I'm currently experiencing signal issues with this system around Ocean Pines. Low power on the control channel resulting in poor data integrity. Not sure if this is widespread or local issue for me - all that is received is BSI packets.
Worcester County - new channels
- Thread starter maus92
- Start date
Well that’s not encouraging. Hopefully not a permanent thing. I’ll be heading down this weekend from 95 through 1 so I’ll be looking forward to seeing what I can catch on the changes in Delaware and hoping the changes here aren’t still seemingly negative. I’ll be in Box Area 2 so hopefully no issues for me while there.
DisasterGuy
Member
Post reconfiguration, power levels are equal to original design levels and at a couple sites slightly improved from where they were leading up to reconfiguration.
Keep in mind that RF changes were only made to Site 10 (County simulcast) and not Site 5 (Ocean Pines) or Site 30 (OC Island simulcast). Ocean Pines coverage objectives are obtained through Site 5 for areas closer to 589 and Site 30 for areas on the water. In design, while Site 10 does cover into Ocean Pines, performance for that area is served by Site 5 and Site 30.
An additional maintenance window will happen overnight tonight. This window isn’t related to the LMR system but will impact it as major fiber / MPLS work will be conducted as the first phase of upgrading the countywide MPLS backbone from 10gbps to the 100gbps capabilities.
Additional system enhancements will be occurring over the next several months including a new site addition in the Snow Hill area, antenna pattern change in the Newark area, system core, networking, and console upgrades, and an ISSI connection to the new Eastern Shore of Virginia system.
Also on the planned horizon is a new deployable trunking site connected back to the system (site on wheels), additional portable dispatch consoles, additional (3rd tier of failure scenario) backup communications system, and new wireless data systems.
My issue was caused by a shift in control channels that somehow was not detected by software. I fought with the software later this afternoon and I *think* its been fixed after manually deleting some data that was decoded from the control channel.
DisasterGuy
Member
Bishopville Industrial Park tower operated by ATC. The county isn’t on that tower. I hosts an FM broadcast station, paging provider, cellular providers, a wireless internet provider, and one federal agency
Going to assume that antenna above are from said agency. Never seen a set up like this before with that mount job.
Just a slight delay but I finally got to go through all of my Worcester/OC Favorite List recordings and the update seems to have gone got me at my stay in Box Area 2. Comparing the SDS on the P25 with the conventional hits on the 436 looks like it caught everything unless one or the other of OC or Worcester was yapping at the same time.
All of that is point to point higher frequency yagis and panel antennas. Probably the wireless internet provider.
Federal stuff looks real benign, like... single omnidirectional vertical VHF monopoles. Usually they just want A Lump Of Coverage, not some weird special point to point link and oddly polarized directional panels. There's too much goober brain in the federal government to think up sinister looking complicated stuff like that and be able to get money for it.
Worcester is apparently doing some fiber work this evening which will require operating on their backup "zone." This may be a combination of Maryland FIRST tgs and their legacy VHF infrastructure. It probably won't affect Ocean City units unless they are transporting prisoners to Snow Hill or patients /EPs to Tidal Health in Salisbury. An announcement is attached - change the file extension from txt to mp3.
Interesting. I know they were approved to be a Primary Limited last year on FiRST, I wonder if the radios have been reprogrammed for a FiRST Worcester Backup zone?
I think so - the announcement mentions switching to the "MD WO BU" zone in their radios.
DisasterGuy
Member
Yes, Worcester County maintains back-up talkgroups on Maryland FiRST and also offers state agencies back-up talkgroups on the county system. Additional back-up resources are also available for multiple levels of failure. This weekends use was based on extensive fiber and network work related to a shelter relocation. During periods where maintenance work could potentially disrupt the radio system, the opportunity is used to exercise back-up systems to keep personnel familiar with using those back-up systems.
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