Okc Edacs

[mam1081]

Who's listenin' to the new system?

There has been a lot of activity lately. Almost all the OCPD dispatch channels are linked to the EDACS. Several OCFD channels are also linked. All of those are analog. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of digital yet, but we'll see what happens. The only ID I have seen in digital is 418, which is one ID off of the detectives link. Hmmm.... Also, they are not just digital, they are encrypted ProVoice :-(

 

[KK5FM]

The city has always maintained that "sensitive" communications; detectives, special operations, etc., would be encrypted on the new system. The rest of public safety is supposed to be 'just plain digital,' which still doesn't help, unless you have an Edacs provoice radio... Interesting listening to the delay between old system and new system. The other night when the dispatcher was doing radio checks for fire stations, it went like 1..1; 2..2; 3..3 etc.

 

[ttlradioman]

Does anyone know the display for the PD talkgroups

 

[dward42586]

I was in OKC recently and had programmed my BC870XLT with the new EDACS system. All I heard was the Norman patch and the Lake Rangers patch.

 

[Gilligan]

Regarding the Norman patch, sounds like you are referring to the State of Oklahoma DPS system, which is a Motorola Type II Smartnet system.

About the radio displays, wish I had an idea on that. I did, however, get a peek inside an unmarked city cruiser the other night (which I had good reason to believe was a few detectives working vice, considering the circumstances), and I saw what looked like a nice new radio inside the console -- not one of the old vhf radios from the past. Not sure if it was just an updated radio or what -- detectives would probably need more channels. If it is on the new EDACS system, that would explain the detectives having their own TGs already. By the way, are the detective channels supposed to be simulcasting 158.76 and 155.19 or are they for sure their own channels?

Also, for anyone having trouble scanning the system, check the EDACS mode on your scanner. I have a 246T and have had problems getting it to scan. Then I checked the mode and found I had it set to EDACS Narrow instead of EDACS Wide. I guess the digital needs Wide mode so anyway that fixed the problem.

It's going to be fun searching out all the new talkgroups on this system as it gathers more and more users. It'll also be fun listening to all the stuff that turns up on the old vhf frequencies -- probably a lot of talkaround traffic -- at least I hope so. I honestly expect some federal users to show up on the EDACS in encrypted ProVoice. Maybe their waiting on the city system to get up instead of purchasing DPS radios... just a thought.

 

[mam1081]

I don't think we'll see too many other agencies (non-Okla. City) using this system, as it's being paid for by the city. It would be smart to put the SO and all the other little towns in the metro on it, but why would they want to do something smart??

On another smart note, with all this re-banding stuff, why would the system (which would probably be pretty easy to change now) be in the area to be re-banded? It would be smart to just make all the freqs sub 860, and be done with it. If they wait too long, they will be faced with re-programming LOTS of radios, not just the 200 or so they have active right now.

As for the vice units, TGID 417 was patched (but I don't think it is anymore), but 418 is an all-trunked, all ProVoice, all encrypted talkgroup that is not patched.

Last night there were a lot of new radios on the system. No-one was talking on them, but they were on there changing channels and "looking around". As of last night, I have 176 active radios (including patch radios). 118 of those have more than 10 "hits" (probably the ones in use). Take about 12 of those out for the link channels and you get ~ 100 radios out on the street that are in use.

Keep the info about the radio sightings in cars on on officers coming! I haven't seen any, but have been looking for new 800 antennas on the cars.

Happy scanning.

 

[dstew67]

I still hear normal traffic on 158.76, 155.19. amd 154.025, but nothing on EDACS during those VHF transmissions yet. I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

 

[mam1081]

If it's a digital talkgroup, and you have your scanner "trunk-tracking", it will not pick it up. Scanner ignore the digital talkgroups they cannot decode (except for APCO-25 encrypted ones). If you run a program such as etrunk, it will show ALL activity on the trunked system, and then you can see what is really going on. I have not seen TGID 418 active in a while, but they were there last week or two weeks ago. It was not patched to any VHF that I could find, and the radios talking on that TGID were different (not like a patch - they are all the same radio on a patch). TGID 417 was linked to the Detectives repeater, but I haven't heard that one in a while either.

 

[dstew67]

You know, I haven't read anything in a while about any new technology that may be coming out that would allow us to listen to digital TGs. Anyone have any good news?

 

[mam1081]

Not for EDACS. M/A Com would have to let the scanner manufacurers put their protocol (ProVoice) in new scanners. Motorola systems use APCO-25 (the standard for digital voice - too bad OKC didn't know that) as digital, and any digital scanner will pick up those digital transmissions.

 

[dstew67]

I assumed things were still the same as the last time I checked, and the time before that, and the time before that...too bad. What I still just don't get is, why, when we all voted for the funds to make the OKC system compatible with OHP's system, so that we could avoid another horrible accident, the city chose a system that the dispatchers would still have to patch for city officers to communicate with state officers. Just makes me plain pissed-off. Politics as usual, right?

 

[mam1081]

Current Talkgroups - OKC

It seems like the new system is becoming more and more active...

I have many talkgroups recorded so far. Today's list for active talkgroups is longer than usual though. Below is a dump out of etrunk. It lists the title designator, type (Analog, Provoice - this can be "ProVoice" if that channel has EVER had provoice traffic on it), ID (talkgroup ID), last hit (today, Nov. 8, '05), and hits (since I started running this program (a lot time ago!)). This list does not specify if the talkgroup has had encrypted traffic on it, only analog or digital. Maybe this will give us an idea of the talkgroups to be used in this new system.

Unfortunately, there is not a tabular format that I can put in this forum (doesn't allow lots of spaces).

List is sorted by # hits, then by Last hit time.

Enjoy.

Title Type ID_dec Last Hit (time) Hits
OCPD Hefner Link 02-021 ProVoice 273 20:48 145326
Testing 02-041 ProVoice 289 15:17 122184
OCPD WillRogers 02-024 ProVoice 276 15:52 94230
OCPD SantaFe Link 02-023 ProVoice 275 15:52 80124
OCPD Spring Lake 02-022 ProVoice 274 15:52 71094
OCFD Ch 3 453.600 ProVoice 533 20:34 25477
OCFD Ch 1 453.150 04-023 ProVoice 531 20:47 19941
OCFD Ch 2 453.350 04-024 ProVoice 532 20:47 18155
Airport Maint 158.775 Analog 904 20:48 5924
OCFD Ch 7 453.450 04-027 ProVoice 535 20:39 2333
EPV - Detectives?? ProVoice 418 15:36 2171
Detectives 03-041 ProVoice 417 15:40 1922
? Analog 873 16:45 1106
OCFD ?? ProVoice 530 16:10 699
? Analog 803 19:21 577
? ProVoice 277 14:59 492
Traffic Signals Patch Analog 835 19:11 423
? ProVoice 550 18:16 294
? Analog 939 16:47 258
? Analog 929 10:40 249
? ProVoice 1553 17:12 224
? ProVoice 547 18:21 217
OCPD Records Link 02-032 ProVoice 282 15:13 153
? Analog 0 15:59 132
? ProVoice 555 9:40 104
? ProVoice 291 13:05 103
? ProVoice 278 14:59 62
? ProVoice 292 15:23 30
? ProVoice 1282 17:20 28
? ProVoice 430 15:23 22
? ProVoice 353 15:59 19
? ProVoice 865 16:45 11
? ProVoice 287 13:05 11
? Analog 930 10:55 10
? ProVoice 313 13:05 9
? ProVoice 540 12:45 9
? ProVoice 425 9:27 9
? ProVoice 1554 15:29 7
? Analog 1569 15:28 6
? ProVoice 281 12:50 4
? ProVoice 285 12:50 4
? ProVoice 1281 15:29 3
? ProVoice 290 13:05 3
? Analog 872 16:45 2
? Analog 935 16:45 2
? ProVoice 354 15:59 2
? Analog 1536 15:29 2
? Analog 1809 15:28 2
? ProVoice 1346 8:24 2
? Analog 1284 17:20 1
? ProVoice 306 15:59 1
? Analog 307 15:59 1
? ProVoice 309 15:59 1
? Analog 1280 15:28 1
? Analog 1552 15:28 1
? Analog 1568 15:28 1
? Analog 1792 15:28 1
? Analog 1808 15:28 1
? Analog 1810 15:28 1
? Analog 1283 15:27 1
? Analog 1285 15:27 1
? Analog 896 15:07 1
? ProVoice 355 12:50 1
? Analog 900 8:45 1
? Analog 1345 17:20 0
? Analog 871 16:45 0
? Analog 877 16:45 0
? Analog 866 16:44 0
? Analog 867 16:44 0
? Analog 305 15:59 0
? Analog 308 15:59 0
? Analog 2044 15:59 0
? Analog 339 15:57 0
? Analog 343 15:57 0
? Analog 369 15:57 0
? Analog 372 15:57 0
? Analog 2045 15:56 0
? Analog 337 15:55 0
? Analog 344 15:55 0
? Analog 311 14:36 0
? Analog 284 12:50 0
? Analog 286 12:50 0

 

[WX5JCH]

I was in OKC on Monday and I can confirm that they are using the new system, sounds like a rebroadcast of the old system on most channels. Quite a little lag time. I can hear the system along I-40 west out to about W'ford before it breaks up. Some morinings I can hear it at home in Elk on the Cetral tower, using just my 246t.

 

[dstew67]

Hey Mark, thanks for the info! I haven't been able to listen to the EDACS system for the past two days, just due to my schedule. I just turned it on, and am hearing either the radio shop or the EDACS folks on 1553. Well, of course I rushed right to the PC to check to see if anyone else was hearing it too. Thanks to you, my questions were answered.

 

[dstew67]

The system is down right now. I suppose this is why I'm hearing some troubleshooting and repair going on...

...when I say it's down, I don't mean down. I just mean that traffic was not being repeated through the EDACS system.

 

[dstew67]

UPDATE:
It's back up....that was quick!

 

[mam1081]

TGID 418 is active right now with encrypted provoice (thought to be OCPD Detectives/Vice).

Also, LCN #9 - 867.2625 (Site 1) seems to be having problems. The controller has skipped that channel in the traffic sequence for the last few minutes that I have been watching.

 

[mam1081]

Wow - I was just at the Radio Shack at 63rd and Western, and the sales clerk there tried to sell me a digital scanner. He even stated that it would follow OKC when they switched over to digital. I corrected him, but he instisted and told me his manager told him that. Of course, I had to tell him what was up and that he was incorrect and why he was incorrect. I think next time someone is in there, you should ask for a ProVoice demo! Nemo, if you read this, please make sure they don't sell that APCO-25 scanner to un-suspecting people.

But wouldn't it be great to have one (ProVoice scanner that is)?!?

 

[peterjmag]

Ha Ha Ha You gotta love your local RS store!

 

[WX5JCH]

"You got questions?... we got bs!..."