Maryland FIRST 700mhz TRS

[ThePhotoGuy]

FiRST was pretty active (mostly encrypted) for the Inauguration.

MD Tac 1 (minimal activity)
MD Tac 7 (Mostly MCP Units)
MD Tac 8 (MSP) (ENC)
MD Tac 15 (MSP) (ENC)
MD Law Tac 7 (ENC)
MD Law Tac 10 (Radio id's looked to be MSP Motor Units) (ENC)
MD Law Tac 15 (MSP) (ENC)
8344 - Active with MTA Buses Assisting with Transportation around the event
MDEM MJOC
8236 Nat Guard (related?) (ENC)


Noticed various 11424xx radio id's logging on to various interop talkgroups (MD Tac's/Law Tac's). Unknown if it was related to the inauguration or who these users are. First time seeing this radio id range.

 

[maus92]

Anne Arundel MIKE is also in use for the event might be the MCP. Seems to be some concern about an unattended bag.

EDIT:

Some of the fire units on the detail are talking about returning "MSP portables" that they were apparently issued. Perhaps they don't have the encypted MD Law Tacs programmed into the county radios. So much for interoperability.

 

[maus92]

Other than the security bureaucracy's incessant desire to overly-classify, I'm curious why they didn't use any MD-Event talk groups?

 

[empire550]

Anne Arundel MIKE is also in use for the event might be the MCP. Seems to be some concern about an unattended bag.

EDIT:

Some of the fire units on the detail are talking about returning "MSP portables" that they were apparently issued. Perhaps they don't have the encypted MD Law Tacs programmed into the county radios. So much for interoperability.

Fire operations were on Mike.

The fire department doesn't have the Encrypted law in their radios. That is why there is the MD call and MD Event zones. I don't know why MSP was using the law zone for command of this event.

 

[maus92]

Fire operations were on Mike.

The fire department doesn't have the Encrypted law in their radios. That is why there is the MD call and MD Event zones. I don't know why MSP was using the law zone for command of this event.

I would foist the idea that the state's comms plan for the inauguration was flawed - the concept for FIRST was to negate the need to carry multiple radios. This is not the county's problem.

 

[riveter]

As with so many things, variants of Hanlon's razor are ever truer than can be convinced.

 

[tvengr]

It appears that all Maryland Transit Administration traffic is now on the FIRST system. There is no longer a control channel present for the UHF T-Band Motorola Type II Smartnet system. It is safe to say that the old system is deprecated.

 

[Dispatcher308]

It appears that all Maryland Transit Administration traffic is now on the FIRST system. There is no longer a control channel present for the UHF T-Band Motorola Type II Smartnet system. It is safe to say that the old system is deprecated.

I noticed this as well and I have been by their Prime Site and I have received nothing from the system.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

Maryland Transit Administration has become a large user on FiRST especially on the Anne Arundel & Baltimore Metro Sites. So far, I have logged ~2,800 radios on Unitrunker for MTA. It seems that they are still constantly adding more radios every week. I have also logged ~70 talkgroups for MTA.

It seems that either there are too many MTA talkgroups, lack of radio discipline, or lack of radio training. On a lot of these "unknown" talkgroups users will constantly switch over, call for "control" and receive no response. I have noticed some users will stay on the talkgroup for hours and call for "Control" every so often and get no response.

 

[maus92]

Maryland Transit Administration has become a large user on FiRST especially on the Anne Arundel & Baltimore Metro Sites. So far, I have logged ~2,800 radios on Unitrunker for MTA. It seems that they are still constantly adding more radios every week. I have also logged ~70 talkgroups for MTA.

It seems that either there are too many MTA talkgroups, lack of radio discipline, or lack of radio training. On a lot of these "unknown" talkgroups users will constantly switch over, call for "control" and receive no response. I have noticed some users will stay on the talkgroup for hours and call for "Control" every so often and get no response.

Not surprising at all as I doubt that adequate training is provided to personnel for numerous reasons. Listening to MTA is so painful (and SHA for that matter,) I disabled all voice on MTA and SHA talk groups. I just log the data. Per earlier posts, MTA is another agency that is probably over-provisioned in terms of talk groups.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

Not surprising at all as I doubt that adequate training is provided to personnel for numerous reasons. Listening to MTA is so painful (and SHA for that matter,) I disabled all voice on MTA and SHA talk groups. I just log the data. Per earlier posts, MTA is another agency that is probably over-provisioned in terms of talk groups.

I normally have all the MTA talkgroups locked out but every few months, I enable them again to try to figure out what the talkgroups are but then usually lock them out again since its hard to determine a true talkgroup name for a lot of the none main talkgroups.

 

[tvengr]

MTA is another agency that is probably over-provisioned in terms of talk groups.

I am a firm believer of KISS (Keep it simple stupid). I am impressed by the simplicity of Baltimore City Fire on the city trunked system. However, Baltimore County Fire went absolutely berserk with the number of talkgroups. There is no need for that kind of extravagance.

 

[ezdropper]

There are 12 tower sites throughout the state for 44.74 (HeliOps), it is patched to the Syscom Talkgroup on the MD First System, which also also patched to 7Air60 which the last I knew was off of only the Baltimore and Salisbury Sites, but there are multiple sites planned.

There are 10 tower sites throughout the state for 47.66 (HeliMed) I am not sure if it is patched to anything, yes they do have a talkgroup on the MDFirst system and at some point it will also be patched to 7Air67 with multiple sites.

Used to hear Trooper on 44.74 all the time, but not anymore. Strange, because I still get them in very good on 47.66.

I rarely hear them on the FIRST system, probably just my location. Speaking of which, is PG County ever going to start using their antenna sites?

 

[maus92]

I've had a radio set to record 44.74, 47.66 and the 700 MHz A-G conventional channels for the past few weeks - nothing. This is from the Annapolis area. I have heard SYSCOM on the FIRST system however, although the mobile (aircraft) voice quality is generally poor. Strangely, the MSP helicopters are more intelligible when using AACo's 800 system analog talk groups.

 

[Dispatcher308]

I've had a radio set to record 44.74, 47.66 and the 700 MHz A-G conventional channels for the past few weeks - nothing. This is from the Annapolis area. I have heard SYSCOM on the FIRST system however, although the mobile (aircraft) voice quality is generally poor. Strangely, the MSP helicopters are more intelligible when using AACo's 800 system analog talk groups.

All,

You have to understand, the system is voted, it is not simulcast, so if a Helicopter keys up in Frostburg, those tower sites out there will pick it up and SYSCOM will transmit back on those sites, so if there is no traffic in this area you will not here it. Also the past few days it has been raining or dreary and the ceiling level is low, are we sure the helicopters are even flying?

Who knows maybe they are having problems with the voter not voting a site near you and they are voting another site that the helicopter can hear at almost any elevation, we all know how radio can be, its there one moment and gone the next, it can be a fickle bi**h.

On my 6 meter antenna at home, I am still able to hear traffic on 44.74 PL 110.9 with no issues.

Nate

 

[maus92]

All,

You have to understand, the system is voted, it is not simulcast, so if a Helicopter keys up in Frostburg, those tower sites out there will pick it up and SYSCOM will transmit back on those sites, so if there is no traffic in this area you will not here it. Also the past few days it has been raining or dreary and the ceiling level is low, are we sure the helicopters are even flying?

Who knows maybe they are having problems with the voter not voting a site near you and they are voting another site that the helicopter can hear at almost any elevation, we all know how radio can be, its there one moment and gone the next, it can be a fickle bi**h.

On my 6 meter antenna at home, I am still able to hear traffic on 44.74 PL 110.9 with no issues.

Nate

I understand that the system is voted - I was just providing a data point as to my receiving location. I'm more curious how they decide whether to use the VHF or the FIRST system; I'd imagine that they have done some testing to determine what works best in each geographic region. I have heard VHF in use from the Annapolis area, but it's much more common to hear SYSCOM over FIRST in this area.

 

[Dispatcher308]

I understand that the system is voted - I was just providing a data point as to my receiving location. I'm more curious how they decide whether to use the VHF or the FIRST system; I'd imagine that they have done some testing to determine what works best in each geographic region. I have heard VHF in use from the Annapolis area, but it's much more common to hear SYSCOM over FIRST in this area.

Everything is patched on the console, there is no guess work. The end user can chose whatever they want to talk on and the dispatchers have all patched so it is seamless to them.

Nate

 

[BM82557]

Had TG 7979 on site 1.17 this morning, 216xxxx radio id. I've had other 216xxxx radio ids on TG 7999 in the past so i am guessing 7979 is another MTA TG

 

[maus92]

Had TG 7979 on site 1.17 this morning, 216xxxx radio id. I've had other 216xxxx radio ids on TG 7999 in the past so i am guessing 7979 is another MTA TG

My guess it has something to do with MARC or commuter bus operations / security.

 

[Dispatcher308]

I am a firm believer of KISS (Keep it simple stupid). I am impressed by the simplicity of Baltimore City Fire on the city trunked system. However, Baltimore County Fire went absolutely berserk with the number of talkgroups. There is no need for that kind of extravagance.

You get a channel and you get a channel and you get a channel!