W. Metro

[Davemnn]

I understand that W. Metro is going to start using a P-25 radio system. How will that affect those of us who listen to that & what action if any do we need to take Thanks

 

[rfburns]

Dave, if you don't already have the system programmed in your radio, you need to go to the RR database and either download or manually program the Lakewood / Wheat Ridge / West Metro Fire - P25 system. WACN is 924B3. At least one of the sites has been on the air for about a year so you may already have it in your radio. Some TG's are being simulcast on both systems. I would imagine they will simulcast for awhile. Not all the radios have been touched for the final time yet and there may be a few with some hardware/firmware limitations.

Green Mtn will probably be stronger at your place. You might be shadowed a little bit from Mt. Morrison, but I forget exactly how far west you are. You only need to program one of the sites, which ever you receive the best at your place. Scanning would be a little faster with just one site programmed.

At this time, the switch for West Metro is scheduled for Thursday.

 

[lazierfan]

(Provider for West Metro Fire)

I am assuming Lakewood lowered the power/shut down Mt Morrison EDACS ESK in preparation for this changeover. Lost all receive ability today from Mt Morrison. Switched over to Green Mountain for the feed, and also have P25 at the ready when they finish their work.
Appreciate the hard work of Harley and all the guys in the radio room.

 

[lazierfan]

p.s. - now that it is P25, perhaps this opens the door for a provider to feed Lakewood police? Big hole in coverage, IMHO.

 

[jimmnn]

Your West Metro feed sounds great Jon, thanks.

Jim<

 

[rfburns]

(Provider for West Metro Fire)

I am assuming Lakewood lowered the power/shut down Mt Morrison EDACS ESK in preparation for this changeover.

The EDACS system is off the air, but the 853.2125 transmitter comes up 2-4 times an hour. Every hour it comes up at about 57 minutes after the hour. I would expect that to be the CW identifier, but there is no audible modulation and the carrier only stays up about 700 milliseconds (too short for the CW ID). On the other side of the hour the transmitter comes up anywhere from about 10 minutes to 25 minutes after the hour and often it comes up multiple times several minutes apart.

Perhaps 853.2125 is the new analog fireground repeater frequency off of Morrison. Monitoring and time will tell.

 

[yotebuster]

Correct me if I am wrong, I change my control channels and system type to P25 and all talk groups stay the same? Reason why I ask is in the database for Lakewood / Wheat Ridge / West Metro Fire - P25 system it is only showing LPD talk groups.

Thanks for the help.

 

[lazierfan]

I am thinking the talkgroup names are manually contributed by members. There is a thread in the Colorado Forum where we were kicking around what we heard for it to be later added to the RR.com database. LPD had been the only agency heard at the time. As said above, time and monitoring will tell there, too.

 

[N0GTG]

I seriously doubt if there would be any correlation between the EDACS TG ID's and the P25 ID's. The two systems are way different, and although they would be likely to share most of the same alpha tags, the ID numbers would be quite different. Your best bet is to have a wildcard entry in your programming (or be in Search mode, depending on the radio), and see what shows up. This will let you hear any TG that becomes active, although without a corresponding alpha tag, at least for now.

At 2140 there is an EDACS control channelon 851.7125, and LPD traffic on the EDACS system. Apparently the EDACS system is not shut off yet.

 

[rfburns]

Latest channel configuration
Site 202:
842.4375 c
852.7500 c
853.2125 v
854.6375 c
855.4125 v
856.6125 v

Site 303:
854.3875 c
856.5375 v
855.1375 v
854.1875 v

A couple of the Site 202 channels seem to be receiving on channel interference from a co-user.

 

[N0GTG]

Hearing automated voice testing and technician voice comms today on 37785 and 37786, also Private Calls with no audio on 9999995 and 9999996.

Should the first channel on Site 202 listed above be 852, not 842.4375?

 

[rfburns]

Should the first channel on Site 202 listed above be 852, not 842.4375?

Yes. Definitely. Good catch Curt.

 

[utlchris]

37789 hearing Jeffco dispatch fire & medical units.... Or at least when the units are calling in they are saying "Jeffco"

 

[Toneslider12]

Here are some updated TG's...

37785 - Dispatch
37786 - Tac 2
37787 - Tac 3
37788 - Tac 4
97789 - Tac 5 / Pleasant View Patch
37790 - Locution (Station Alerting)

 

[greenthumb]

Yep, definitely a correlation between their EDACS and P25 groups. So far, they're just adding 37 to the front of the decimal EDACS talk group IDs.