Wichita System

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tipster67

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Problem started last night. Wichita was having issues with dropping transmissions. When I got up, the radios sounded like crap. Now I get nothing at all on any TG's. There must be somewhere they are talking. Any ideals where to look? I have checked out the On-line feeds and no traffic there.
 

seanblackphotography

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Yea its been down for a while. I got a page on my pager saying all radios are down and dispatch was calling fire stations for calls. I'm catching traffic on the talk around channels, which are listed here:

Sedgwick County, Kansas (KS) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

They're doing alot signal checks right now. This seems to happen twice a year. The reband can't seem to come soon enough. Paging is still up, though it doesn't do much more good than making phone calls.
 

tipster67

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Thanks for the reply..... And as expected, I get a reply and all radio's come back up :)
Thanks again for the reply and I will make sure I add those channels for the Next time.
 

KAA951

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Didn't the system go into failsoft mode? I can't imagine a type II public safety system completely failing without some kind of catastrophic trigger (tower failure, power outage with failure of backup generator, etc). Shawnee Co system has been running strong for 15+ years and the only major outage was when the primary tower was blown over by straight line winds.
 

ksduster

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let me say, unofficially.. Nothing is fool proof.. our 800mhz motorola type II, trunking has issues..
It gets hot, radios get bad. the servers for the system are on the top floor of the county building, with no climate control.
our radio shop guys had no idea what was wrong.. i spoke to them personally..
The radios seemed okay, when i left dispatch at 0700 wed morning.. but prior to that, yes.. it was horrible.. on the channel, it was a 50/50 chance to get out.. either your voice got out.. or your radio just opened up the channel for the duration of your transmission as low static.
-- about rebanding.. i dont think sedgwick county system has to reband, as the freq's are within the public safety system guidelines.
 

redhelmet13

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We have the same problems in Fort Worth. It was narrowed down to the cabling interfaces between the Digitac voters and also console issues and so on. Problems still not resolved. (they are waiting to reband but they cant until the long standing problems are addressed and corrected). FTW has an aging Moto Smartnet ii.
 

dgruver911

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While Sedgwick County doesn't HAVE to reband, they are. 5 of their frequencies are right on the edge so Sprint/Nextel agreed to reband the system to move those channels away from the edge. We were told this in the meetings they held with all agencies on the system last year. That is how many of us are getting new radios, because the older ones can't accept the rebanding channel plan. Most of us agreed to pay the extra cost to make the new radios digital capable so we will be ready when Sedgwick County makes the switch (and to be able to use them on the state system as well). So as they explained it, there will be 3 waves of reprogramming:
1. Set up all radios to work on unrebanded and rebanded channel plan.
2. Remove unrebanded channel plan
3. Program digital system
Last word was digital should arrive in 2012 but that is not a hard date.
 

n0lqt

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...That is how many of us are getting new radios, because the older ones can't accept the rebanding channel plan. Most of us agreed to pay the extra cost to make the new radios digital capable so we will be ready when Sedgwick County makes the switch (and to be able to use them on the state system as well).....

So when will HV county make a switch to digital? I am guessing they're not going to stay on VHF either, correct? I know Lon was very much against switching over to the State system due to coverage concerns...
 

dgruver911

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Not in our lifetime. Yes, we are staying on VHF. There is no way this small county can afford 800 MHz (est. $5 million JUST for repeaters and 2-3 towers, doesn't include radios for users) especially when the state saw fit to delete the Harvey County tower that was in the origianal plan...but hey, if WE build a tower they'll be more than happy to use it...we have VERY spotty coverage countywide, especially in towns. And we tried digital VHF and the range is HORRIBLE...less than 4 blocks when you can talk a mile or more on analog. So we'll keep our simple VHF radio system that actually works....although we have considered VHF trunking for more efficient use of our channels.
 

ksduster

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Yeah , 2012 is what dallas told me, but we all know how long they keep pushing that back due to funding.
Its to bad the state took out the hvco tower from the plans.
 

ksduster

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In addition, Sedgwick county system is having radio issues again.. keep cutting out, and they are already on the backup radios.
 

tipster67

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Wichita, KS
I foresee a Big help wanted sign for Radio Techs very soon in Wichita. I do feel sorry for the dispatchers. Officers on their i-calls seem to blame the dispatchers for everything.
 

ksduster

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im one of the dispatchers.... on tg240 radios are total crap tonight... thanks for feeling bad for us...
 

ksduster

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I foresee a Big help wanted sign for Radio Techs very soon in Wichita. I do feel sorry for the dispatchers. Officers on their i-calls seem to blame the dispatchers for everything.


I have to say, our radio techs do try. They were out all night long the other night, the night before the full system crash, trying to pinpoint what was wrong and where.. Its by no means, an small system, or easy system to maintain.
At least the private line is apparently working correctly on the back-up system.

-- in reference to my feed, in my car I get 1 bar of signal strength on the wichita system. My scanner for the east/north/shrf feed - does not receive anything.

Word at work was should be back on regular system sometime this evening.
 

KAA951

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Shawnee County is throwing 2012 around too as their bond for the radio system will pay off then.

There is legislation going through right now (supported by the cell companies) that would forbid agencies from using 911 tax monies for purchase of any equipment outside the PSAP (i.e. radio systems). I know that this is how Shawnee County has funded their current system and is planning on funding the next one- if this legislation goes through it will be devastating for public safety comms in Kansas.

I know Butler County is planning on coming on board. Has anyone heard any talk in Douglas County about what they are going to do? They are running several systems right now (piggyback on the KU state analog trunked system, their own 800 satellite conventional towers for law enforcement and VHF-High for Fire/EMS). I can't imagine that the state will continue to maintain a separate 800 analog system in Lawrence for long...
 
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dgruver911

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KAA951 wrote:
"There is legislation going through right now (supported by the cell companies) that would forbid agencies from using 911 tax monies for purchase of any equipment outside the PSAP (i.e. radio systems). I know that this is how Shawnee County has funded their current system and is planning on funding the next one- if this legislation goes through it will be devastating for public safety comms in Kansas."

Depends on your point of view. There is a huge push nationwide to stop the raiding of 9-1-1 funds from their intended purpose which goes in in many jurisdictions, including right here in Kansas. Many local government officials feel they can divert the funds to the general spending leaving 9-1-1 without any means to upgrade DISPATCH technology. And I know of several counties that feel they must have the latest and greatest radios as soon as they come out, and that 9-1-1 monies should pay for them, not the agency budgets. And these are the counties where dispatch hasn't had a CAD, 9-1-1 or console upgrade in many many years. They are being held hostage so that the end users can have what they want. While I don't agree with all the legislation, I DO think that in order to get the money where it needs to be that this needs to happen. They've already tried some gentle guidelines to spell out what it can and can't be used for, and that hasn't done the job, so it's time to get tougher so that the dispatch centers whom the money is intended to help can get that help. There is plenty of grant money out there for Fire and Law enforcement to purchase radios and other equipment; there is little or no grant money made available to help out dispatch centers and infrastructure (that's the other piece that REALLY needs to happen). Look at the recent rounds of homeland security funding when it was available at the County level...how many counties used it for Dispatch upgrades vs end user radios? You can probably county them on one hand. <soapbox off>
 

pete424

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Andover KS
Are WPD radios down again?

It is a little after midnight on Wednesday, March 10 and the police bands are quiet. Are they having more problems? What are the work around bands?
 

tipster67

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Wichita, KS
I am getting traffic on all channels, but I am on the west side of Wichita. Lots of Static, but working. My feed should be up, just checked it like 15 minutes ago. I do believe that they are still on the Backup. They are telling officers to not use their private radio's. They are anyway, but who knows. Signal strength is a bit low.
 
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