waterloo radio

[JR45]

where are all the radio buffs in waterloo region.

A new /upgraded radio system has been in the works for over 2 years.

The upgrade started last year and is only days away from being fully activated

Yes there is one new tower and the new data channel you hear is part of the new system. New antennas

gone up at all the fire stations.

I can t believe no one has posted information on the new/upgraded system.

They have been testing this system for the last 3 months'

The following is only a guess but I suggest we are only days away from listening to Waterloo Regional Police in the clear.

Please note that some parts of the system will upgrade there section at there own time frame. It sounds to me that Police amd Fire will go first.

The new tower is on Maple Grove Road at regional works centre

 

[69stiles]

Sorry but PD & Fd are doing nothing new with their system. Not sure where you get your info from but any new radio system is not intended for public safety.

 

[Forts]

The following is only a guess but I suggest we are only days away from listening to Waterloo Regional Police in the clear.

Umm... aren't they in the clear now??

 

[bent6969]

For clarification...

Some of us are aware that there's something going on with the region's radio system. It is being discussed over in this thread: http://forums.radioreference.com/eastern-canada-radio-discussion-forum/159379-region-waterloo.html

For clarifications sake, here's some info I've gathered:

Yes there is a new EDACS Control Channel being broadcasted in the region.

Yes its been active for almost 2 weeks now (I don't believe any longer, but if it has its been for short durations which I haven't noticed).

Yes the region (or rather radio techs) have been re-organizing "what talkgroups share what frequencies" and in the process have removed voice comms from LCN's 12,13,14, and 16. I can't speculate what changes are in the midst as a result, but doing this would definitely make it easier for a "region wide" test of new equipment without impacting the existing system.

Yes there has been talk of adding a new tower to the system to improve poor coverage areas near the 401. That tower is supposed to be located near the childrens center at the regional headquarters building on Maplegrove. I do not know if its been turned up yet but anythings possible. They're supposed to have finished a new comms center bulding there too. Here's the RFC for it: http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=...&gl=ca&sig=AFQjCNFQe34FnL_r4fJOFWXbkgafx5UcZA
The other tower at headquarters is used for unrelated services.

Regarding that new CC, its being broadcasted on several towers and not just the one on Maplegrove - FYI.

As for listening to either the fire and/or police departments - aside from certain secured (encrypted) talkgroups, they have always been in the clear. Nothing new here...

 

[motomeso]

I thought the Maplegrove tower was to replace the existing tower on the HQ building? Other then that and the new CC that has popped up from time to time I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary.

That and every Cruiser and Fire Truck I have seen are still using the same GE MDX or Orion that were put into service when the system commissioned back in 1996.

My understanding is that LCN 1 through 9 is broadcast across all 5 Transmitter sites and LCN 10 through 16 are broadcasted on only 3 of the 5 sites. There for only groups needing Region Wide coverage will be on LCN 1 through 9 and Groups like KFD and Transit will only be seen on LCN 10 through 16. Maybe with the addition of a new site at Maplegrove and possibly additional voice channels added at the rural sites they have to change up the LCN order.

And like Steve mentioned they might have added some additional SCAT sites at known locations with poor portable coverage.

http://www.macom-wireless.com/products/pve/datasheets/4573.pdf

I guess we will have to sit back and wait but my money goes on system enhancements aimed towards poor coverage areas and not the sky is falling Digital with Encryption. WRPD has been media friendly up to this point and they seem to have a good working relationship with them and the listening public and I see no reason to shut them down. There are Surveillance groups that already use Agies encryption so I don't see the need to switch over the general PD or FD groups at this time.

Maybe when the whole system is replaced but not now during the minor upgrades.

 

[doctortube]

Any Update on this

The control channel frequency seems to be reassigned a lot and deleting the extra one will get your radio to track again .

 

[69stiles]

How come the Region's own radio's can switch to alternate control channels seamlessly like our scanners do but when that rogue 2nd control channel kicks in it's only the scanners being affected?

 

[69stiles]

Also the last couple of weeks I've seen lcn 13 & 14 acting as control channels. Maybe they're trying out different ones for coverage? Maybe they're splitting the system?

 

[Lexxx]

I've been having problems too with the Waterloo Police channels, and as a test just removed all the alternate channels (6 through 16) and run with just the 5 primary trunk channels.

No problems, and no complaints from stream listeners here Waterloo Live Scanner Feeds.

Peter

 

[69stiles]

Did you completely delete them or lock them out?

 

[Lexxx]

Deleted them. Just the primary frequencies left in the database.

Seems to work fine, although I guess I'll never really know if there are some missed calls

 

[bluwest]

Yeah, I have been finding that my scanner has been locking onto a channel that is not suppost to be a control channel. I have to turn off the scanner then turn it back on to get it back to normal.