SIRN

ab8sn

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From what I can hear Fayette Co is common transmitting on both SIRN & conventional freqs for law but law traffic is on SIRN. Also as mentioned currently fire & EMS is on conventional even though they both use SIRN at times

Hope this helps
 

lebrunmn

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80992

So this is our heads up that we should plan to add APCO P25 Phase 2 to our monitoring stations going forward? Is there any further intel on when this all might take place? Months? Years? Which counties are closest to TDMA switchover?

Thanks,
 

Motoballa

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View attachment 80992

So this is our heads up that we should plan to add APCO P25 Phase 2 to our monitoring stations going forward? Is there any further intel on when this all might take place? Months? Years? Which counties are closest to TDMA switchover?

Thanks,

Fayette County as of a couple of months ago had XTS2500's as their emergency radio cache, although when we borrowed radios from surrounding counties and the state themselves they were all APX4000's, which are of course TDMA.

Our dispatch consoles use the XTL series still and we're just now installing a couple more of those so I'm confident we'll at least be phase 1 for quite a bit longer. Perhaps some talkgroups will be TDMA capable and they'll slowly start making the rest TDMA.

Here in Texas where I work when I'm not up there, we have a regional system where only half is TDMA, most of that is public works, waste/water, and schools, and as they start switching out the police/fire radios you'll start to see some talkgroups show up as TDMA. I'm thinking it's going to be a very similar process here, depending on the budget for each department/county to be able to switch over to newer radios that are TDMA capable, will depend on how fast the process goes. I believe dispatch talkgroups will be the last to be TDMA for interop purposes between adjacent counties/agencies despite having some dedicated interop talkgroups/UTAC channels.

Maybe someone else will have a more definite answer. Hope this helped!
 

lebrunmn

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Thanks, Motoballa--that's very helpful--and puts to rest my fears of a massive switchover in the near term.

And more than a bit envious that you get to work in WVa. and TX--that's as good as it gets!
 

Motoballa

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Thanks, Motoballa--that's very helpful--and puts to rest my fears of a massive switchover in the near term.

And more than a bit envious that you get to work in WVa. and TX--that's as good as it gets!

No problem! When I head up there again in a couple of months I may be able to shed some more light on it unless someone happens to before me. I'll PM you regarding that last comment. But yes, it is greatest thing!
 

wvscanner

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The 1st phase of this going to TDMA is allowing the tower have a channel or 2 to use for that. However, if they are talking to someone that does not have TDMA the tower will not use the channel. As when more radio's go into TDMA the more active this channel (Most likely the last channel on the tower list) will be come more active.
 

Motoballa

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Update with Fayette County and using SIRN. Last time I was there some of the FD's were using older Kenwood handhelds on their analog system, I recently was sent some pictures of the testing they're doing with the COVID-19 stuff and it looked like the fire department personnel had Motorola XTS2500's from (presumably) the Fayette County Emergency Management radio cache which they pulled out last year to use strictly on the SIRN system and I even programmed them for some SIRN stuff, none of the analog channels existed on the radios at the time of my programming, however the counties talkgroups did..

Not sure if they're using SIRN full-time now or just for this COVID-19 stuff or what they're doing. I know here in Dallas most of the COVID-19 related stuff transitioned off the conventional analog channels and on to our 700MHz P25 system.. Hopefully we can figure our when/if Fayette County is going to move over and stay over.
 

mike_s104

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Berkeley Co. WV/ Loudoun Co. VA

Anyone know what this is about?

"Discussed Berkeley County/North Mountain ongoing situation and what the impacts would
be to agencies in the area."

I guess it has to do with this (as posted outside of this thread)

"RIC Region 3 Report – Jeff Polczynski
Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, Berkeley, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan
• Discussed the Berkeley proposed abandonment of SIRN. The 167th Airwing was not aware
of any of the discussions going on there. Most believe that the Berkeley County public
safety agencies are not aware either. Discussed unsure about the impact the possible
abandonment of SIRN by Berkeley County would have on other State and Federal
responders."

That would be a huge mistake I think.
 
Last edited:

BM82557

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Berkeley Co WV
I've noticed this behavior before but forgot to post -

During certain weather conditions such as high winds, which we've had in the area yesterday and today, site 1.49 Mount Weather shows up as isolated then reconnects within several seconds. This activity recurs for a period of a day or two. The thing that is interesting to me is the fact that the isolated message clearly shows the control channel of 406.2625 and the alternate of 406.4625 but even during stable conditions when 1.49 is not isolated no control channels are active on any of 1.49's freqs. I've searched for activity on other freqs that are perhaps undocumented using SDR# and DSDPlus and haven't found any. This leads me to believe that 1.49 is connected to SIRN in a manner other than via OTA.

Screenshot - 4_10_2020 , 09_41_08.png

Screenshot - 4_10_2020 , 10_08_09.png
 

Motoballa

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Update for Fayette County, I'm here in quarantine for a little bit, as of right now I'm hearing one way traffic on the Law Dispatch analog side, nothing on FD/EMS for the past hour or so. I don't currently have access to my P25 equipment and won't be able to officially confirm if they're on the SIRN talkgroups but I think it's pretty safe to assume they are.

I also heard the state will be doing much more work on the system and that my local site will be in site trunking more often, not really sure what updates they're doing but perhaps the slow move to phase 2 is finally taking off.. More to come in the following months.
 

Motoballa

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Got access to my P25 equipment (was thinking it'd be a month or so) and am able to confirm they've moved over to the SIRN system on the talkgroups already published. I'm not seeing any additional talkgroups but I'm sure they have more than the dispatch channels in use. FD/EMS is also using the analog channels in addition to the SIRN talkgroups, not sure the reasoning and I'm not sure if the dispatcher also simulcasts over that and SIRN as PD does.
 

wvscanner

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Fayette County Has SIRN setup in their radio's. County Wide Law is about the only one using them. They do go back to analog to raise some of the unit's. They still do not have coverage in what they call the Valley locations. EMS I'm not sure why they haven't switch but time to time you will hear them use the wrong channels when call EOC. Fire Dept. just simply don't want to use them. You can however hear Dense FD use it since it has better reception.
 

redbeard

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Site 3.6 (Beaver Falls, PA) has been showing neighbor site 3.1 in the red on DSD+ for a couple days. It said failed,isolated previously with a couple CC freq changes but now has no extra comment yet still shows red. When going to site 3.1 (Ohio County Simulcast) the site seems fine but no longer shows 3.6 as a neighbor. A facebook post suggested that sites were being upgraded to a new major software version, perhaps in preparation for phase 2.

Did they forget about the lonely far north site residing in another state?
 

firemantom26

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Yes, this has been going on for a few days with Ohio County simulcast. I would hope that Brooke county would be making the move soon by turning on the Weirton tower.
 
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