Russellville City Police/AWIN & Encription

[hitophikers]

I'm beginning to hear the street cops in Russellville make references to their new "State Radio". I have yet to actually capture any new TGID's on AWIN in Pope County that could be RPD. Is anyone aware as to when this change might take place and the TGID's involved? And, are they going to be using the existing AWIN or something new?

Also, I've noticed that the Pope County Sheriff's Office has discretely been moving to AWIN over the past few months. I believe this slow migration is for one of two reasons: 1) MONEY or 2) not to alert too many scanner owners of the move. Over a typical 24 hour period, I now see a 50/50 usage of their old 150Mhz and new AWIN channels. Some units seem to be exclusively on AWIN while others jump back and forth. A couple of units seem to ALWAYS be encripted from their car to dispatch however dispatch is not encripted with their responses. Occasionally, I hear what sounds like two different encripted signals which may be car to car or involve dispatch.

I hear lots of folks complaining about encription on public service radio systems. Personally, I really don't have a problem with that especially when some covert operation is in planning/progress or sensitive information is being transmitted. However, I am very much against encripting for routine traffic communications. I have read that in several areas where the city and county have an ongoing territorial dispute and either/both sides encript everything to keep the other out of the loop. This is not a good situation for citizens that are the unintented victims.

 

[btritch]

I do know there is a TGID listed for PCSO..But not RPD...I hate to hear that though, that's one my primarily visited cities...Monitor them everytime I'm round about way. If you DO hear anything new, Let us know..

 

[hitophikers]

Russellville Update

It must be getting closer to a big surprise happening to scanner buffs around Russellville. Over the past few days on the standard RPD 450Mhz frequiencies I've heard numerous RPD units say things like "go to 3 (or 7)" which are secondary channels. Once there they may say "go to State". Kinda like they are trying to mis-direct their intentions to scanner listeners that don't have these other channels programmed.

I also keep hearing the cars say things on these other channels like "Do you have your State radio on?", "Did you hear that on State?" or "What's that on State, it sounds like interferrence?". So far, I have been unable to hear anything new or capture any new TGID's on any of the known AWIN frequencies that cover Pope County.

The last few days I've had my 996T scanning the 800Mhz band for control channels that I might not be aware of and have found a couple, but they have had nothing to do with RPD.

I'm hoping someone will soon post the new frequencies and TGID's before they make the jump to digital.

 

[hitophikers]

Update on Russellville 800Mhz

Well, it seems that RPD is using the NPSPAC Mutual Aid Tactical channel found on 867.0125 PL 156.7Hz for car to car communications.

There are 5 channels set aside nationwide for this service. They are: 866.0125 (Call channel), 866.5125, 867.0125, 867.5125 and 868.0125. All use the same PL 156.7Hz and are conventional narrow-band FM. Coverage (range) is very limited since there are no repeaters associated with these channels.

Having said the above, perhaps these same radios are trunk-ready and RPD is still on track to move to AWIN down the road.

 

[Airdorn]

Are they really so concerned about "scanner listeners"? That's a little presumptive isn't it?

I think they're probably just slowly migrating to make the transition easier as their people learn the new system.

 

[btritch]

What About Pope Co. SO?

RPD has changed to this NEW stuff as they call it, But I have noticed that Pope County Sheriff's Office Has TGID's listed on the AWIN system, Does anyone know if they ARE still using thier OLD system OR if they're already switched to AWIN or on the same ones that RPD is using, Someone down about way in the state have any idea on this?

 

[hitophikers]

Pope County SO

It looks like Pope Co is about 50/50 frequency usage between their 150Mhz and AWIN systems. It's been a very slow changeover - probably money. Most scanner listeners may not even notice, but communications on the 150Mhz freqs is down, but still active enough.

About six months or so back, I began hearing dispatch and other units say "call me on State" or "I'll fill you in on State". That's when I began researching what this "State" was all about.

I knew the State Police had given up their old 44Mhz stuff years earlier, but I seldom listened to them anyway, so AWIN was pretty much new to me. A quick call to a friend in the media got me heading in the right direction for replacing my scanners. I now have three BCD996T's and one BCD396T which are all digital scanners required for the P25 AWIN system.

As for RPD, I have not tried to count the number of units on NPS, but I believe it's just 3 or 4 at this time. I've also noticed they are using more than just one of the NPS channels, so best bet is to put all 5 in your scanners.

Hope this helps.