Saia Net
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I see the frequencies for the Highmark Stadium site are Part 22 area wide license so there are no site specific details available. It could be low power on-site coverage only. I suppose it could only be active for events if other sites provide adequate routine coverage in the area and it is only needed for the additional traffic when there is an event in progress and to enhance coverage inside the stadium.
It would make sense to not have it on adjacent site NLs so subscribers not at Highmark are not randomly accessing it. Highmark site could still show adjacent sites as its neighbors for when a subscriber leaves the premises.
Weird things can happen when you combine an antenna tuned for 800mhz with a multi band wide coverage antenna tuned for 118-137, 148-175 & 225-900 MHz using a y connector vs a diplexer.
Going by how my SDR acts, I wouldn't say it's low power at all! It's off the charts and then some, and the map on Saia's site seems to support that as well. Well, the Bills season is done til the fall, so it looks like I'll be able to monitor the 450s again til Fall! (As I said, it was strong and messing up my SDR, blowing out all the weak stuff I sometimes get). I was assuming that they had that up for "better coverage" on portable for Hamburg-based AMR crews, Lackawanna PD, and the anticipated WSPD. But when you assume...
Going by how my SDR acts, I wouldn't say it's low power at all! It's off the charts and then some, and the map on Saia's site seems to support that as well. Well, the Bills season is done til the fall, so it looks like I'll be able to monitor the 450s again til Fall! (As I said, it was strong and messing up my SDR, blowing out all the weak stuff I sometimes get). I was assuming that they had that up for "better coverage" on portable for Hamburg-based AMR crews, Lackawanna PD, and the anticipated WSPD. But when you assume...
Looking at Saia's online coverage maps, Highmark doesn't bring much to the table for W. Seneca, and defiantly nothing for Lackawanna, but would help Hamburg, if they move to SaiaNet. The existing sites, show solid, coverage for portables, even in buildings, again, per their maps, and signal legend.
Sounds like West Seneca PD (their analog VHF-Hi) is patched to a more permanent home (considering the TG numbers are more consistent with new growth). Heard them on 513704 today. Techs were testing with another TG, presumably some other West Seneca stuff on 513701.
Does it appear to model the Lackawanna talkgroup format?
I don't know about that. I was just referring to its a new block of TG's I haven't seen yet. If that were the case (modeling Lackawanna), 513701 would be West Seneca Police instead of 513704 as I'm seeing/hearing right now. I was going for an assumption that TGs in the 5137** range is most likely going to be associated with the Town of West Seneca.
Is W. Seneca PD still on the analog channel, or on the Saianet TG? Have they moved over yet?
Still on their VHF-Hi analog; however, it's patched over to TG 513704. I didn't see any subscriber units affiliated with it yet, going off the RIDs I saw active today. As of about 30 seconds ago, I can confirm they are 100% using their VHF-Hi analog channel primarily.
TRBOnet console? SaiaNet? One in the same?
Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm just going off the information I knew from other transitions to it, but I thought most (or maybe all, I don't know), dispatches on SaiaNet use the TRBONet voice dispatch consoles, rather than like a Zetron or Avtec (though they probably can still be used). Said TPT tone I heard echoing was the same as other known SaiaNet users that also are using TRBONet consoles. I've always referred to SaiaNet as the actual Con+ TRS (and eventual TIII), as I've always been under the impression that it was its name
Andyk62990, do you work in the industry? You seem very in tune with all this. An excellent source of information. After a little Google time, I see what TRBOnet is, and per Saia site, they do host a TRBOnet system.
No, I do not. Just a self taught radio, scanner and public safety/emergency services communications enthusiast with the help of the internet, these forums and its members, some SDR’s and the associated software. I think I mentioned it before elsewhere, but TRS’s are very interesting to me, and this checks the box peaking my interest with public safety and emergency services being users of it now.
Andy is correct on the the TrboNet dispatch console being used by Lackawanna. One other little tidbit that would confirm this would be the new microwave licenses for both Lackawanna PD and FD going to Saia's HSBC tower site. This would bring them right into Saia's IP network and not have to worry about traversing the Internet.
Same for West Seneca, and Lancaster just got microwave licenses too, tying it into Saia’s Lancaster site… hmmm
It seens, through all the informed members here, that this (SaiaNet, TRBOnet) have been well thought out to support emergency services. Does anyone have any real feedback, from those actually using SaiaNet, for Public Safety? With more and more moving to this platform, one would think this works well, and gaining traction
Takes a little playing around with but this site can show you where many microwaves start and stop.
MAPRAD.IO | Radiocomms Register Search Tool
Online app for searching the ACMA Register of Radiocommunications Licences (RRL)
maprad.io
In a public safety environment, I've only heard from a few users, who I wouldn't call reliable reporters, about how a radio system works for them. Their results were mixed, but I also don't think they understand how it is supposed to work. Regardless, the decision to switch to this system ultimately relies upon the agency's (or company's) administration. The bean counters, the pencil pushers, who are usually so far disconnected from the boots on the ground or in the streets. So, to say that it must be working because more and more are switching doesn't carry much weight, in my opinion. More and more moving to this platform means they have a really good sales end of their business. That isn't to say they don't have a good product to go with it, though.
Again, in my opinion, and my opinion only, I'll be more impressed if/when the TIII system gets up and running and the public safety users migrate over to that. But that also depends on how Saia implements it too. If it's an open standard and not bogged down with proprietary stuff, awesome! I like the concept of a TRS being used in public safety, I'm not in love with the idea right now that it's restricted to Motorola XPR products right now (from what I can tell). But it's their business, and clearly, it's working for them! I think competition is healthy for the end users and, in this case, the taxpayers. An agency could theoretically pick to use the SaiaNet TIII system; however, they find that another manufactures equipment may better suit them or be a better deal. An agency could pick to put Tait, Hytera (if they are still around), Harris, Kenwood, or Motorola on that system for them.
I have ZERO first-hand knowledge of how they are implementing their use of TRBONet, or really any dispatch centers way of implementing all these TG's into their consoles, but going off your previous post, as well as others, the TRBONet console is linked back by microwave. My concern with that is, do they have physical radios on site connected to the console in case of microwave failure? Or does it solely rely on a microwave network back to Saia, and maybe backed up by a public ISP with a VPN or whatever the right terminology is? With my smidge of knowledge of public safety communications and emergency management, I worry about redundancy and being resilient. Going off my logic, I'd love to have the console and everything on site, with physical radios affiliating to a network like this, but I could very well be wrong. I don't know. Maybe I'm on cloud 9 and have no idea what I'm talking about. Or maybe it's just a different viewpoint that is also correct.
I know next to nothing about implementing a TRS, microwave system, system networking, etc. It's way beyond the scope of what I really need to know to be a listener and enthusiast. But it's my two cents.
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