New Chicago OEMC Public Safety - 800 MHz P25

[werinshades]

CFD Radio Shops are starting to upgrade spare Truck companies it now appears. Truck 42 came up with Spare E-298 yesterday (RID 1022987), and spare Tower Ladder 23 (using E-280) today: RID 1022807.

All spare apparatus appears to be on the list for 800 mhz mobiles (APX 8500's) and Samsung DEX Mobile Data Terminals as all assigned apparatus now have. A Samsung cell phone is used as the docking station which brings up the MDC dispatch information. When a company switches apparatus with the DEX system, all that's needed is the cell phone, the OEMC to log the company on in the new apparatus, and they're all set. This is why you might here reference to "picking up our phone" at SLD, or something along that line. Another tip and clue is the DEX system uses a log on that begins with "AF" while spare apparatus that haven't been upgraded yet have to be logged on with "MDTF".

 

[MtGreenRdo]

It appears all apparatus are getting apx8500 including spares. Also all vehicles are getting DEX or a Samsung tablet including most or all spares. New dispatch channels off of 800 may hit by July? (Source, I work for CFD). The new DEX hardware has been good, better than the old laptops.

 

[werinshades]

It appears all apparatus are getting apx8500 including spares. Also all vehicles are getting DEX or a Samsung tablet including most or all spares. New dispatch channels off of 800 may hit by July? (Source, I work for CFD). The new DEX hardware has been good, better than the old laptops.

First I heard of a July cutover date. Originally was Sept. 2023, then January 2024, then put on hold indefinitely, due to the "supply chain issues"/ money etc. The "new" UHF frequencies I've yet to hear any testing on. This "proposed" system is to be built from the ground up, which would require site controller installation/programming, the numerous sites previously used on the UHF-T would either be replaced or reprogrammed, so I would expect all this to take a while. The radios were programmed expeditiously due to the dates mentioned, but that's all that's been done. I could be wrong, but I suspect someone would have told me by now...LOL!

I have posted about the spare apparatus being reprogrammed (now working on Trucks too), and it wouldn't make sense to purchase APX 8500's with 800 Mhz. capabilities in old beat up spares, if the current radios were capable of P25 UHF conventional which the proposed new UHF system is supposed to be on, when the portables have 800 capabilities and can be used on the trunking system while a company is in a spare.

 

[Tomcu96]

just saying that is a good system for Chicago airport.

 

[werinshades]

First time I heard CTA Power Control talking to CFD on CFD Main 800 in regards to a power shut down for a "person on the tracks response". This traffic used to be on the old UHF conventional system's CTA Fire channel. Radio ID was 5213128.