Oakland County OpenSky

[ajstaman1999]

Oakland County, Michigan decided to go against the state-wide standard decades ago and chose MA-COM OpenSky for reasons I won't publicly speculate.

Inadequate unreliable coverage plagued the system putting countless lives at risk. I think they underestimated the number of tower sites required, in an effort to keep their bid competitive.

It became a quagmire when other agencies needed to work with Oakland County. They are finally coming to their senses and getting rid of OpenSKy and joining Michigan's MPSCS P25 Motorola system!

I live in oakland county (southwest in the milford/commerce area) and its a shame thag i have a BCD436HP and cant listen to any police activity in my area. I enjoy filming respinding videos and have to rely on fire toneouts that i think that PD will respond to. I would be estatic if they switched over.

 

[scanmanmi]

Can anyone listen to Opensky yet? If not then wouldn't that be an alternative to encryprion?

 

[radio3353]

Can anyone listen to Opensky yet? If not then wouldn't that be an alternative to encryprion?

No, OpenSky is not available to the listening public.

 

[ffexpCP]

Oakland County, Michigan decided to go against the state-wide standard decades ago and chose MA-COM OpenSky for reasons I won't publicly speculate.

Inadequate unreliable coverage plagued the system putting countless lives at risk. I think they underestimated the number of tower sites required, in an effort to keep their bid competitive.

It became a quagmire when other agencies needed to work with Oakland County. They are finally coming to their senses and getting rid of OpenSKy and joining Michigan's MPSCS P25 Motorola system!

Source?

They are in the process of evaluating bids for P25. But I'd be surprised if they went to MPSCS. I'd encourage it, but I HIGHLY doubt it.

 

[iMONITOR]

Source?

They are in the process of evaluating bids for P25. But I'd be surprised if they went to MPSCS. I'd encourage it, but I HIGHLY doubt it.

Oakland County P25 PII
https://forums.radioreference.com/michigan-radio-discussion-forum/361726-oakland-county-p25-pii.html

Nothing definite, but like others...you hear things from others 'in the know', names can't be mentioned.

There are some Oakland County talk-groups on MPSCS at this time:

 

[krokus]

Source?

They are in the process of evaluating bids for P25. But I'd be surprised if they went to MPSCS. I'd encourage it, but I HIGHLY doubt it.

Multiple reports, but there are a few that think Oakland could go with another P25 option.

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[ajstaman1999]

Multiple reports, but there are a few that think Oakland could go with another P25 option.

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https://www.oakgov.com/purchasing/Contract Change Orders/004500 - 004999/004717_CO_02.pdf

Found the bid that they will be implementing their own apco p25 system

 

[drdispatch]

There are some Oakland County talk-groups on MPSCS at this time:

Those talkgroups would have been there for quite some time; xxDRUG & xxCOM are assigned to every county whether they are on the system or not. The hospital talkgroups are so ambulances from outside the county can communicate with the ER while inbound. The rest of those, since they are marked "Patch" would have been put in place to allow MPSCS radios to communicate with the OpenSky radios & vice-versa, i.e. MSP - Oakland Sheriff, etc.

 

[fnnm400]

Since they are actually bidding out. P25 system, doesn’t mean you’re going to hear anything. In the circles that I have contacts, I’m lead to believe they will at minimum encrypt police when they which over. I would not be surprised if they do both. Oakland county is a community that loves to control what stats and facts are released to the public and when its released.

 

[a29zuk]

Since they are actually bidding out. P25 system, doesn’t mean you’re going to hear anything. In the circles that I have contacts, I’m lead to believe they will at minimum encrypt police when they which over. I would not be surprised if they do both. Oakland county is a community that loves to control what stats and facts are released to the public and when its released.[/QUOTE


I agree. The main reason they went with Open Sky was because it couldn't be monitored.

Jim

 

[ffexpCP]

They do love building their own empire, and don't like to play nice with others. Sheriff / county exec wants to be in control of everything they can.

I think it's their way of justifying their existence / job security.

 

[breezyjr]

This would be so incredibly awesome if they switched, AND it was not encrypted...

Oh, and one clarification, ALL ambulances, not just ones out of the area, use the MPSCS system, I know, cause I used it myself, and still hear the ambulance to ER calls...

 

[scanmanmi]

https://www.oakgov.com/purchasing/Contract Change Orders/004500 - 004999/004717_CO_02.pdf

What's Phase 3?

 

[Golay]

Project timeline

What's Phase 3?

I think what the three phases are in that document are steps in the timeline of implantation, not in the sense of what radio geeks consider Phase 1 and Phase 2.

 

[cindy123456]

new looking for information

Hi I am looking for information about what scanner to buy. I want to keep track of a Firefighter in Oakland county. Any information would be helpful and an ease on my mind.

 

[fnnm400]

There are no scanners made to track oakland county dept’s on the open sky system. Which happens to be all of them except the depts who have on call or volunteer depts. they use a pager system to dispatch the runs.

 

[DJMUF]

Im DJ I live in dearborn and listen to Oakland county all the time and some Oakland county on the conventional frequency. Get out of the MODP25 click on Oakland county. some cities like Southfeild city, Warren city broadcast under the conventional frequency.

 

[krokus]

Hi I am looking for information about what scanner to buy. I want to keep track of a Firefighter in Oakland county. Any information would be helpful and an ease on my mind.

Which department? Either you will be able to do it an inexpensive scanner, or not at all.

However, Oakland County is in the process of getting a new radio system, that will require a newer scanner. (Assuming it is not encrypted, which could happen.)

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[jim202]

There might be a few exceptions, but I believe support for the Open Sky system stopped some years back. My guess is that this new P25 system is the only step available to have a functioning radio system.

The big problem is that it take considerable time to build out a new system, test it then cut over all the users to the new system. Your talking a one year at top speed, with many radio techs, to maybe into a good part of a second year for a total cut over to the new radio system.

Have been involved with a number of new P25 system installs around the country. Even for the consulting team to run around making sure the contractors do the work properly, it takes time and many hours. Have seen some contractors take short cuts and not use the specified material. Found poor grounding, galvanization scrapes on the tower and raised building platforms not repaired. The list goes on.

 

[kd8ati]

Im DJ I live in dearborn and listen to Oakland county all the time and some Oakland county on the conventional frequency. Get out of the MODP25 click on Oakland county. some cities like Southfeild city, Warren city broadcast under the conventional frequency.

The only police your listening to in Oakland County is Southfield and MSP. Everyone else is on Opensky. Warren is in Macomb County. Even with the FD's all you can can hear are the vol's and paid on calls with pagers.