New Motorola System for Chicago

[jas24]

Communication may get easier for cops, firefighters


Tuesday, May 2, 2006




By Fran Spielman

Communication breakdowns like the one that contributed heavily to six deaths at an October 2003 Loop high-rise fire could be a thing of the past thanks to a no-bid $22 million digital radio system on the way for Chicago's first responders.

Police officers and firefighters will be able to communicate directly with each other, instead of relying on the cumbersome process of "console patching" by 911 center dispatchers. Firefighters and paramedics will use the same hand-held radios, instead of being forced to carry two different radios if they want to communicate directly.

The Motorola system — complete with more than 2,000 portable radios for the Chicago Fire Department alone — also will have more frequencies to handle heavy traffic volumes during major emergencies. Some channels will be "encrypted" for enhanced security. And the new digital system will be able to maintain uninterrupted communication in high-rise buildings where radio service is notoriously difficult.

"It's a big step in fire communications — the biggest upgrade that's been undertaken in at least 25 years," said fire department spokesman Larry Langford.

This is from the Daily SouthTown And Chicago Sun-Times

 

[jpm]

can't wait for it to be up and running..really put this BCD396T to work now.

 

[werinshades]

All I can say is, it's about time. We've been using an antiquated system for so long, it's slowly breaking down like an old car with over 100,000 miles on it. The word I have is Chicago Fire Dept. should be switched over in October. I'm sure testing will be occuring prior to that, but it will be interesting to see if this time line pans out. With the new brass in place, their appears to be less resistance to Digital. Time will tell..

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Lets not forget fireground

I have faith in the EOC guys, but I would test that oranage recessed key to make sure you can use fireground with out repeater, especialy in those buildings downtown. I would like to see leaky coxical cable brought in, but thats quite expensive, but definity worth the saftey consideration. Keep use update, I'm asuming its uhf right seeing thats where the new license are coming up in that area. And some of the previous testing. Anyword on the transition for pd, I heard their was a ton folks that said no to this. In any case it will definity be easer to follow with digital trunking scanners. Thats going to be a lot of work to modify or replace those consoles at the OEC. Is their room for mitgation of the cta and others like midway and o'hare. It might be wise to throw everyoneon one system, or t least have the zone set up for mutiple systems. The portable transition was to an xts 5000, if my memory servers me right? Time to get the 996T, good thing I bought the 396T already just for this reason. Awsome, can not wait for the change, I just hope they keep certain safe guards in place. I also am guessing that their going to put access to ifeern and others via via certain talkgroups. Perhaps they could program in the inter cordinates of Dupage couny with permission as a safe guard as well. I think that would be a neat idea

 

[werinshades]

When their's more to report, i'm sure this and many other boards will be updated, including my own group. Right now, most is specualtion based upon the FCC report and the latest newspaper articles.

 

[jas24]

One question is what type of Digital system this will be and how will re-banding affect it?

 

[N9JIG]

Since most of the license applications and other information becoming available indicate that the system will be UHF, rebanding won't really affect it.

What will be affected by rebanding are the several 800 MHz. Chicago trunked systems, the City PD system, the old CHA system (now lightly used by some OEMC guys and rumored occasionally to being reserved for S&S) and a city system at O'Hare. The PD system is running on ancient equipment and seriously needs to be upgraded if they plan on keeping it. Same goes for the ORD system. The old CHA system is actually of a newer vintage than the other 2.

Another interesting thing is the 15 or 20 channels CPD has for it's MDT system. If/when they switch over to commercial vendors for connectivity these channels will be cleared out. While they would have to be rebanded eventually that might free up even more channels.

With CPD and CFD staying/going to UHF what will they do with Streets & Sanitation and other city departments? If they want true interoperability then these should logically be part of the UHF system. Would the systems Chicago is building have capacity for these various agencies? Would CPD, CFD and OEMC want them with them? Would they migrate non-Public Safety users to 800 and reserve UHF for CPD, CFD and EMS?

The City of Chicago has a large network of fiber thruout the city, and has the ability to connect multiple sites fairly easily. They also have some pretty good people working on the system's design, so I am fairly sure they will provide the users with a decent system. Where that leaves the hobbyists like us however may be a different question. I have heard rumors both ways about encryption. Some guys say the entire system will be encrypted all the time, others say that encryption will be available as needed.

The existing CPD network of 13 Zones and 7 Citywide repeaters and a few simplex UHF channels works pretty well considering it has been functionally unchanged for close to 30 years. Same goes for the CFD's 2 VHF repeaters, and some simplex channels and the 4 EMS UHF repeater channels. This system has served the city well, and is a testament to the guys who maintain it in that it has worked pretty darned good for all these years.

The casual listener may think that there is little discipline on some of these channels as the communications appears to be disorganized and disheveled. But listen for a while and one will notice that, despite occasional catcalls and jokes from both sides, the operational aspect of both CPD and CFD communications is pretty structured. Since they have limited airtime due to the amount of activity on the systems and the number of users, a lot of the traffic that suburban and rural listeners are used to hearing just isn't there. Chicago is also very strict on unit to unit traffic. It doesn't happen on dispatch channels except when specifically OK'd by the dispatcher. Both departments have dedicated unit to unit simplex channels that are heavily used.

Some people are also confused and think that digital means encrypted. If they use the standard Motorola digital formats then any of the available scanners will at least be able to hear the audio. UHF trunking will be a bit more confusing as one needs to do more programming to make it work correctly on a scanner. (When the Midway digital UHF system went on-line there was a lot of discussion on several boards to educate scannists on how to set it up on the Pro-96...)

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Encrypt

Others say that encryption will be available as needed, I tend to say this will be the choice they take. It seems as if its being model like LAPD system in some formats.

The radio flavor is the question Ive have, and what channel spacing (numbers) are allowed ie: 16, 32, 64, 128 along that line concept.

I have to keep reminding myslef digital uhf, not trunked. Thats why I mentioned o'hare and others coming on borad at first. But techniqually its still conventional just with the digital fomrat. And yes by far the city of chicago does very well considering the fact that the system is that aged.

I support the intergration and welcome it, trunking is what makes me draw questions for the city. In any case, all the other different sytems that exist are crazy, it be nice to get a set unfiromity put in place for once. I like to think that that would have a channel indepent for group wide function cordination, special event 1 - (ALL CALL) fire, police, ems, streets & san, cta and then variations of that.Its easy to keep the andated technology in place as backup spare repeaters as well for specail event opts, like keeping citywides avaiable just in case of an emergency. That way their is no real direct change of events for cordination channels.
It will more then likeily reflect the zones as they are now, and just expand on the technology giving more channel operations.

I guess will just have to wait for it to play out, and a true scanner listner always finds somthing to listen to even in rural areas. It just the ability to find activate traffic, and sometimes that can be quite annoying depending on what your monitoring. Travel Industry areas are crazy for activity located in the uhf buz bands, but that another area for post. So I'll stop before I get off topic.