SPEN for Northern NJ

[APX8000]

 

[APX8000]

@rr60 ask and you shall receive, lol. I love how people bash SPEN. Maybe I'll go ask every system admin in every County in NJ to let me use their talkgroup on their trunked system. Lets see, Morris MIRS-1, Union HOTLINE, Somerset PS IOP, Hudson LERN, etc. Oh and don't forget every single town that has their own system...in Hudson alone what Union City, Bayonne, Jersey City...OR....I can just use SPEN-1 and they all will answer.

 

[rr60]

@APX8000 thanks for opening the day with a laugh.

Simplicity is often overlooked and sometimes forgotten. In a jam when the SHF, SPEN
likely to be able to soldier on. SIMPLEX at its finest, with many many non remote sites. Local wireline, local power and no problem.

I recall many years ago following a 450 on the Turnpike. Diver was severely impaired.

I dialed up SPEN on my dual bander. Instant Comm’s. Level of interest high. Driver decided to exit Pike. Troopers all over it. Had 8a toll plaza shut down and jammed by the time we got there. Pulled guy out of car and away he went.

Perfect perhaps not, but very effective.

 

[magic_lantern]

"SPEN stands for State Police Emergency Network means the system is used throughout the entire state"

Statewide Police Network

 

[magic_lantern]

"I think my point is there better ways in the present day for SPEN interagency communications, never heard joking around on Morris County MIRS or Union & Somerset County Hotline talk groups, The fix would be Statewide PSIC, each radio with its own ID. also never claimed to be a law enforcement professional."

That fix would keep offenders off it but at the same time it would keep legitimate users off as well by forcing them to purchase system capable radios at a cost of thousands per unit plus get an ID assigned to them. SPEN is a perfect example true radio interoperability. after 911 interoperability was the new political buzzword, then everyone started to build ( were sold ) these statewide/county wide closed systems and getting rid of there perfectly good conventional radios, then starting to encrypt everything and we are now further away from true radio communications interoperability then ever.

 

[902]

Look, people get bored ("Knock it off, North Bergen!" or "Rrrrreeeeee-co-laaaaa") and there is no audit trail in the analog radios. When the GE radios were replaced by Midlands, there were 10 digit DTMF encoders that were programmed with the telephone number for that dispatch center, but there was never any "policing the police." As we said back home, "Eh, waddya gonna do?"

Before SPEN, there was the 39 MHz SLEPA system that did something similar, but broke the state into regions. And, in between, there was Bergen County's 37.38 ("All cars and stations..." along with other counties having their own channels) and then the 470 MHz Bergen County Alert system which put Motorola receivers in supervisory law enforcement vehicles (and never really worked well south of Rt. 4). That was replaced by a high level unified statewide system (SPEN).

Now the pendulum swings in the other direction and there's local fragmentation again.

If you are curious as to the genesis of the "New Jersey Statewide Police Emergency Network Task Force Report," (the SPEN Plan), here it is, in its entirety: https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/78123NCJRS.pdf

 

[NParkNJ]

Agreed with all points here, but what about Passaic/Bergen/Morris area which has 3 overlapping counties all within 1-5 miles of each other. Oakland, Ringwood, Wanaque, Peqquanock, Riverdale, Wayne. Those for example, are 3 different counties.
SPEN is still pretty popular up here. Yes the comms are scattered, Wayne(which does have a SPEN patch), on their own P25 TRS, Bloomingdale, Kinnelon, and Pequannock on DMR, Pompton Lakes/Riverdale on analog UHF. SPEN for them seems to work pretty well...

 

[joedisp]

Agreed with all points here, but what about Passaic/Bergen/Morris area which has 3 overlapping counties all within 1-5 miles of each other. Oakland, Ringwood, Wanaque, Peqquanock, Riverdale, Wayne. Those for example, are 3 different counties.
SPEN is still pretty popular up here. Yes the comms are scattered, Wayne(which does have a SPEN patch), on their own P25 TRS, Bloomingdale, Kinnelon, and Pequannock on DMR, Pompton Lakes/Riverdale on analog UHF. SPEN for them seems to work pretty well...

"I think my point is there better ways in the present day for SPEN interagency communications, never heard joking around on Morris County MIRS or Union & Somerset County Hotline talk groups, The fix would be Statewide PSIC, each radio with its own ID. also never claimed to be a law enforcement professional."

That fix would keep offenders off it but at the same time it would keep legitimate users off as well by forcing them to purchase system capable radios at a cost of thousands per unit plus get an ID assigned to them. SPEN is a perfect example true radio interoperability. after 911 interoperability was the new political buzzword, then everyone started to build ( were sold ) these statewide/county wide closed systems and getting rid of there perfectly good conventional radios, then starting to encrypt everything and we are now further away from true radio communications interoperability then ever.

 

[joedisp]

The SPEN document for the white paper in 1980 and the nation from 1977 outlines the goals and objectives of the system. The document original is to big to unload to this server, so here is some of the information. Hope this clears up some of the reasoning behind the system.

STATEWIDE POLICE EMERGENCY NETWORK

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The Goals and Objectives of the New Jersey Statewide Police Emergency Network are as
follows:

GOALS:

Increase effectiveness of the police officer through improved communications
capabilities.
Assure greater safety and mobility for the police officer.
Enhance public safety in the areas of crime, natural disaster, and other
emergency situations.
Increase the apprehension of criminals and deter the incidence of crime
through the rapid response of police agencies.
5. Provide every police department in the State with the ability to coordinate
activities with other departments.

OBJECTIVES
1. Enable a police officer to communicate with any other police officer within his
immediate area regardless of agency affiliation as the need arises.
2. Provide each police officer, through dispatcher relays, with the potential to
communicate with every other police officer in the State.
3. Enable a police officer traveling outside of the State to communicate with the
law enforcement officials of the State within which he is traveling.
4. Facilitate the coordination of multi-jurisdictional and/or multi-agency
activities.
This is especially important in situations involving natural disasters, civil
defense activities, and civil disorders.

SPEN 1:
The frequency 154.680 MHz was licensed by the New Jersey State Police in 1964. It is
the only VHF frequency presently licensed for use throughout the entire state of New Jersey
that is compatible with the Nationwide Police Emergency Frequency. It is one of ten VHF
frequencies, set aside by the Federal Communications Commission for exclusive use by State
Police Agencies. 2 (The present national frequency of 155.475 MHz was previously one of
these State Police Channels.) On behalf of the citizens of New Jersey, the New Jersey State
Police has requested from the FCC that the licensed use of this frequency be expanded to
include the total law enforcement community of this State.

SPEN Radios:
SPEN mobile radios have four (4) channel capability, SPEN 1/ SPEN 2/ SPEN 3/
SPEN 4. SPEN 1 will have the highest priority.
Agency Base Stations are two channel units operable on SPEN 1/ SPEN 2. They are low
power and only cover the immediate vicinity of the jurisdiction. Thus, alarms are not heard in
areas beyond the affected zone.

 

[APX8000]

Ok, so you get a NJICS talkgroup to replace SPEN and have every radio in every dispatch center imaginable tuned in. They could easily do that with STATECALL1 or STATECOM1 whatever it's called in my radio now, right? Well, now that resource is utilized at every single site in the State because every center is affiliated. Lets say I'm in Bergen...do I care that Lower Twp wants to tell Upper Twp something in Cape May ? No. Hence the 1) analog SPEN channel and 2) Counties doing their own thing with their own version. I mean how many PD's are in Bergen County alone and they can't get on the same page with a Countywide talkgroup...and now you are going to tell them to get in bed with the STATE !?!?

 

[slingshot202]

I use both SPEN 1 on Analog and I use Wayne's SPEN 1 Patch. Both provide great North Jersey coverage (for me).

The Wayne one has been a great assest and locally I hve also used West Orange EDACS patch, not to bad there either.

 

[jaymatt1978]

The ONLY TIME I hear SPEN in Cape May County is when the do the ACORN OEW test and the towns do a roll call!! Most towns are exclusively on the NJICS system

Ok, so you get a NJICS talkgroup to replace SPEN and have every radio in every dispatch center imaginable tuned in. They could easily do that with STATECALL1 or STATECOM1 whatever it's called in my radio now, right? Well, now that resource is utilized at every single site in the State because every center is affiliated. Lets say I'm in Bergen...do I care that Lower Twp wants to tell Upper Twp something in Cape May ? No. Hence the 1) analog SPEN channel and 2) Counties doing their own thing with their own version. I mean how many PD's are in Bergen County alone and they can't get on the same page with a Countywide talkgroup...and now you are going to tell them to get in bed with the STATE !?!?

 

[APX8000]

Yes I understand that. Was just making a point that if every dispatch center in the entire state has a radio affiliated to a newly created NJ SPEN-1 talkgroup, I'd be hearing Cape May in Bergen vs all their radios just on the Cape May simulcast.