TPD and PCWIN ... Time Extension Granted

[FLANO]

For those of you following the being of PCWIN down here in Pima County :


Tucson requested a waiver to delay the start of operations of their portion of the PCWIN agreement. The FCC granted it. Here are some details I found of interest:

- Four of the five sites under the Tucson license, WPQA524, have been completed. The final site construction must be done by 31 December, 2012.

- Tucson plans to begin system-wide testing in April 2013. Following testing and completion of the other PCWIN sites, operations will begin on 1 August, 2013.

- By 17 December 2013, Tucson must be integrated into the PCWIN system and commence operations.

Finally some firm dates must be met per the FCC, or Tucson's license will be cancelled. The FCC said 12 years and not having completed construction and operations in that time will require "an exceptionally high level of scrutiny" for any further extension requests.

 

[mothertrucker]

I guess we need to start figurin' out what kinda scanners we will need to monitor this new system.

 

[JPSan]

Gotta wait for a Moto TDMA Phase II capable scanner anyways.....

Trying this again. Seems that RR is experiencing 'issues' tonight.
Since none of the scanner manufacturers have announced a radio of handling Motorola TDMA Phase II , you will have wait and see.
Folks I know that are involved in the PCWIN system are saying that there is serious discussion over using encryption for all law enforcement ops on the PCWIN system. I guess it will be a wait and see type of thing. After seeing how long, how very long it took for this system to get this far nothing would surprise me. So It Goes.

 

[jeffrykeen]

Tucson Police and EMS feed

Does anyone know when and how the frequencies and tg info will be made available? I provide the feed here in Tucson to Broadcastify and would like to have my scanner programmed and ready to go as soon as possible. I just purchased a new PRO-197 scanner for the job. Hopefully the police will not be encripted. I heard recently that they were not planning to.

 

[Astrak]

Does anyone know when and how the frequencies and tg info will be made available? I provide the feed here in Tucson to Broadcastify and would like to have my scanner programmed and ready to go as soon as possible. I just purchased a new PRO-197 scanner for the job. Hopefully the police will not be encripted. I heard recently that they were not planning to.

If it is going to be a TDMA system, the PRO-197 won't do the job. You'll need a PSR-800 from what I understand.

 

[jeffrykeen]

Another scanner!

I did find the freqs on fcc.gov. According to a PCWIN update that I saw, the system will be an "astro25" P25 system.

 

[Astrak]

It will be a P25 system, but the channel access method will be TDMA which the PRO-197 won't be able to track. Difference Between FDMA and TDMA | Difference Between | FDMA vs TDMA

 

[jeffrykeen]

Well I guess I have a good excuse to buy another scanner then... I will wait and see what develops. I haven't heard anything about the "TDMA" until the post above. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Astrak]

Well I guess I have a good excuse to buy another scanner then... I will wait and see what develops. I haven't heard anything about the "TDMA" until the post above. Thanks for the heads up!

LOL yep, might as well get another one. You can't monitor everything with just one.

 

[AZScanner]

It just figures that this would happen. My fiancee wants to move back down there in a couple years so I'll be moving there just in time for my current scanner to be a nice $500 paperweight. TDMA, oh joy. :roll:

I'm waiting to see what the new offering from Uniden will be before deciding on which new scanner I will need to get. Hopefully it does TDMA so that I can continue scanning once we move. Otherwise, well... bowling is a fun hobby...

Edited to add: There is hope though, since I own a RTL-SDR, perhaps there will be a TDMA solution made available in the next couple of years that takes advantage of the direct IQ sampling that is possible with those little sticks. That would be awesome. I'd even be willing to PAY a nominal fee for that capability, hint, hint radio software developers.

-AZ

 

[garys]

A friend of mine lives in Pima County and has a PSR 800. From what I read so far in this thread, it should work, but I don't see a listing in the database for PCWIN. Can someone point to it or is it just not listed yet.

I have EZ Scan on my computer, but don't see it in the Library Import either.

Thanks.

 

[jeffrykeen]

It probably isn't listed yet. The system is in the testing phase right now and supposed to go live in January.

 

[Thunderbolt]

Are they currently transmitting a control channel? If so, a good analysis of the control channel with Pro96Com or UniTrunker would yield the System ID, WACN and Site info. Once that is established, the database listing can be modified accordingly.

73's

Ron

 

[Thunderbolt]

Otherwise, well... bowling is a fun hobby...

-AZ

Interesting you should mention this. I had a really crazy dream a few months ago where Ebonite bought out Uniden. When the ball wasn't being used for bowling, you could insert a rubber-ducky antenna into the thumb-hole, and it would work as a scanner receiver that received all modes, including encrypted comms. The internal battery was wound by motion, so the more you bowled; thus, the longer the battery life. I can remember rotating the ball on the kitchen table to change from one trunking system to another.

At one point, I seem to remember one police officer talking into a Brunswick Max bowling pin as his portable radio, and then using it to disarm a man with a knife by whacking him over the head with it. Sadly, just before I was awakened by the doorbell, the announcer at the bowling alley read a news bulletin that Storm had merged with GRE, to become GRE-Storm, Inc. Apparently, they were going to offer Hazmat scented bowling balls that receive fire department communications.

What a dream!

73's

Ron

 

[Phoenix805]

Interesting you should mention this. I had a really crazy dream a few months ago where Ebonite bought out Uniden. When the ball wasn't being used for bowling, you could insert a rubber-ducky antenna into the thumb-hole, and it would work as a scanner receiver that received all modes, including encrypted comms. The internal battery was wound by motion, so the more you bowled; thus, the longer the battery life. I can remember rotating the ball on the kitchen table to change from one trunking system to another.

At one point, I seem to remember one police officer talking into a Brunswick Max bowling pin as his portable radio, and then using it to disarm a man with a knife by whacking him over the head with it. Sadly, just before I was awakened by the doorbell, the announcer at the bowling alley read a news bulletin that Storm had merged with GRE, to become GRE-Storm, Inc. Apparently, they were going to offer Hazmat scented bowling balls that receive fire department communications.

What a dream!

73's

Ron

LOL! What a way to combine two hobbies. And I thought I had strange convoluted dreams.....

 

[FLANO]

PCWIN is in the database now.

 

[garys]

PCWIN is in the database now.

Thank you. Do you are anyone know what the time lag is before it will be in the RR downloadable DB or EZ Scan?

 

[FLANO]

Thank you. Do you are anyone know what the time lag is before it will be in the RR downloadable DB or EZ Scan?

The db for download to the different radio types usually takes place once a week. I can not tell you when it will be downloadable.

 

[cookmaster]

Tucson Police and PCWIN

Gary's the Updates for the PSR-800 is ever Saturday morning,or you can program the PSR-800 by using the Software EZ Scan, Instead of waiting for the updates!!!

 

[garys]

Gary's the Updates for the PSR-800 is ever Saturday morning,or you can program the PSR-800 by using the Software EZ Scan, Instead of waiting for the updates!!!

Thanks. I don't have one currently, but my friend out in Pima does. I'll let him know. He's not a scanner guy per se, but he does like to listen to what's going on around him.