WV Interoperability System

[wm8s]

it seems to still be doing this and maybe even worse. do they have anything to monitor the system to find issues like this? I'd be afraid someone's going to get hurt.

It's been my experience that no, agencies do not have any mechanism in place whatsoever to monitor their own systems for problems. I can describe too many examples that all but disprove it around here, at least.

Charleston PD had a terrible performance problem on their primary dispatch channel that went on for many months, at the very least, even after I told them that the UHF link from one of the voting receivers was an entire 12.5 KHz off channel. Same thing with one of the local chemical plant's trunked systems -- somebody from radio "maintenance" came in and reprogrammed everything, but put one of their trunked repeater channels 12.5 KHz off.

South Charleston PD STILL has terrible interference problems on both their F1 and F2 repeaters, because somebody allowed the local drug unit to throw a 100W SecureNet repeater up whose output is one channel (15 kHz) away from SC's F1's input, and Lincoln County put up a high-profile repeater for their sheriff's department also 15 KHz away from SC's F2's input. Whenever the drug unit or LCSO come on the air, it all but wipes out SCPD's F1 or F2, respectively.

Kanawha Co EMS had a rogue transmitter who was sending out DTMF tones on the EMS F1 dispatch repeater and was allowed to totally monopolize the western repeater for a couple of minutes several times a day since well before I went away to law school until well after I came back (i.e., years).

Many of these seriously jeopardized both the responders and the public. But in nearly every case (and a dozen more I haven't posted involving, e.g., paging transmitters that got whacked by lightning and started putting out a 200-MHz-wide signal, telemetry transmitters killing a repeater's input, etc.), I notified the people who should have cared, but was universally met with the ole', "Who the he|| are you? You're not wearing a uniform, so you must not know what you're talking about. Go away." Knock yourself trying to report it, but I suspect it might stay that way until it gets replaced.

 

[mike_s104]

It's been my experience that no, agencies do not have any mechanism in place whatsoever to monitor their own systems for problems. I can describe too many examples that all but disprove it around here, at least.

Charleston PD had a terrible performance problem on their primary dispatch channel that went on for many months, at the very least, even after I told them that the UHF link from one of the voting receivers was an entire 12.5 KHz off channel. Same thing with one of the local chemical plant's trunked systems -- somebody from radio "maintenance" came in and reprogrammed everything, but put one of their trunked repeater channels 12.5 KHz off.

South Charleston PD STILL has terrible interference problems on both their F1 and F2 repeaters, because somebody allowed the local drug unit to throw a 100W SecureNet repeater up whose output is one channel (15 kHz) away from SC's F1's input, and Lincoln County put up a high-profile repeater for their sheriff's department also 15 KHz away from SC's F2's input. Whenever the drug unit or LCSO come on the air, it all but wipes out SCPD's F1 or F2, respectively.

Kanawha Co EMS had a rogue transmitter who was sending out DTMF tones on the EMS F1 dispatch repeater and was allowed to totally monopolize the western repeater for a couple of minutes several times a day since well before I went away to law school until well after I came back (i.e., years).

Many of these seriously jeopardized both the responders and the public. But in nearly every case (and a dozen more I haven't posted involving, e.g., paging transmitters that got whacked by lightning and started putting out a 200-MHz-wide signal, telemetry transmitters killing a repeater's input, etc.), I notified the people who should have cared, but was universally met with the ole', "Who the he|| are you? You're not wearing a uniform, so you must not know what you're talking about. Go away." Knock yourself trying to report it, but I suspect it might stay that way until it gets replaced.

I know what ou're talking about in regards to being on the "outside" and finding something wrong...I've done this a few times with compute/network related issues. hopefully when they come out to work on the Jefferson Co. system they will catch this.

 

[wm8s]

Same thing with one of the local chemical plant's trunked systems -- somebody from radio "maintenance" came in and reprogrammed everything, but put one of their trunked repeater channels 12.5 KHz off.

If it weren't for the fact that we're talking about a chemical plant's primary radio system, this one would have been funny. It's an 800 MHz analog EDACS trunked system with 4 repeaters in the voice slot rotation; as you know, EDACS rotates successive keyups to successive repeaters. So a typical conversation would go like this:

Rptr1 (the bad repeater): [Insert important message about fire, chemical spill, etc., which is unreadable because Rptr1 is 12.5 KHz off frequency].
Rptr2: Repeat that; I didn't hear you.
Rptr3: Can you hear me now? I moved a little.
Rptr4: Yeah, I hear you great; go ahead.
Rptr1 (the bad repeater): [Insert repeat of important message about fire, chemical spill, etc., which is again unreadable because Rptr1 is 12.5 KHz off frequency].
Rptr2: Repeat that again; I didn't hear you.
Rptr3: Can you hear me now? I moved a little again.
Rptr4: Yeah, I hear you great; go ahead.
Rtpr1: [You get the point...]

 

[me714]

Kanawha Co EMS had a rogue transmitter who was sending out DTMF tones on the EMS F1 dispatch repeater and was allowed to totally monopolize the western repeater for a couple of minutes several times a day since well before I went away to law school until well after I came back (i.e., years).

....Remember about 12 years ago, when someone had an H/T and kept keying SOS over Charleston PD 1? I was teamed with Captain DM - we narrowed it down to about three blocks on the west side by listening to the input, turning the squelch progressively higher as we got closer to the source of the signal, eventually getting close enough to the source to hear it on a handheld scanner (actually a Yaesu FT 50) with the antenna removed.

Unfortuantely, about 2:30 am either the guys battery went dead, or he passed out... (We thought we knew who he was - an NAO with a bad drinking problem - but could never prove it).

Granted, not much to do with Interop, but these things do happen...

 

[mike_s104]

Just heard a WVSP trooper calling Charles Town on TG 9027 on the Berkeley Co. site. I think he had the wrong channel. Anyone else hear anything on this TG?

EDIT: I went back and looked at UniTrunker, which I have not been running today since it hangs after I install 4GB of memory. in the past, the two RIDs that used that TG were 97053, which is with the other RIDs of WVSP units and 95115 which is with a few other WVSP RIDs.

 

[wm8s]

The dB says 00211 is "Local police (not patched)." I have on several occasions heard this used by Mannington PD. I only go through the area occasionally on work; if someone else local can confirm, we can fix the dB.

 

[Gilligan]

If it weren't for the fact that we're talking about a chemical plant's primary radio system, this one would have been funny. It's an 800 MHz analog EDACS trunked system with 4 repeaters in the voice slot rotation; as you know, EDACS rotates successive keyups to successive repeaters. So a typical conversation would go like this:

Rptr1, Rptr2, Rptr3, Rptr4, Rptr1, Rptr2...

When you say successive repeaters, does that also mean successive LCN order? LCN 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2...

 

[mike_s104]

Berkeley Co - Heard traffic on TG 9771 earlier tonight. The person checked in with someone and asked if everything was quite.

 

[me714]

Curious... is anyone using one of the new GRE scanners to monitor WV Interop? If so, how does it stack up against the unidens. (This is concerning reception of the WV Interop only, not general comparisons. From what I understand, the older GRE's do pretty good...)

 

[rfburns]

Curious... is anyone using one of the new GRE scanners to monitor WV Interop?

The audio sounds a little bit better than with my 996. I don't see much difference on this system. With over 1200 chs and TG's programmed, I like the 996 GPS function for mobile. I don't have to worry about turning scan lists on and off, but 22 scan lists really isn't enough for mobile.

 

[APBull]

Has the Morgantown PD switched, entirely, to the P-25 system?

I see that their old frequencies are still listed in the database.

 

[hmoutdoors]

New T/G in Boone County

Sheriff's Dept. was using T/G 4221 today.

 

[wm8s]

When you say successive repeaters, does that also mean successive LCN order? LCN 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2...

Actually... it was LCN 5, LCN 4, LCN 3, ... But yes, every EDACS system I've every monitored rotated successive mic keyups to consecutive physical repeaters, unlike Moto systems.

 

[smwincva]

Jefferson Co TRS still down?

I finally got around to programming the Jefferson & Morgan counties TRS in my 796BC. I realize it will late in the year ( or later) before Morgan is up & running.

However after I got Jefferson programmed, I realized I was not picking up the control channel. I also opened squelch, and still had no hint of the CC.

I saw posts in mid January in this thread of it being offline. I did not see any followup post to state that it was back online. So is Jefferson still offline or I am not able to recieve it.

For those that was (are) listening, what is the range of Jefferson's TRS?

Thanks

Steve
Winchester VA

 

[hmoutdoors]

I am not hearing anything out of Lincoln or Logan. Is anything going on with them?

 

[JESSERABBIT]

As of right now I'm not geting the control channel for the Jefferson system. Every once and awhile I unlock the bank and try, but haven't heard it for quite a while. The other night I watched the screen and wasn't getting a control channel, but was seeing numbers briefly come up on the display. Anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

 

[mike_s104]

As of right now I'm not geting the control channel for the Jefferson system. Every once and awhile I unlock the bank and try, but haven't heard it for quite a while. The other night I watched the screen and wasn't getting a control channel, but was seeing numbers briefly come up on the display. Anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

its been off for over a month now.

01/15/08

Anyone notice today that Jefferson County's control channel has been offline since at least 11am? Anyone know what's going on? I don't hear any failsoft tones either. Sounds like the site is completely offline.

I just heard about 15mins ago that there was going to be maintenance on the Berkeley Co. system and to only use the radio for emergency traffic. I only got bits and pieces of the transmission since it was using 453.7500MHz which has been having issues of dropping out. I hope they are working on this. I have noticed since they announced the maintenance, that freq has not been used.

 

[mike_s104]

just heard encrypted traffic on TG 9055. RID was 95048, which seems to be a WVSP radio. I looked at UNiTrunker (which is I've started running on an older Windows XP system for a week or so) and the only RID on that TG is the 95048. I think someone is either playing around with their radio or doesn't know which channel to actually use.

 

[jim202]

How are you determining that these radios are transmitting off frequency?

What are you using to indicate that there is "terrible performance" on the Charleston
PD?

If you tell me a scanner, that is probably why when you call and ask anything
about these radios channels, your getting the bums rush. There are some
fairly technical people involved with the Kanawha County 911 center. I have
been inside the center there and know those people. If they were having an
issue with any of their channels being used, it would be resolved rather fast.

Jim

It's been my experience that no, agencies do not have any mechanism in place whatsoever to monitor their own systems for problems. I can describe too many examples that all but disprove it around here, at least.

Charleston PD had a terrible performance problem on their primary dispatch channel that went on for many months, at the very least, even after I told them that the UHF link from one of the voting receivers was an entire 12.5 KHz off channel. Same thing with one of the local chemical plant's trunked systems -- somebody from radio "maintenance" came in and reprogrammed everything, but put one of their trunked repeater channels 12.5 KHz off.

South Charleston PD STILL has terrible interference problems on both their F1 and F2 repeaters, because somebody allowed the local drug unit to throw a 100W SecureNet repeater up whose output is one channel (15 kHz) away from SC's F1's input, and Lincoln County put up a high-profile repeater for their sheriff's department also 15 KHz away from SC's F2's input. Whenever the drug unit or LCSO come on the air, it all but wipes out SCPD's F1 or F2, respectively.

Kanawha Co EMS had a rogue transmitter who was sending out DTMF tones on the EMS F1 dispatch repeater and was allowed to totally monopolize the western repeater for a couple of minutes several times a day since well before I went away to law school until well after I came back (i.e., years).

Many of these seriously jeopardized both the responders and the public. But in nearly every case (and a dozen more I haven't posted involving, e.g., paging transmitters that got whacked by lightning and started putting out a 200-MHz-wide signal, telemetry transmitters killing a repeater's input, etc.), I notified the people who should have cared, but was universally met with the ole', "Who the he|| are you? You're not wearing a uniform, so you must not know what you're talking about. Go away." Knock yourself trying to report it, but I suspect it might stay that way until it gets replaced.

 

[wm8s]

How are you determining that these radios are transmitting off frequency?

What are you using to indicate that there is "terrible performance" on the Charleston
PD?

If you tell me a scanner, that is probably why when you call and ask anything
about these radios channels, your getting the bums rush. There are some
fairly technical people involved with the Kanawha County 911 center. I have
been inside the center there and know those people. If they were having an
issue with any of their channels being used, it would be resolved rather fast.

Jim

The specific terrible performance I was referring to (which was several [>5?] years ago) was the CPD-1 voter never voting the remote receiver out south because it was off frequency, so mobiles at Southridge would get voted through another tower -- one that they were hitting worse than they were hitting the south receiver. It has since been remedied. Notwithstanding what you say -- which might also very well be true -- everything that I said happened.

[And no, I would not need to use a scanner as a service monitor. I use this Motorola equipment instead. Make sure the lemon is fresh!]

Alas.. we digress from the IRP... I haven't seen much traffic on tower 0109 from the 042 or 043 T/Gs or RIDs. I have seen several (8, exactly) Boone Co (042) RIDs affiliate, but never any T/Gs. I've seen fewer (5) Lincoln Co (043) RIDs, but they mostly spend their time on 04931.

...R