Last night, one tower site has transitioned from the old freq. to the rebanded freq's 15mhz lower. Being one tower site down, many who use the system have complained that transmissions have been cutting out, or not transmitting. Nothing has been heard on the other freq's besides the control channel. Just figured it's good info.
South Brunswick EDACS
- Thread starter dahlio
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robbinsj2
Member
South Brunswick has two sites for its EDACS but they aren't simulcast, only one operates at a time. They have switched back and forth as needed or as desired. Being at different locations, the two sites do have different coverage characteristics.
Maybe SB switched the main system from the primary site to the alternate site, so that they could move the primary site to the rebanded frequencies? Switching to the alternate site provides better coverage for the west side and particularly the south-west, but would probably negatively impact coverage on the eastern side of town.
All radios should now be programmed with both pre- and post-rebanding frequencies so the switchover could happen just about any time. No significant talkgroup changes are expected; I haven't heard of any minor ones but I wouldn't be surprised if some are introduced.
Jim
Maybe SB switched the main system from the primary site to the alternate site, so that they could move the primary site to the rebanded frequencies? Switching to the alternate site provides better coverage for the west side and particularly the south-west, but would probably negatively impact coverage on the eastern side of town.
All radios should now be programmed with both pre- and post-rebanding frequencies so the switchover could happen just about any time. No significant talkgroup changes are expected; I haven't heard of any minor ones but I wouldn't be surprised if some are introduced.
Jim
robbinsj2
Member
Switching site locations would allow them to take down the primary site for maintenance, upgrades, etc. There are also cell and other public safety and business transmitters very near the primary EDACS site, I don't know if they would switch sites if there is work being done on those antennas. Also, of course, in case the primary site fails they have a full backup ready to go.
Switching sites certainly would impact signal quality in a large part of town, which is why they use the primary site most of the time. There wouldn't necessarily have to be anything else going on to cause the problems you describe.
Do you know what areas were most impacted? I would expect switching to the alternate site would improve service in the Kingston area, be negligible in Kendall Park and Monmouth Junction but with more noticable degradation in buildings in these areas, and possibly hurt service in Deans and Dayton on out towards the turnpike.
Simulcasting would be nice but, I've heard, requires infrastructure upgrades or additional work of some kind to SB's current equipment. From one price tag I heard I believe it is more than just synchronizing the towers, though I don't know how much that would cost.
Jim
Switching sites certainly would impact signal quality in a large part of town, which is why they use the primary site most of the time. There wouldn't necessarily have to be anything else going on to cause the problems you describe.
Do you know what areas were most impacted? I would expect switching to the alternate site would improve service in the Kingston area, be negligible in Kendall Park and Monmouth Junction but with more noticable degradation in buildings in these areas, and possibly hurt service in Deans and Dayton on out towards the turnpike.
Simulcasting would be nice but, I've heard, requires infrastructure upgrades or additional work of some kind to SB's current equipment. From one price tag I heard I believe it is more than just synchronizing the towers, though I don't know how much that would cost.
Jim
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Tonight at 6pm, South Brunswick PD hit every fire & EMS tone and announced "All radios should now be switched back to system 1". So I guess they're done with the upgrades on the main site.
Indeed, an agency transmission was sent at 10am when the actual switchover occured. Seems to have fixed the coverage area problems they were having with the other tower.
germwad86
Member
Does this mean that SB has gone digital or encrypted or will they still be analog primarily??
robbinsj2
Member
No. It means the system rebanded to new frequencies.
Yes; the system has been completely analog and I would be surprised if any of it goes digital. The township uses a cell carrier for its sensitive/private comms.
Jim
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