New Baltimore County P-25 System

[ka3jjz]

Thanks Matt. I'm there every workday, so I'll be able to hear the new system, at least during my drive-times. I actually work down on Windsor Boulevard, and find I get nailed by desense in that area pretty easily. I usually wait until I get closer to Security before I turn on my 396.

best regards..Mike

 

[elj1201]

was listening to balto co just now and on north point and the sgt had dispatch see if everyone was trained for the new radio. two were not and they were waiting for the person to show up to train them how to use the radios.

 

[don333]

Don't know how reliable, but I was told that the switch over will take place at midnight 01/01/12 and that 46.46 will no longer be operable.

 

[ka3jjz]

Will there be a new frequency to take 46.46's place? I know that parts to maintain that old lo band system aren't easy to come by anymore (I used to know the guy that was involved with this - a fellow ham...), and a lot of times, folks seem to be moving up to VHF hi or UHF to replace their old loband system....best regards...Mike

 

[fourwd1]

From what I'm told, the northern zone has only 3 antenna sites, so I can only assume that they would be Maryland Line, Spookhill, and Hereford. Apparently, the northern zone will have 15 frequencies, and the "rest of the county" will have 25.

Tha coincides with what I heard a tech explain to someone else.

 

[ocguard]

46.46 will continue to be maintained for paging volunteers and staff officers via Minitor-style pagers. However, all station alerting will transition to MOSCAD (career stations have been using MOSCAD for about 10 years, while volunteer stations have continued to be alerted via 46.46 two-tone paging). What this means is that all station alerts will happen instantaneously, while pagers will still be sequential based on the tones being sent. The 46.46 paging system needs to be replaced badly, but with close to a thousand 46mhz Minitors in the field, it will be costly. I'm not sure if it's even under consideration. I fear that, when the time comes, volunteer pagers will be replaced with alphanumeric paging.

 

[CqDx]

Seems like the DB page is updated with additional talkgroups, kudos to whoever that made the effort!

Baltimore County (Project 25) Trunking System, Various, Maryland - Scanner Frequencies

 

[troymail]

Any further word/confirmation- - is the switch still expected to take place on 1/1?

 

[ocguard]

Any further word/confirmation- - is the switch still expected to take place on 1/1?

I was told "by the end of January" for fire.

Scanning both systems from southern York County today. Some BSI and private calls that seem to be data only. Nothing too interesting.

 

[ka3jjz]

Will the County Services system be migrated to this new one? It's useful for me to know where the snowplows are during the winter...best regards...Mike

 

[ocguard]

Will the County Services system be migrated to this new one? It's useful for me to know where the snowplows are during the winter...best regards...Mike

Yes. The frequency pools of both legacy systems (public safety and public service) will be put together for channel capacity, and all county radio users will be on the same system. Snow plows and street lights will all be on the same system for county-wide coverage. How quickly the non-emergency users transition is unknown.

 

[vees]

Finally put in the new trunk channels into a trunk system on my BCD-396T. I'm listening with search mode on but all I see is an occasional lock on the 854.0375 data channel show 0389h-0102 and no audio or any detected groups. Is that to be expected around 10pm at night until the switch, or do I have something set wrong?

 

[troymail]

Finally put in the new trunk channels into a trunk system on my BCD-396T. I'm listening with search mode on but all I see is an occasional lock on the 854.0375 data channel show 0389h-0102 and no audio or any detected groups. Is that to be expected around 10pm at night until the switch, or do I have something set wrong?

There really isn't much activity right now -- random usage and testing - and most of that is during the day. The system seems to be following how the Baltimore City switch occurred - only a control channel and a vice channel (minimal frequencies) for setup and testing. Then, on the day of the switch, they "cut-over" frequencies a few at a time until the whole system is switched over (a few hours). Just don't know yet for sure when that will occur - folks are reporting as early as 1/1/12 (Sunday and a holiday?) and others sometime before the end of January.

 

[vees]

Someone appears to be working their way through some (currently) undocumented talk groups this afternoon, just pushing the PTT and keying them up without saying anything.

13:41:45 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:41:47 END 1 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:41:51 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:41:54 END 2 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:43:58 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:44:04 END 5 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:51:35 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:51:40 END 4 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:51:52 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:51:55 END 3 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:52:08 BEG 0 GLG,9851,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
13:52:11 END 2 GLG,9851,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:00:43 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:00:46 END 2 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:02:42 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:02:46 END 4 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:04:24 BEG 0 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:04:32 END 8 GLG,9850,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:04:46 BEG 0 GLG,9854,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:04:49 END 2 GLG,9854,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:04:57 BEG 0 GLG,9857,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:04:59 END 1 GLG,9857,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:05:06 BEG 0 GLG,9860,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:05:09 END 3 GLG,9860,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:05:13 BEG 0 GLG,9862,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1
14:05:18 END 4 GLG,9862,NFM,0,0,Balt Co P25,,,1

 

[vees]

Radio shop is running some voice tests ("Testing 1 2 3, 3 2 1") on TG 9455 this morning. It's listed in the database as BCFD A3 ADO. Otherwise mostly quiet.

 

[troymail]

Any further word/confirmation- - is the switch still expected to take place on 1/1?

1/1 and no change (not a surprise I guess) -- someone out there must have info on the change date(s)....

 

[doctordave]

I'm still hearing the end of this month for a switchover date.

It will be interesting to see which PD talkgroups are strapped for full-time encryption right out of the gate. I'd presume the CID/Surveillance, SWAT/HNT and the 300-series (ISU) TGs will be....but what about the 200 series (TAC) TGs?

 

[vees]

If you're interested in listening to the new P25 system, I've got a stream online that defaults to the P25 in "search" mode for any transmissions. Occasionally I'll turn on county fire dispatch on the old system to hear what's going on, but mostly it's the digital feed.

https://vees.net/scanner/

Sometime this week I will be updating the software so that you can see what talkgroup numbers it's seeing and help to update the database as new TG come online. Let me know what you think.

 

[Dispatcher308]

Site 101 is the North system and Site 102 is the South System. I have verified this by being in Dundalk and only being able to pick up site 102 and being in Maryland Line and only being able to pick up Site 101 and that was sitting under the towers with the antenna off of my scanner.

For the record 46.46 will stay for a while and the cutover is supposed to occur at the end of January if all goes well with the reprogramming.


Nathan

 

[ka3jjz]

Nathan, which site would be best for me to hear this? I work in the Woodlawn area. Thanks Mike