Maryland FIRST 700mhz TRS

motorcoachdoug

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That is quite a jump across the Chesapeake Bay for the SO MD Testing over to Talbot County. Can the site in Talbot or St Marys make that jump across the bay? Also if they are going to do sw calling then it could have to be on TG that get sw use as well. Any more info on that? Thanks for that major report as I for one , find it very interesting ..
 

maus92

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That is quite a jump across the Chesapeake Bay for the SO MD Testing over to Talbot County. Can the site in Talbot or St Marys make that jump across the bay? Also if they are going to do sw calling then it could have to be on TG that get sw use as well. Any more info on that? Thanks for that major report as I for one , find it very interesting ..
Sure they can - that's the job of the backhaul network. A user in St. Mary's would initiate a call from his radio, his RF carrying his voice data packets enters the network via the nearest subsite tower, then the data are routed via the backhaul network to any site that has a subscriber using the same talk group affiliated with it. No "jumping across the bay" at least with RF. The talk group would need to be provisioned statewide. I assume they would use MD CALL or an MD Event talk group - you'll have to listen once the demo is announced.
 

maus92

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for some reason my Uniden BCD436HP was not showing the correct TG as in the database it just showed the TG number.
When was the last time you updated the radio's database, or edited the Favorites list with new talkgroups and labels? If you are using ID Search with outdated database / Favorites lists entries, you will only see the talk group number.
 

ThePhotoGuy

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O'Malley and Hogan both did these "ceremonial" radio calls. During Hogan's they used MD Tac 1. As @maus92 said it will probably be one of the statewide tac's, MD-Call, or even the Admin talkgroups.

Previously the ceremonial radio calls last less than a minute.
 

ThePhotoGuy

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When these ASR's are absorbed into the county cells, what happens to those frequencies? Does the state still retain these frequencies to use at other cells/ASR's (with approval from the FCC) or do they just "go back" to the FCC for other agencies to apply to use them?
 

maus92

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When these ASR's are absorbed into the county cells, what happens to those frequencies? Does the state still retain these frequencies to use at other cells/ASR's (with approval from the FCC) or do they just "go back" to the FCC for other agencies to apply to use them?
I had this conversation with one of the FIRST engineers after the meeting. The state pool channels can be freely reassigned under the WPTZ805 license with approval of the RPCs. The general pool frequencies would need to be re-coordinated with the RPCs and relicensed with the FCC.
 

ssinglet

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When was the last time you updated the radio's database, or edited the Favorites list with new talkgroups and labels? If you are using ID Search with outdated database / Favorites lists entries, you will only see the talk group number.
2 weeks ago, i need to re eval the fav list on the scanner.
 

Chris52

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for some reason my Uniden BCD436HP was not showing the correct TG as in the database it just showed the TG number.
I’m hearing the same activity on the Montgomery County Simulcast site, I quickly locked them out. They are worse with using the radio then Chart in my opinion. We shall see what else may pop up.
 

ThePhotoGuy

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I had this conversation with one of the FIRST engineers after the meeting. The state pool channels can be freely reassigned under the WPTZ805 license with approval of the RPCs. The general pool frequencies would need to be re-coordinated with the RPCs and relicensed with the FCC.

Interesting, thanks!
 

ThePhotoGuy

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14230 was active on Baltimore Site today. Forest Service conducting burns. No locations announced. Possibly Forestry Central Ops?
 

Chris52

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I’ve been monitoring MD Call for a while now and I’m curious if anyone has ever heard anything on it ? I assume this is a statewide TG (or maybe I’m wrong). I would also assume that this TG would be monitored by all EOC’s for interoperability purposes. Example - Engine 11 from St. Marys County is being taking to a shop in Jessup for repairs, they come up on a wreck on Rt.175, go to that TG to call AA County to tell them.

I’ll take it a step further, seeing they use Harris BUT have all of the Maryland First stuff in their radios I would think that they could be told to go to say MD Tac 1,2,3 ect to be patched in with the other jurisdiction.

I asked a dispatcher in another jurisdiction about this and I was looked at like I had 3 heads not to mention they had no clue what the Maryland First System even was. Kind of understandable due to her only knowing and using their own county system but this tells me it isn’t monitored.

If I’m wrong by any of this please don’t be afraid to call me a dummy lol
 
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maus92

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Yes, MD Call is a statewide talk group, and no, it is not monitored by all EOCs. Localities primarily use MD Call to coordinate the use of other FIRST resources, aka the MD Tac channels - and even then, the use would probably be pre-arranged by telephone. Localities that have their own radio systems tend to use their own channel resources or might have agreements in place to use neighboring resources. As for your example about a STMC unit travelling through Jessup, it would probably be best to use a mobile phone and dial 911 (unless they had an Anne Arundel County zone programmed in their radios.) Trying to coordinate through the DEM EOC / MJOC might introduce unnecessary delays.
 

motorcoachdoug

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I am running Unitrunker and sites 05-001 Montgomery and sites 05-002 PG are letting a TON of Mobility Link 600 channel running on the system this morning. Time now is 0814 and it is TG 8367 and 8367 on both plus 8311 is showing on site 05-001
 

maus92

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FIRST managers planned to load up the system prior to the official go live date. Using MTA talk groups mitigates the risk as they are not directly responsible for public safety. Watch for when UMD College Park starts to use the FIRST system vs. the PG County system.
 

motorcoachdoug

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It will be interesting have site 005-01 in my back yard so to speak. I am only 1 airmile if that much from the location so when it does go live, I might be running my unitrunker for a full week just to see what is affiliating to that site. You can see it from the ICC aka Rt 200 at the Georgia Ave traffic light at the top of the ramp. Will have to put in the Ann Arundel frequencies besides PG , when running a different dongle besides airspy on Unitrunker
 

maus92

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You have a subsite nearby, but you live within the coverage area of simulcast site 05-001 which covers the entire county with 5 or 6 additional subsites and the prime site. On a good day - and depending on the quality of your radio and antenna system - you will probably receive the Howard, Prince Georges and Anne Arundel simulcast sites as physical subsite spacing is one of the redundancies built into the FIRST system.
 

maus92

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Nothing has changed - still April 19. That doesn't mean that all users will magically switch over that day as onboarding has historically been handled at the agency level, and some agencies may not have deployed / purchased all the necessary equipment (aka subscribers.)
 
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