SLERS Question: Okaloosa, Florida

[BroadOne]

Starting a new post here with the goal of attempting to walk away with a better understanding of the currenty systems I'm monitoring specifically for the Florida, Okaloosa County area. I've found a few threads such as SLERS Question and My thoughts on Florida Public Safety Systems (and monitoring them) And basically, it sounds like the overall summary is "A lot of FL is encrypted right now and it will only become increasingly so in the future". However, my specific confusion is as follows, I'm in the Okaloosa County area and what I don't really understand is when it comes to P25 and EDACS programming.

I understand they're within the Satewide Law Enforcement Radio System (SLERS), but I believe I'm just not understanding something still because in my area I've correctly programmed a local police department. This is the Niceville PD which uses 2 channels on 460.325 and 453.250, but then there's the SLERS EDACS system in the RR Database which shows that Niceville has an 800 MHz system with 7 channels including 2 control. What are these to then? Who is using them?

I imported the EDACS system but I never hear anything on the 800+ channels. Is there a conversion I'm missing, or maybe Ch 1 and Ch 2 are the 2 control channels? Maybe it's a repeater or simulcast? Maybe NPD isn't using them and it's actually encrypted by another agency or something but, idk, very confused where that's concerned. I'm aware that FHP/FWC and others are Encrypted, but I've seen the following from the "SLERS Question" thread:

batdude - Jan 6, 2023 - #6

This depends completely on WHERE in Florida you are heading..... with the notable exception of a few counties in the panhandle near Eglin AFB, the vast majority of the EDACS SLERS system is encrypted (Walton and Oklaloosa County are exceptions to the encryption rule) --- as a side note, I was just in those two counties a few weeks ago and can confirm 100% that they ARE on the EDACS SLERS system and indeed unencypted - and the talkgroup listings on RR seem to be accurate.

So again, why do I never hear anything on the 800+ channels, which are supposedly the EDACS SLERS system. Here's a picture below from Sentinel. Okaloosa Emergency is the Niceville PD which uses 2 channels on 460.325 and 453.250. And then there's the imported "SLERS" system which is highlighted in blue with the LCNs visible.

Additionally, perhaps there are channels which have yet to be discovered? Like car-car transmissions, or I see Okaloosa Sherriff Office has something called "Channel 15" and I have 9 of their channels. Does this imply the existence of 6 more which I don't have? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[kd4efm]

SLERS 95% of the time, law enforcement is encrypted (PROVOICE) or AES.

Yes, there is a tower site in Niceville, but that also is for other agencies (FDOT Road rangers, FHP, fire, EMS, FWC, ECT.)
If you are not hearing a repeater ID on the UHF channels, then they have been taken down. LAW repeaters have to ID every 30 min.
Commercial; 15 min unless it is spoken I.E. VHF Intercity.

In a trunk system, they could have 100 talkgroups, but the site is only 8 channels, so each talkgroup is not "a repeater".

 

[BroadOne]

SLERS 95% of the time, law enforcement is encrypted (PROVOICE) or AES.

Yes, there is a tower site in Niceville, but that also is for other agencies (FDOT Road rangers, FHP, fire, EMS, FWC, ECT.)
If you are not hearing a repeater ID on the UHF channels, then they have been taken down. LAW repeaters have to ID every 30 min.
Commercial; 15 min unless it is spoken I.E. VHF Intercity.

In a trunk system, they could have 100 talkgroups, but the site is only 8 channels, so each talkgroup is not "a repeater".

Hmmm so basically, NPD probably isn't even using that tower site then, they aren't even bothering with the UHF because they have their own local system which isn't part of the 800+ SLERS EDACS. And the ones that are, FWC/FHP, are fully encrypted. I should've mentioned I have an SDS-100. The only upgrade it doesn't have is NXDN. But I can hear Fort Walton Beach and Niceville after the DMR/Provoice upgrades (not 800+ ofc). Good information about the repeater IDs by the way, didn't know that, thanks. So I suppose the most likely option is just that everything left on 800+ SLERS EDACS is simply fully encrypted if I understand it right unless there's something else I'm not considering.

Ah also the question about the Sherriff's office, still not sure about that. It's possible not all in-use frequencies are listed on RR right?

 

[jason51]

The Niceville SLERS site is very busy. Do you have the provoice upgrade? The database is not current for the area, there are many SLERS talkgroups that are currently not listed, as well as some frequencies on local SLERS towers. There were many talkgroups on SLERS that were listed at one time and have been removed for some reason. So, never trust the database, always run TG search.

 

[BroadOne]

The Niceville SLERS site is very busy. Do you have the provoice upgrade? The database is not current for the area, there are many SLERS talkgroups that are currently not listed, as well as some frequencies on local SLERS towers. There were many talkgroups on SLERS that were listed at one time and have been removed for some reason. So, never trust the database, always run TG search.

I do have the ProVoice upgrade, and I appreciate the information, I'll look into running a search. The only frequencies I have programmed are what's on RR. So Sherrif and NPD are the most "local" thing for me. I don't have any 800 MHz channels though.

 

[batdude]

I can 100% confirm that at least one fire department was very active on the SLERS system in Niceville/Okaloosa (using clear Provoice) during a visit last year.

 

[BroadOne]

I can 100% confirm that at least one fire department was very active on the SLERS system in Niceville/Okaloosa (using clear Provoice) during a visit last year.

Most of the Fire departments I have programmed allow me to hear the ToneOut Dispatches but that's all. Were you hearing internal comms from the fire station?

 

[batdude]

I did not have much Time to pay attention but I recall hearing more than tone out calls.

 

[bravo14]

Okaloosa and Walton counties fire/rescue is 100% clear. When I lived bay county and moved away in Jan 2022 I heard them on Panama City site one day I’ll hear certain tgs from both counties than don’t hear nothing for days. Don’t forget to add the radio tech tgs time to time they’ll pop up.

 

[lwvmobile]

Okaloosa and Walton counties fire/rescue is 100% clear. When I lived bay county and moved away in Jan 2022 I heard them on Panama City site one day I’ll hear certain tgs from both counties than don’t hear nothing for days. Don’t forget to add the radio tech tgs time to time they’ll pop up.

Yeah, I have similar happen where I live, I'll catch the next county over (Taylor County Fire and Rescue) clear on my local site for hours at a time, and then nothing for a week or more. I think what happens is one radio will become affiliated with the closest site to me, and suddenly, all of their traffic is carried on that site until that single radio moves on out of range.

 

[lwvmobile]

Also, if anybody is interested, here is a snippet from SLERS of a call with a tone out to the FD, then clear voice traffic directing them to a small brush fire. No addresses or personal info given other than a cross street for location reference.

Upload files for free - 22049-toneout-brushfire.zip - ufile.io

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ufile.io

 

[ElroyJetson]

Some basic information to work with:

There are two SLERS systems, the EDACS system which is in its last days of operation, and the P25 system that replaces it,
which is not yet completed in all areas.
Law enforcement is generally always encrypted on SLERS. There is some non-encrypted fire/rescue radio traffic in some counties.
This is also true of the P25 system. But limited talkgroup data is available to date.

These are separate from the trunked systems that most counties have.
SLERS is built to provide, primarily, statewide coverage for FHP and a few other state level agencies, but there is some usage of it, on a limited basis, by some counties. But it is not built to handle a large amount of radio traffic at any single site. There are relatively few channels per site, anywhere from 2 to 8, while most county systems often have 20 or more channels per site.

Most counties can patch their communciations systems to SLERS when circumstances dictate it. Maybe all of them, and certainly at some point they will all have that capacity.

 

[jharr465]

To add some history about Niceville PD they were using their own system on 460.325 for years in the 70s and early 80s. No encryption. Then in the 90s switched to encrypted talk groups on the SLERS. Recently they went back to their own system on 460.325 and 453.250 using DMR radios and no encryption. The listing of the SLERS towers that includes Niceville is simply the location of the SLERS towers in Okaloosa County.