OCPD Will Rogers Division

[LindaFarrell]

Does anyone know what is wrong with Will Rogers? I haven't picked up any traffic from them in two days.

 

[WX5JCH]

I believe he died in a plane crash in 1935 era.

Actually, I think they are on 800 trs only for some reason.

 

[fireant]

The equipment they was using may have died since they went over to "800" more than likely it will not be back. I believe some time ago it was stated that if the VHF links quit working that they would not invest the money to repair the VHF equipment for the life of me don't remember if, I read that here or a OCPD officer told me that just know thats what I read or was told.

fireant

 

[LindaFarrell]

Would they be on the ProVoice system? I hadn't checked on Springlake or Hefner lately but tonight I am not picking up any traffic from them either. However, Santa Fe is still broadcasting on VHF.

 

[fireant]

Yes the are on the Provoice thats how OKC spells interoperablity. I have not listened to OKC for sometime but would not doubt they may be pulling the plug on the VHF. Heard the main reason for the VHF system being left up is for the troopers to be able to monitor them. If they would have gone to the system that everyone else was on this would not be the case. Maybe the are fixing to hard patch in OKC to the State System. There was a rumor sometime ago that was the plan however have not heard anything about it in quite some time now about if they was still on the books or not.

fireant

 

[LindaFarrell]

I turned on my scanner this morning and Hefner was back on VHF. Still don't have anything on Will Rogers or Springlake. There is always the possibility that it is my scanner or the nut operating the keypad but don't think so this time. I sure wish they would go to the state system instead of Provoice.

 

[WX5JCH]

I'll be in the city on Thursday. I'll have plenty of time to sit and evaluate the OKC system. Got to visit my Neurosurgeon again...

I'll let you know what I hear.

Jim

 

[LindaFarrell]

Thanks

 

[k5phw]

I hear Hefner fine on VHF. Not much traffic there sometimes.

 

[dstew67]

WIll Rogers is down. Spring Lake is intermittent. Santa Fe and Hefner are up.

 

[LindaFarrell]

Will Rogers is now broadcasting loud and clear.

 

[LindaFarrell]

Spoke too soon. When I got up this morning Will Rogers was dead again.

 

[n5usr]

I was listening to Hefner recently, and noticed an interesting effect - occasionally the repeater would "hang" for a bit with dead air after someone stopped talking, then you wouldn't hear anything else for a while even though they were in mid-conversation. After a while, it would just start working again. Perhaps the interface to the ProVoice system is poorly configured? It did this several times the evening I was listening - would cut out for a few minutes to maybe 10 minutes then work again for a while.

At any rate, I quit listening again - can't understand most of what anyone says, that's some awful audio!

Funny thing while I was listening - Bethany had something happen that involved OCPD, and the officer asked dispatch to call their dispatcher and get some more info. Bethany dispatcher came back and said, "their extremely rude dispatcher said (whatever...)". I started paying more attention to the scanner with OCPD going, and sure enough that was one surly dispatcher, even to his own officers!

Guess I need to get on with programming my scanners better for the DPS system and actually get the OKC TGs identified in them...

 

[RandyB]

I very much agree that the audio quality is poor.

They've chosen an odd way to configure the link, in my opinion. You can tell by tone-remote beeps that they still have the leased lines or microwave active between VHF sites. It seems to me that the audio from the Provoice system could be fed into the VHF repeaters via this method, rather than having an actual Provoice radio cross-banded to VHF, which appears to be what they've done. This is how Nashville, TN transitioned from their VHF system (very similar to OKC's) to their 800 MHz digital system. Similar to how the dispatch console is tied directly to the repeater, Nashville hooked the 800 MHz radios up via this method. It allowed for clean audio and a more reliable method than the one OKC chose.

My first thought when I noticed that the OKC VHF and Provoice systems were linked as they are was that it was a very temporary method and I didn't expect the links to remain up much longer than it took for them to completely transition to the new system. It seems to me that if OKC's goal was interoperability and these links were to remain up long-term for that reason, they would have chosen a more permanent and reliable linking method.

I'm not criticizing their decisions (I'm certainly no radio tech!). I'm wondering if perhaps the original idea was not to leave the links up for an extended period of time, but maybe that idea came later as the benefit of being able to communicate easily with those still on VHF system was realized. After all, quite a few surrounding agencies remain on VHF.

 

[dstew67]

I was listening to Hefner recently, and noticed an interesting effect - occasionally the repeater would "hang" for a bit with dead air after someone stopped talking, then you wouldn't hear anything else for a while even though they were in mid-conversation. After a while, it would just start working again. Perhaps the interface to the ProVoice system is poorly configured? It did this several times the evening I was listening - would cut out for a few minutes to maybe 10 minutes then work again for a while.

At any rate, I quit listening again - can't understand most of what anyone says, that's some awful audio!

Funny thing while I was listening - Bethany had something happen that involved OCPD, and the officer asked dispatch to call their dispatcher and get some more info. Bethany dispatcher came back and said, "their extremely rude dispatcher said (whatever...)". I started paying more attention to the scanner with OCPD going, and sure enough that was one surly dispatcher, even to his own officers!

Guess I need to get on with programming my scanners better for the DPS system and actually get the OKC TGs identified in them...

This is the repeater hanging. Basically, the repeater is hanging open. It either gets triggered again by the next audio and releases, or it times-out.

 

[dstew67]

I very much agree that the audio quality is poor.

They've chosen an odd way to configure the link, in my opinion. You can tell by tone-remote beeps that they still have the leased lines or microwave active between VHF sites. It seems to me that the audio from the Provoice system could be fed into the VHF repeaters via this method, rather than having an actual Provoice radio cross-banded to VHF, which appears to be what they've done. This is how Nashville, TN transitioned from their VHF system (very similar to OKC's) to their 800 MHz digital system. Similar to how the dispatch console is tied directly to the repeater, Nashville hooked the 800 MHz radios up via this method. It allowed for clean audio and a more reliable method than the one OKC chose.

My first thought when I noticed that the OKC VHF and Provoice systems were linked as they are was that it was a very temporary method and I didn't expect the links to remain up much longer than it took for them to completely transition to the new system. It seems to me that if OKC's goal was interoperability and these links were to remain up long-term for that reason, they would have chosen a more permanent and reliable linking method.

I'm not criticizing their decisions (I'm certainly no radio tech!). I'm wondering if perhaps the original idea was not to leave the links up for an extended period of time, but maybe that idea came later as the benefit of being able to communicate easily with those still on VHF system was realized. After all, quite a few surrounding agencies remain on VHF.

I can tell you that it was never the plan to leave the links up this long. It's my belief that problems interfacing with the DPS system, and pressure from media and other agencies has caused the City to keep these links up. When I say problems interfacing with the DPS system, I'm speaking of the DPS feeling comfortable that their system can handle the extra traffic from dedicated links with OCPD's dispatch talkgroups.