That's not entirely accurate
Full policy is here: https://das.ohio.gov/static/technology-strategy/marcs/MPP 22 Talkgroup Patching Policy.pdf
OHP761
Member
Please read and understand the policy you so quickly quoted.
Read and understand.
You can patch. I’m not sure what stuff you are referring to that MARCS can’t patch.
Read and understand.
You can patch. I’m not sure what stuff you are referring to that MARCS can’t patch.
In this case, and others, PD is on MARCS, FD is on a Harris Phase II system. PD wanted nothing to do with that system, and they do not have PhaseII turned on on their radios. FD didn't want to spend the monthly on MARCS (even though they're spending vastly more on the P2 system, plus vastly more on radios), so they do not have MARCS in their radios.
And yes, it's horrible planning, but it was the depts that made the decisions. They used to be on UHF, and had each others channels in all radios. A couple clicks and they were there. And it didn't cost them a penny extra.
Lorain Co. used to have a near perfect scheme, with interop being easy. Everyone (except N.R.) was on VHF, and it was simply a matter of having the other departments programmed in. Most still are on VHF, and they have no problem when they use their radios correctly. It's when they don't, or have a bad radio that they don't send out for repair, that they have problems.
When we are told by MARCS officials that they do not allow patches, and any radio that is found to be patching will be turned off, I take them at their word. Because they have done it.
A little bit more about TOW and radio caches available with MARCS: