SAUA Questions

[KI5IRE]

Is San Antonio PD and San Antonio FD patched to the SAUA system full time? I know they are still mainly operating on the EDACS system primarily. but last time I was there, I heard some activity on both the PD and FD side on the new SAUA system.

Also, what all sites are being used for what? Are Bexar County and SAPD/FD on all sites? I am trying to program my Unication G4 for the system, but do not know if I need to program specific sites or if I can program them all and the radio find the best site to receive from.

 

[blantonl]

It's an overlay system for interop purposes, so traffic is very intermittent and sporadic, and nothing is really patched full time.

 

[NC5267]

Usually whatever channel a DPS unit is on it will come across the SAUA system. They seem to use it more than most. Some VFD use as well. Why traffic will cut out mid transmission sometimes if the person monitoring switches channels or turns the radio off.

 

[KI5IRE]

I just came across this video on YouTube, is the SAFD Dispatch patched full-time? Are the tac channels patched full-time? Has anyone heard any of the SAPD or BCSO All Call Channels consistently?

Also, I am programming my Unication for a trip to SA next week, what sites do I need to include? What traffic does each site carry?

 

[tkowalik]

Unfortunately since I posted that video and started talking about SAUA system, it has gone almost dark. More sporadic than I have ever heard it. Seems I pissed off some people.

 

[tkowalik]

BCFA was patched 100% of the time on AH and Toepperwein sites. No more. That’s a fact.

 

[KI5IRE]

That's a shame, I was hoping I'd be able to pick them up on the G4. I did enjoy the video anyways.

Is there anything around San Antonio worth plugging into my G4 on any other system, maybe perhaps the LCRA?

Also does anyone know if there is an analog frequency for SAFD station alerting?

Unfortunately since I posted that video and started talking about SAUA system, it has gone almost dark. More sporadic than I have ever heard it. Seems I pissed off some people.

 

[tkowalik]

LCRA system is full blast. Depending where you are, I’d recommend the Smithson Valley site.
You may catch sporadic San Antonio/Bexar chatter if programmed but all the hard patches I’ve noticed are gone. Presumably at the hands of radio programmers in the area that frequent this board. But they don’t run this county.

 

[otter9309]

It's not a "patch". This is how trunking works. A user must be logged into a tower site in order for traffic to appear. If there are no users on that tower, there is no traffic.

 

[tkowalik]

Ok. Let me clarify. For 2 years the SAUA system had BCFA loud and clear. I posted on here and now it is sporadic. Maybe find the guy that had a radio turned on for 2 years!?

 

[tkowalik]

SAUA was a fed grant. We shall see what happens.

 

[BCSO-Insider]

CoSA and DWC do not seem to monitor the SAUA layer as well as they do the EDACS layer. Most times when there are problems they only realize it AFTER agencies who rely on it start complaining. Bexar County suffered a severe console system failure last week that lasted almost 8 hours. This was after DWC recently switched over to the two new VIDA cores. They lasted a week before issues arose. I have a funny feeling that during the console outage the SAUA layer also was impacted but nobody said anything. Who knows, maybe it still is.

 

[Firekite]

BCFA

What is the BCFA?

 

[KevinC]

What is the BCFA?

Bexar County Fire Alarm.

 

[tkowalik]

CoSA and DWC do not seem to monitor the SAUA layer as well as they do the EDACS layer. Most times when there are problems they only realize it AFTER agencies who rely on it start complaining. Bexar County suffered a severe console system failure last week that lasted almost 8 hours. This was after DWC recently switched over to the two new VIDA cores. They lasted a week before issues arose. I have a funny feeling that during the console outage the SAUA layer also was impacted but nobody said anything. Who knows, maybe it still is.

SAUA is dead. Luckily there’s other options using the Unication pager.

 

[mostinterestingman]

The 700MHz layer isn't dead, it's just Harris & San Antonio. It works as often as it is designed and maintained to do so. Totally different backhaul, far less redundancy, and a fix it when it breaks maintenance plan.

 

[otter9309]

I didn't think unication did edacs with esk.

tkowalik will you share your G5 file?

 

[KevinC]

I didn't think unication did edacs with esk.

Unication doesn't do EDACS at all.

 

[otter9309]

Wasn't sure what was being referenced in post 15.

 

[blantonl]

Wasn't sure what was being referenced in post 15.

Me either, maybe he's just referencing that there are other things to use his Unication pager for in the San Antonio area.

I've got a G5 as well and I've used it to occasionally monitor all traffic on SAUA