Rebanding in Genesee County (MI)

[tomroot]

Does anyone know the status of Genesee County MPSCS rebanding? And the status of the City of Flint joining the MPSCS? When will the new control frequencies become available? Has Flint planned out any police or fire talkgroups yet? What about the narrowbanding of the VHF fire pager tone-outs and dispatches on 154.145MHz? Is there any information yet available on any of these subjects?

 

[rdale]

Genesee was where they stopped rebanding, it was supposed to start back up this week per the last newsletter.

 

[AC8MS]

With only a month to go, we're cutting it close. Will they make it in time, or continue w/ VHF and incur fines?

 

[rdale]

If they are moving to MPSCS, they are likely getting an extension. The FCC is allowing that for entities who have established plans.

 

[tomroot]

I may have inadvertently mistitled this thread, or titled it incompletely :-( ....but with respect to Genesee County, there seems to be two separate issues here, (1) rebanding, and (2) narrow banding....the narrow-banding mandate becomes effective 1/1/2013, but I believe that the 800MHz rebanding mandate doesn't take effect until later in 2013....the impact of this seems to me to be that the City of Flint (currently operating on VHF FM) has/will have both mandates to contend with, while the current 800MHz MPSCS out-county public safety operations (except for the fire pager issue I mentioned above) have only to deal with the 800MHz rebanding mandate....

It would be good if anyone can clarify these issues with respect to the City of Flint, and out-county Genesee County....

 

[rdale]

Rebanding deadline is far away... What I'm saying is that the FCC is granting narrowbanding extensions to communities that have established timelines for transitioning to a new system, so odds are that's at work here.

 

[tomroot]

Rebanding deadline is far away... What I'm saying is that the FCC is granting narrowbanding extensions to communities that have established timelines for transitioning to a new system, so odds are that's at work here.

Many thanks, kind sir ;-) ....T

 

[rdale]

Not to go off topic but I need to do some simulcast testing and I'd like as short of a drive from Lansing as possible. Any areas west of Flint that have notable issues in reception?

 

[Ronaldski]

FYI for timelines, I know on Friday in bay county they were doing a LOT of radio checks on Event channel 39 for rebanded radios as the ID's were always different akaik and a few officers mentioning about taking their radios in for rebanding.

 

[tomroot]

Not to go off topic but I need to do some simulcast testing and I'd like as short of a drive from Lansing as possible. Any areas west of Flint that have notable issues in reception?

I don't do mobile 800MHz GENCO scanning, but I live near downtown Flushing (NW GENCO) in the shadow of the Flushing tower....this is a few miles N of I-69 on Sheridan Road (M-13), and then acoupla miles to the east on W. Pierson Road....and me being this close to the tower gives me 5-bar reception on a wet noodle ....although I've heard that there are some areas in GENCO, e.g. in the area of the Genesee Valley Mall at Miller Road and Linden Road, where the almost equidistant relationship to many of the GENCO towers causes some signal interaction problems, I'm not qualified to comment otherwise....good luck!

 

[rdale]

Thanks - ends up that I'm going to Bronner's on Saturday so I'll make a pit stop in a few spots...

 

[tomroot]

Thanks - ends up that I'm going to Bronner's on Saturday so I'll make a pit stop in a few spots...

Have fun in Frankenmuth

Also, I'm hoping that some GENCO scanning enthusiast, as soon as he/she learns of the new (rebanded 800 MHz) GENCO control frequency(ies) will post them here! I hope, I hope, I hope ....all I need (I'm told) is the one or two new control frequencies....

 

[tomroot]

Not to go off topic but I need to do some simulcast testing and I'd like as short of a drive from Lansing as possible. Any areas west of Flint that have notable issues in reception?

I just remembered....the phrase I was trying to come up with is "multi-path distortion"....it reportedly occurs to mobile scanners near the Genesee Valley Mall, but I live right near the NW tower in Flushing, and I do not even need (although I use one) an antenna for my fixed station listening....and I have solid 5-bar reception

 

[drdispatch]

Thanks - ends up that I'm going to Bronner's on Saturday so I'll make a pit stop in a few spots...

Hey, Rob -- If you dine at Z's, have a piece of chicken for me! :wink: