VA - Fluvanna Co. Closer to Upgrading Radio System

[QDP2012]

"Fluvanna County is moving closer to a more robust radio system for first responders. Currently, firefighters and sheriff's deputies only have coverage in 35 percent of the county. The system also frequently doesn't work inside buildings. The new system will cover at least 95 percent of Fluvanna County and Motorola is contracting to install the system... Contractors hope to have the system up and running by late next year, but say they have to conduct extensive testing first...." -- nbc29.com

Fluvanna Co. Closer to Upgrading Radio System -- nbc29.com

 

[CVASSB]

They are suppose to have it operational by the end of December. It should be in use January 1st. We'll see.

 

[HankFrank]

Drove through Fluvanna on US 15 and Route 53 the other day, and there was a new self-supporting tower installed at the Sheriff Station near the intersection of 53 and 15 in Palmyra.

 

[HankFrank]

Also it looks like Fluvanna got an authorization to use C4FM on 2 VHF and a bunch of UHF frequencies in April:

155.20500000
155.34000000

458.02500000
458.07500000
458.12500000
458.17500000
463.00000000
463.02500000
463.05000000
463.07500000
463.10000000
463.12500000
463.15000000
463.17500000
467.95000000
467.97500000
468.00000000
468.02500000
468.05000000
468.07500000
468.10000000
468.12500000
468.15000000
468.17500000


Callsign is KW7227 if anyone wants to look it up.

 

[QDP2012]

In the list above, the following are nationally deisignated hospital-related channels, which ambulances in the field would use to contact a hospital, like UVA or MJH.

• The following are UHF "MED" Channels repeater-pairs, which can be used to contact UVA MEDCOM. MJH does not use these.
  

  463.00000000 / 468.00000000 / MED 01
  463.02500000 / 468.02500000 / MED 02
  463.05000000 / 468.05000000 / MED 03
  463.07500000 / 468.07500000 / MED 04
  463.10000000 / 468.10000000 / MED 05
  463.12500000 / 468.12500000 / MED 06
  463.15000000 / 468.15000000 / MED 07
  463.17500000 / 468.17500000 / MED 08
  462.95000000 / 467.95000000 / MED 09
  462.97500000 / 467.97500000 / MED 10

  
  
• The following are VHF HEAR frequencies, which can be used to contact UVA or MJH
  

  155.20500000 / EMS 3 (Statewide)
  155.34000000 / EMS 1

The remainder of the frequencies...

458.02500000
458.07500000
458.12500000
458.17500000

...I am not sure about right now. But, since they are 458.xxxx, they are likely the input to a repeater, which would have a related 453.xxxx frequency, or they are being used as Tac channels for direct unit-to-unit communication.

Hope this helps,

 

[HankFrank]

OK thanks, it didn't even occur to me that those could have been mostly MED/HEAR freqs...

I was told that Fluvanna's trunked system would operate in the 450 or 460 range rather than 800, so it makes sense that the remainders could be inputs. Guess we'll see.

 

[yaknamedjak]

So another thread on here mentions that it would be a VHF TRS. Does anyone have any more info on this? I was a daily user of Fluvanna's current system until about a year ago but am now inactive on rescue due to education. I am definitely looking forward to the radio upgrade but wondering what I'll have to do as far as personal radios for when I'm active again. Right now I have a loaded VHF XTS5K M3, UHF XTS2.5K M1.5, and MCS2000 UHF & VHF in my truck. Was just wondering if anyone had any more info on this since I have programmed quite a few of the squad radios and of course my own.

With the wideband VHF antenna on my HT1000 that I programmed myself I could get out in dead spots that a lot couldn't. And certainly on my XTS5K. But the dead spots sure were scary.


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[CVASSB]

I have done extensive research, and have tried to get information from people in the know about the system upgrade.

No one seems to know the answers about the public service radio upgrade in this county. The tower near the sheriffs office is built.

 

[HankFrank]

The signed contract is for a VHF, 6 site trunked system. The proposal that MSI supplied was for Phase II, so I can only assume it will be as such, especially given the dearth of VHF pairs available. Phase II = more talkpaths.

Testing is scheduled for late Q2 with the system coming online in Q3 2017. But as always these things can change depending on things like frequency acquisition and construction delays.

yaknamedjak: If the system is indeed Phase II none of your current equipment will work, unfortunately.

 

[W4UVV]

458.0250 - 458.1750 mhz. are licensed to medical users (hospitals/City/County EMS) for simplex only comms. Before relocating to a trunked operation the Petersburg Rescue Squad used 458.0250 mhz. for occasional simplex comms.

John
W4UVV

 

[yaknamedjak]

The signed contract is for a VHF, 6 site trunked system. The proposal that MSI supplied was for Phase II, so I can only assume it will be as such, especially given the dearth of VHF pairs available. Phase II = more talkpaths.

Testing is scheduled for late Q2 with the system coming online in Q3 2017. But as always these things can change depending on things like frequency acquisition and construction delays.

yaknamedjak: If the system is indeed Phase II none of your current equipment will work, unfortunately.

Thanks a lot for all that, HankFrank.

That explains why they're getting all new radios. I was down in Fork Union this past weekend for a funeral talking to Co. 2 and they were telling me all new radios were coming in, which I didn't understand since the XTS1500's and XTL1500's they got only a few years ago still work great even if they are EOL. It's not like they have that many.

Shame I'll have to upgrade. I love my current gear and it works great, other than the dead spots, of course. Will I technically even be able to put my own stuff on? Just gonna need sys key and an assigned radio ID (along with proper system specs) or is there more to it than that?

I'm not really up to speed on TRS best-practices, honestly, just some familiarity with the VRS side of the Richmond/Henrico/Chestfld one. How would paging work, especially since each member in Fluvanna will certainly still have to maintain a take-home pager. Keep F/R 2 patched in as a conventional paging channel? Page through the radios with MDC or another signalling? I heard Co. 2 will only have something like 10 spare (take-home) radios. I haven't heard an APX get paged but the XTS certainly don't wake you up like a Minitor.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[yaknamedjak]

458.0250 - 458.1750 mhz. are licensed to medical users (hospitals/City/County EMS) for simplex only comms. Before relocating to a trunked operation the Petersburg Rescue Squad used 458.0250 mhz. for occasional simplex comms.

John
W4UVV

Why are they registering all these frequencies now? What's wrong with the current HEAR/MedCom VHF channels? I suppose they'll be putting UHF/VHF APX's in the trucks? Why not get VHF/800 and have access to the Charlottesville system for an incident?

 

[HankFrank]

Thanks a lot for all that, HankFrank.

That explains why they're getting all new radios. I was down in Fork Union this past weekend for a funeral talking to Co. 2 and they were telling me all new radios were coming in, which I didn't understand since the XTS1500's and XTL1500's they got only a few years ago still work great even if they are EOL. It's not like they have that many.

Shame I'll have to upgrade. I love my current gear and it works great, other than the dead spots, of course. Will I technically even be able to put my own stuff on? Just gonna need sys key and an assigned radio ID (along with proper system specs) or is there more to it than that?

I'm not really up to speed on TRS best-practices, honestly, just some familiarity with the VRS side of the Richmond/Henrico/Chestfld one. How would paging work, especially since each member in Fluvanna will certainly still have to maintain a take-home pager. Keep F/R 2 patched in as a conventional paging channel? Page through the radios with MDC or another signalling? I heard Co. 2 will only have something like 10 spare (take-home) radios. I haven't heard an APX get paged but the XTS certainly don't wake you up like a Minitor.

Thanks again for the info.

The proposal suggests that there will be simulcast tone/voice paging on 4 sites, so it looks like things will be backwards-compatible with the Minitors.

As far as interop, I would imagine CCGW will probably be used for the surrounding counties that remain analog. Albemarle has it's own RFP out for a P25 system, so eventually a direct v.24 patch into their system could maybe happen. Multi-band APX radios could also be used. Not sure on that, I don't have many specifics.

I can't speak to having a personal subscriber programmed on the system, but I'm sure you would want to go through the proper channels.

 

[yaknamedjak]

The proposal suggests that there will be simulcast tone/voice paging on 4 sites, so it looks like things will be backwards-compatible with the Minitors.

As far as interop, I would imagine CCGW will probably be used for the surrounding counties that remain analog. Albemarle has it's own RFP out for a P25 system, so eventually a direct v.24 patch into their system could maybe happen. Multi-band APX radios could also be used. Not sure on that, I don't have many specifics.

I can't speak to having a personal subscriber programmed on the system, but I'm sure you would want to go through the proper channels.

Thanks very much again.

Do you have a link to Moto's proposal? I've seen the 2014 county docs but nothing really since then.

What's CCGW?

Is Phase II that much of a difference from Phase I? If they went Phase I all of our current subscriber units in the trucks (XTS/XTL1500's) could stay put, right? That was why they were chose in 2012, APCO25 compliant. Just seems like an awful lot of money. It's Fluvanna, there's only so much going on. While things may not have been ideal, we technically have gotten by with F/R 2, F/R 1, SO 2, SO 1, Statewide EMS, and Statewide Fire. It would definitely be great for each company and rescue station to have their own talkgroup(s) for training, announcements, coordination, etc, but beyond that I'm not sure how much is really needed.

Yeah it will be a while yet before I'm ready to get some APX's for handheld and truck, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

 

[CVASSB]

Thank you for the information. Please keep me informed.

 

[GmanX]

Conventional channel gateway. Basically its the interface for the Motorola console or radio system to use Analog audio


I don't see Fluvanna plunking down 6 grand for a portable for everyone to have one unless they get some big grant money.

Phase 1 is 12.5K bandwidth

Phase 2 is 6.25K bandwidth TDMA so the advantage is that you get 2 channels for the same amount of frequency. The drawback is that you have less bandwidth for information.

 

[HankFrank]

yaknamedjack:

I got the proposal several months ago off the county website, but I can't seem to find a link to it now. In any case it's public info because it was revealed in a supervisors meeting and put into the minutes. The final board-approved expenditure was well over $7 million. Fluvanna has supposedly been setting aside money for this for several years, which is surprising considering the fiasco with the high school.

Fluvanna Review - Radio system

I don't have the proposal in front of me but MSI was offering something like $450 per radio salvage credit, which is quite a bit of money for XTS/XTL 1500s. I'd imagine most units will have single-band APX rigs, (1500s maybe) with shift supervisors etc. possibly having multi-band for interop.

 

[GmanX]

That highschool was a fiasco. I don't know how any of the supervisors have a job after that

 

[DirtKicker44]

I'm one of the folks sitting on the committee for the new radio system. It's a VHF Phase 2 system. We're going to have a permanent patch configured for VHF paging on minitors, personnel will no longer have their own radios, primarily due to cost, but will instead used radios in the vehicles. The XTS1500's were EOL and we didn't want to be behind the ball with a brand new system, so the decision was made to go with APX single band radios, with the exception of supervisors who will have multiband 800/VHF radios for communications with Charlottesville for interops.

The conversations are being held with surrounding localities about combining systems in the future, since we're way ahead of everyone else in the design and build phase, which will allow for much greater interoperability.

Other that that, feel free to ask any questions, I'll answer what I can.

 

[yaknamedjak]

Thanks very much for the insight and answers! Much appreciated. I may have some questions to bounce off you as time goes on.


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