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

[wa8pyr]

I have been hearing two fire paging TGs on the Greene County site, both with automated dispatch using RID 2991764:

20079 - Beavercreek FD?
20211 - Wright-Patterson AFB FD

I submitted the latter, but I'm not sure about 20079. I have only heard it dispatching Beavercreek units, but they already have a dispatch talkgroup. Any ideas?

Most agencies have separate talkgroups for "dispatch" and fire alerting; "dispatch" is monitored by everybody all the time, while the fire station alerting talkgroup only alerts a specific fire station (and no one has access to it other than the dispatch center).

 

[jsoergel]

20214 in use today during an exercise at the Air Force museum. Was referred to as "Tac 1" for communication between the emergency response command and mutual aid medics.

 

[al_35]

New talkgroup now in use for auglaize county. 7502. hearing ems unit transporting to local hospital

 

[jsoergel]

New talkgroup now in use for auglaize county. 7502. hearing ems unit transporting to local hospital

Added to the Wiki. BCFY had Medic 8 as the unit transporting.

 

[jsoergel]

Heard a CFD Bomb Squad unit today say “switch to EOD 2.” I didn’t pick anything up, so it may be encrypted. EOD 1 is usually in the clear.

 

[jsoergel]

60709 off the Columbus MARCS site today, Medic 1/Medic 2 training, simulating dispatcher and hospital staff. RIDs 2590861, 2590962, 2590964. Heard it earlier this week as well.

 

[tswansiger]

Heard a CFD Bomb Squad unit today say “switch to EOD 2.” I didn’t pick anything up, so it may be encrypted. EOD 1 is usually in the clear.

Are communities that encrypt radio transmissions charged more money for that service?

 

[wa8pyr]

Are communities that encrypt radio transmissions charged more money for that service?

Not by the system. Depending on which flavor of encryption they want to use, an agency might have to cough up more money for that feature in their radios.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Anyone here happen to know from memory what channel TGID 33000 is? I'm kind of busy right now so I don't have much of a chance yet to look through the whole chart, but it seems to be patched to FD84DISP right now. And @jsoergel , if you could please add TGID 49019 to the wiki as a Washington County fire talkgroup. Radio IDs match (8490xxx), I recognized the dispatcher's voice and it's in that TGID number range. They're extremely busy right now with multiple trees and power lines down, some of which have started small brush fires.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

I think MARCS failed for a few minutes here. About 2 hours ago, a unit on FD84BEEB said that it should be back on the air, and right after that, Cambridge on POST84 said MARCS was working again, but that the whole district was down. It couldn't have been for long though, because I was hearing them maybe just 5-10 minutes before that.

 

[jsoergel]

Anyone here happen to know from memory what channel TGID 33000 is? I'm kind of busy right now so I don't have much of a chance yet to look through the whole chart, but it seems to be patched to FD84DISP right now. And @jsoergel , if you could please add TGID 49019 to the wiki as a Washington County fire talkgroup. Radio IDs match (8490xxx), I recognized the dispatcher's voice and it's in that TGID number range. They're extremely busy right now with multiple trees and power lines down, some of which have started small brush fires.

33000 is Meigs Co. EMS Dispatch - must be mutual aid. 49019 added to the Wiki.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

33000 is Meigs Co. EMS Dispatch - must be mutual aid. 49019 added to the Wiki.

Thank you! 🙂

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Which channel is TGID 53588?

Edit: I just checked the whole chart and didn't see it, so unless it's there and I missed it, I guess it's an unknown. The radio IDs were in the same range as Washington County (8490xxx) and it sounded like a Public Works channel. They were talking about utility poles, probably fixing all the ones that were damaged yesterday from the wind storm.

 

[redbeard]

I think MARCS failed for a few minutes here. About 2 hours ago, a unit on FD84BEEB said that it should be back on the air, and right after that, Cambridge on POST84 said MARCS was working again, but that the whole district was down. It couldn't have been for long though, because I was hearing them maybe just 5-10 minutes before that.

There was an issue of some kind affecting the zone 3 controller and/or it's network access. My county hosts it and was in site trunking for some time yesterday during the storms. I heard something about a generator running all night, as well as the fact that the 911 center lost all phone access and was on portable radios. Belmont County took over as 911 PSAP for a while and relayed calls via patch to Jefferson.

 

[redbeard]

There was an issue of some kind affecting the zone 3 controller and/or it's network access. My county hosts it and was in site trunking for some time yesterday during the storms. I heard something about a generator running all night, as well as the fact that the 911 center lost all phone access and was on portable radios. Belmont County took over as 911 PSAP for a while and relayed calls via patch to Jefferson.

The same time it went down, we received a Comcast text message alerting to trouble in the area. Internet access was restored in minutes however. So they must have been able to re-route whereas the county network was in the dark for an extended time. I thought maybe a tree came down on a fiber line but I haven't heard anything else as to the root cause.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

The same time it went down, we received a Comcast text message alerting to trouble in the area. Internet access was restored in minutes however. So they must have been able to re-route whereas the county network was in the dark for an extended time. I thought maybe a tree came down on a fiber line but I haven't heard anything else as to the root cause.

What happens when MARCS fails, does it go into a different mode or does it shut down completely and the agencies have to use their analog systems (for those that still have them)?

 

[wa8pyr]

What happens when MARCS fails, does it go into a different mode or does it shut down completely and the agencies have to use their analog systems (for those that still have them)?

There are multiple layers of backup.

If the master site (the overall system controller) fails, or the links between the master site and zone controllers fail, the zone controllers take over controlling their respective zones; the only thing that's lost is roaming between zones.

If the zone controller fails (or the links to the sites fail), each site goes into site trunking and acts as its own controller. If one site goes into site trunking, all the radios on that site move to one that's in wide-area mode. If multiple sites (or the whole system) go into site trunking you've got a problem; when your users are scattered among several sites and they all go into site trunking, users may not be able to communicate with each other because they're spread out among various, suddenly-disconnected sites.

If the site controller fails, the site goes into failsoft, where each frequency at the site becomes a conventional repeater, and specific talkgroups are assigned to specific frequencies. On a system like MARCS, failsoft really only works if talkgroups use a single site and do not roam; otherwise talkgroups wouldn't be able to find their assigned failsoft frequencies if they're not on the correct site.

While MARCS is a highly reliable system, it's important for agencies to have some sort of backup available, in the event of the worst-case scenario (complete system failure).

 

[JethrowJohnson]

There are multiple layers of backup.

If the master site (the overall system controller) fails, or the links between the master site and zone controllers fail, the zone controllers take over controlling their respective zones; the only thing that's lost is roaming between zones.

If the zone controller fails (or the links to the sites fail), each site goes into site trunking and acts as its own controller. If one site goes into site trunking, all the radios on that site move to one that's in wide-area mode. If multiple sites (or the whole system) go into site trunking you've got a problem; when your users are scattered among several sites and they all go into site trunking, users may not be able to communicate with each other because they're spread out among various, suddenly-disconnected sites.

If the site controller fails, the site goes into failsoft, where each frequency at the site becomes a conventional repeater, and specific talkgroups are assigned to specific frequencies. On a system like MARCS, failsoft really only works if talkgroups use a single site and do not roam; otherwise talkgroups wouldn't be able to find their assigned failsoft frequencies if they're not on the correct site.

While MARCS is a highly reliable system, it's important for agencies to have some sort of backup available, in the event of the worst-case scenario (complete system failure).

Okay. That's why I like when agencies keep their old systems as a backup just in case. Thank you. 🙂👍

 

[JethrowJohnson]

I'm hearing TGID 53588 again. Radio IDs are 8490461 and 8490525 and 8490460 and 8490242. I also heard Chesterhille Fire say they were switching to MA 1, but I haven't seen a possible unknown TGID for it yet. They're on a mutual aid run to Beverly for multiple brush fires started by sparks from a train.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Radio ID 8490245 also heard on TGID 53588.