New Newton County system

[I_Am_Infinite]

Question for anyone in the know. Newton county is building sites on the EMS properties on the North end of the county near lake village and Southern end near brooke.

I seen on the wiki 2 new sites are coming for the IPSC, these sites seem weird they seem to be building 4 towers on each of the 2 sites. Possibly gonna be a simulcast system for Newton county. I wonder if the one site they have already will be part of this. Or if it will be 2 separate systems for each tower site. Anyone have any info. Thanks

 

[west-pac]

If they have multiple towers for the cell, then its going to be simulcast. What is the FCC callsign again?
Time to invest in an SDS100/200.

Going thru the FCC data for Newton Co, there are no new 700/800 licenses in the county. Idk where and what the information being talked about is.

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Going thru the FCC data for Newton Co, there are no new 700/800 licenses in the county. Idk where and what the information being talked about is.

I just what I've seen myself at the 2 sites, ill get pictures of the site at the North end ems one when I'm around there again... The wiki for radioreference for Newton County talks about the 2 sites being added, I checked the FCC website also and found nothing.

 

[west-pac]

I just what I've seen myself at the 2 sites, ill get pictures of the site at the North end ems one when I'm around there again... The wiki for radioreference for Newton County talks about the 2 sites being added, I checked the FCC website also and found nothing.

Newton county has a North, Central, South towers for VHF FIRE/EMS repeaters. That has nothing at all to do with SAFE-T.

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Newton county has a North, Central, South towers for VHF FIRE/EMS repeaters. That has nothing at all to do with SAFE-T.

I know all that well kinda, I been scanning Newton county even before SAFE-T was a thing. There's the sheriff repeater at Enos, the med and fire repeater in Morocco, a backup med and fire in Morocco.. But these are brand new and different the towers ain't even all the way constructed, it started recently. I don't know of any repeaters at least In the north or south of county.

There is as of now the one SAFE -T site in Morocco, but based on the wiki for radioreference and what I've seen myself there is something new going up which seems it sill be a simulcast for Newton County.

I noticed them a couple weeks ago going to the fair near kentland, they weren't even nothing but the ground like messed up and towers pieces of towers laying on the ground.

I'm going over there In a few minutes to take pictures, I might even go into the med station and ask about them but not sure about that but I will be getting pictures, ill keep y'all posted

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Ok i was wrong about one thing its not multi tower sites at each location as it looked, guess that was my confusion with all the pieces all over the place..

I talked to the people building the system, specifically the architect of the system. Its not gonna be part of the SAFE-T system at all, its gonna be Newton County's own system.

They like Lake County did, are going with there own system. Its gonna be a simulcast system, 700 mhz, he wasn't for certain but it should be open except for like swat, ops.

I can't attach the picture because I guess because its to big 9.18mb it won't upload, if anyone wants a picture of the tower I can send it, if you dm me or give me an email, ill be more than happy to send the picture.

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Ok a took a picture of the picture on my phone on my crap tablet because the camera quality is crap compared to my phone, so here's the picture of the picture.

 

[mr10pt]

Good god no! This is a mutual aid/interop nightmare. They should have learned their lessons from the "Premos's" in Lake County. As a life long scanner owner/listener I've heard what a PITA it is to communicate. Everthing works now but municipalities likely had to spend monies that were not budgeted. Newton County is very rural, why would they need this? What's wrong with the state system? I belong to the local ham club there. Ham boss said the towers are for all first reponder agencies including our club repeater. Bad things happened here in my county when they switched. I pray for Newton County residients.

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Good god no! This is a mutual aid/interop nightmare. They should have learned their lessons from the "Premos's" in Lake County. As a life long scanner owner/listener I've heard what a PITA it is to communicate. Everthing works now but municipalities likely had to spend monies that were not budgeted. Newton County is very rural, why would they need this? What's wrong with the state system? I belong to the local ham club there. Ham boss said the towers are for all first reponder agencies including our club repeater. Bad things happened here in my county when they switched. I pray for Newton County residients.

Ya its annoying even for me. Cause I might need to get another 600$ or more scanner to pick it up because of simulcast. I know schererville and Cedar Lake moved to the SAFE-T system in Lake County opting not to go on to their county wide system and it works for them just fine. So ya similar deal to lake county happening here, in like you said a very rural county.

I was told by the architect guy doing the tower that it will provide 50% more coverage and that the state didn't have the money to do anymore to help coverage on their system in Newton County. But who knows really, like why couldn't they just pay to have towers added at these exact 2 sites that the new system will be on that are connected to the SAFE-T system instead of spending that money on a completely different system, its so dumb imo.

They cud have got the same coverage and been on SAFE-T with extra towers like st Joseph county, Laporte County etc did. It don't make no sense. So now I hope I can just use another scanner I had to scan Newton County when it changes and just use the lil antenna that came with it to pick it up without simulcast distortion instead of having to buy another scanner.

So that's my hope now, since the tower that the picture is of is like 3.69 miles line of site away and the other tower is like 20 miles away. So hopefully just the lil antenna that comes with the scanner can just pick up the close one and not the farther site, that's what I'm praying for. Guess ill find out in a month, or 2 or so, whenever it comes online. As of now there's no FCC listings for it so like I said wait and see. I'm just disappointed better options where available to do for sure 🤷

I'm gonna take my tablet with me to get a better picture of it again when I'm out and about instead that blurry one I posted. But ill put that in another part of the forum because now its not a SAFE-T thing but its own thing.

 

[usswood]

Newton could have done like Vigo did years ago and built a county funded Safe-T Tower where they needed it, had 5 or 6 frequencies plus a control channel, set it up for P2 and still saved tons of money!

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Here's better pictures of the the 2 new sites, the first one off SR 10 and 100 East at the North EMS Base. The second one US 41 and 850 South at the South EMS Base.

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Newton could have done like Vigo did years ago and built a county funded Safe-T Tower where they needed it, had 5 or 6 frequencies plus a control channel, set it up for P2 and still saved tons of money!

I agree, like I believe St. Joseph County, Laporte County, Porter County etc did. They could of built these 2 sites and had it on SAFE-T. Been better for Interop, and probably many other things.

 

[speedway_navigator]

Newton is building a 6 channel trunk system with 2 VHF channels patched in for 430 SUs, a new CAD and 2 300' towers for $5 million.

I'm curious what usswood and mr infinite would propose for that much. You can't even figure out how to resize a jpg but have vast knowledge of what local public safety users need and how to design it.

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Newton is building a 6 channel trunk system with 2 VHF channels patched in for 430 SUs, a new CAD and 2 300' towers for $5 million.

I'm curious what usswood and mr infinite would propose for that much. You can't even figure out how to resize a jpg but have vast knowledge of what local public safety users need and how to design it.

Thanks for that, I'm assuming the patches are for Fire/med repeater and sheriff repeater... You must know some people so thanks for the info. Do you happen to know timelines of towers being put up, to antennas put on, and how long til they get FCC licences?


As far as knowing how to resize a jpg I do not, I don't take pictures ever really. Even more so on tablets or a phone since we don't have a pc, even so if I did have a pc I still have no clue.

And for knowing what they need or how to design it I definitely don't but I think they cud of added sites to the existing SAFE-T system and had the same coverage but like I said I don't know. Maybe I misunderstood what you saying so I'm assuming that's what u meant.

 

[usswood]

Newton is building a 6 channel trunk system with 2 VHF channels patched in for 430 SUs, a new CAD and 2 300' towers for $5 million.

I'm curious what usswood and mr infinite would propose for that much. You can't even figure out how to resize a jpg but have vast knowledge of what local public safety users need and how to design it.

I can tell you this, it's all public records using public 911 user fee tax money from the tax payers of Vigo County, so the costs are out their to find.... That being said, I hope they get the bang for their buck, that they are looking for, as far as coverage goes!

 

[speedway_navigator]

I have not talked to the consultant in 2 weeks, don't have more details but will see if I can get something. Sites and uplink coverage was not the issue in Putnam, it was capacity. IPSC would need to add more repeaters or go to phase 2. During the last IPSC teams meeting I asked about a phase 2 date, it has not been decided yet.

The system can be switched, it's just some users have not upgraded radios. With all the doom and gloom predictions I'm hearing about how govt budgets are being affected by SB1 I wonder if that has delayed any mandated phase 1 cut off time.

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Since the FCC uls search is back up after the government shutdown is over I been looking for FCC license for the site, yet to see it. I decided last night to search for frequencies in the 700 band to see if I could find any that could be for it .

I got my handheld out with the rubber ducky antenna and found a p25 control channel that was full bars, and since the tower on the north end is about 3.7 miles away i'm pretty sure its it, because where I am I can barely pick up much unless it's on my antennas on the tower outside my house.

Im not sure which of the 2 is actually the channel thou, cause it's on 2 different frequencies but one sounds a little better but signal is essentially the same on both. So 772.709375 is the frequency it's on.

It says..
P25 772.709375
Sy:420 R001 S001

P25 P25: 420
99% N420 W:BEE00

So if anyone can get the program that u get the alternative control channel , and other channels from or figure out if this is the actual right frequency because 772.70625 also has it but it sounds better on the other frequency although the signal is the same on each so I'm not sure which is which.

I'm not sure how the FCC works, like if they assign the frequencies or the people working on building it out for the county choose the frequencies and submit the application to the FCC for it. I don't know but I couldn't find it on the FCC uls search.

I've not heard no traffic, probably cause they don't got license, or dispatch and units don't have the radios yet. But heard nothing in terms of radio techs testing or nothing yet. I don't even know if the south tower is on, because on my tower I don't get simulcast interference on it yet, so maybe just the north tower running, I honestly don't know.

I know Newton County said something the other day about the New CAD, so they are using the New CAD it seems. I haven't been able to pick up the the Morocco tower on Safety good, I get the control channel but the VC signal is crap so I've not heard them much lately. I know they are still on Safety cause I hear them on Monon but for some reason my reception of the VC on the Morocco site is crap even thou the CC is 5 bars 🤷🏻.

Anyways that's what I know so far, I'll keep updates coming as I get them and if anyone figures out anything please let me/us know

 

[west-pac]

Put these freqs in your scanner as analog channels, and wait to see if these come alive with digital noise during testing. The actual frequency that you're receiving is likely going to be 772.7125.

769.4375
769.6875
770.0875
771.0875
771.4625
772.2125
772.7125

 

[I_Am_Infinite]

Put these freqs in your scanner as analog channels, and wait to see if these come alive with digital noise during testing. The actual frequency that you're receiving is likely going to be 772.7125.

769.4375
769.6875
770.0875
771.0875
771.4625
772.2125
772.7125

Thanks. Is that from FCC if so I must suck at searching uls search. Another question I had the control channel I listed above and it trunks I put 772.7125 and it does nothing, I even programmed it into my sds thinking it might been simulcast issue witch it shouldn't be and even in the SDS it picks up no data, usually it says data at top but it said nothing, I'm so confused now. Any help please

 

[west-pac]

Thanks. Is that from FCC if so I must suck at searching uls search. Another question I had the control channel I listed above and it trunks I put 772.7125 and it does nothing, I even programmed it into my sds thinking it might been simulcast issue witch it shouldn't be and even in the see it picks up no data, usually it says data at top but it said nothing, I'm so confused now. Any help please

No, that is not from a ULS search. The CC you currently have is 772.7125 minus 0.00625 = 772.70625.

Subtract 0.00625 from all the frequencies I listed. Newton county is "suppose" to be on those freqs that I listed, however, they may be slightly off during the testing process, or they may potential stay on those new frequencies due to advancements in technology. Regardless, put those freqs in an analog scanner and wait to see which ones start having digital noise on them. If you have 2 scanners, or an SDR and a scanner, put the P25 CC in one scanner (so you can hear any audio that might be transmitted), and program the other freqs as analog FM freqs in the other scanner. When the analog channels start making digital noise you'll know 1) You'll confirm another on that P25 system, and 2) you'll know that the control channel for that system has rotated to the next channel.