Orange County P25 System

[dtscho]

(The most recent thread about the Orange P25 system is locked, so I've started a new thread.)

According to a letter sent from the county to the FCC within the last month, the P25 system has been delayed due to the pandemic. The county now expects coverage testing this fall, and user transition by the end of the year.

Dave

 

[N4VKF]

Patiently waiting. Thanks

 

[GmanX]

Those Harris systems are popping up everywhere

 

[maus92]

Those Harris systems are popping up everywhere

Kinda makes sense since they are the hometown team. Most county systems in the DC metro / Maryland are Motorola systems - and they are big. Montgomery and Anne Arundel counties are building 22-site systems, which are a larger than many Harris systems that tend to have 10 or less tower sites. They tend to work better too.

 

[GmanX]

I think its a cost thing more than a performance thing. From the county people I have talked to say the Harris equipment is significantly less expensive than its Motorola equivalent. I have also heard of some growing pains when switching from Motorola from Harris.

 

[maus92]

Any time you switch infrastructure vendors, it's going to cost you more. There are also vendor specific aka proprietary "features" that are not universally supported, even with the P25 / TIA "standards." This is why a jurisdiction generally doesn't move from one vendor to another - unless you are a major jurisdiction that has to replace a problematic system (like Clark County / Las Vegas, which replaced their Harris system with Motorola.) The are certain economies, particularly with subscriber equipment, that make staying with a single vendor more cost effective - at least during the transition to the P25 public safety standard.

 

[dtscho]

The system is now live. They were doing radio testing yesterday (Aug. 30).

Dave

 

[dtscho]

I've checked a couple of times the past week, and haven't found a control channel for the system. But it was definitely there on Aug. 30. I'm sure it'll be back shortly.

Dave

 

[Dafe1er]

I've checked a couple of times the past week, and haven't found a control channel for the system. But it was definitely there on Aug. 30. I'm sure it'll be back shortly.

Dave

I have everything in my SDS's and not a sound yet over the weekend.....They'll be playing again soon as you said.

 

[N4VKF]

Anyone know what the pl changed to for 155.055?

 

[Dafe1er]

Anyone know what the pl changed to for 155.055?

Nothing changed as I see it. Fire working like before.

 

[N4VKF]

What frequency is channel 16?

 

[CPerk]

Hearing tones or something on TG 64001 with RID 9980002

almost like a test tone for testing purposes as of tonight at 2208 hours

 

[BlueMoon2]

Today I talked to a member of Orange County fire rescue about their new p25 radio system. He said it has not gone live yet but the plans as he knows them are to go live in December. This would confirm what the other gentlemen said about testing tones heard on talk groups.
In related news, he also said that they just moved into their new 911 center this past Wednesday.

 

[CPerk]

Strong signal tonight 2106 hours and heard 64056 TG active but with encryption and RID of 9989154 .
Consistent key up , with no unkey

 

[Dafe1er]

They have been testing the system for a few days. Nothing major other than the verbal testing sequence they use for tuning. There are a couple of channels using encryption. I will have to pull the TG numbers and what I have for recording later this weekend and share what I have found so far. Seems like they will go right into encryption right out of the gate but, we shall see.

 

[N4VKF]

Not receiving this system on my unication G4.

 

[dtscho]

Talkgroup 601 is being used to multicast Fire/EMS dispatch on 155.0550. The sound quality is pretty awful...

Dave

 

[dtscho]

Talkgroup 502 was just active. Mention of a "bus loop." Maybe this is school maintenance or public works.

Unlike 601 (see above post) the users on this talkgroup sounded clear. This talkgroup is obviously not a multicast of a conventional frequency.

The radio IDs are 436xxxx.

Dave

 

[dtscho]

Talkgroup 502 was definitely used for snow/ice removal at various schools in Orange. It was impossible to tell if it was school maintenance or county public works.

Dave