Montgomery Metro Communications Cooperative District ?

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Auburn36801

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I have already gotten an excel spreadsheet ready to document talk groups ID for new Auburn talk groups for Montgomery Metro District.

Here are the unknown talkgroup ID I have gotten so far,
Dec
672
673
660
659
674

Auburn Public Safety have not switched over to their trunk radio system. The nac code could also be 6EB or 460.
I will keep you updated as the time come on when Auburn switch to their trunk system.

Thanks,
Auburn36801
 

Auburn36801

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I heard an officer on Talkgroup ID number 680 asking are you going to training. They said an APD officer name on the scanner.
 

jasonk

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Dayton, OH
Just curious if anyone is running any SDR programs in Montgomery County - I am currently capturing the main simulcast site - and was wondering if some of the other sites in the county carry different radio traffic. Any tips or thoughts appreciated. I dont seem to be capturing any of the sheriff or county fire agencies.
 

morganAL

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Somerville, AL
They are not tied together so there is no roaming between sites. The user could have both systems programmed into their radio and switch between the two.
 

AUGOLD

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Notasulga
Things just seemed odd to me, I am former OPD, my stepfather retired as a captain who was over the radio system. When the City of Auburn brought this Montgomery Metro proposal up I used my 3 minutes of citizen comment time to question why would Auburn spend over 1 million, now over 2 from reliable sources for the Harris system and not go on Opelika's system? I had spoken with a contact at OPD, the City of Opelika offered to build a new tower on the southside of Auburn to close any gaps in coverage, install the base equipment at that tower and with the abundance of potential talk groups Opelika has, every department in Auburn would have their own talk groups, APD and AFD alone could have 10+ channels if they wanted.

The former Director of Public Safety tried to discredit my information when I asked if APD could monitor OPD and vice versa he replied no. he said there would be 1 interoperable channel APD and OPD could communicate on but they would not be able to monitor each other's traffic and the Opelka system cost too much to maintain, Opelika spent 2 Mill a few years ago just on upgrading the system when I replied that is misinformation that was to upgrade to the Alabama First Responders Network not simply a "Motorola upgrade" he looked shocked, what I had to say rang in with the city council, one is retired Chief of Police, Tommy Dawson who I worked with during my time with OPD, the council tabled the vote for the Montgomery Metro proposal. I know for a fact the handhelds Opelika uses can "talk" roughly 20 miles from the tower, I was able to talk from my home in Notasulga to dispatch on my WT.

Montgomery Metro approached Macon County with the same proposal they would install the base unit and the county would have to buy the mobiles, handhelds and upgrade the dispatch consoles and buy a maintenance contract that cost more than the entire budget of the Sheriff's Office. Macon County turned them down with a very stiff NO.

I question the motives, Opelika was going to build out a new tower site, buy part of the radios and add that site to its maintenance contract to no cost to the City of Auburn. An E-911 director told me it boils down to Harris kickbacks in his opinion. Auburn said they chose this option because on the south side of Auburn's jurisdiction officers could not get out on their WTs, for over a million dollars multiple repeaters could have been installed and linked using UHF links like Elmore County links all their repeaters.

At the next council meeting, they were ready for all questions with a rep from the Harris dealer and the item passed, the tower used is the same tower the VHF system is on, no new tower is being built elsewhere. The "official" reason for going with Montgomery Metro is they were told it is impossible for a scanner to pick up their channels, this was told to me in the meeting and was actually in an article in the next day's newspaper. The PD had a huge concern with their channels being broadcast over the internet and they were told by the Harris rep no scanner could monitor a Harris system!
 

chill30240

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The PD had a huge concern with their channels being broadcast over the internet and they were told by the Harris rep no scanner could monitor a Harris system!

I know that's a bunch of crap!!! I monitor Harris systems all day long as if they aren't encrypted. EDACS and EDACS w/ProVoice and P25 so far. That nice Harris rep doesn't know his butt from a hole in the ground. Florida, Kentucky, Iowa. BCD436HP gets them all.
 

AUGOLD

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Notasulga
Only repeating what was told to me directly by the former Director of Public Safety in an open council meeting, I know they can and Chief Dawson knew it, He was the lone councilman to make the motion to table the approval of the bid and purchase. The Harris dealer bought out an old school radio shop in Montgomery in 2013 or 2014 since then Mongomery Metro has grown to surrounding counties and now Lee County. For the life of me, I do not know how Bullock County was able to afford just the radios, Bullock County is one of the poorest counties in Alabama worse than Macon. Union Springs used to operate on State Net 155.0100 until the mid 90's before they got their first repeater.
 

chill30240

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Only repeating what was told to me directly by the former Director of Public Safety in an open council meeting, I know they can and Chief Dawson knew it, He was the lone councilman to make the motion to table the approval of the bid and purchase. The Harris dealer bought out an old school radio shop in Montgomery in 2013 or 2014 since then Mongomery Metro has grown to surrounding counties and now Lee County. For the life of me, I do not know how Bullock County was able to afford just the radios, Bullock County is one of the poorest counties in Alabama worse than Macon. Union Springs used to operate on State Net 155.0100 until the mid 90's before they got their first repeater.


Oh yes I know. . . . nothing against you. I was referencing the "knowledgeable" Harris rep. (LOL). They never cease to amaze me with the smoke and mirror show they but on for unknowing city people in order to make a sale. I'm originally from Opelika and got my first scanner back in 1972 or '74. Back then LCSO, OPD, APD and AUPD were using the county's 154.740 repeater. The fire departments in Opelika and Auburn were different. The one freq that tied them all together was State Net 155.0100. State Troopers had their own also. 5 crystals and I could get everything.
 
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AUGOLD

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Notasulga
I still have a crystal scanner with some of the same freqs esp State Net 155.010 and Notasulga's 158.835 Notasulga got it's repeater in the mid-1980s when the current mayor Tommy Miller was hired as the police and fire chief, he bought the tower and repeater out of his pocket, the tower is laying behind the new 1998 fire station. I am trying to buy it from the town, he is making a surplus list and even though he bought that Rohn tower the records were destroyed in 1997 when the 1989 2 bay fire station and old town hall burned when a college student missed the curve went through the side of the FD and through a brick wall landing on the then police chief's desk and burst into flames.

The dispatcher on duty hit the page button but before the tones went out the power went and the page never went out but the old siren on the tower shorted out and went off for the first time since the mid-'80s and a few of the firemen that lived in town who remembered the siren woke up looked out and saw the flames, the dispatcher had the mind to hit the button to open the bay doors then send the page the power to the doors and repeater cut before the doors made it all the way up and before the long B tone could set off the pagers, one of the firemen lived in an apartment above his cafe downtown ran down the street and got the trucks out, one had to go through a partially open bay door, the truck was bad about not starting without a boost, it had some weird quirks, a 79 Ford with a 460 CID engine, she started right up that night. He got on State Net in the old rescue truck FD-8 that had an old 110 watt 2 channel VHF radio and called for help.

For whatever reason, Tallassee, Auburn, Opelika, Lee County, Tuskegee, Macon County SO and Opelika all heard Notasulga FD-8 call for all available fire units to respond and I have never seen so many departments at a single call since, trucks lined every street in downtown Notasulga, Auburn still had their old 100-foot tiller and Tallassee had just got their first ladder and both of them were up, the entire town could have gone up but that old siren shorted and sounded for about 5 minutes before the flames took out all the power lines, then Notasulga had 2 engines and both had water pumping within minutes. The fire chief did not know what was going on, a patrolman was sent to get him, all the phone lines were down, someone looked for him among all the firemen from a 20-mile radius and they realized he was not there, he gets woken up about 2 hours into this and he though the patrolman was joking until he noticed he had a look on his face like no this is real, the patrolman was known for his jokes but he was not joking that night. Less than a week before the fire chief handed out brand new Minitor 2 pagers to all the firemen and new turnout gear, he almost waited a week to pass out the new gear because a few items had not come in yet but he said something told him to pass out this gear. The only thing salvaged was a deluge monitor and we restored it with new handles, paint and a gauge, it is on Engine 1 to this day and has been used a few times since we restored it in 2001. I fought like hell when the FD tried to throw away the old siren, it sat in a corner in the new 5 bay station from 98-2005 and the FD wanted to clear out a bunch of stuff that had piled up and they thought was useless like that siren, it got tossed in the dumpster and I went back and got it that night, they threw away a Federal Q siren that came off an old Seagrave, it was a flush mount but I found a cone and pedestal for it a few of us wanted to mount it on E-1 but the chief would not let us. Today that FD has no real chain of command they have the same chief from 1997, an assistant chief that has never had any formal training, not even the Alabama Volunteer Firefighter's course and a "safety officer" who was the EMS Asst. Chief, he is an EMT-III and certified fire officer, the way the FD was reorganized in the late 80s to at the time to be a modern fire department has gone out with the wind. I had to leave it in 2014 because of the cliques and politics. I was not liked because I applied myself and I took every training course I could, the now Ass. Chief mocked me saying I wanted to be the chief I said no I want to be educated, experienced and follow NFPA guidelines and standards, mocked by someone without a HS diploma and the supposed "leadership" allowed it because I supported the new mayor who was the old fire and police chief that believed in doing things the right way, the legal way and the way set by standards not by what you saw in a youtube video, no jokes in house training was done by what was seen on the internet and youtube!
 

Metrofire31

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Auburn-Opelika, AL
I have already gotten an excel spreadsheet ready to document talk groups ID for new Auburn talk groups for Montgomery Metro District.

Here are the unknown talkgroup ID I have gotten so far,
Dec
672
673
660
659
674

Auburn Public Safety have not switched over to their trunk radio system. The nac code could also be 6EB or 460.
I will keep you updated as the time come on when Auburn switch to their trunk system.

Thanks,
Auburn36801

Having closely watched Auburn’s convential Fire and Police Dispatch channels Side-by-Side with a different scanner monitoring ONLY the Montgomery Metro P25 trucked system, I can confirm with about 99% certainty the following talkgroups:

672 - Fire Dispatch
656 - Police Dispatch

I have also confirmed a few UIDs if anyone is interested in such details. The fact that they are running both systems tells me they may be getting close to “the switch “.

Metrofire31
WREX563
Auburn-Opelika
 

Metrofire31

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BTW, does anyone know if a Motorola portable (e.g., an XTS5000) can be programmed to work on a Harris P25 trunked system?

Metrofire31
WREX563
Auburn-Opelika
 

RadShackFan

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Jun 2, 2010
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Auburn, Alabama
Those of you that monitor this system have probably noticed a big drop in the amount of radio traffic in the last few weeks. Well, I talked to a Officer who is the son of a close friend. He told me they are using the MDT units for dispatch as much as they can instead of voice dispatch. He didn't know why and they were not given a reason.
 

medic9351301

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WELL PROB BECAUSE THE RADIOS HAVE NO POWER TO HOLD THE SYSTEM. I THINK THEY ARE LIKE 35 WATT MOBILES AND MAYBE 2 OR 3 WATT WT . PLUS RADSHACK THEY ARE FULL TIME ENCRYPTION .
 
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