Process of going Analog to Digital on Edacs.

[Eldon]

Can anybody explain to me what the process of going from analog to digital on Edacs is like...

Here in the City of Las Cruces, the PD, FD, and Utilities are all on a analog Edacs system. Recently the Fire Dept. has been asking dispatch to send some kind of activation key on the air. I will then here a serious of beeps (they sound as if dispatch was pressing the keys on a telephone). A couple of times the Fire Dept. comes back on the air and advising dispatch that they couldn't reinsert the key.

I hope this is some kind of way of resetting a fire alarm and not a key to go digital. Has anybody ever heard the same process as I did? Please let me know.

 

[jpm]

I am a firefighter/paramedic here in illinois. We have a fire department on our conventional vhf system that uses knox boxes that are opened over the frequency we share with them. it does send some weird sound on the frequency too. now if a key is needed as well i don't know as we just use the knox box keys for entry during a fire/ambulance call. i hope this clear up your cocern of the system going digital.

 

[NMPhillieFan]

jpm is correct. The 'key' they mention is an actual key, like your car keys. The key is used to unlock the master key box in a building. Usually, each unit has a key, unlocked by the dispatcher sending the tones over the radio. Again, usually, each units tone series is different...as to not unlock all the boxes at the same time unnecessarily.

At my former place of employment, a log was kept containing info such as who requested the key unlocked and why (if not obvious). This is to keep the occassional dishonest person from unlocking the key and using it for illegal purposes.