Moving to Kannapolis

[RobKB1FJR]

I have been scanning for about 25 years. I am moving to Kannapolis, NC from Massachusetts after the current pandemic crisis ends.

Up in Massachusetts almost every town is self dispatched, with their own analog frequency. County Sheriffs don't exist, etc.

I have a Unication G5, which I think will work well on the simulcast systems. Along with my Homepatrol 2 (acceptable) and my Uniden BCD-325P2 (acceptable) and my Radio Shack PRO-2096 (depends on the day)

Here is a list of questions:

1. Kannapolis is in two counties Rowan and Carrabus (Kannapolis City Police and Fire patrol this portion on the USAI System). What are the Kannapolis Talkgroups used on Rowan's county system is this a patch. Who patrols that part of Kannapolis in Rowan County is it the Sheriff?

2. I understand the purposes of the Fire Operations Talkgroups (Fire Department gets toned, then assigned an operations talkgroup as a Fireground OPS channel).

Why do the police departments have 5 or 6 "OPS" Talkgroups, along with Secure Talkgroups for use by Detectives, Swat, etc?
My guess is these Police Department OPS groups are rarely used outside of Special Events and 99% of Day to Day Uniformed Mark 911 patrol car operations take place on the DISPATCH Talkgroup.

3. BRIDGE-4 , "ASO AIR". What other Mutual aid talk groups are the go to? It seems to me there are a lot of mutual aid talk groups that probably are rarely used.

4. This is my plan with Kannapolis: Listen to County Fire 154.340 analog, and listen as needed to the Fire OPS Groups (Using my BC-325P2 monitoring also the Events, and other random ... barring any major simulcast issues), I will do the same with 154.430 for Kannapolis City.)

5. It seems that EMS is a separate agency, however they also respond to Rescue Calls as in Jaws of Life. Interesting. This way I can avoid listening to EMS. I work in Healthcare and Ambulance calls over the last 25 years just tie up the radio. Especially since a lot of Fire Departments in MA also run the Ambulance.

Thank You

The Next Step is to get the PRN DMR network programmed in my Anytone

 

[CFP387]

I feel sure that there are others here than can help you more on your PD and EMS questions, but I'll try to answer some of these since I live and work in Rowan.

1. Kannapolis is in two counties Rowan and Carrabus (Kannapolis City Police and Fire patrol this portion on the USAI System). What are the Kannapolis Talkgroups used on Rowan's county system is this a patch. Who patrols that part of Kannapolis in Rowan County is it the Sheriff?

Kannapolis Public Works has 5 talkgroups assigned to them on the Rowan P25 system but they, as far as I know, have never been used. Responding agencies in Rowan have the Kannapolis and Cabarrus TG's in their radios and can switch over at any time. Even though Kannapolis and Cabarrus are on a different radio system than Rowan, they can still communicate and do every day. Usually, agencies will keep their mobile radios on their Rowan dispatch channel and switch their portables to the Cabarrus or Kannapolis dispatch channel. Back in the day, and before P25, there was a talk group called CAB-ROW which was essentially a patch between both counties when VHF was still being used pretty regularly. The Kannapolis part of Rowan is covered by Kannapolis PD and FD and by Rowan EMS.

4. This is my plan with Kannapolis: Listen to County Fire 154.340 analog, and listen as needed to the Fire OPS Groups (Using my BC-325P2 monitoring also the Events, and other random ... barring any major simulcast issues), I will do the same with 154.430 for Kannapolis City.)

You may find that when monitoring the VHF side of Kannapolis (340) their modulation and signal could be low. I am only about 7 miles north of the county line and I can't hear it as good as I used to be able to. I rarely monitor VHF anymore even though Rowan, Cabarrus and Kannapolis dispatch channels are still simulcast on VHF. Cabarrus has muted the inbound side of VHF so there is no interference from other counties and Rowan is slated to do the same sometime in the next two years. If you have two 800 receivers, keep one on the dispatch talkgroup and the other on the assigned OPS channel when there is a call. You will hear all traffic pertaining to the call (dispatch and units) on the OPS channel and then new calls being dispatched on the dispatch TG.

 

[yardbird]

To clear up a couple things here.

1. Kannapolis Fire is dispatched on 154.430 Mhz. not 154.340 Mhz. 154.340 Mhz. is Cabarrus County Fire Dispatch.

At one time Kannapolis was dispatched on 154.340 Mhz. but that was years ago well before Kannapolis become a recognized municipality in the state.

2. Kannapolis Police has two TAC channels as of right now.

3. As of now I am unaware of any law enforcement channels for Cabarrus, Concord and Kannapolis being encrypted. Everything is open.

4. Kannapolis Fire has six ops channels and one training channel. I have never heard any traffic being carried on their ops channel 1, it maybe be reserved for a chief's channel or some other command use. Ops. channels 2-6 are randomly assigned and can be assigned for any incident.

5. As far as law enforcement. Cabarrus Sheriff has several TAC Channels, however Dispatch, Animal Control, and TAC 3 are the ones used the most. Concord Police is the same way they mainly use Dispatch 1 and Dispatch 2, TAC 3. They will usually use TAC 8 for special events like High School Football Games and such.

6. Cabarrus Fire and Concord Fire both have 9 Ops channels each and they have training channels as well along with a common conference channel. Unlike Kannapolis the Cabarrus and Concord Ops channels are assigned on availability unlike Kannapolis were they are randomly selected. (Ex. If Concord is working on Ops 3 for example and Ops 2 becomes clear then Ops 2 would be reassigned instead of Ops 4 being assigned).

7. All of Cabarrus, Concord, and Kannapolis Fire channels are known as Ops Channels. All law enforcement channels are known as Tac Channels.

CFD 387 may have more to add about the Rowan System.

I mainly monitor the UASI system. I monitor Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Union & Stanly Counties. I will occasionally switch over to Rowan and listen if they have a major incident or storms going through the are.

Hope this information helps.

David