Utah switching to P25 phase II in 3 to 4 months.

[gedunks1]

So it’s looking like the official switching will be happening by the end of August or during September. To the phase II P25 system. Making anything older than 2019 unable to listen. The swi will be shifting the channels from 800Mhz to 700Mhz which is active now.

 

[hazrat8990]

Not every area will be simulcast, so you'll still be able to use older equipment. Also, you don't even need to program the simulcast sites at all. Sure, you'll miss some traffic that isn't carried on the core sites, but you'll still be able to hear plenty. If you do end up trying to listen to simulcast, a staple, push pin, or paperclip will probably work better than a quality antenna.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

I was reading on the UCA web site that I did not see anything about encryption but I am pretty sure it will come with this new system right?

Its kind of the trend moving forward. All cities and counties and statewide systems are all on board now.

Any information about The State of Utah encrypting their new statewide Harris System moving forward.

 

[bhall7]

I sure hope that they land on a good balance of encryption and openness. 🤞

 

[hazrat8990]

I sure hope that they land on a good balance of encryption and openness. 🤞

Me too! Pretty sure that decision will be made by individual departments. I can see Weber, Davis, and Salt Lake counties going with encryption right out of the gate for most, if not all law enforcement. Especially if they've had any issues in the past with idiots showing up on scene with a scanner in hand.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

I am pretty sure its all on the table. Wonder if its in their project plan directives from the UCA meeting notes.

I sure would not hold your breath and be ready for what you see. Even if its all in the clear from the beginning that is just because they are just getting the system up and going and make sure everything is working properly. As the new Harris system becomes more stable then each county starts flipping from "T" to "TE"

They will not flip the whole state switch at once. They work slowly until they get to the point where they get to the end result. With OTAP and OTAR it can easily be done on the fly with no hand touch anymore. I have seen new systems go up and everything is in the clear and then within 6 to 12 months it was a weekly or monthly thing to start taking chunks of talkgroups and strapping them. I just have not heard of any talk about this new statewide system on what is going to be in the clear and what is going away.

Obviously if they keep their statewide VHF repeaters up and patch into the trunking system then of course those talkgroups will always be in the clear. It's very un pleasant asking the tough questions about this new statewide system.

Just not sure if anybody works within this system and could give some insight or they have NDA agreements about saying anything with what is going to happen with the new system.

 

[mortoma61]

So it’s looking like the official switching will be happening by the end of August or during September. To the phase II P25 system. Making anything older than 2019 unable to listen. The swi will be shifting the channels from 800Mhz to 700Mhz which is active now.

SWI???

 

[KD7DDC]

I personally don't think that much more will go encrypted then what already is. We may see some additional encryption in Tactical/NARC/Ops type of channels but I think its highly unlikely that many standard dispatch channels go encrypted. One reason is specifically because its such a large statewide system that's meant for interoperability. Too many things can go wrong in a critical incident with encryption mismatch, failed handshakes, or other similar issues.

 

[bhall7]

I agree, and I sure hope you’re right! 🙂

 

[enosjones]

The first few days after cutover will be vital in identifying the new talkgroups so they can be identified before encryption..

 

[enosjones]

Those who have a way to see the adjacent site list or peers/neighbors on your local sites, the site here locally have added several neighbors on the sites. This info can be added to the database. Dsdplus and unitrunker can see the peers/neighbor sites as it decodes phase 1 on the control channel it will list the peers on both programs...this may change once they start utilizing phase 2 then unitrunker will not decode. But for now it does....

 

[enosjones]

Since this system will be different than the current UCA 800 system, can anyone enlighten me on how the radios will not drag their traffic to busy up the system, like it does on the current 800 system. The new system is supposed to avoid tying up the system by some other means that dragging their channels across multiple sites like it currently does.. cuz currently I hear traffic from all over the state especially utah County and Salt Lake as well as Richfield, Grand County, and such. What would change?

 

[hazrat8990]

The first few days after cutover will be vital in identifying the new talkgroups so they can be identified before encryption..

This is true! There will probably be quite a few times when folks will be keying up on the wrong TG, and dispatch will correct them "PD unit, you're on Fire TAC 2". I've found and identified quite a few rarely used TG's for my county this way.

Also, once the system is established, TG assignments may change. For example, my county decided to combine city and county law enforcement to a single, "LE" TG, and use the encrypted PD TG for the jail.

Since this system will be different than the current UCA 800 system, can anyone enlighten me on how the radios will not drag their traffic to busy up the system, like it does on the current 800 system. The new system is supposed to avoid tying up the system by some other means that dragging their channels across multiple sites like it currently does.. cuz currently I hear traffic from all over the state especially utah County and Salt Lake as well as Richfield, Grand County, and such. What would change?

There will likely be core sites that carry specific TG's and nothing else, unless someone switches to a TG that's not normally carried on that particular site. In your case, while only monitoring one, or two sites around Price, you will only hear local traffic. You may end up hearing other TG's being dragged along by prisoner, or medical transports from time to time, or by LE officers en-route to training in SLC.

 

[enosjones]

I know that the Utah County officers and uhp from Salt lakes side cover Spanish fork canyon into our side past the summit all the way to MP 221 which is roughly 10 miles from helper. Their traffic is constantly on ford ridge , which covers from MP 209 eastward..

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

I personally don't think that much more will go encrypted then what already is. We may see some additional encryption in Tactical/NARC/Ops type of channels but I think its highly unlikely that many standard dispatch channels go encrypted. One reason is specifically because its such a large statewide system that's meant for interoperability. Too many things can go wrong in a critical incident with encryption mismatch, failed handshakes, or other similar issues.

I sure hope you are right. Plus I beieve UTAH has a statewide VHF conventioanl repeaters too that I am not sure if they will keep in service. Most lilkely yes for coverage and Mutual Aid too. But yes more stuff will be locked down that what you have seen in the older Analog TYPE II system that is currently in use.

I am pretty sure Utah will have some sort of balanced approach hopefully. But time will only tell. Even if you see everything in the clear from the beginning do not count on that forever. It can change on the fly overnight. But it will be interesting to see how the switch over from Motorola to Harris is going to happen.

 

[enosjones]

carbon county uses vhf but some of them are going nxdn. price cops is on 800 but county is wanting to go nxdn vhf and ambulance is on nxdn, fire is on 800. so kinda split down the middle here...

 

[bbrady86]

I'll be interested to see what happens with it too. I tried to get an RTL-SDR up and running through SDR Trunk on my Mac earlier this year to see if I could listen to the current Motorola system without any luck. Took many hours of trial and error to realize it's not compatible and ended up giving up on the hobby for a few months and went back to my old Boafeng's that I programmed years ago just to listen to local PD on the analog frequencies every now and then. Fast forward to now: I finally gave in and ordered an SDS100, which should be coming in the next couple of days. I sure hope that I didn't end up investing in the Uniden just for it to become a paperweight in a few months when they switch to P25 phase 2 and if they end up going with encryption. I guess only time will tell, unfortunately. Down here in Cedar, it wasn't until a year or two ago that ICSO and UHP were still using analog, so I used to get a ton of action with the Baofeng's. Now, I'm just able to hear CCPD and city dispatch on analog, so I'm curious if they'll switch over to the new system when it goes live too. I guess all of us here in Utah are just going to have to play the waiting game and hope our equipment will continue to work!

 

[enosjones]

Any entity that on the current 800 UCA System will be on the new 700 p25 system. whether they go encrypted remains to be seen. but it will probably be all in the clear at first, the sites are up and being tested now for 700. not all will encrypt and not all will be in the clear. but coverage for certain areas might still be an issue. as far as it being patched to vhf I don't know. doubt it. I assume 800 and some vhf may be turned off, but not all.

 

[bbrady86]

Any entity that on the current 800 UCA System will be on the new 700 p25 system. whether they go encrypted remains to be seen. but it will probably be all in the clear at first, the sites are up and being tested now for 700. not all will encrypt and not all will be in the clear. but coverage for certain areas might still be an issue. as far as it being patched to vhf I don't know. doubt it. I assume 800 and some vhf may be turned off, but not all.

I was curious about whether some of the 800mhz frequencies would remain active, especially more rural places. From the small bit of reading I've done on the 700 band, they definitely make it sound superior to the 800 in urban environments. No doubt, I'm a novice when it comes to digital trunking knowledge, but I'm looking forward to getting the SDS100 up and running (hopefully for quite some time)!

 

[enosjones]

they've added 700 mhz sites that they don't currently have for 800 mhz