**New Baltimore (City) System Discussion**

[skyteam11]

The plan is for Baltimore City to change to the 764-870 MHZ on Dec 1st. Does anyone have the new Freq's or any info on this operation and what we need to do to upgrade? Many Thanks

 

[don333]

Baltimore county's new radio system

I believe he means Baltimore County. I've heard no conversation regarding Baltimore City.

 

[skyteam11]

Nope. I mean Baltimore City. They have made notification that as of Dec. 1st thare changing the Freq's they operate on. It will be in the high 700's . I am just trying to find out what they will be using. I believe the talk groups will still be the same.

 

[Thunderbolt]

I did a search of all 700 MHz trunking licenses for the city of Baltimore, and came up empty. If they are switching to the 700 MHz band, they haven't filed for any license grants with the FCC. However, if the state of Maryland is involved in this project, they could have gone ahead and constructed the system under their license. Either way, it will be very interesting to see how this all plays out in the coming days and months.

73s

Ron

 

[skyteam11]

Hey Ron: Many thanks. You may be correct about the state thing. I just know that the TV station have to purchase the new radios because of the change. The city PIO has told us about this new change. Just have not been able to get the freq's

 

[don333]

Baltimore City To Change Dec. 1

So.....does anyone have any more information concerning this change?

 

[skyteam11]

Not yet on my part. Tring to get the new freq's. If I get them I will share with the site, but so far no luck.

 

[AD9O]

Is this possibly referring to the rebanding that, according to this thread http://forums.radioreference.com/ma...on-forum/178811-what-does-mean-us-listen.html, began back in April? If so, all current frequencies will shift down by 15MHz.

 

[don333]

That could be the case, but I'm not sure. 700 mhz range is alot lower than just 15 mhz. Also, I;ve been hearing companies and BC's going out of service for training on the "new radios".

 

[skyteam11]

Baltimore City Polic PIO through Motorola, has told me that they are shifting to the high 760 range, which is not rebanding. They are making the TV station purchase new radios in order to receive their dispatch calls.

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

That could be the case, but I'm not sure. 700 mhz range is alot lower than just 15 mhz. Also, I;ve been hearing companies and BC's going out of service for training on the "new radios".

Are they getting brand new radios or are they just reprogramming their current ones?

 

[skyteam11]

New Radios. They say the old ones will not work

 

[ocguard]

Hmmm...

I know the city is in the process of re-banding and upgrading to 9600bps P25. Many FD radios (anything other than an XTS5000) have to be replaced. These include all XTS3000s, XTS3500s, and AstroSpectra mobiles and base stations.

I can say with certainty that this has not occured. Many mobiles have been replaced. But most companies still have at least 2 XTS3000s and each station still has an AstroSpectra in it's watchdesk as a base station. Based on this information alone, I doubt that fire will be ready for a December cut-over.

I find it hard to believe that the city would rely entirely on state licenses for their upgrades. The city uses 28 voice channels, and they need each and every one.

I have noticed that many police officers are now carrying very new XTS500s. Maybe they are cutting over first. But fire is nowhere close to being ready.

 

[SkyPager]

Is it possible that the city will begin simulcasting the two systems on Dec 1?

Doing an application search if found this INACTIVE application. It's filed under the city, but lists Balto County radio shop and POC.

ULS Application - Conventional Public Safety 700 MHz - 0004145238 - BALTIMORE, CITY OF

I'll program these into the PSR-500 and see what I hear.

Going back as far as 1-1-2008, I found no other applications that were in the 700 MHz band.

 

[ocguard]

Is it possible that the city will begin simulcasting the two systems on Dec 1?

Doing an application search if found this INACTIVE application. It's filed under the city, but lists Balto County radio shop and POC.

ULS Application - Conventional Public Safety 700 MHz - 0004145238 - BALTIMORE, CITY OF

I'll program these into the PSR-500 and see what I hear.

Going back as far as 1-1-2008, I found no other applications that were in the 700 MHz band.

The system you're looking at is the State of Maryland's new CMARC interoperability system (AKA waste of money) designed to supplement/replace the NPSPAC 8-TAC system. If you notice, the transmit locations are all Baltimore County tower sites. For whatever reason, the state has had each individual jurisdiction license the frequencies for the system.

If you do come across the licenses for a "new" Baltimore City system, there will be about 30 frequencies from 8 tower sites. However, if the city is only re-banding their current frequencies, there is no need for new licensing, only amendments to the current licenses.

 

[ocguard]

Also, the fire/EMS talk group layout will change when the new system goes online.

 

[AD9O]

Matt,

You said the city is going to full 9600 P25. So the MOSCAD data is going away (or is there a new protocol that supports data)?

I also assume talkgroups will be renumbered (since they don't have to be base 16)?

Thanks for the new channel plan.

Tony

 

[ocguard]

Matt,

You said the city is going to full 9600 P25. So the MOSCAD data is going away (or is there a new protocol that supports data)?

I also assume talkgroups will be renumbered (since they don't have to be base 16)?

Thanks for the new channel plan.

Tony

I don't know what will be done as far as station alerting. They DO have to replace the radios in the watchdesks since they are all Astro Spectras (3600bps only). I'm assuming there is some new protocol that will be used, with 9600bps, it may be thru the CC data stream, or maybe a stand-alone conventional channel.

I would also assume that TGIDs will be re-numbered to eliminate the 16 or 32 bit separation.

 

[pasadenamd]

We all know The Watch Desk has its good and bads but someone also asked this same question on there and there was a good response:

Radio System - Firefighter Forums @ The WatchDesk

 

[ka3jjz]

Assuming that the City is truly rebanding and not going to 700 mhz, then we will all need to make some changes. These wiki articles go into detail as to the necessary changes. Note that for the BCD396T and BCD996T (not their XT brothers) you will need the latest firmware fixes...and since the City is a mixed mode system, the custom table will be required...

ARC96 - The RadioReference Wiki

Win96 - The RadioReference Wiki

Object Oriented Scanner Software - The RadioReference Wiki

Software Support for Uniden Rebanding - The RadioReference Wiki

73 Mike