NYS Database Cleanup

[GTR8000]

As many of you have no doubt already noticed, I'm in the middle of a rather massive update to the entirety of NYS.

I'm reorganizing all state agencies and counties so they are consistent statewide, as well as meet the up-to-date standards and guidelines of the Database Handbook. I'm also cleaning up a ton of duplicated information, which is why you won't find any state agency information or common/shared statewide frequencies (like 45.88 and 155.370) on the county pages anymore (also per the Database Handbook).

I should be finished with the bulk of the reorganizing within a few days, followed by some fine tuning on a county-by-county basis.

Once complete, the changes will certainly make NYS much easier and familiar to navigate across all the counties.

Thanks for your patience and understanding while everything is in flux!

 

[N2SCV]

Thanks!

 

[KD2DXF]

As many of you have no doubt already noticed, I'm in the middle of a rather massive update to the entirety of NYS.

I'm reorganizing all state agencies and counties so they are consistent statewide, as well as meet the up-to-date standards and guidelines of the Database Handbook. I'm also cleaning up a ton of duplicated information, which is why you won't find any state agency information or common/shared statewide frequencies (like 45.88 and 155.370) on the county pages anymore (also per the Database Handbook).

I should be finished with the bulk of the reorganizing within a few days, followed by some fine tuning on a county-by-county basis.

Once complete, the changes will certainly make NYS much easier and familiar to navigate across all the counties.

Thanks for your patience and understanding while everything is in flux!

It looks alot better, everything is catagorized better, and looks neater. thanks

 

[DaveNF2G]

Great job so far.

One note of caution. Some counties use statewide frequencies with locally specific CTCSS tones, which is why some of them appeared in the NF2G listings.

 

[Mtnrider]

And some are Highway Depts.....Not Dept of Public works.....Big difference in NYS

 

[GTR8000]

Great job so far.

One note of caution. Some counties use statewide frequencies with locally specific CTCSS tones, which is why some of them appeared in the NF2G listings.

I found only five total instances of 45.88, 155.370 and 155.475 that had a unique tone listed. Those have been retained.

And some are Highway Depts.....Not Dept of Public works.....Big difference in NYS

I don't quite follow, what "some" are you referring to?

Yes, DPW and Highway are usually separate entities in many counties/towns/villages (Sewer also in some instances), however if you're referring to the RRDB Function Tag, they are all categorized under "Public Works".

 

[62Truck]

And some are Highway Depts.....Not Dept of Public works.....Big difference in NYS

In my county the Highway Dept is part of Dept of Public works. Dutchess has a few branches of DPW, Highway, Engineering, Airport, Buildings, and Parks.

 

[KD2DXF]

And some are Highway Depts.....Not Dept of Public works.....Big difference in NYS

Every town in lewis county has a Highway Department, most villages have A Department of Public Works, and larger villages such as Lowville, and possiably Carthage have A DPW and a Water Department and a Solid Waste Authority. So lets say you live out in Osceola, all you will have is the Town of Osceola Highway, but if you live in Lowville You have the Town of Lowville Highway Dpt., Village DPW, and Village Water. With all of them being seperate Ententies

I believe this is what he is referring to, but in his own county

 

[theoldcop]

As many of you have no doubt already noticed, I'm in the middle of a rather massive update to the entirety of NYS.

As a matter of fact I have seen your updates and I am impressed with the amount of time and effort you've expended so far.

Thank you for being devoted and staying on top of it all!! It's really appreciated.

Merry Christmas.

John

 

[k2hz]

Great job so far.

One note of caution. Some counties use statewide frequencies with locally specific CTCSS tones, which is why some of them appeared in the NF2G listings.

Why would a county use a unique PL tone on a statewide interoperability frequency? That would seem to negate the intended use of the frequency.

 

[c0untyb0y]

And some are Highway Depts.....Not Dept of Public works.....Big difference in NYS

gotta love New York's home rule laws!

 

[GTR8000]

Why would a county use a unique PL tone on a statewide interoperability frequency? That would seem to negate the intended use of the frequency.

They may have the frequency in their radios twice, once with PL and once CSQ. If you did that with 155.370, it would be a pretty easy way to create a car-to-car channel without the licensing hassles.

 

[KC2zZe]

Another reason would be due to the massive amount of out-of-state co-channel and adjoining channel narrowbanded users that makes 155.370 (and 45.88, for that matter) unmonitorable on a day-to-day basis. I am familiar with EMS agencies that do the same thing with EMS Statewide (155.715), and for the same reasons. All users with the same tone would readily hear each other. All an agency would need is one unit (a base or a mobile) assigned to monitor the channel in carrier squelch. If a user not using the designated tone is heard calling that agency, the assigned unit would answer up and any other units from the PL'ed agency that wished to be involved in the conversation would tap their MON buttons on their radios to hear the "outside" agency. It sounds like a cumbersome process, but until the State's DHSES's Office of Interoperability and Emergency Communications gets off its *** and declares standard tx and rx tones this problem will likely persist well into the remainder of this decade. Here...I'll even solve the problem for you right now...

The OIEC bullletin will read, in part: "...as your radio vendor is reprogramming equipment to migrate from wideband to narrowband, they are to be instructed to add the following CTCSS tones, on both transmit and receive, to all radios authorized to utilize the following frequenices:

LE Statewide 155.370 - 110.9 (as currently transmitted by DSP units)
V-Law31 (LE Nationwide) 155.475 - 156.7 (as per national standard)

L-Fire 4D (aka Intercounty) 45.880 - 156.7 (as per the national standard)

V-MED 28 (aka HEAR Primary) 155.340 - 156.7 (as per national standard)
All other HEAR channels - 123.0 (i.e.: 155.400 in Orange)
EMS Statewide 155.715 - 110.9 (to maintain consistancy with Law Enforcement Statewide)

All users of the above listed frequencies are to have this completed by June 1, 2012."

For some reason, something this simple can't be pulled off in a state like New York, yet the SPEN and JEMS networks work every single day right next door in New Jersey - despite the massive 700 and 800 MHz trunked systems that overlay the entire state (could you imagine the disaster that would have occurred if the SWN wasn't killed off as soon in the process as it was?). As Lee Shurtleff said in Issue 4 of Size Up magazine "...[these] once reliable and cooperative systems are perilously perched at the brink of obsolescene..." They shouldn't be. A little TLC would bring back true interoperability without spending tens of millions of dollars.

 

[k2hz]

KC2zZe makes an excellent case for the need for statewide or regional CTCSS tones on interoperability channels.

I suspect that some reported unique county tones are heard now simply because a multi-frequency base is used on the interop channel and it encodes the PL from the county channels by default although the interop channel is CSQ receive. This was an issue with older radios where PL transmit was not normally selectable on a per channel basis. It was easier to just transmit an irrelevant PL on 45.88 rather than modify the radio.

 

[KC2zZe]

Another reason why a specific tx only tone would be selected...not to step on Chauffer 6's territory here...would be to create a mutual aid network of sorts. Orangetown Police in Rockland borders an area covered by the Tri-Boro Mutual Aid Association in Bergen, New Jersey (Montvale, to be exact). Tri-Boro uses 173.8 on their Tac 2, 155.370. I recollect that Orangetown PD programmed up NY LE Statewide with 173.8 on tx (csq on rx, to hear everybody else). Should the State ever correct this long standing problem,such localized issues could easily be resolved by agencies such as Orangetown adding 155.370 in their radios twice; once with 110.9 and again with 173.8.

 

[W1KNE]

As many of you have no doubt already noticed, I'm in the middle of a rather massive update to the entirety of NYS.
Thanks for your patience and understanding while everything is in flux!

Paitence?? Geez Louise! I submitted a name spelling correction and it was done THAT night!! You're doing these database updates like lightning!

Thank you for all your hard work with the DB and keeping RR up to date.

 

[radioman2001]

For Westchester County PD I programmed 155.37 with a PL of 192.8,( I don't know if that modification made it through the last radio replacement and reprogramming) that made it easier for me to listen and track down rouge radios and interference. At the time we were getting a lot of interference from an agency in New Jersey. There was also someone using DES or DVP on that channel, which sounds like squelch noise and was driving the officers crazy.
BTW if PL is used on a county-wide basis I see no problem with that. Even the V-Tac's have PL, and with today's problems with all kinds of electronic interference, it makes sense.
Speaking of Tri-Borough radio dispatch, I also programmed a channel with their PL so officers could get N.J. plates run faster. I know that one didn't make it through the reprogramming process.