VIPER Statewide Radio System Discussion

rpgallagher

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Durham, North Carolina
Or actually up, I guess. 🙄 This portable can't display five decimals. Seems to me that .2850 would be the logical rounding number for display, but perhaps that's not a legal number for 700 MHz towers and .2875 is. Anyhow, thanks for the info, and apologies for not seeing Raleigh Guy's earlier response before posting here. Perhaps my brain is rounding, too. (I'm getting misty memories of a (very old) "Highway Patrol" episode in which Broderick Crawford was able to talk to some armored-car guard because his CHP radio was "close enough" in freq and geography to bleed to the other vehicle's radio, and vice versa, as their low-band antennas flapped in the wind cranking out lots of watts. 🤣)
 

rpgallagher

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Durham, North Carolina
I think I'm in Alice in Scannerland. The only place our database shows 774.48125 in use in VIPER (well, in NC) is in Northampton County. And I did establish that my Unidens shorten the displayed frequency for .48125 to .4812. They don't display it as .4825. Anyone hear Twilight Zone music? :)
 

rpgallagher

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OK. I obviously screwed up using the statewide freq search, which I readily admit I very seldom go near. That's where I believed I got a response of just the one tower. Sorry about that.
 
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Maybe this has been fleshed out in previous threads, but I have noticed in different areas of the state that Highway patrol uses all their assigned Troop talk groups. Meaning if they are Troop G they will not discriminate to a certain talk group based on a particular county: 1689165129199.png

I swear I hear traffic for counties in different districts. Troop G Dist 3 will be broadcast on Troop G Dist 2 for example and not line up with the counties listed. Is this new? And I have heard this in Troop F too.
 

RaleighGuy

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Maybe this has been fleshed out in previous threads, but I have noticed in different areas of the state that Highway patrol uses all their assigned Troop talk groups. Meaning if they are Troop G they will not discriminate to a certain talk group based on a particular county: View attachment 145281

I swear I hear traffic for counties in different districts. Troop G Dist 3 will be broadcast on Troop G Dist 2 for example and not line up with the counties listed. Is this new? And I have heard this in Troop F too.
Due to staffing shortages and in order to reduce costs, a lot of times dispatch centers are patched together providing coverage to more than one area.

As for other other Troops, you will hear them if a unit is affiliated with the tower you are monitoring, it could be they are passing through the area or someone in the area has a radio on that talkgroup.

Nothing unusual in either situation.
 
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Due to staffing shortages and in order to reduce costs, a lot of times dispatch centers are patched together providing coverage to more than one area.

As for other other Troops, you will hear them if a unit is affiliated with the tower you are monitoring, it could be they are passing through the area or someone in the area has a radio on that talkgroup.

Nothing unusual in either situation.
I thought something like that might be the case (staffing). Thanks for the clarification.

I assume to get a full accounting of any Troop's comms in an assigned area is to a scan all talk groups associated with them (Troop G et al) to hear for a specific county.

Also, would there be a need to update the RR database with that comment/note? Since they are not really sticking to the county designations on the talk group.
 

KE4ZNR

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Raleigh, NC
Maybe this has been fleshed out in previous threads, but I have noticed in different areas of the state that Highway patrol uses all their assigned Troop talk groups. Meaning if they are Troop G they will not discriminate to a certain talk group based on a particular county: View attachment 145281

I swear I hear traffic for counties in different districts. Troop G Dist 3 will be broadcast on Troop G Dist 2 for example and not line up with the counties listed. Is this new? And I have heard this in Troop F too.
It is called a "Multi-Select". As noted due to staffing the telecommunicator will have several TGs pulled up and will dispatch outbound over the several TGs at the same time. The troopers will usually reply back on their individual district talkgroups.
Example: Dispatcher has Troop G Dist 1,2,3 pulled up in the Multi-select and hits one outgoing transmit button that sends their transmissions out over all 3 TGs. When the Troop G Dist 2 Trooper replies back he replies back only on the Dist 2 Talkgroup.
Multi-Selects are used by most 911/dispatch facilities where a telecommunicator has to handle dispatching for several areas.
 
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It is called a "Multi-Select". As noted due to staffing the telecommunicator will have several TGs pulled up and will dispatch outbound over the several TGs at the same time. The troopers will usually reply back on their individual district talkgroups.
Example: Dispatcher has Troop G Dist 1,2,3 pulled up in the Multi-select and hits one outgoing transmit button that sends their transmissions out over all 3 TGs. When the Troop G Dist 2 Trooper replies back he replies back only on the Dist 2 Talkgroup.
Multi-Selects are used by most 911/dispatch facilities where a telecommunicator has to handle dispatching for several areas.
Ah ok. That makes sense now and thank you for clearing that up.
 

drayd48

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Maybe this has been fleshed out in previous threads, but I have noticed in different areas of the state that Highway patrol uses all their assigned Troop talk groups. Meaning if they are Troop G they will not discriminate to a certain talk group based on a particular county: View attachment 145281

I swear I hear traffic for counties in different districts. Troop G Dist 3 will be broadcast on Troop G Dist 2 for example and not line up with the counties listed. Is this new? And I have heard this in Troop F too.
Also, troop G uses Newton as their dispatch center now, which is shared with troop F. In troop F, F2 and F4 are patched, and I believe that F1, F3, and F5 are patched together, meaning the dispatchers only have two "channels" to monitor for troop F. Most of the time at night, the dispatcher multiselects the entire troop, and quite frequently I hear them multiselecting troop G in there as well.
 

Chris0516

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Maybe this has been fleshed out in previous threads, but I have noticed in different areas of the state that Highway patrol uses all their assigned Troop talk groups. Meaning if they are Troop G they will not discriminate to a certain talk group based on a particular county: View attachment 145281

I swear I hear traffic for counties in different districts. Troop G Dist 3 will be broadcast on Troop G Dist 2 for example and not line up with the counties listed. Is this new? And I have heard this in Troop F too.
But not like Troop A being heard on Troop B, correct?
 

jake_Braker

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No. Troop A and Troop B have different comm centers. The only reason you would hear that is if some troopers from Troop A are running mutual aid in Troop B.
 

BCasto

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Morrisville NC
In the RR Frequency DB for Viper is the "Neighbor" field in the Antenna Site listing. It is populated, I believe, with IDs of associated Viper sites to this site. For example, Viper Site 1-62 in Wendell (Wake County) lists these as neighbors: 1-2, 1-4, 1-31, 1-35, 1-53, 1-57 and 1-67. I have been operating under the assumption that radio traffic from any of those antennas will be broadcast on all the neighbor sites.

Is this correct? If true, on that site we could hear 1-2 Archers Lodge (Wake Co), 1-4 Bailey (Wilson Co), 1-31 Margaret (Franklin Co), 1-35 Nash DOC (Nash Co), 1-53 Smithfield (Johnston Co), 1-57 Spout Springs (Harnett Co) and 1-67 N Durant Rd (Wake Co).

Does this also mean the different Sites in Wake County don't carry the same Wake County Traffic? For example the Little River site doesn't list the Blue Ridge site as a "neighbor". Does that mean radio traffic on Blue Ridge is not also carried on Little River?

There is a practical reason for asking all this. From my Shack I can receive multiple Wake County Viper sites. Should I monitor them all or just certain ones?

Some years ago, I travelled around the area with a laptop and software capturing site information, including the Neighbor Field. Has there been any recent activity to see if those values are still accurate?

Thanks for your help.
 

drayd48

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In the RR Frequency DB for Viper is the "Neighbor" field in the Antenna Site listing. It is populated, I believe, with IDs of associated Viper sites to this site. For example, Viper Site 1-62 in Wendell (Wake County) lists these as neighbors: 1-2, 1-4, 1-31, 1-35, 1-53, 1-57 and 1-67. I have been operating under the assumption that radio traffic from any of those antennas will be broadcast on all the neighbor sites.

Is this correct? If true, on that site we could here 1-2 Archers Lodge (Wake Co), 1-4 Bailey (Wilson Co), 1-31 Margaret (Franklin Co), 1-35 Nash DOC (Nash Co), 1-53 Smithfield (Johnston Co), 1-57 Spout Springs (Harnett Co) and 1-67 N Durant Rd (Wake Co).

Does this also mean that the different Site in Wake County don't carry the same Wake County Traffic? For example the Little River site doesn't list the Blue Ridge site as a "neighbor". Does that mean radio traffic on Blue Ridge is not also carried on Little River?

There is a practical reason for asking all this. From my Shack I can receive multiple Wake County Viper sites. Should I monitor them all or just certain ones?

Some years ago, I travelled around the area with a laptop and software capturing site information, including the Neighbor Field. Has there been any recent activity to see if those values are still accurate?

Thanks for your help.
County level talkgroups can travel to the neighboring counties towers, but only if a radio is affiliated to that specific tower
 

BCasto

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Morrisville NC
County level talkgroups can travel to the neighboring counties towers, but only if a radio is affiliated to that specific tower
Thank you Drayd48. So if one radio of the Harnett Co FD is being received on the Wake Co Holly Springs site, can I assume all the other Harnett Co FD radios are affiliated? What is the design criteria for affiliation? I really can't reach any Harnett Co Viper sites, but knowing I could get them on the Wake Co Holly Springs site would be good.

And, what is the technical reason for a Neighbor Site?
 
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