Somerset County TRS and Dispatch Update

[mikea7531]

Somerset Medical Center's ALS and BLS have recieved their new digital TRS radios for the County and Franklin system. Paging for them on JEMS1 (155.235) has ceased, and they are now getting paged out on 470.1375.

Operations are on the county's EMS Region 1 talkgroup. They still talk to the municipality they are responding into on their agreed channel on VHF. When they respond into Franklin Twp, they talk to them on Franklin EMS Main on the Franklin system.

Franklin Fire changeover should be happening very soon, so keep your ears open

 

[W2SJW]

Nice! It's good to hear some updated news about the county system.

I'm STILL trying to find out why NPPD stopped using their digital TGID...

BTW, it was quite unusual to hear 901 talking direct with a Zebra unit today during the roll-over at the circle (using them as an escort for the incoming DEP cleanup company)...

 

[rr60]

Nppd Digital Answer

Missing missing syllables in good RF areas.

Unknown if it is firmware or the system itself.

Work in process.

 

[W2SJW]

THANK YOU!

It's nice to finally get some straight answers... :lol:

 

[mikea7531]

I believe 901 has capability to talk to anyone on the system. His radio has affiliated with numerious talkgroups.

 

[JEFFG]

Can someone recommend a good handheld scanner that will receive the Somerset system? My old Radio Shack Pro-90 is not doing the job. Thanks
Jeff
NJ2Q

 

[W2SJW]

Jeff,

There is a little bit of digital activity on the county TRS, so I don't really think you have to go all-out on a digital model (yet!).

What is important, though, is the unit must be able to handle multiple base/offset tables for UHF/VHF trunk systems. That would put you in the RS category of a Pro-97, or Uniden's 246 & 330T models...

 

[JEFFG]

Thanks for the info Scott. That's a lot more affordable than the BCD396T I was looking at.

Now that I have my radio in front of me, I find it's actually a BC245XLT and not the PRO30 that I thought it was. Therefore I think it may work because it does have instructions for base and offset of a Motorola system. For some reason I haven't had any luck previously but I'll try again with the programming.

Jeff
NJ2Q

 

[W2SJW]

I do not believe that model will do multi-tables. It falls under the same convention that RS's Pro-92 did - great unit for it's time, but no multi-table capability (hence, many missed transmissions on most new SmartZone systems).

I'd stick with the Uniden models - I'm not sure if the Pro-97 has the same caveat that the Pro-96 has - multi-tables can only be programmed into the unit via software. It's physically impossible to do it on the fly through the keypad...

 

[kenisned]

Is it me?

I'm up in Budd Lake listening on a 996T and a great discone antenna.

I'm not on a hill, so I don't have great elevation, but do you think i'd receive this system?

I only catch bits of the sheriffs from time to time, but no regular comms.

Is the system quiet a lot, am I out of range or is my programming in question?

Thanks

 

[robbinsj2]

Jeff,

In the interim, if you can only program in one config then use 502.5125/450/25.0. This will work for 502.5125, 502.5375, 502.5625, 502.6125, 502.6875, & 502.8375. It won't work for 500.3375, 500.6125, 500.8875, or 501.9125 but last time I checked those lower frequencies were rarely used by the system for voice calls. 501.9125 is often the control channel so do still program it in.

You will still miss some transmissions, but based on what I last observed as far as channel usage I estimate that you could still get around 95% of comms.

As you shop around, also take a look at the new GRE-branded radios supposed to be coming out in the next couple weeks. They have mobile and portable versions of digital, analog (alphanumeric), and analog (numeric-only) radios. GRE made the Radio Shack-branded Pro-96 so I'm not sure whether their own new models will have the same inability to program multiple tables from the keypad.

Since this is a new offering from GRE and is, at least in a few ways, very different than anything they've made before, I plan on reading the manuals in detail and watching early adopters' comments before potentially getting one around the holidays.

Jim

 

[JEFFG]

Jim-
Is the 450 or the 25 parameter the offset? If 450, I can't find a way to enter it. This radio will accept an offset of 12.5, 25, 50, or 100.
Thanks,
Jeff
NJ2Q

 

[robbinsj2]

Early on the manufacturers were using different and sometimes conflicting terminology for trunking functionality. Newer trunking scanners want three pieces of data -- base, step, and offset. The scanner then performs some math on what it receives over the control channel, using these three data to calculate what the actual voice channel frequency should be.

Based on my reading of the 245's manual just now, it appears that it uses "offset" to refer to what is now known as the step, and that it assumes what we now know as the offset to be a fixed value (I would guess 380). To work around this assumption, try a base frequency of 500.7625 and an offset of 25. Program in the four control channel frequencies and all the other system frequencies above 502.5125.

If you start hearing some communications properly then the 245 is probably doing the best it can. If you see some activity on the display but do not hear anything at all, I may have screwed up the math so post back and we'll see if we can come up with something else.

 

[JEFFG]

Jim-
It seems your calculations were correct; I believe I'm hearing fairly normal activity. I do hear some occasional bursts of noise so I assume that's digital or encryption. The #'s on the display when I see this are usually 54448 or 64016. Might encourage me to get a digital scanner after all just for the fun of it.
Thanks for your help.
Jeff
NJ2Q

 

[rr60]

(22 Fire) Bernardsville TRS

Bernardsville Fire has migrated to the County System.

Now paged out on County Paging and operations on Fire Region 1.

I also have the HEX for the police and think this will be active soon.

As soon as I confirm I will post that as well.

 

[mikea7531]

You beat me to it r60! I've been busy today trying to ID all the radios in UniTrunker for 22 Fire & Rescue.

Is PD going to be on their own talkgroup, or will they be on PD North? I know I saw some new TGs in the vicinity of the other PD TGs, could this be possibly it?

10352 - 2 Hits since first appeared on Oct 19th
10384 - 27 Hits since first appeared on May 17th
11216 - 4 Hits since first appeared on July 31st

It would be nice if ALL Fire & EMS in the county was on the system. But then at $2,500+ per radio, how many depts will fully migrate over??

 

[W2SJW]

Bernardsville PD moving to the TRS, wow!

The last time I talked to Leroy a few months ago, he said they kept politely refusing his offers of the TRS. They were being stalwarts about staying on 39 MHz. :lol:

 

[mikea7531]

Scott,

If I was the person being offered the use of the trunk system, my first question would obviously be: "Is county going to purchase the radios for me?" Most of these small towns just simply can't afford these radios. I've always been one to say that county needs to 'chip in' in order to get people to move onto the system.

The FD and Squad in my town would like to move to the system, but a new firetruck and ambulance has taken priority over a transition. I believe the new firetruck is supposed to come with a trunking mobile capable of County and Franklin, and I did spec out the ambulance with a mobile and four portables (we'll see if that stays intact when the council reviews). It's a start, but still can't transition.

I could understand why Bernardsville hasn't been so quick to move up, and most other departments. If everyone isn't moved onto the system; this system just adds on another layer of non-interoperability.

 

[JEFFG]

Mac

Off topic but wondering if anyone here has a Mac. If so can I send you an email I'm working on to see if it gets thru clearly. Apparently HTML can display completely differently on one and I was advised to make sure it is Mac friendly.
Thanks
Jeff
NJ2Q

 

[mikea7531]

Somerset Medical Center now has their Non-Emergency Transport service up and running. They are operating off of EMS Ops 4 (TG: 14576 Analog) on the Somerset County TRS.

I believe their rig numbers follow the 85X scheme (851, 852, etc).