Maryland FIRST 700mhz TRS

[LordDonkey]

Notes:

13596 - MSP RIDs, RID 2124582 uses syscom 7640 TG

I occasionally hear some Washington County traffic over 7640. Most of the time it doesn't show a source radio ID and sounds like it's patched from VHF. I have 2124682 aliased as Trooper 3.

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Incidentally, any RID that starts with 8-million is a Pennsylvania radio operating on MD-FiRST. The second and third digit of the RID correspond with the county code for the PA county where that radio "lives". 56 is the county code for Somerset County, so any RIDs in the 8560000 range are ours.

Ahh, thanks for the info! The 8650015 RID was used today for a call in Garrett County, I believe it was Somerset 613. I'll have to update my alias list and call that RID "Somerset Patch" or something.
I previously logged another RID of 7190414 on FiRST, it was denied affiliation. I didn't write down the time/date of it unfortunately.

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End note: Lots of traffic from TG 8385. Seems to be mainly the Deep Creek Lake area parks but they also talk about other things like the fire tower and Sang Run. I have it aliased as Garrett DNR Parks, I don't know what else to call it, I would submit it to the RR database if I knew what to actually name it!

 

[u2brent]

Fort Frederick State Park Ops TG 8383
Deep Creek Lake State Park Ops TG 8385

 

[tfranklinh]

Hello, all. Fairly new to the conversation, but I've been getting what seem to be air reports on protestor movements on FiRST - ID 7101 - MSP. (770.9437) But it displays as a Wildcard on my WS-1040. Not a whole lot of traffic, but occasionally requested reports. Going to check the listings to see if that ID was updated recently. However not sure how to identify it if it's listing hasn't been updated. Any help would be great!

Update: It's: Police - Fort McHenry Tunnel/Harbor Tunnel Apparently there are protestors moving through that area at this time. 22:23 02 June 2020.

 

[BM82557]

Noticed a RID of 163006 on TG 11814 (Allegany County Fire Main) at 8:57 this morning. Checking my logs 163xxx RIDs have been copied on the WV SIRN system.

 

[motorcoachdoug]

Hi
If i may ask what software is everyone using? I got the hardware yesterday and now i want to set up here in Monkey County to see if i can find receive anything on the MD 1st system. I might attach my yagi antenna to one of the antenna ports on my unit and aim it at the howard tower as well.

 

[Mr_Boh]

Unitrunker mostly. I think it's easiest to get going and I can have it on a laptop in my vehicle. What you pick up on FiRST really depends on what site you are picking up. Since "Silver Spring" could mean anywhere from DC line to pretty much the Howard line in Burtonsville you are probably going to to be able to pick up Howard, Anne Arundel (I can pick it up near Forrest Glen), and others. A couple of the Frederick and Washington sites seem to boom into Montgomery for whatever reason as well.

 

[motorcoachdoug]

I am located by Conn ave and Bel Pre Rd here in Aspen Hill buy the south leisure world gate.

 

[Mr_Boh]

Yeah definitely see if you can pull Anne Arundel as well. It seems to boom. You might have trouble with some of the Frederick/Washington sites, but you might as well see if you can pull them.

If you can get familiar with it, SDR# before you open Unitrunker is helpful since you can visualize how well the signal is coming in. Not sure what radio you are using, but if you are planning on an SDR dongle, I highly recommend putting an FM broadcast filter on it. Made a world of difference for me.

 

[maus92]

Unitrunker mostly. I think it's easiest to get going and I can have it on a laptop in my vehicle. What you pick up on FiRST really depends on what site you are picking up. Since "Silver Spring" could mean anywhere from DC line to pretty much the Howard line in Burtonsville you are probably going to to be able to pick up Howard, Anne Arundel (I can pick it up near Forrest Glen), and others. A couple of the Frederick and Washington sites seem to boom into Montgomery for whatever reason as well. voice.

I use Unitrunker 2, but if MC Doug wants to hear FIRST, he will need something like DSD+ Fastlane - UT does not do Phase 2 voice.

Technical question: How does an FM broadcast filter help in receiving 700/800 band signals?

Agree with using SDR# to find usable control channels.

 

[Mr_Boh]

Yes good point - for audio yes - or use Unitrunker to pipe it to DSD+.

 

[LordDonkey]

I'm gonna take a wag and say Garrett is using their new consoles now. I'm hearing dispatching over digital Fire EMS Main and ambulances are using EMS 1 Countywide instead of Fire Tac 1. Also most of it comes from the 243900x RIDs instead of the 212747x RIDs. Might be just a test run to see how everything is working. The timeline was June to mid-July. Supposedly they are also getting new flooring and furniture in the 911 center too. The local County Roads and Water department have talkgroups on FiRST. None are active yet. I have contacts in the county roads, I'll have to ask if they know anything.

 

[maus92]

I'm gonna take a wag and say Garrett is using their new consoles now. I'm hearing dispatching over digital Fire EMS Main and ambulances are using EMS 1 Countywide instead of Fire Tac 1. Also most of it comes from the 243900x RIDs instead of the 212747x RIDs. Might be just a test run to see how everything is working. The timeline was June to mid-July. Supposedly they are also getting new flooring and furniture in the 911 center too. The local County Roads and Water department have talkgroups on FiRST. None are active yet. I have contacts in the county roads, I'll have to ask if they know anything.

I'd imagine that it will be difficult to get grant money to pay for public works radio equipment. But the FIRST system is old enough now that some agencies will be getting new subscribers, so maybe there can be an effort to distribute those radios at low / no cost.

 

[LordDonkey]

They might buy second-hand radios. The County must plan on getting radio from someone/somewhere. They have allocated talkgroups for Garrett County Roads/Water, Garrett Transit, and the Board of Ed/Schools. In the WPTZ805 license, it shows a Garrett ASR (Water Authority) with a CC at 770.45625 MHz. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens, and see what money they allocate for the next fiscal year.

 

[maus92]

They might buy second-hand radios. The County must plan on getting radio from someone/somewhere. They have allocated talkgroups for Garrett County Roads/Water, Garrett Transit, and the Board of Ed/Schools. In the WPTZ805 license, it shows a Garrett ASR (Water Authority) with a CC at 770.45625 MHz. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens, and see what money they allocate for the next fiscal year.

View attachment 86095

This data is for Table Rock ASR. WPTZ805 is the state license for FIRST. There is a water tank on the property, so likely that is why "Water Authority" is referenced.

 

[gesucks]

I'd imagine that it will be difficult to get grant money to pay for public works radio equipment. But the FIRST system is old enough now that some agencies will be getting new subscribers, so maybe there can be an effort to distribute those radios at low / no cost.

With the way they get snow in Garrett, I can see the need for public works plows to have radios in a grant that would be approved

 

[maus92]

With the way they get snow in Garrett, I can see the need for public works plows to have radios in a grant that would be approved

Not sure what agency provides grants for public works departments. DHS and DOJ does it for FDs and LEOs; does DOT provide grants for radios? Maybe they do, but it's not common. Something to look into.

 

[R8000]

Not sure what agency provides grants for public works departments. DHS and DOJ does it for FDs and LEOs; does DOT provide grants for radios? Maybe they do, but it's not common. Something to look into.

Maybe a DOT grant from the feds ? Since US 219, US 40 and US 50 run through there, maybe they can qualify for something.

 

[maus92]

Maybe a DOT grant from the feds ? Since US 219, US 40 and US 50 run through there, maybe they can qualify for something.

I was looking through DOTs grants briefly; it seems there is money for broadband / FirstNET, traffic radio, fiber in the right of way, but not vehicle LM radios. The grants still might exist, I just didn't see them listed.

 

[LordDonkey]

Not sure if they would qualify for those since the Garrett County Roads Department only has jurisdiction on county roads. They don't work on US or state routes.

Side note: One of the two-tone pages is wrong for Friendsville Co 110. 346.75 330.5 is coming through on SDRTrunk as just 346.75. The tones are correct on VHF. Maybe the encoder doesn't support that frequency and rounds to the nearest one, which would be 346.75? Does anyone monitor/record 12601 Fire/EMS Main and can confirm it's the same on a regular scanner? The call was at 06:47 6/5/20.

 

[EMT1301]

I'm gonna take a wag and say Garrett is using their new consoles now. I'm hearing dispatching over digital Fire EMS Main and ambulances are using EMS 1 Countywide instead of Fire Tac 1. Also most of it comes from the 243900x RIDs instead of the 212747x RIDs. Might be just a test run to see how everything is working. The timeline was June to mid-July. Supposedly they are also getting new flooring and furniture in the 911 center too. The local County Roads and Water department have talkgroups on FiRST. None are active yet. I have contacts in the county roads, I'll have to ask if they know anything.

Garrett County went live on MD-FiRST Thursday 6/4. We had a mutual aid incident with them (a vehicle fire on Interstate 68) and had the opportunity to "officially" use our patch to their site. RID 8560015 is a consolette in our 911 center if that helps you decide on an alias you want to assign to it.