The Mall of Georgia has gone digital (DMR)

[rapidcharger]

Sometime late yesterday afternoon when I was working and not paying attention, the Mall of Georgia operations moved from analog to digital DMR.

I have no concrete information directly from them or their dealer although yesterday morning their analog repeater appeared to be down and they were operating in talkaround. Then around lunch time they switched back to the repeater in analog and yesterday evening the frequency was dead quiet. I looked down at the radio and saw that the busy light was on so I put it into carrier squelch and there was the dreaded DMR noise. And this continued late into the night. Their housekeeping and maintenance frequency has gone dark so I'm guessing they are using the magic of two slot TDMA on 151.5275.

Their license does not allow for anything other than NFM but it does expire in september. I did not find any pending applications so I guess they're gonna do this Barra' Kenny style.

I've enjoyed listening to them for about the last 10 years. Their signal got out about 20 miles just listening with a rubber duck. It gave me a new appreciation for mall cops and private security in general as they weren't just Paul Blarts, they put up with a lot. The crowds at that mall have become larger and larger in recent years as malls to the south have declined and although their radios system sounded fine most of the time, they really could benefit from DMR, most notably the noise canceling and elimination of static from their body worn VHF hi band portables as they drive around the mall and surrounding properties that they patrol.

I don't know what they're using but last week I did a quick drive through and saw one security officer holding what looked like a sat phone up to his head. I didn't think much of it but looking back on it, I suppose it could have been a MotoTRBO XPR-75xx or possibly SL-75xx. I am speculating. This whole post has been one big speculation for that matter. Either way, it was a matter of time and that time appears to have come.

I don't know if it would be prudent to update the DB at this time or wait for the license to reflect the changes to emission type or just add a comment to it or what.

 

[N8IAA]

Guess a trip into the mall is in order. Was at O'Charlies for dinner last night, love free pie Wednesdays, and couldn't get a peep out of the scanner. Just 5 bars on the screen.
I can see how the SL-7550 could be mistaken for a sat phone.
Larry

 

[MTS2000des]

It really must suck to live in Gwinnett or Hall county and be into scanners. Nothing to scan but "I've fallen and I can't get up" calls, and the occasional "apartment" fire.

Here in crime Cobb we have daily: burglaries with high speed chases, shots fired at PD every month, schools on lockdown,armed robberies, drive by shootings, tons of fights, daily wrecks with pin-ins, large house fires, trees falling on homes..and this is all in just pct 3! Can't wait till we get our new Race to Waste stadium. 24 hour gridlock traffic, endless crimes against people, higher taxes than ever, and neighborhoods becoming ghost towns like Detroit. Wow, where do you sign up! When can you get here! Thanks Tim Lee! You're such a great commission chairman, glad I voted for you. You really CARE about us longtime established residents. We know this will pay off one day. Just you wait, it's gonna get better!

But seriously, all that happens up your way, you just got to wait until you can watch it on Channel 2 action news with Erin "good lookin" Coleman at 4PM, because in Gwinnett county, "we're just so darn conservative" to use social media to communicate with citizens, but it's good to know they are "looking into it" in 2014 as a line item agenda. I would say, just use your handy dandy scanner. Of course you don't know about those murders, robberies, carjackings, meth labs, SWAT standoffs in real time because, well, since 2008- all police radio traffic on the county DTRS uses ADP encryption so that means no staying informed that way. Guess you'll just have to wait until Ross Cavitt or my personal favorite Erica Byfield sticks a microphone in Corporal Jake Smith's face for the down low.

Gwinnett County looking at using social media after snow storms | www.wsbtv.com

Oh well...back to listening to paint dry! Glad you didn't run out and buy that new Uniden, not that it can receive anything well anyway.

Now you can always listen to HAM RADIO...that's gotta be edge of your seat non-stop excitement!

 

[rapidcharger]

It really must suck to live in Gwinnett or Hall county and be into scanners. Nothing to scan but "I've fallen and I can't get up" calls, and the occasional "apartment" fire.

Apartments? Are those those things yall have down there in the big city? Up here we gots them 3500sf and up slumdivision rental houses. Yeah withouth all those rodent infested roach motels burning to the ground like you have over on the west side on a daily basis, fire and ems is pretty boring here.

Until I can get the new GSP freq programmed in that Larry told us about, I've gone back to listening to the rural pds and fire up in the mountains. I'm sure those frequencies will go dark within a month or two. Just found another popo fun-talk channel in simplex.

See this digital migration just ensures that the hobby of scanning is challenging and forces you to find new stuff to listen to all the time.

 

[CapStar362]

when i lived in Clayton... man i had a daily does of hilarious laughter at some of the things i heard across their systems....including BOE Buses.


one day, and this is the top of them all:

BOE Cranks up a call from Bus 513:

this is a memory based transscript, hand written:

" Loudly " 5-1-3 to base, i have me an emergency!!! COME BACK!!

5-1-3 this is BASE, this is Cheryl, go ahead....

BASE, i have 2 students in the rear of my full load high school route, performing sexual intercourse!!! i cant get them to stop, and the entire load of students is becoming wild!

5-1-3, please initiate "Red button" and PD will be en route

BASE HURRY UP I THINK SOMEONE IS ABOUT TO START FIGHTING OVER THIS!!! I CANNOT CONTROL MY ENTIRE LOAD OF STUDENTS!!

5-1-3 "Initiate your red button" i will expedite your call.... please do not leave the bus, and leave the camera on.

YES MA'AM! PLEASE HURRY!





at this time, i switched to Clayton PD and got on the PC and simultaneously streamed SO on the web...


Holly ( who i know ) was the dispatcher for PD that day, and dispatched 4 units under code with more in standby....... then the power went out!! which is frequent in Clayton for no reason


but i was hysterically laughing.....

 

[lep]

Only problem with the title of this thread is : Where/What is the Mall of Georgia?: I assume it is somewhere in the ATL metro area but I never heard of it during the more than 50 years I have lived in Georgia. I guess there still are two Georgia's, one above and one below the Fall line.

 

[shadcall]

Only problem with the title of this thread is : Where/What is the Mall of Georgia?: I assume it is somewhere in the ATL metro area but I never heard of it during the more than 50 years I have lived in Georgia. I guess there still are two Georgia's, one above and one below the Fall line.

Buford, GA in Gwinnett County. I left the Atlanta area in 2010 and it had opened before that. Here is a link if you wish to visit.

Mall of Georgia® Mobile Website - Buford, GA 30519-4913 - Simon Malls

 

[rapidcharger]

when i lived in Clayton... man i had a daily does of hilarious laughter at some of the things i heard across their systems....including BOE Buses.

The school buses can sometimes be interesting, particularly when there is a winter storm where the buses are stuck on the road overnight with students still on the bus. That was definitely worth listening to.

Unfortunately it probably won't be monitorable for much longer. They don't keep their BOE radio systems for too long and they'll probably get wind of what Cobb County did very recently and go to a DMR moto-trbo portable handset scheme that probably cost millions of dollars and they don't even own the infrastructure.

Only problem with the title of this thread is : Where/What is the Mall of Georgia?: I assume it is somewhere in the ATL metro area but I never heard of it during the more than 50 years I have lived in Georgia. I guess there still are two Georgia's, one above and one below the Fall line.

Looks like your question was answered. I assumed as it is the largest mall in the state that most people in the GA room would've heard of it or would've not heard of it and not bothered to read it as it would be immaterial to their scanning experience. Realizing now that "The Mall" doesn't sound like the name of a mall, I do apologize for the inconvenience. :wink:

 

[lep]

I see from the link that it is a Mall of the Simon Group, them I know, as they are headquartered in Carmel, Indiana where my daughter and her family live, but I did not connect Simon with this Mall in north Georgia.

 

[N8IAA]

Mall of Georgia is TRBO. They are using the same radios as Discover/Sugarloaf Mill. Still on the same frequencies as when they were analog.

lep, the ground breaking happened back in 1999 when I moved down from Ohio. Remember driving by and seeing coyotes and a healthy deer population that got decimated by the traffic. It was amazing how quick everything grew around it. The traffic on GA 20 is a horror between 12pm and 7pm East and West bound. But, you'll never go hungry:lol:
Larry

 

[rapidcharger]

At least we can stop wondering when they're going to go digital and if they'll move to uhf.

 

[N8IAA]

At least we can stop wondering when they're going to go digital and if they'll move to uhf.

They're still on their VHF frequencies yet. Not UHF. I just said that they were Moto 6550's.
Larry

 

[rapidcharger]

I know. I know.
I said we can stop wondering since the day they'd go digital was pretty much a given.
I had suspected they would switch to the mall security band (aka UHF) as there is no apparent current reason or benefit for them being on VHF anymore. I heard that public safety frequency coordinators are not allowing any more DMR on VHF, granted they are in a different frequency pool. Since they are not licensed for dmr nor are there any applications (still), it should be interesting to see if they indeed remain on VHF. Or digital!

 

[7StoryMTN]

What scanner do I need to hear Mall of GA Security?

I noticed this the other day. Nothing but a weird noise on their old frequency when they transmitted. What radio would I need to monitor them now that they are digital? Would a Radio Shack Pro 106 work? Any affordable recommendations ($150 or less??). Thx.

 

[davewhall29]

I noticed this the other day. Nothing but a weird noise on their old frequency when they transmitted. What radio would I need to monitor them now that they are digital? Would a Radio Shack Pro 106 work? Any affordable recommendations ($150 or less??). Thx.

A regular scanner will not pick up DMR transmissions. You will need a scanner with DSD and a discriminator tap. Or a two-way radio programmed like the ones they use.

MOTOTRBO - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[SCPD]

No more DMR on VHF?

I heard that public safety frequency coordinators are not allowing any more DMR on VHF, granted they are in a different frequency pool.

This is the first I have heard of this. Anyone else know anything about it? There are several public safety agencies in the State of Georgia that have already migrated their VHF Systems to MotoTRBO or NEXEDGE and others are preparing to move to these types of technology on their VHF Systems because they can't afford P25 in the VHF band, more less P25 in 700/800 MHz! I understand several of the counties in extreme northeast Georgia (White, Habersham and Rabun to name a few) are preparing to link their VHF MotoTRBO Systems together to create a multi-county, semi-regional system to improve interoperability between agencies during a mutual aid type incident, if they haven't done this already. Not sure how true this is, but makes sense. I understand a couple of counties in northwest Georgia are considering the same thing.

Boy, with GSP going P25 VHF conventional in the majority of the State, regional 700/800 MHz P25 systems like OARS, SEGRRN, WARRS, and others across the State, agencies switching to VHF or UHF MotoTRBO, agencies switching to VHF NEXEDGE and agencies like Harris County dumping 800 MHz for UHF TETRA sure makes interoperability more challenging. Makes me appreciate the early years in my public safety communications career even more when every public safety agency in our State was either VHF Low Band (yes, I said Low Band), VHF High Band or UHF. Yes, we had interoperability issues then because there weren't any multi-band radios, but all were analog and you could at least purchase a crystal controlled scanner, set it up to monitor your neighboring cities or counties and put it in your patrol car to know when the chase was coming your way or get the lookout on the armed robbery in the adjacent jurisdiction 15 minutes before the other agency's dispatcher called yours. Unfortunately, we can't even do that now. Sheriffs, Police Chiefs and others think they are doing their personnel and agency a huge favor by encrypting all talkgroups on a system or moving to a digital technology a scanner will not pick up to improve officer safety and security, but are they? Are they truly doing their personnel justice by encrypting talkgroups or using a technology the law enforcement officers in the adjacent jurisdictions or state troopers passing through can't monitor or communicate with them on? A double edged sword I'm sure, but I just hope none of them fall on it!

Anyway, this is all water under the bridge now and I still blame the vendors for all of this mess for setting the price of P25 to high instead of making it comparable to the proprietary technologies. I truly think this could have been done, but as usual someone got greedy and saw dollar signs $$$$.

 

[MTS2000des]

Anyone else know anything about it?

Not rumor, apparently true back in 2012, cannot find any confirmation if the 90 day period was extended:

http://www.info4u.us/PSCC Letter.pdf

Are they truly doing their personnel justice by encrypting talkgroups or using a technology the law enforcement officers in the adjacent jurisdictions or state troopers passing through can't monitor or communicate with them on? A double edged sword I'm sure, but I just hope none of them fall on it!

I hear arguments from both sides. Some don't like the fact that the "listening audience" is much wider, thanks to free online streaming, nor do they like the fact that third parties are recording and making public (almost in real time) high profile incidents, including the recent school stabbings in PA. Others feel that this veil of secrecy only puts the citizen that much more detached from their government officials.

I do find it comical though, how one metro Atlanta county, chose to encrypt ALL public safety talkgroups, when implementing their digital trunked radio network citing "officer safety" is also the same county government who refuse to get with the times and use social media sites, or even official notification services like Nixle with their county commission chairwoman proclaiming in a recent media report "I guess we are just too darn conservative".

People should make it a point to their elected officials that open government and accountability is paramount in protecting the public trust.
Does this mean all radio communications should be unencrypted though? A good discussion indeed.

Anyway, this is all water under the bridge now and I still blame the vendors for all of this mess for setting the price of P25 to high instead of making it comparable to the proprietary technologies. I truly think this could have been done, but as usual someone got greedy and saw dollar signs $$$$.

I also blame the customers who fail to use due diligence, in many cases, some are quick to spend other people's money like money trees grow in the town square and buy whatever they are instructed by their vendors or their so-called "consultants" (who often have ties back to the same vendors) to purchase.

It takes two tango. One to sell, and one to buy.

When more citizens and elected officials start holding the vendors accountable, that's when we might actually get what we've been promised for the past 30 years.

Oh wait, I'm dreaming.

Radio Salesman's Nightmare - YouTube

 

[7StoryMTN]

Confirmed .... They are using Moto XPR 6550's. ... Guard said that home office in Maryland can monitor their frequency. Don't know If he was talking about Simon Mgt or Allied Barton Mgt.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MTS2000des]

Confirmed .... They are using Moto XPR 6550's. ... Guard said that home office in Maryland can monitor their frequency. Don't know If he was talking about Simon Mgt or Allied Barton Mgt

that means they are running IP Site Connect on their repeater. Interesting.

 

[jdobbs2001]

Get an 18 dollar SDR dongle and with DSD+ you will hear them clear as day.