MARCS radio Clark County springfield PD

[santafe2016]

They are having radio problems with PD and they are using a backup, Dispatch has notified that car radios will not work yet portable do. What is the backup and how does it work. Also Im not hearing anything on MARCS from OSP Or Clark County, so is it a Control Channel issue, should I use the second CC to monitor or would it be down too?

 

[wa8pyr]

They are having radio problems with PD and they are using a backup, Dispatch has notified that car radios will not work yet portable do. What is the backup and how does it work. Also Im not hearing anything on MARCS from OSP Or Clark County, so is it a Control Channel issue, should I use the second CC to monitor or would it be down too?

You should already have both control channels for every site within range programmed; the radio will automatically find the active control channel(s). If the site is down completely there will be no control channels to find; the fact that portables are working but not mobiles is highly unusual, but it indicates that a site within range is at least functioning somewhat.

The backup is whatever SPD has decided it should be (if they even bothered); generally each agency is responsible for ensuring their own continuity of communications in the event of a system crash. MARCS does not provide backup systems other than the TOW sites, which take several hours to show up and and get running if they're requested.

Prime example of why one should not place all the eggs in one basket. A failure may never occur, but relying solely on MARCS without at least planning for what to do in case of a system failure is a recipe for disaster.

 

[santafe2016]

Thanks for the answer Tom Clark has two towers, one nearly downtown the other north end of county and I had both of them in but just lately dropped one to have the closest to me by line of sight as the control channel, so and pardon if it sounds dumb but can I put Miami County CC channel in when Bethel Clark calls for Mutual aid ?? Champaign pulls their stuff off Clark northridge tower. Police was coming in but garbled so Im thinking Clark was gone completely.