Norman testing ... what's at the console end?

[plaws]

Norman has been heard doing radio maintenance at the PD. This brings to mind a question: What is at the dispatch end of a trunked system? Microphone, sure, console, uh-huh, but then what? Is there a radio for each console? Is there one radio for all consoles (can't see how). Do they share an antenna or is there one for each?

(So much simpler in the wireline control days and then you had the advantage of always being able to hear the input side ... but those days are gone and everything is better now ...:roll



Edit: Just remembered that dispatch centers on OKWIN do some TCP/IP thing to Tulsa, then back to ... somewhere. Complexity is good, right? So if there are any smart people here (the rest of you can sit down now) maybe an explanation of how it was before, too, would be good!

 

[plaws]

Seriously? Nobody knows? Maybe there are no smart people here???

 

[mmckenna]

It depends on a number of things.

Console vendor, if they are using a Motorola system, they could have a Motorola console that can natively talk to the trunking central controller and repeaters over wire line, microwave, etc.

They could be using radios to connect to the system as subscriber unit would.

It's kind of hard to answer without knowing a lot of different things.


Motorola often uses a thing called a CEB or Central Electronics Bank. This controls all the consoles and will handle interface to many different radio system types. Could be the direct connection to the trunking controller, like above, 2 wire or 4 wire link to remote repeater sites, etc. Other brands, Zetron, etc, use similar "back room" systems that handle all the interfaces.

 

[n5bew1]

Norman is a two site simulcast system the two sites if I remember correctly have a microwave and a wireline connection between the two sites. At one time it seems they only had one path and it went down once. After that they thought about it and decided a back up was needed. The emergency services dispatch at the PD has several short little fiberglass antennas on the roof which may be 800 Mhz for a radio type connect???

 

[LtDoc]

Nope, you're right, ain't no smart people here. I certainly don't know what's there. But if I really wanted to know, I'd go ask someone smart there.
- 'Doc

 

[n5bew1]

Norman is a two site simulcast system the two sites if I remember correctly have a microwave and a wireline connection between the two sites. At one time it seems they only had one path and it went down once. After that they thought about it and decided a back up was needed. The emergency services dispatch at the PD has several short little fiberglass antennas on the roof which may be 800 Mhz for a radio type connect???

Last night out of curiosity I programmed in the input frequencies of the Norman system into a spare scanner and compared what I heard with what was being transmitted on the trunking side and the only transmissions I heard were the units in the field. I heard no transmissions from the dispatchers. So that leads me to conclude dispatch is tied in via a wire line non RF link to the trunking system. They may have the antennas on the roof for backup if the main link goes down.

 

[plaws]

Motorola often uses a thing called a CEB or Central Electronics Bank. This controls all the consoles and will handle interface to many different radio system types. Could be the direct connection to the trunking controller, like above, 2 wire or 4 wire link to remote repeater sites, etc. Other brands, Zetron, etc, use similar "back room" systems that handle all the interfaces.

Not being from here, you don't get the context that we all take for granted. System is a Motorola Type II SmartZone (or SmartNet?). Cobbled together from formerly independent systems owned by the cities of Tulsa, Shawnee, Edmond, and Norman and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. All sites are linked to a controller in Tulsa and some talkgroups are statewide.

Your mention of wireline control reminded me that all console audio (and I don't know who made the consoles) now travels up the Turnpike to Tulsa before coming back to ... the sites themselves? I guess that's what it is as n5bew1 isn't hearing the dispatchers on the input side. Maybe he or I can remember to do the same test while near the PD to rule out directional antennas (there aren't any visible there, so probably not).

Wireline, eh? So can the dispatcher hear the mobiles directly like in real radio systems, meaning essentially full-duplex at the console end?