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.
I was in Snow Hill this afternoon for the Blessing of the Combines event. I noticed that equipment has been installed for the new site on the water tower, and a shelter is in place along with a propane tank for a backup generator. Not sure if it is actually on the air yet.
DisasterGuy
Member
It’s been on the air for several months. The antennas in Newark were also reconfigured from a directional to Omni pattern.
Heard an Assateague State Park Ranger mark up on CORD-10 for the water rescue/flyout call today. Does Assateague Park Rangers usually come up on Worcester System during calls? I didn't realize that State Park Rangers have local systems in their portables. I have never heard this before in Central MD or other Eastern Shore Counties before. NRP routinely comes up on local systems throughout the state but never seen Park staff.
DisasterGuy
Member
Assateague is complex. You have federal park jurisdiction where the rangers are federal law enforcement officers as well as EMTs, rescue technicians and wildland firefighters. State and local authorities have concurrent jurisdiction in the national park.
You then have the state park where NRP, MSP, and locals have concurrent law enforcement jurisdiction and they have lifeguards but their staff don’t have EMS capabilities.
All fire and EMS transport comes from the county for both the state and federal park. The boundaries between state and federal are confusing for many visitors who are unsure of if they are in state or federal. Additionally it isn’t uncommon for a federal ranger to be closer to an incident in the state park or an NRP or Maryland Park Service employee to be closer to an incident in the national park.
Because of all of that, Assateague as a rule receives special handling. There is a dedicated pager tone for incidents on the island and pagers are carried by the federal rangers, state lifeguards, and key state park staff as well as some NRP officers. Additionally personnel from both parks receive alert messaging for all incidents on the island via Chief Mobile.
When an incident (particularly a critical medical incident or surf rescue) happens on the island, appropriate state and federal personnel respond regardless of jurisdiction. The response includes someone meeting the ambulance at the bridge to help guide them in, someone holding outbound traffic so the ambulance and other resources can take the opposing lane when traffic is backed up, and someone with an appropriate beach access vehicle meeting the ambulance at the dunes or entrance to OSV to transport the crew onto the beach (and patient off the beach).
To make all of this happen, all units switch to WOCORD10 for those incidents. That talkgroup is in every Worcester County zone in knob position 10 for immediate interop of every user from the trash truck to the SWAT officer to county and state and federal park staff.
Since implementing all of this a year or two ago it has worked flawlessly and significantly improved responses and patient outcomes for incidents at Assateague.
Really appreciate your detailed and very informative response! It seems like Worcester is really handling the interop/incident response on the island very well!
As a former county park ranger, it is good to see that better interop exists in other jurisdictions. While I had the ability to communicate on all fire talkgroups and police district channels for my county, we often lacked the notification by police and fire communications on incidents occurring in our regional parks.
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