Reno County KSICS conversion

[n0lqt]

I've been hearing Station Alarms for Reno County EMS broadcast on the KSICS system using TG 663 the last several days. Nothing else except EMS and only the initial alarm broadcast seems to go out on this KSICS talkgroup. Does anyone one over there also hear them simulcast on the VHF channels? I can't pick up the RN County VHF channels from work. A single long tone followed by Dispatch announcement of the EMS run.....

Although today, I did hear a mobile unit advise of patient contact and give triage code. Dispatch reminded them they were on the 800 system so I'm assuming they are simulcasting still....

 

[dgruver911]

I started noticing paging tones in addition to their normal dispatch traffic on 155.340 about 2 weeks ago. Don't hear (no pun intended) much mobile traffic from Newton but hear Dispatch pretty regularly. They dispatch Medic 3 at Arlington and the rural community volunteer EMS on the county fire repeater 154.370. I saw in the paper that the city and county have both signed off on the radio lease from the state and talked to someone yesterday who said radios are being installed and they should be ready to switch over before long.

 

[jereck_99]

anyone heard anymore on Reno County going Digtal?

 

[dgruver911]

Not sure what you are asking? They are going digital 800. Very soon. As stated above, the radios are being installed, EMS is apparently already using it to some limited extent. Won't be long....

 

[ksduster]

as we are all aware, wichita will.. eventually... be going to digital 800's.. I've read alot of negative sides, and positive sides on the net regarding digital 800mhz trunked systems..
Im curious if the range is better or worse with digital. I've heard that with digital, you either get out, or nothing at all. Is this correct?

 

[n0lqt]

Digital range is much worse than analog. Worse even than narrow-band analog. I believe it is mostly due to multi-path reception issues. (reflections from buildings, trees, clouds, etc., the same “bit” of the signal is received many times at slightly varying delay times....) In an analog system, this is not usually a problem and at most you’ll hear a ringing echo in the demodulated voice. In a 9600 baud digital system, the slight variation in reception times of the multiple signals induces errors in the decoding. (line echo, noise, error correction, and other issues is why it took so many years for the telephone company to make the jump from 300 baud to 9600 baud for data connections) And “digital” and “error” is bad. The greater the distance, the more multi-path becomes an issue. This is also one of the reasons TDMA digital cell-phones didn't stick around too long. GSM is also derived from TDMA modulation, although many of the multi-path issues were resolved. Phases 2 and 3 of the Project 25 standard is “supposed” to address some of these limitations.
Mostly, P-25 digital is either an on or off reception proposition, although sometimes the system will start to decode, then lose the data train and you hear the raw data come thru or depending on the radio, a broken up jumble of sounds that sounds like a Moog Synthesizer with a migraine headache.... You’ll sometimes hear someone say, “10-9, you went digital on that last.”

 

[ksduster]

Hmm, sounds like it will be interesting being on the other side of the radio.

 

[jereck_99]

I was listening to the scanner tonight and was getting talkgroup 224 and was hearing pd dispatch on this talkgroup and inside would be nice to know ?

 

[dgruver911]

Reading between your lines here I think what you are looking for is someone who will provide the talkgroup ID's as soon as they are assigned by the state. Not gonna happen. I'm quite frankly surprised at the detail of info already available on this site, but obviously that previous flow of information has been shut off. No surprise there.

What needs to happen is exactly what did happen here...people need to monitor the system, pick up on unidentified talkgroups, and post them here for those of us with the resources to confirm who and what they are (albeit best guesses in most cases). That's why it's called a hobby...you have to work at it with help from others. I appreciate the legwork as I don't have a lot of time on my hands at work or home right now to extensively monitor the system and watch for new TG's to appear, but like you have a thirst for the knowledge. I am plugging in 224 shortly and will see how if matches to Hutch dispatch traffic.

By the way, I heard that the ex-Sedgwick County radio tech that was programming state radios for KDOT in Wichita was let go; budget cutbacks. Wonder where we have to go now to get radios programmed?

 

[mancow]

What gets me is the attitude that it's somehow secret information. It's system we bought with ALL our tax money that is broadcasting 24/7 in all directions. It's not like there's a possibility of hiding it. In my opinion all talk groups should be made public. If you use the system and don't want to be heard, encrypt. Simple.

 

[dgruver911]

According to an article in the Hutch News yesterday, they plan to go live this summer. The main thrust of the article was how it was gong to make scanners useless, which is we know is not correct, it just becomes very expensive. The Emergency Manager did state that they were looking at a web alternative as they felt it was important for the public to be able to listen especially during severe weather.

 

[INDY72]

Web alternative.. Do like quite a few LEA's and FD's have done, run an Dispatch feed vias say the local Newspaper/TV website... Or even cheaper.. set up an feed through us.

 

[jereck_99]

Has anyone heard if Sumner Co. is going to the digtal system? Anyone information would be nice

 

[dgruver911]

at 1:15 pm today I heard a long alert tone on 155.340 followed by an announcement for all Reno County EMS units to switch to 800 frequency. So I'm gathering the transition is beginning for Reno County. I was in Wichita at the time and mobile but thus far I have not seen/heard any new talkgroups or traffic from Reno County on the 800, so either they aren't using it much yet, their TG's aren't going across the Wichita site and/or I might be too far far away from Partridge or Hutchinson to pick it up. Supposedly they were going to be utilizing the 2 towers in the County (Partridge and Hutchinson) as well as towers in all surrounding counties for their primary system.

 

[shocker81]

Shocker81

I live in Haysville and I hear the Reno County EMS on my Pro 106 on talkgroup 463 everyday.

 

[jereck_99]

shocker81 what tower are they use?

 

[dgruver911]

Made a trip to Hutch today. Confirmed Reno County EMS dispatch traffic on TG 663 off the Partridge tower. They didn't have any calls so I didn't hear any ER traffic to see if they split that off to another TG. Does not appear that the new Hutchinson site on top of Plaza Towers is active yet; the GRE did not show any signal from that site. PD, SO and Fire were all active but still on VHF. Since the state seems to be so predictable on blocks think I'll plug in 662-690 or so to keep a closer ear out.

 

[jereck_99]

So just put the Partridge frequency in your scanner ?

 

[fire_512]

This new system is way beyond just plugging a frequency into your scanner.

 

[n0lqt]

Oh I don't,... With my old Pro-96, I just go into Program mode then Trunk mode and change the bank to MOT800 and then put the control frequency for the tower I want to listen to in that bank and "away we go!"

True, If I want to know what all those funny "Talkgroup" numbers mean I have to do a little more work but if I listen long enough I can usually figure out who's talking about what. But then, Don Starr did do all the really hard work for me, so I decided to give him some of my hard earned $$ and that made it actually fun to find a new system again.....