Muskegon County MPSCS Simulcast Cell

[Thunderbolt]

Muskegon County is now fully licensed to operate their new simulcast cell on the MPSCS TRS. Does anyone have information on when the system will be going live?

• WRHV924
• WRHV923
• WRFZ388
• WRFZ387

73's

Ron

 

[depster00]

It took Kent County 6+ months after receiving licensing. This will also co-inside with the renovations going on at Muskegon County Central Dispatch building. I would guess traffic going live starting August 2021.

 

[depster00]

Looks like the MCD is operated under the City of Whitehall. Meeting minutes can be found included with the City of Whitehall City Council minutes. (City of Whitehall, MI :: City Council)

As of 10/14/20: Montague tower fully constructed. Reworking some fiber. Finalizing radio counts.

 

[BSchaner]

After reading through the meeting minutes from the link above I've found that this will be a 7 site simulcast including two existing towers Wolf Lake and Blue Lake with 12 frequency channels. 1,300 portable and mobile radios and 425 Pagers for fire/EMS. All of the towers are constructed with some fiber work being done. A news article from the White Lake Beacon states the target go live is spring 2021. Radio templates have been in the works for a few weeks now so it probably wont be long before this system is online so as long as coverage testing is good.

 

[depster00]

Noticed a new "neighbor" on the Kent County Simulcast System today. Site ID lines up near others in Muskegon County; however, frequencies are not from the call signs listed above.
RFSS:03[3] SITE:25[37]
CHANNEL:0-409 DOWNLINK:853562500 UPLINK:808562500

 

[depster00]

Nevermind... mis-read the tables. Neighbor is for Ionia County.

 

[srpawski]

It will be awhile yet. The addition going onto Central Dispatch isn’t any where near completion. The last I looked they have the floor going up on the addition and nothing started yet on the enclosure to its sides. There is going to be a tower out near Casnovia that will co locate and share resources with Kent county. Muskegon’s equipment to face West and Kent County to the East/South East with the sharing of the same computer equipment in the same building. I am a RACES volunteer with Muskegon County Emergency Communications Services and we toured Central Dispatch a year ago before things got started hot and heavy with Covid. Things got behind as they said last January the addition should have been completed by last Fall. I hadn’t realized the towers were ready to go until I read this post.

 

[BSchaner]

I was looking through the RR database for calls on Kent county talkgroups and decided to look at Muskegon. I noticed there has been testing on 61P911, 61F911, 61SPEV1, and 61EMD. The radio IDs consisted of 361xxxx, 961xxxx, and 1061xxxx. When searching a few radio IDs I found that the Kent county simulcast is what the radios connected to the most.

However, there is a 12254 site ID that I could not find what it belonged to, so it has me thinking the simulcast might be partially active or maybe was for a day for testing?

 

[BSchaner]

An update that is from some compiled information I have been able to find. The Towers are all constructed and wired up except the Central Fire Tower. Radio Training was starting and the 800 Pagers have been programmed and will be rolled out soon. Looks like they are still doing some radio testing every Thursday with yesterday having some tests from different road locations in Muskegon and Ottawa Counties. I have also found the following talkgroups with the audio of "test" for each:

23199, 23326, 23306, 23305, 23301, 23294, 23293, 23292

I was in the area this past week and had a "search" run for the frequencies listed above in the FCC licenses, without connecting to any tower.

 

[depster00]

Construction on the new dispatch center is complete and being turned over for occupancy. Central Fire Tower appeared to have antennas installed; however, cable was in spools on ground. Believe equipment is being housed in building and installation will commence now that construction is completed.

 

[BSchaner]

Just a small update from hearing some testing over the ottawa simulcast system with Muskegon Radio ID's. A couple pager tests today as well.

23199 with ID 10613012, also heard over P911

23247
23292
23293
23294
23295
23301
23303
23305
23306
23307 Heard Norton Shores Pager test
23308
23309
23310
23317
23326

 

[depster00]

Started an unknown talkgroup WIKI here:
MPSCS: Muskegon County (MI) Unknown Talkgroups - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[BSchaner]

Also heard traffic on 61SPEV1 earlier that the simulcast is live and is on site 50... Anyone have dsd for this to report the full site and frequencies?

 

[BSchaner]

Well nevermind, I was able to get my G4 to connect to site 3/50 with a control channel of 853.9875. I am hearing all regular MPSCS traffic so maybe the simulcast is on for good. One of the old sites 3/26 I am no longer able to connect to.

 

[Nate1n22]

I've heard talks about Muskegon possibly being encrypted. Anyone else hear anything similar?

 

[scannerman5000]

From a G4 programming perspective, should I just program the simulcast system and eliminate the other 2 systems in the county? Will they be left in operation or shut down?

 

[depster00]

The new multicast system is partially up and running; frequencies are in the database. The existing towers and frequencies are still operational as they were. I would expect MPSCS to issue a downtime bulletin about the towers being converted. For the time being I would program in the new system with the old. It still could be a few months before everything is fully operational.

 

[depster00]

Per: https://cityofwhitehall.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Council-Packet-5.25.21.pdf
Muskegon Simulcast Cell
Acceptance Testing - May 2021
Go Live - Mid-July 2021

 

[BSchaner]

I haven't been able to connect to the old twin lake and muskegon tower (with my G4) since I posted that the simulcast is online. I still hear all the mpscs traffic on the simulcast.

 

[Nate1n22]

Not hearing any traffic on the VHF frequencies so they must be on digital today. I heard a fire department toned out earlier but nothing since then.