Need help identifying unknown talkgroups in Howard County

[Mr_Boh]

I hate to tell you but the DB Admins are correct. If the Control Channels are broadcasting a TDMA IDEN message, then the system IS a phase 2 system. Just because the are not using the talkgroups in TDMA does not mean the system is not Phase 2. It is a simple button push to change any talkgroup to TDMA.

Oh I agree with you. I was told that database change for a system outside of MD was not going to happen unless I captured TDMA activity, but have seen systems like Fairfax or the Philly problem referenced. Doesn’t seem to be a scanner vendor issue, just an inconsistency on DB admin policy.

 

[FireEM09]

So some insight....

The Sierra Zone, or "County" zone as it is on the template contains 8 TG's on the current system. S1-911, S2-CNY1, S3-CNY2, S4-CNY3, S5-EOC, S6-COEX, S7-BEEM. There are also S9-14 that are simplex RINS channels. S15 is Fleet, and S16 is also 911. The 911 channel in all but PD and FD radios is the emergency revert TG, so when you hit the orange button, it reverts to S1. In most (but not all) cases, the FD radios revert to Alpha 8 and I am not sure where the PD radios are reverting to.

The theory (I think) was that if the SHTF, then everyone on the system could inter-operate. It never worked the way it was designed because except for PD/FD nobody else has a clue how to do anything beyond turning the radio on, yelling into it, and turning it off again. In my time when I needed to talk to anyone other than FD, it was just easier to use a phone.

Mark

Just to piggyback off what Mark said, these are the descriptions for those first 8 TGs in the Sierra Zone:

S1.....911.....Intended for emergency and non-emergency use by any County agency that does have 24 hour dispatcher services. (Emergency revert channel for all non-public safety radios.)
S2.....CNY1.....Countywide channel 1
S3.....CNY2.....Countywide channel 2
S4.....CNY3.....Countywide channel 3
S5.....EOC.....Emergency Operations Center channel
S6.....COEX.....County Executive channel (Secure)
S7.....BEEM.....Board of Education Emergency
S8.....CALL HELP.....Stolen/Misappropriated radios will be dynamically regrouped so they will only be able to operate on this channel.

 

[maus92]

Good info. Hopefully somebody will submit to the RRDB.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

11161

Schools were told to "transition" to the new radio system. "Central Office" did a roll call of the schools. This talkgroup was called "TS-Admin"

 

[n1nlr]

While listening today looks like they have moved five frequencies off of the old Motorola system to the new P25 system:

851.6875
851.9625
851.9875
852.1125
857.7375

 

[maus92]

While listening today looks like they have moved five frequencies off of the old Motorola system to the new P25 system:

851.6875
851.9625
851.9875
852.1125
857.7375

Concur. New TGs as well.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

11071 Comm Techs?
11073 Radio Maintenance Testing
11074
11076
11111
11138
11142
11161 Schools "TS Admin"

 

[markgrutz]

So I have both the old and new systems side by side on Unitrunker. Its real easy when both TGs fire off at once with the same conversation on two radios. Some of the patches seem to be temporary until the radios are all programmed. They were working on the transit busses last night at 10pm so I expect today will be the last day those are patched to the old system. I will submit these to the DB...

11161 is supposed to be PS-Admin for Public Schools, they prefix the school TGs with PS-
11202 - HTFX (Howard Transit Fixed Route)
11203 - HTPA (Howard Transit Paratransit)
11117 - UTOP (Utilities Operations)
11120 - WWTP (Waste Water Treatment Plant)
11138 - HWE1 (Highways East 1)

Mark

 

[tknepp32]

Cutover is Wednesday 2/5 at 0645.

 

[BM82557]

Cutover is Wednesday 2/5 at 0645.

Thanks for the info!

 

[maus92]

And how do the cutover go?

 

[DomW]

I miss Howard county scanning since I moved from West Friendship to Ohio.

 

[markgrutz]

New batch of TGs sent in for update just FYI

 

[maus92]

I also submitted more voice channels migrated from the old system: 851.0375, 851.0625, 851.3875, 851.5375,
851.5750. I'm *speculating* that the remainder of the 851-854 freqs will also migrate at some point, but I wonder what will happen to freqs in the 857-860 range - they seem to be prime candidates for a DVRS system.

 

[tvengr]

I just heard Howard Co Fire say go to Delta 1 for a mayday exercise. They are on TGID 10922.

 

[maus92]

Would "Delta 1" be knob position "D" on Zone 1? Just trying to figure out the channel plan.

 

[markgrutz]

Would "Delta 1" be knob position "D" on Zone 1? Just trying to figure out the channel plan.

Close, it is position one in the delta zone, channel 1 is Delta 1, 2 is Delta 2 and so on. Same for Bravo, Charlie, Serria Zones. Zone Alpha (A) is the main ops zone, Bravo, Charlie and Delta are the fireground zones, so basically 3 working incidents worth of space. Bravo 1,2,3,4 are for whatever purpose, 5 is water supply, 6 is staging, 7 is an announce TG for the zone, 8-15 are misc stuff, and 16 is the same as 1. Repeat that for Charlie and Delta as well.

When I have some time, I will build a spreadsheet file with what is where (at least how the old system was) and so far the format is the same with new TG number assignments. It's actually fairly easy to figure out once its on paper.


Mark

 

[tvengr]

The old system had incident talkgroups B1 thru B6 for Bravo 1 thru Bravo 6, C1 thru C6 for Charlie 1 thru Charlie 6, and D1 thru D6 for Delta 1 thru Delta 6. The spacing seems to follow also with Bravo 1 = 10908, Charlie 1 = 10915, and Delta 1 = 10922. I would assume that the talkgroups will have sequential TGID's, like Bravo 2= 10909, Bravo 3 = 10910, etc. I am presently listening to the activity on Delta 1.

 

[ThePhotoGuy]

Fire & Police have not fully migrated over to the new system. Still old RID's showing up on Fire/Police talkgroups.

 

[markgrutz]

Fire & Police have not fully migrated over to the new system. Still old RID's showing up on Fire/Police talkgroups.

I think though some chat with some folks, that the FD was the only switch for today. I don't think it was supposed to be the full system, it's been switching over the course of the last week. The out of county units are still coming over the patch from the old to the new. Listening to the dispatch, the console doesn't show the difference, but the comm techs have been chiming in that they are still on the old system, but it looks like about 99% of the in county units have switched. I think I have cataloged about 485 new Fire Radio IDs today alone. About 108 of them I am nearly 100% sure are correct.