New Radios Issued?!

[pmstewart]

Over the last few days I've heard discussions between the plows with UDOT about new radios and hoping they have better coverage in the western part of the county.

Sunday there was an hourly roll call of all units on duty in Weber Co. On 6048, 6080, 6400 in which all of the officers dispatched on each channel were instructed to change to a lock down channel for roll call. Each unit on duty was called and a response given then they were instructed to return to the regular channel to continue to receive regular traffic.

The tgid on my scanner never changed from the original. I suspect my scanner may have simply changed reception from analog to digital. There were no tones which were audible through the scanner to show a channel was actually changing.

Any thoughts?

 

[doctordialtone]

If you have your modulation set to Auto, that could happen.

The old radios and new radios can share the same UID and use the same TGID.

 

[enosjones]

If you have your scanner on ID search u will pick up whatever talkgroup they switched to, unless its off the trunking system, then idk. U won't pick it up if you are set to ID scan

 

[doctordialtone]

U won't pick it up if you are set to ID scan

Assuming He already was monitoring the system, the ID's would already be in there, so that's only partially true..

 

[enosjones]

If they switched to a talkgroup that is new, that he didn't have programmed the scanner would miss it on ID scan

 

[enosjones]

Or if he wasn't scanning that group it would miss it if he only had certain talkgroups turned on

 

[doctordialtone]

The tgid on my scanner never changed from the original.

If they switched to a talkgroup that is new

Right

 

[bneilson]

What makes you think they went from Analog to Digital?

Lock Down drills are not a new thing. Basically units will go to their Lock Down zone and then do roll call on their main channel. The zone is the same as normal it is just “locked down” to a specific site. The idea is that if the system is having issue they could go into site trunking mode or lock down.

 

[gldavis]

My 4-bits worth;
If I recollect correctly, lockdown just locks them to a set site. (just like Bneilson says)
Why the analog to digital comment? (just like Bneilson asks)
Was there traffic on the DOT Talk Groups, or was this all on Weber Co/Ogden TGs?
Is the Sunday roll call normal for these units?

 

[Thunderbolt]

It wouldn't be a bad idea to start searching around for new P25 sites, that are using the 9600 baud data channel in the 700/800 MHz bands. You might find something new.

73's

Ron

 

[MotoTRK]

Exactly what bneilson said is true. “Lockdown” is the TG strapped to a particular site for when sites loose wide trunking, performance is hindered but it allows the agencies to use their same TG and be on the same site making communications still possible. There is literature on this on the UCA website.

 

[pmstewart]

Roll call is NOT a normal activity. When a channel is locked down for only specific purposes there is a tone which sounds every 20 seconds - this tone was not going off every 20 seconds. I did not have the scanner set to ID new stuff but it is now.

UDOT was plows out working the higher elevations near the ski resorts separately from the roll call stuff.

It is entirely possible they could have been locked down to a single site for all traffic except for Weber Co Sheriff & UHP. Sheriff and UHP units are on both sides of the Oquirrh Mountains and they were part of the roll call. I do not know if the units they called were patrolling the west side so they could be locked to Weber Simulcast. All other traffic could be contacted through Weber Simulcast I believe.

 

[MotoTRK]

Having a channel "locked down" and the lockdown zone are two COMPLETELY different things in regards to the UCA system.

Utah Communications Authority

Follow this link and find the "Lockdown" video, that is what the "Lockdown" channel they would be switching to and not having the channel "restricted" or "locked down" with the beep tone every 20 seconds like what happens on the law channels.

https://www.uca911.org/File/66478696-6d09-4fdb-94c1-a4a9cf383c86

This document on page 17 also has information. All of this was found on the UCA website under the various division pages.

 

[gldavis]

Nice links. Thank-you

 

[pmstewart]

Very nice.....I look at the UCA site from time to time for tibits but those I"ve never seen. Great group of people we have here with vast wealth knowledge. Appreciate the sharing!

 

[MotoTRK]

Very nice.....I look at the UCA site from time to time for tibits but those I"ve never seen. Great group of people we have here with vast wealth knowledge. Appreciate the sharing!

They take some digging to find and I found them late one night while just link jumping on the site.

 

[KI7HBN]

I'm very interested in this as well. I'm a UDOT employee in the Uintah Basin area and I have been trying to find out when we're upgrading. It's been back and forth but our safety man was unaware until recently the Basin was behind on radio upgrades. Everyone in Wasatch County westward is on the 800's and we're still using 150's so we have little to no communication on the Hwy 191/35 mountain passes when we're up there alone. I also heard they were retrofitting two repeaters out here but I'm not sure where these people are getting their information to confirm. The same people told me the local emergency services were migrating to 800mhz as well and my BCT8 scanner has recently gone silent except for the EMS paging frequency. Does anyone have any insight into this?

 

[enosjones]

Region 4 carbon and emery are just beginning to use the 800 radios, we've been on vhf until the last few months, uhp for vernal and Duchesne is patched with 800, I can hear them on Bruin for Duchesne vhf, and it matches the 800 for TG 18368, and vernal is on th 18400, using Bruin steamboat little mountain grizzly ridge and asphalt mountain. As far as ems i haven't heard anything regarding them being on 800, but it doesn't mean they are not.

 

[enosjones]

What site towers are up there thats gone silent? Or that should cover that area?

 

[KI7HBN]

What site towers are up there thats gone silent? Or that should cover that area?

You'll have to forgive my ignorance as I am still very much a rookie when it comes to this all. The Tabby mountain repeater has been unusually silent and I am wondering if the Steamboat repeater is the other one they mentioned retrofitting. Because it seems like Duchesne county bounces their transmissions off Tabby mountain and similar for Steamboat and Uintah County (maybe Blue Mountain as well?) I'm not sure so don't quote me on any of this. I am pretty much on my own over here in the boonies. Sadly I don't have any friends nearby in the radio hobby to corroborate with!