Possible Dollywood NXDN Upgrade

[surfacemount]

Not taking a side, and not having any recent intel...
I'd hate to have to engineer a rf solution for up there. Lots of terrain corrugation and multipath. I wonder how much fiber they have, and if it's underground, or on the poles, where the power and phone lines used to fail under medium snow load back in the 90's?

The bottoms would be pretty straightforward for this region, starr mountain and a couple of other spots on a voter, but, those hills...

 

[KN4EHX]

Not taking a side, and not having any recent intel...
I'd hate to have to engineer a rf solution for up there. Lots of terrain corrugation and multipath. I wonder how much fiber they have, and if it's underground, or on the poles, where the power and phone lines used to fail under medium snow load back in the 90's?

The bottoms would be pretty straightforward for this region, starr mountain and a couple of other spots on a voter, but, those hills...

Working in this area of Tennessee I can confirm East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and Southwest Virginia is probably one of the most difficult areas to get decent radio reception. I wasn’t there for the Gatlinburg fires but some of my coworkers were. Whenever I ask them about the fires the first things that comes out of their mouths is nobody knew who was in charge and there was absolutely no radio communications. They eventually went analog VHF among each other on interop channels but never really talked to anyone else.

 

[surfacemount]

Working in this area of Tennessee I can confirm East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, and Southwest Virginia is probably one of the most difficult areas to get decent radio reception. I wasn’t there for the Gatlinburg fires but some of my coworkers were. Whenever I ask them about the fires the first things that comes out of their mouths is nobody knew who was in charge and there was absolutely no radio communications. They eventually went analog VHF among each other on interop channels but never really talked to anyone else.

I know one of the air force cats that deployed there to set up some interop stuff in the hotel on top of the hill and provide connectivity in... their toc? I forget now. His description of things makes me wished he'd write a book; it literally was the perfect (LMR) storm...

 

[medic9351301]

i think we are getting off the topic of dollywood moving.
the theme was why do they need to move to a nexedge system if thats what the plans are . what will it accomplish if they move. other than giving the good ole boys of landair more money and encryption.
when i opened our theme park we were on the county mixed mode trunked systems . we had 5 or 6 talk groups that were in the clear and it worked great. if there was a emergency the security,ems,and admin were patched together during the main dispatch then after the call was dispatched unpatched.

 

[surfacemount]

Answered in the second post.
It's not about making sense in Sevier County, never has. There is a group there that has always had a stranglehold on LMR. Looks like they are still giving TACN a run for their money. DW might need scada or some kind of RF-based short haul monitoring, or their stuff might be at EOL, or they may have gotten a grant. Tons of reasons, they all point to LandAir though

 

[zachgallop]

Pigeon Forge City Council Minutes from July 27th , 2021:http://cityofpigeonforge.com/uploadedFiles/Community_Development/PC 7-27-21.pdf .

 

[medic9351301]

or they may have gotten a grant.
[/QUOTE]
dude, i can assure you that a private non public saftey corporation IS NOT GOING TO GET A GRANT . its hard enough for public saftey agencies to get one. i know several smaller departments that have applied and gotten rejected. It just pisses me off that people think that radio salesmen are god and know what they are talking about . i have listened to there lies and bs for over 20 years. my favorite lines "fcc now mandates encryption ".
"you get better coverage with dmr" . before my county went central 911 and were bought radios i help mantain a vhf repeater for 25 years.Never had issues at all. In fact is still up and mantained as a back up in case of issues . so dont tell me about eol and this new tech is better cause its not.

 

[jblackst]

Dolly doesn't need a grant, she's essentially printing her own cash up there.

 

[KN4EHX]

Dolly doesn't need a grant, she's essentially printing her own cash up there.

Considering all the limelight and how many people pass through DW it isn’t outside the realm of possibility for Dolly to get a smoking deal on about anything she wants. If I was CEO of a comms company I’d probably want her endorsement and some money. Dolly trust this brand of radio; be like Dolly!

Clearly I got into the wrong business. Should have been a radio salesperson. Agreed Dolly makes her own money and makes a whole lot for the county and state too. Dolly gets what Dolly wants. Luckily Dolly uses that power to do good for the area. Gatlinburg Fire recovery comes to mind.

 

[surfacemount]

it will be interesting to see what else hangs off that tower

 

[zachgallop]

It seems like Dollywood is on its new radio system or at least partially. Their Security Officers are now carrying Icom F3400D Series Radios with a display. So it looks like they went the IDAS route for their new radio system. I have also heard digital sounding audio coming from a few employees radios in videos the last couple of months. Each one has a different job within the park. It’s still unknown if they are clear or encrypted on this new system.

 

[KN4EHX]

It seems like Dollywood is on its new radio system or at least partially. Their Security Officers are now carrying Icom F3400D Series Radios with a display. So it looks like they went the IDAS route for their new radio system. I have also heard digital sounding audio coming from a few employees radios in videos the last couple of months. Each one has a different job within the park. It’s still unknown if they are clear or encrypted on this new system.

I’ve heard they aren’t too fond of their new radios. “Too many channels”. Having issues talking to people around them; I guess there is a lot of talkgroups where in the past they didn’t have so many.

 

[INDY72]

I’ve heard they aren’t too fond of their new radios. “Too many channels”. Having issues talking to people around them; I guess there is a lot of talkgroups where in the past they didn’t have so many.

Hmm sounds like their Comms folks have no idea about training. Sheesh, I mean if garbage guys can use APX radios, then these guys should be able to use the iComs.

 

[surfacemount]

People get comfortable. My Mother cried when I bought her a laptop. She didn't want to learn it. Same same tablet and cell phone. I bet they don't have 'comms guys', either. They walked in, the old radios were in their chargers unplugged, and there was the new ones. Turn it on, and leave it alone. lol (I've worked some security)

A garbage guy with a five thousand dollar walkie talkie. (shakes head) It would be fun to see the tg planning. Garbage-Garbage, Refuse tactical, Refuseground 1-3, truckwide, driver-rider, and of course dog! haha

 

[jblackst]

A garbage guy with a five thousand dollar walkie talkie. (shakes head) It would be fun to see the tg planning. Garbage-Garbage, Refuse tactical, Refuseground 1-3, truckwide, driver-rider, and of course dog! haha

You forgot to list the 8 'spare' or 'future' TGIDs for Garbage (Garbage Spare 1-8) ;-)

 

[INDY72]

People get comfortable. My Mother cried when I bought her a laptop. She didn't want to learn it. Same same tablet and cell phone. I bet they don't have 'comms guys', either. They walked in, the old radios were in their chargers unplugged, and there was the new ones. Turn it on, and leave it alone. lol (I've worked some security)

A garbage guy with a five thousand dollar walkie talkie. (shakes head) It would be fun to see the tg planning. Garbage-Garbage, Refuse tactical, Refuseground 1-3, truckwide, driver-rider, and of course dog! haha

We have them here in Indy. Solid Waste has 1 Primary and different District TG's, then 1 each for the other municipalities on our system. Then you have a couple for Heavy Trash (The scooper trucks). Our County Health Department also has a few of these. Its really not that difficult a task to set it up, and its literally basic training in daily ops for the radios. The Admin guys have access to a lot of other TG Groupings. The users will be transitioning from the XTS's to APX's pretty soon. The Public Safety side has already fully transitioned, and that system has been fully upgraded, with the Public Works system about to begin in the near future. There are many other places that use some very nice gear for everyone from the Trash folks to the Dog Catchers. If they can, then sorry, but a MULTI MILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY like Dollywood can with just minimal training. Heck, we are not even talking about training for encryption like a lot of places are using on even School Bus ops. (Sullivan County etc on the TACN...) Jeez, even Coors, and Budwieser have newest gear and run a ton of encryption... I would love to see that TG planning... Hops1 thru Hops 5, Brewmaster 1, thru 5 etc,...

 

[surfacemount]

Aw snap
I completely forgot about admin! Perhaps a 'snitch' channel that dynamically regroups all of the managment tg's into a listen only... and yeah, half a dozen reserved TGID's for future expansion.

.... We're talking about dollywood, where legend has it security was forbidden to wear sunglasses because it might present the wrong image. They can't make money if they are spending it on useless stuff like reliable communications and stuff and things.
Uhoh, my shift is about to start (puts on giant pretzel hat) gotta go guys

 

[mmckenna]

So it looks like they went the IDAS route for their new radio system.

LTR and Type D NXDN trunking are extremely similar in their design. In fact, Kenwood has a section in the indepth manual regarding running NXDN and LTR side by side on the same system as radios get swapped out.

 

[INDY72]

LTR and both Type D NXDN, as well as Capacity Plus DMR are all extremely similar, (Logic Style Trunking) thus the reason that LTR is upgraded to one of those two flavors when they go digital. Where as they take Motorola "Type I, or II, IIi" or EDACS and convert them to Type C NXDN or Connect Plus DMR as they use the Control Channel method of trunking if they don't choose an P25 flavor. Its all about simplicity of conversion. If you have an need for larger capacity no matter what your upgrading from, you usually want DMR, and if your not thinking of larger capacities, NXDN is better for you. Dollywood is not going to be expanding in any near time sense of future timelines and will not have need of the options that TDMA would give, so just going FDMA makes sense. They also have no need for a lot of the advanced options P25 has, much less the expenses with it. So all around for their needs, the choice was good move. Hopefully they will learn from growing pains so to speak and do proper training and get it all in smoother motion in the future.

 

[mmckenna]

LTR and both Type D NXDN, as well as Capacity Plus DMR are all extremely similar, (Logic Style Trunking) thus the reason that LTR is upgraded to one of those two flavors when they go digital. Where as they take Motorola "Type I, or II, IIi" or EDACS and convert them to Type C NXDN or Connect Plus DMR as they use the Control Channel method of trunking if they don't choose an P25 flavor. Its all about simplicity of conversion. If you have an need for larger capacity no matter what your upgrading from, you usually want DMR, and if your not thinking of larger capacities, NXDN is better for you. Dollywood is not going to be expanding in any near time sense of future timelines and will not have need of the options that TDMA would give, so just going FDMA makes sense. They also have no need for a lot of the advanced options P25 has, much less the expenses with it. So all around for their needs, the choice was good move. Hopefully they will learn from growing pains so to speak and do proper training and get it all in smoother motion in the future.

Exactly what I did. Out with the IIi system, in with the NexEdge. Been happy ever since.