MARCS-IP ("New MARCS") Site and Talkgroup Discussion

[mtindor]

I just checked Columbus City, Columbus MARCS and Pickaway County; none are broadcasting OTA aliases.... unfortunately. Sure would be handy.

That is a bummer. Clearly only certain agencies in very particular counties have signed on to that. Guess part of it would be the $120 or so cost for that feature per radio. I've scoured sites in Belmont, Jefferson, Harrison, Carroll, Columbiana and Tuscarawas and nothing. I know that some aliases were collected by somebody monitoring one or more sites over in Zone 4, but I don't know which ones or which agencies they were.

 

[gtaman]

I believe Warren County is starting to test OTA soon.

It’s not going to be beneficial for fed radios as most are named FED94XXXXX from what I saw.

 

[wa8pyr]

I believe Warren County is starting to test OTA soon.

It’s not going to be beneficial for fed radios as most are named FED94XXXXX from what I saw.

If OTA uses what's in Provisioning Manager (the system database), it won't be too beneficial in general; all that shows is a basic entity name and radio ID, like your example. For it to be really beneficial to customers, IDs would have to be individually edited; on top of that, customer agencies would have to have that feature in their radios.

The Tier partners (those who manage their own radios and have access to Provisioning Manager) might be a bit better as many take the time to put in decent names before importing radios into PM.

I don't expect OTA to be too widespread, but time will tell.

 

[gtaman]

If OTA uses what's in Provisioning Manager (the system database), it won't be too beneficial in general; all that shows is a basic entity name and radio ID, like your example. For it to be really beneficial to customers, IDs would have to be individually edited; on top of that, customer agencies would have to have that feature in their radios.

The Tier partners (those who manage their own radios and have access to Provisioning Manager) might be a bit better as many take the time to put in decent names before importing radios into PM.

I don't expect OTA to be too widespread, but time will tell.

Time will tell.

I would say they would most likely use what’s in PM.

I have seen some good and bad ones. From FireXXX to KEN.

It is going to depend on the county as you said.

And an extra feature? Yeah a lot of agencies won’t even pay for multikey so I doubt OTA is on the table.

 

[WX4JCW]

Time will tell.

I would say they would most likely use what’s in PM.

I have seen some good and bad ones. From FireXXX to KEN.

It is going to depend on the county as you said.

And an extra feature? Yeah a lot of agencies won’t even pay for multikey so I doubt OTA is on the table.

Summit county is definitely embracing it with pretty logical Aliases

Example:

ST FD M SQUAD1

 

[WX4JCW]

Current OTA Alias Stats
3 Pending Decode, 2077 Decded

 

[WX4JCW]

also this is the station alerting system most agencies in Summit are upgrading to, Stow, CF, Fairlawn, etc

Fire Station Alerting for Firefighters and First Responders | Bryx

Bryx Mobile and Bryx Fire Station Alerting are fully integrated and designed to aid in emergency response.

bryx.com

 

[wd8chl]

Since when is over-the-air alias a part of the P25 standard? As of not long ago, it wasn't, and I haven't seen anything to indicate it would be added.
I'm on a P25 list that has (had at least) people from the standards group running it. If something like that was being added, I would have expected it to be mentioned there...idk...weird.

 

[mtindor]

Since when is over-the-air alias a part of the P25 standard? As of not long ago, it wasn't, and I haven't seen anything to indicate it would be added.
I'm on a P25 list that has (had at least) people from the standards group running it. If something like that was being added, I would have expected it to be mentioned there...idk...weird.

Doesn't have to be a part of the P25 Standard. It can easily be vendor specific. Harris has OTA Aliase support for their P25 systems, so why wouldn't Motorola.

 

[gtaman]

Doesn't have to be a part of the P25 Standard. It can easily be vendor specific. Harris has OTA Aliase support for their P25 systems, so why wouldn't Motorola.

It should be though. It’s crazy talker alias isn’t standard. You think it would with all the time spent designing it.

 

[WX4JCW]

It should be though. It’s crazy talker alias isn’t standard. You think it would with all the time spent designing it.

$$$$

 

[wd8chl]

Doesn't have to be a part of the P25 Standard. It can easily be vendor specific. Harris has OTA Aliase support for their P25 systems, so why wouldn't Motorola.

If it's vendor specific, then it's useless. OTA in DMR isn't vendor specific...

 

[mtindor]

If it's vendor specific, then it's useless. OTA in DMR isn't vendor specific...

I don't know if OTA in DMR is vendor specific or not. But I don't believe you are really in a position where you can guarantee that it isn't vendor specific. Again, Motorola loves to do their own thing, veering from the standard. Selex/Leonardo does their own thing, veering from the standard. And I'm sure other DMR manufacturers do too.

So even if there was OTA in the P25 standard (and I have no idea if there is or not and can only go by what you and/or other says), that doesn't mean that Motorola, Harris, etc do not implement their own methods that veer from the standard.

When you get to the big guys, it seems like they all clearly offer vanilla P25 or DMR compatibility, but then also implement plenty of extra features and stuff on top of the standard which are proprietary to the vendor.

 

[N8WCP]

"When you get to the big guys, it seems like they all clearly offer vanilla P25 or DMR compatibility, but then also implement plenty of extra features and stuff on top of the standard which are proprietary to the vendor."

And their radios... OTA in Summit has been active for several years and requires Group Services to display the alias.

 

[wd8chl]

I don't know if OTA in DMR is vendor specific or not. But I don't believe you are really in a position where you can guarantee that it isn't vendor specific. Again, Motorola loves to do their own thing, veering from the standard. Selex/Leonardo does their own thing, veering from the standard. And I'm sure other DMR manufacturers do too.

Actually, yeah, I can, because I've done it, at least between Kenwood, Moto, and HYT. Vertex not so much, but they were basically gone before it was a thing.

 

[WX4JCW]

with Aliases a couple of Ones here

Summa Health PD has a Secondary Channel - 45558
Another Summa Health - 45559
Both are Encrypted
62572 is Encrypted and ALL Akron PD ID's

 

[tadsmith]

I don't know if OTA in DMR is vendor specific or not. But I don't believe you are really in a position where you can guarantee that it isn't vendor specific. Again, Motorola loves to do their own thing, veering from the standard. Selex/Leonardo does their own thing, veering from the standard. And I'm sure other DMR manufacturers do too.

So even if there was OTA in the P25 standard (and I have no idea if there is or not and can only go by what you and/or other says), that doesn't mean that Motorola, Harris, etc do not implement their own methods that veer from the standard.

When you get to the big guys, it seems like they all clearly offer vanilla P25 or DMR compatibility, but then also implement plenty of extra features and stuff on top of the standard which are proprietary to the vendor.

The OTA standard for P25 was recently published for P1 (FDMA). I don't believe TDMA has been released yet. Regardless, Motorola has declined to standardize.

 

[WX4JCW]

The OTA standard for P25 was recently published for P1 (FDMA). I don't believe TDMA has been released yet. Regardless, Motorola has declined to standardize.

why standardize when you can fleece the customer

 

[maus92]

If a customer specs a P25 compliant system, then they will buy from a vendor who follows the standard. A vendor who veers from the standard does so at their own risk, with the caveat that some features are vendor-specific and fall outside of the P25 suite.

 

[WX4JCW]

If a customer specs a P25 compliant system, then they will buy from a vendor who follows the standard. A vendor who veers from the standard does so at their own risk, with the caveat that some features are vendor-specific and fall outside of the P25 suite.

dont forget to add all the background politics, and all the fun stuff in the background