Somerset County
- Thread starter jsalk
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FT752
Member
All the talk groups are accessible on the Somerset County 700MHz cell today- just get a 7-800MHz scanner which I bet the others in the forum can recommend. You only need UHF for Franklin Township (still SmartZone but you can conventionally monitor the 4 voice channels), simplex firegrounds, and Warren Township/Watchung Borough.
robbinsj2
Member
Please browse the database here to see what each town's fire companies use. Many are on site 3 of the county's P25 trunked system using FDMA channels, which any P25 trunking-capable scanner may receive, except it is simulcast and most or all scanners other than the Uniden SDS100/ SDS200 have trouble resolving the simulcast signals. The Unication pagers may also be a good choice for you.
Franklin Township has its own system (technically a separate site of the county's system, but Motorola trunking type so it's listed separately in the database), they use P25 audio on a Motorola control channel. Franklin's system/ site is also simulcast, see the comment above about SDS100/ SDS200.
Some companies/ departments are still on conventional channels, I think all analog for primary operations but some have DMR alternate channels. Some of the dispatch talkgroups are multicast over localized analog conventional channels. If your primary interest is covered by analog channels then a pretty basic receiver will suffice for now.
Franklin Township has its own system (technically a separate site of the county's system, but Motorola trunking type so it's listed separately in the database), they use P25 audio on a Motorola control channel. Franklin's system/ site is also simulcast, see the comment above about SDS100/ SDS200.
Some companies/ departments are still on conventional channels, I think all analog for primary operations but some have DMR alternate channels. Some of the dispatch talkgroups are multicast over localized analog conventional channels. If your primary interest is covered by analog channels then a pretty basic receiver will suffice for now.
Is this system note no longer valid?
Law Enforcement operates on the 700 cell, Fire/EMS/OEM on the UHF cell
I believe at one point the 700 cell was exclusively LE and the UHF cell exclusively everything else...is that no longer the case?
Specifically, did Fire/EMS/OEM finally migrate to 700, or are well into the process of migrating so that while there may still be Fire/EMS activity on the UHF cell, all of the talkgroups are also now active on 700 full-time?
And what of the public works/schools, are they still on the UHF cell?
Law Enforcement operates on the 700 cell, Fire/EMS/OEM on the UHF cell
I believe at one point the 700 cell was exclusively LE and the UHF cell exclusively everything else...is that no longer the case?
Specifically, did Fire/EMS/OEM finally migrate to 700, or are well into the process of migrating so that while there may still be Fire/EMS activity on the UHF cell, all of the talkgroups are also now active on 700 full-time?
And what of the public works/schools, are they still on the UHF cell?
FT752
Member
You are correct- the 700 cell was LE only. However, major headway has been made this year to double the capacity of Site 4 from (5) frequencies and limited TDMA pathways (one frequency was locked to FDMA for Public Safety, another for CW/Protected, etc.), to (10) frequencies boasting up to 20 TDMA pathways. Initially, select Fire Regions (3 & 6) were made accessible to 700 subscribers, but today allows for all county-based traffic that is on the UHF cell in FDMA to be available on the 700 cell converted to TDMA full-time. This also means the County F&S talkgroup, Ranger Main & Ranger Tac, Montgomery DPW, and I would take DPW N and DPW S which all originate in UHF to broadcast voice on 700. With the movement of Franklin Township to the big ASTRO25 from SmartZone
While the UHF-originating voice occupies spectrum on Site 4 at 700MHz simultaneously, this does not reflect the actual end-user radios utilizing 700MHz spectrum and taking advantage of this cell's coverage. As far as I am aware, the only municipal non-LE entity that has been granted access to Site 4's 700MHz performance to date is the North Plainfield Fire Department. Any other Fire/EMS/OEM agency whose radios attempt to register or affiliate to Site 4 are denied, even though they may match all the feature criteria to be permitted onto this cell. More fire agencies are migrating toward cutover to 700MHz with the replacement of mobiles and some to all portables in their fleets in comparison to EMS forced to move at snail speed- though, agencies will not get to taste 700MHz on Somerset County until their fleets are near 100% readiness like North Plainfield FD has accomplished.
Although there is a Schools TG, it has a very limited user base of one or two districts that I will leave unnamed- it is not like the Ohio MARCS system where many schools have a Motorola APX mobile with that special O2 head outfitted with a giant emergency button paddle. I take that they are UHF as I have not seen registration check-ins or the like on Site 4 along with 4-digit IDs. As eluded earlier, the municipal DPWs continue to be UHF- County Roads and all that have lived on NJICS for a while.
So to boil it down...Fire/EMS and other non-LE subscribers are still native to the UHF cell in FDMA mode, however they're using dynamic transcoding in the zone controller to bring that audio to the 700 cell in TDMA mode. Gotcha, thanks.
APX8000
Sarcastic Member
LOL
Since you mentioned Franklin trs is astro25 i should be able to program a unication g5 and hear franklin fd/ems since they are in the clear? Just have to figure out all the astro25 system settings since RR only has the smartzoneII info.
FT752
Member
It will be ASTRO25 soon. However, the changeover date is unknown until the missing site elements are received.
If you want to get ahead of the curve, frequencies are supposed to be the same- follow the Somerset County TRS for their talkgroup IDs. And then once it's live, adjust the bandplan accordingly when it becomes available.
APX8000
Sarcastic Member
What does the NJICS Band Plan in the G5 on that Site have to do with Somerset County and Franklin Twp ? Two completely different systems.
I'm planning a trip down there for christmas tomorrow and programming my G5. My question is will i hear anything on the 700 mhz side or am i programing it for no reason?
FT752
Member
Program the 700 cell, you'll have much better performance than UHF, and hear more things like law enforcement.
If you need to hear Franklin, assuming that the G5 can do something of this sort, just program the first three or four frequencies of the Franklin system on a scan list. But if you're not going to be in that area, I wouldn't worry about it.
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