VIPER Statewide Radio System Discussion

jake_Braker

C/O 2Ø21
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 27, 2018
Messages
628
Location
Somewhere in NC
Does anyone know what's going on at the KCLT airport? Troop H common 1 and SHP Special Ops 1 I'm assuming it's an escort but I'm not sure for who.
 

IcomIcR20

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 16, 2014
Messages
879
Some of you have probably already seen this but I just now read the mid-2020 VIPER newsletter and here is info on a few new sites and their status just in case anyone is interested:

Tower Construction Updates:
• Benson (Johnston Ct): Tower is being stacked.
• Triad Park (Guilford Ct): Waiting for microwave radios. COVID has slowed down production of this equipment and is a major hurdle for all the new sites right now.
• Hayesville (Clay Ct): Site plans have been approved by the County. Site has entered the environmental/NEPA phase.
• Anson 911 (Anson Ct): FAA has denied the request to put a tower at this location. We are working on appealing this decision but also working with the county to identify alternate locations.
• Ford Rd (Watauga Ct): The lease fell through on the Ford Rd site. Watauga County purchased land in the area of the Aho community as an alternate location. This alternate location is being explored by us.
• Charlotte (Mecklenburg Ct): Lease is pending Governor’s signature


Source: https://files.nc.gov/ncdps/documents/files/VIPER-Semi-Annual-Newsletter-mid2020.pdf
 

spacellamaman

Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
1,438
Location
municipality of great state of insanity
Been a while since i read one of the newsletters so i appreciate the link and suggestion to do so. Couple of thoughts/vague inquiries:

"Challenges
1. No budget was passed in SFY19-20 with no budget starting SFY2020-2021.
..........
3. Lack of an exemption for State owned property has now become a significant challenge
since local governments are now able to veto the state’s use of its own land.
"

Titling those two as "Challenges" is a Master Class example of restraint. I would have had a hard time showing such a level.

"
Radio re programming

Please ensure that you make every effort to update your current radio code plug to include the
latest control channel list so that your equipment performs at the optimum level. When
updating the control channel list, you must ensure that the Full Spectrum Scan option is also
activated in your radio code plug. As of January 2020, we are still seeing radio code plugs
where the number of control channels in the list is set to ONE!
"

So a radio, with a single freq as a control channel being what the radio is running off of? As in, pray you stay near that one tower you have a control channel programed in for? Or is there more here that I don't understand. I mean ya know, it's not critical for me, but you can bet i am always double checking to make sure i have everything up to date, CC's and Alt's and sometimes the whole she-bang.

"We have seen several requests to add Motorola XTS3000 radios to the system in the past few months and these radios are not only incapable of TDMA operation but also do not include the 700 MHz spectrum"

i suppose this is due to the fact that for most levels/orgs there are probably not the resources for a full time radio tech guy/gal? therefore whoever is responsible is shooting from the hip? seems kinda basic.

"Comm centers tied directly to VIPER: 44"

Eh? That's all? uh i obviously need to go back and do a refresher on some things


"% Busy
Daily average
0.02%
Monthly average
0.01%
"

Wow. Not a new number, but everytime i see the Busy numbers, it still impresses me.

anyhoo, all very informative. thanks.
 

JDrisc3480

Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2010
Messages
198
Location
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Some of you have probably already seen this but I just now read the mid-2020 VIPER newsletter and here is info on a few new sites and their status just in case anyone is interested:

Tower Construction Updates:
• Benson (Johnston Ct): Tower is being stacked.
• Triad Park (Guilford Ct): Waiting for microwave radios. COVID has slowed down production of this equipment and is a major hurdle for all the new sites right now.
• Hayesville (Clay Ct): Site plans have been approved by the County. Site has entered the environmental/NEPA phase.
• Anson 911 (Anson Ct): FAA has denied the request to put a tower at this location. We are working on appealing this decision but also working with the county to identify alternate locations.
• Ford Rd (Watauga Ct): The lease fell through on the Ford Rd site. Watauga County purchased land in the area of the Aho community as an alternate location. This alternate location is being explored by us.
• Charlotte (Mecklenburg Ct): Lease is pending Governor’s signature


Source: https://files.nc.gov/ncdps/documents/files/VIPER-Semi-Annual-Newsletter-mid2020.pdf
Very interesting. I did not know that VIPER had its own newletter
 

RaleighGuy

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
14,983
Location
Raleigh, NC
NC National Guard sounding busy tonight, sounded like they said they were in Austin NC assisting the Austin Police set up at gates doing searches of vehicles and all persons not residents. NCNG unit ID of HIGHLANDER. Utilizing TG 52030 NCNG4.

Anyone have any info on this.
 

overtheair

Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2018
Messages
79
Location
Durham,NC
NC National Guard sounding busy tonight, sounded like they said they were in Austin NC assisting the Austin Police set up at gates doing searches of vehicles and all persons not residents. NCNG unit ID of HIGHLANDER. Utilizing TG 52030 NCNG4.

Anyone have any info on this.
May have been somewhere else. Austin has no police dept. It is not incorporated, could have been the County Sheriff's Office though(Wilkes). There was some type of checkpoint listed in relaid(first time i heard of it). But I have no idea if that is current. It showed it one around 130pm (no date given) but that was not near Austin, it was on the other side of North Wilkesboro. Marker is where relaid showed the checkpoint.
bleh.png
 

RaleighGuy

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
14,983
Location
Raleigh, NC
May have been somewhere else. Austin has no police dept. It is not incorporated, could have been the County Sheriff's Office though(Wilkes). There was some type of checkpoint listed in relaid(first time i heard of it). But I have no idea if that is current. It showed it one around 130pm (no date given) but that was not near Austin, it was on the other side of North Wilkesboro. Marker is where relaid showed the checkpoint.

As I listened longer it sounded like training, but I couldn't be sure. Thanks for the response though.
 

GMB951

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
729
Location
Cumberland Co,NC
Has anybody caught any traffic between North and South Carolina on any viper Tg I have TG#57500 but have never monitored anything on it
 

RaleighGuy

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
14,983
Location
Raleigh, NC
I've heard one of the talkgroups used when I was on a trip near the SC line but can't remember which one.
 

brian

DB Administrator
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 10, 2000
Messages
2,114
Location
South Carolina
Every night at 3am, there is a roll call on the SC Regional Govt talkgroups on Palmetto 800, "hosted" by the SCHP dispatch center for the respective SCHP troop. For those troops that are adjacent to the state border, the neighboring NCSHP dispatch centers are included in the roll call and "check in"., along with the dispatch centers for each SC county in the troop, the nuclear power plants, etc. This is heard on Palmetto 800, not VIPER.

There are talkgroups on VIPER that rebroadcast SCHP radio traffic for the SCHP troops that are adjacent to the state border -SCHP Troops 3, 4 and 5. And they are active. I'm not sure the exact purpose of these talkgroups - it's probably because the dispatch centers in both states share some radios - I'm guessing that the NCSHP dispatch centers have dedicated Palmetto 800 radios, and the SCHP dispatch centers have VIPER radios and they have the capability to monitor the neighboring state's activities and have some degree of Interoperability. I suspect that SCHP subscriber radios (trooper's car and handheld radios) have IDs/talkgroups for VIPER, and maybe NCSHP subscribers have IDs/talkgroups for Palmetto 800. I don't know that for a fact.

I have never heard any NC agency actually talk with a SC agency on Palmetto 800 other than those Region Govt roll calls. I believe the standard operating procedure is to use phone calls. I don't monitor VIPER enough to know if the oppose it true or not.
 

INDY72

Monitoring since 1982, using radios since 1991.
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
14,859
Location
Indianapolis, IN
The interop TG's are for bigger events like a chase that crosses lines, hurricane events where they need to contra flow in both states etc. With capabilities to do either patches or just have both systems in a radio, it is versatile. It could be done via ISSI, or old fashioned patching etc. There should be a similar set up with VIPER/TACN etc... Not sure just how big a linking they have there. I know its not as expansive as the GulfWIN with 5 states all linked via ISSI.
 

JohnDistai

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
129
When my radio (SDS 200) is scanning the Wake County system, it keeps making this short single tone sound every few moments, generally Garner PD DISP (at least tonight). Can anyone tell me what that tone is or what it's for? Thanks.
 
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