SWAIN COUNTY

[Metrofire31]

Even though the RRDB shows Swain County Sheriff and Swain County Fire operating on analog frequencies, their FCC license has them authorized to operate on NXDN, and word-of-mouth says they are using NXDN. Can anyone confirm that and if so, does anyone know the RANs for each?

Metrofire31
Franklin, NC

 

[yardbird]

Wouldn't surprise me they are going NXDN. Seems like all the mountain counties are going to NXDN.

What I don't understand is why they don't use Viper. Then again who knows anymore.

It will eventually bite them in the butt when they have a major incident or event and they can't communicate because of there NXDN system.

I thought the whole idea was interoperability I guess not to the mountain counties.

David

 

[NCFireman11]

One of my friends up that way (but does not live close enough to hear Swain County everyday) says they are still conventional but have the capability to transition to NXDN at a later date. I guess if you are hearing something different they are in the process of switching to NXDN.

 

[Metrofire31]

I've heard Swain County Sheriff (460.425) on both conventional analog (114.8) and NXDN (RAN 9) in the past week. Very unusual I think for a dispatcher to transmit both ways, especially given the unit in the field has to figure it out.

 

[trumpetman]

Kenwood radios support mixed mode operation. So if a field unit keys up on then based on whatever mode they used and the timeout setting, the radios responding will respond on that mode within the allotted time.

Ex:
-Field unit transmits in NXDN while dispatch radio is set to transmit in analog but receive mixed mode.
-Dispatch responds within 5 seconds so the dispatch radio will transmit in digital.
-Channel stays idle for a few minutes and all talk-back mixed mode has timed out. Dispatch now keys up in analog and the field unit will go through the same steps, if it responds within the time frame (default of 5 seconds I believe) then it will key up in analog also.

It can be convoluted when typing it out but seeing it in action makes more sense. This allows for a migration path or backward compatibility for out of county units who may not have digital capable radios.

Listen to all the Swain channels in carrier squelch and report back what RANs you discover. Be sure and note both analog and NXDN are in use in your submissions so the analog channels aren't replaced in the database.

 

[Metrofire31]

Will do, Trumpetman! Thanks for the explanation on Kenwoods.