Rowan County Update - As of 2-9-10

[KM4WLV]

I was at the City Radio Shop this afternoon & got to talk to the City Telecom manager about the system upgrade/rebanding. He is going to get me a list of the new frequencies and when he does I'll get them forwarded to Marshall.

They are about 75% done with the reprogramming & flashing of the MTS & MCS radios that are still in service. They have a couple FD's left to do & a couple of the local PD's also.

They are also getting ready to do a site study for Youngs Mtn (in Cleveland) and down near Pooletown. The plan is by 2013 when the system move to all digital we will have a SmartZone system with 3 tower sites. On Young Mtn there are several towers for various cell providers & such and the thinking is they will lease tower space to save cost. They are also planning to put equipment down near Pooletown near where the NMUTA T3 repeater is.

To those of you that monitor the Salisbury/Rowan system you may want to go ahead & start adding all the new OPS TG's in your radios for Salisbury FD & the county departments. As soon as the radio shop gets this first round of programming done we will start utilizing the OPS groups instead of the FG channels.

I know this isn't a big update but I promised to keep everyone updated on the progress. As soon as I get more information I'll keep you guys up to date.

Marshall, keep an eye on your email. My new XTS I got will TX on all the new LAW tac TG's. I'll be sending you the ID's for them as well as some other new TG's that have popped up in my radio.

 

[CFP387]

They are about 75% done with the reprogramming & flashing of the MTS & MCS radios that are still in service. They have a couple FD's left to do & a couple of the local PD's also.

I had a feeling they were getting close because I've been hearing some testing happening on TG's that aren't hardly used.

They are also getting ready to do a site study for Youngs Mtn (in Cleveland) and down near Pooletown. The plan is by 2013 when the system move to all digital we will have a SmartZone system with 3 tower sites. On Young Mtn there are several towers for various cell providers & such and the thinking is they will lease tower space to save cost. They are also planning to put equipment down near Pooletown near where the NMUTA T3 repeater is.

Again, not surprising. Young's Mountain just outside of the Barber community is an ideal place for a tx tower. They are already covering the western side of the county's text messaging devices from that location, so it would be the obvious choice for a TRS tower site as well. Pooletown is another great choice for covering most, if not all, of the southeastern part of the county even reaching out past the Healing Springs community of Davidson County.

I still say they need to do a case study around the southwestern part of the county where there are a lot of dead zones. Three tower sites may not be sufficient if that part of the county's tx/rx track record holds true after the digital system is entirely in place and working.

To those of you that monitor the Salisbury/Rowan system you may want to go ahead & start adding all the new OPS TG's in your radios for Salisbury FD & the county departments. As soon as the radio shop gets this first round of programming done we will start utilizing the OPS groups instead of the FG channels.

Way ahead of you, Daniel. When you first had Marshall post those in the database, I immediately went to work adding all of them in my BC246T. Even though I sure don't agree with all these changes they are making systemwide, it doesn't mean I'm going to stop listening.

I know this isn't a big update but I promised to keep everyone updated on the progress. As soon as I get more information I'll keep you guys up to date.

And all of us including myself appreciate your hard work, Daniel. I, for one, always look forward to your updates and, as a matter of fact, logged in tonight just to see if you had stopped by with new information. Thanks again!

 

[KM4WLV]

No problem Shannon. I'm carrying 2 800's right now. An XTS2500 & MTS2000. We decided that the officers that got the new XTS's would keep the MTS that was previously issued to them. This is in case an officer ends up with command he/she has one for RFD DISP & one for FG/OPS, etc.

And it was also confirmed that the County Fire transmitter & EMS repeater will be kept online. The county fire transmitter for obvious reasons, and EMS for Rowan Rescue paging. You will still hear EMS trucks on there but they are going to start paging the radios EMS radios instead of having tones. Why I don't know, but thats what I've been told.

And we know that in our county this can / will / probably change 20 times before they make a final decision. I'll keep ya updated as promised.

I may try to make it out there to see ya this week & let you play with one of the XTS radios. I'll text you or call you later this week. Maybe we can grab lunch Friday or something & talk "shop talk" if ya want. Just let me know. Talk to ya soon !!!

 

[CFP387]

No problem Shannon. I'm carrying 2 800's right now. An XTS2500 & MTS2000. We decided that the officers that got the new XTS's would keep the MTS that was previously issued to them. This is in case an officer ends up with command he/she has one for RFD DISP & one for FG/OPS, etc.

That's probably a good idea and it shows that someone was using their heads. You can easily miss traffic by switching back and forth from dispatch to an OPS channel while working command on a scene. I still say that's what VHF is for.

And it was also confirmed that the County Fire transmitter & EMS repeater will be kept online. The county fire transmitter for obvious reasons, and EMS for Rowan Rescue paging. You will still hear EMS trucks on there but they are going to start paging the radios EMS radios instead of having tones. Why I don't know, but thats what I've been told.

I know it will probably change but I see no need in keeping the EMS repeater. Direct calling the EMS radios are a good idea, but so is paging out the crews on VHF too. It's kind of a toss-up. If direct calling the radios doesn't work, then simply paging them should be the next immediate route in their SOP's.

I appreciate your updates, Daniel, we'll be talking soon!

 

[KM4WLV]

No problem. And as far as 2 radios....... Thats why I keep a VHF portable with me too

 

[yardbird]

Daniel,

Please check your Pm's

David