The state of Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN)

[semo]

I cant get a good enough decode with my pro 106 for pro96com.
Site 4.38 Shows call sign WNXS717

 

[buddrousa]

4-38 Is North West Corrections (Lake County Tn) OLD 1-27
4-39 Is Fort Pillow Corrections (Lauderdale County Tn) OLD 1-35
4-40 Not sure where this is yet.

 

[Remington12G]

Thought i would try out DSD+ Fastlane on TACN Today. I was on the North Bradley site when I noticed that one of the sites were isolated and no in the DB yet. This is RFSS 1 / Site 91

Anyone know what site this might be or maybe a new site that hasn't been located yet

 

[Remington12G]

Update: This might be the 800MHz Site On Wheels-Emergency Communications Tower. See details below.

 

[davewhall29]

Update on Monroe County and the TACN:

They are testing portable radios in the 9500 TGID range this week and next week for various agencies in Monroe County. Each law enforcement agency, and several county fire departments, have been issued a couple of Motorola portables for testing. Sometime this month Motorola reps will be at the Waucheesi tower in Tellico Plains to check and see if the tower will be sturdy enough to attach their equipment to it. If it is (and I have been told it should pass the test), installation of their equipment will begin shortly thereafter. There are still some dead zones in the county, and hopefully the new site at Waucheesi will take care of those. Once the equipment is installed, another round of testing will occur, then the radios will be programmed. As of right now, I have been told that all law enforcement agencies (even those not switching immediately) will be issued TGIDs (1 dispatch and 1 talk, minimum). I have heard a couple of fire departments testing on these portables, but I'm not sure on the details of how many TGIDs will be programmed for them. There are 10 or 11 different volunteer FDs in the county (not including the city FDs), along with the rescue squad, so I'm not sure how those will be set up. They will not be strapped to just the towers in Monroe County, I am told. And I have not heard about encryption.
Target date for complete switchover has not been determined yet.

 

[davewhall29]

Picking up TG 16027 on the Maryville and Centerville sites.. Sounds like helo or air comms. It's in line with National Guard TGIDs. I'm hearing call signs of "Smoky 7", what sounded like "Rogue? ops", and what sounded like "Cash Ops". I heard what sounded like airplane or helo talking to a control center and hearing something about being en route to Erlanger, and talking about western Kentucky counties, and using "Mutual Aid 1." It was a little muffled in some instances so it was hard to understand exactly what was being said. I didn't hear this live, but on recordings from my scanner. Any ideas?

 

[surfacemount]

'Cash' was probably 'cache'.... not sure about rogue. Drogue?

 

[davewhall29]

'Cash' was probably 'cache'

Ah, that makes sense

 

[INDY72]

Rogue could very well be Rogue. Cash could very well be Cash or crash or cache. After all this is military your talking about. If it was more like Medvac then crash ops, after all EMC was mentioned correct? And if again this was Medevac ops, then drogue would fit with lowering or raising the lines for personnel or "Bambi" basket.

 

[davewhall29]

I don't think this is medevac ops. Not hearing anything that leads me to believe it's evac ops. Listening more, it sounds like air ops. Airplanes or helicopters providing a "dispatcher" with departure and arrival at various places throughout the state, or ETA to different locations. I've heard Beach (or Beech) River, Smyrna, BNA (Nashville airport). This is the Rogue ops and Rogue number IDs.

 

[zachgallop]

I don't think this is medevac ops. Not hearing anything that leads me to believe it's evac ops. Listening more, it sounds like air ops. Airplanes or helicopters providing a "dispatcher" with departure and arrival at various places throughout the state, or ETA to different locations. I've heard Beach (or Beech) River, Smyrna, BNA (Nashville airport). This is the Rogue ops and Rogue number IDs.

Heard those callsigns several times over the years on both that TACN talkgroups and GSMNP channels. I believe it is a Tennessee Air National Guard channel. Helicopters with the Smoky callsigns are usually requested to go to the GSMNP with THP Aviation. Smoky # often gets on the NPS channel, and they refer to them as the Air National Guard when requesting them.

 

[MattBNA]

Picking up TG 16027 on the Maryville and Centerville sites.. Sounds like helo or air comms. It's in line with National Guard TGIDs. I'm hearing call signs of "Smoky 7", what sounded like "Rogue? ops", and what sounded like "Cash Ops". I heard what sounded like airplane or helo talking to a control center and hearing something about being en route to Erlanger, and talking about western Kentucky counties, and using "Mutual Aid 1." It was a little muffled in some instances so it was hard to understand exactly what was being said. I didn't hear this live, but on recordings from my scanner. Any ideas?

'Cash' (followed by a number) are the radio callsigns used by the National Guard UH-60 birds based at BNA (formerly of Smyrna). The area on their ramp where they depart / land is referred to on the radio when communicating with ATC as the 'Cash pad.'

The origin of the callsign is Johnny Cash (of course).


Matt

--

 

[surfacemount]

That makes perfect sense. Thanks. Does anybody here know if TACN is allowing XTS5000's on the system anymore? I know some volunteer organizations are struggling, but seems like I got a bulletin awhile back stating no more would be provisioned.

 

[buddrousa]

All I have seen and been told is all new users shall be phase 2

 

[ka4bni]

If an agency comes onto TACN to only use the Mutual Aids and Interops, they can bring FDMA radios (XT Series), but if an agency wants to come to the TACN part of the network to do their daily dispatching they must migrate to TDMA for their dispatching. The mutual aids and interops are already FDMA and will not be migrated to TDMA anytime soon.

 

[INDY72]

Add to this that the Motorola XTS is discontinued. It is no longer being manufactured, or given active support my Motorola. The P25 current generation is the APX series, and indeed the next generation is also the APX-NEXT. (This new one will take getting used to as there is no longer a keyboard, but now has a large touch screen.)

 

[Floridarailfanning]

Is there any word on a TDMA cutover date for existing users or will Phase I stay for the foreseeable future?

 

[INDY72]

I have not seen an official date yet like they did for MSWIN. For MSWIN, the "official" everyone MUST be TDMA capable by January 2021, though like with anything else "official", it's a good bit of fluidity and political gaming in it. For the TACN, I would probably be close by guessing 2022 just to "light a fire" on the butts of the ones playing political games that like to claim they "can't" do this or that just to get more money etc. AWIN has also made this announcement, but also has not put a finalization deadline out yet as its still going to be about 2 more years to get the system ready.

 

[surfacemount]

Add to this that the Motorola XTS is discontinued.

Which is why they are valuable. They can afford to break a $200 radio. Doesn't make them less capable; if they start misbehaving, and a trip on the autotester doesn't solve it, pitch it and buy another. The cheapest one on state contract is four figures.

 

[Floridarailfanning]

The cheapest one on state contract is four figures.

That's the real barrier to entry for many smaller agencies. I haven't seen the pricing on the new contract but the old SWC 418 prices were ridiculous.