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Info About Shortcomings of Grapevine TX TRS
Date: Sat, Dec 11, 1999, 6:22pm (EST-1) - To: dfwscan@onelist.com - Subject: RE: [dfwscan] Grapevine Reply to: dfwscan@onelist.com
The problem is that Grapevine has some areas that get extremely poor coverage from the Lewisville system. Although the system provides great coverage for many of the northern cities of the Metroplex, there are some problems with general coverage throughout the city of Grapevine. Remember, Grapevine city limits extends all the way to the west side of the DFW Airport.
It is important to remember that Public Safety communications coverage is extremely sensitive -- since Police and Fire user's of the system only have to experience just a FEW dead areas of the system before they lose faith. An excellent example is the City of Irving, which has battled coverage problems of their new system for the past 3 months. As part of a re-eval of the delivered system, they literally tested portable coverage in EVERY large building in the city. All High Schools, High-rises in Los Colinas, the works. I listened to the grid process tests for weeks.
This is actually a great benefit to the Bedford system -- since this system is not loaded too heavily, and an additional simulcast site will serve all the residents in the Mid-Cities area much more efficiently - including the city of Grapevine. Plus, it will allow additional Mid-cities areas to join the Bedford system (such as Southlake). Hopefully, they'll keep their existing talkgroup assignments and just transition over to the new system nice and smooth.
Original Message
Sent: Saturday, December 11, 1999 12:09 AM - To: dfwscan@onelist.com - Subject: Re: [dfwscan] Grapevine
I just heard someone on the scanner talk about putting off some type of maintainence until Grapevine joins in mid-January. This was on the Euless, Bedford, Colleyville, Keller channels. I missed the first part of the conversation, but it sounds like this will be happening and soon!
I have found this whole thread on Grapevine switching to a new system both interesting and amusing. As a resident of Lewisville, and with the tower that carries the Lewisville TRS (which also carries Grapevine's TG) practically in my backyard (the CH 55 TV tower at 3040 & Rockbrook), I have never had any problems receiving any of the Grapevine TG's. I've never heard or experienced any scratchiness or transmission problems at all listening to units through the TRS repeater channels.
While I'm not an engineer, I find it a little hard to believe they could have dead spots, when the TX tower sits on one of the highest ridges in the north metro, is somewhere like 600' tall, and can be seen line of sight from Farmers Branch, Carrollton, and parts of Irving. There are a TON of antennas on that tower, so it obviously has good coverage. And Grapevine is just down the road, ten minutes away max, with flat terrain pretty much citywide. Personally, my guess is a political thing.
True, it can be a busy TRS during the daytime, but nothing like Plano. And it doesn't even touch a system like FW/TCO.
For the latest information on DFW Radio Communications, point your browsers to http://www.lcblanton.com/dfw.htm
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07 Nov 2000 - Nashville TN TRS Problem
From the msnbc website in Nashville - includes a photo of a scanner or radio with "Failsoft" in the LCD display - 9 button keypad on rite side fron of radio
Police scare as radios go out during Gore rally
November 7, 2000,
Here's a nightmare for you. It's your job to keep crowds under control in downtown Nashville on this busy election night and protect Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman's motorcade as they move through the city. But your police officers have no radio communication. That happened Tuesday night in Nashville.
Metro's brand-new radio system went on the fritz. It happened just before War Memorial Plaza was to be opened to the public.
Patrol officers were out of radio contact and some of them didn't even know it. The Fire Department and ambulance systems were out briefly, too.
At the Fire Department's mobile command center, Battalion Chief Jim Wilson said no one was sure exactly what happened. The radio channels were bleeding over each other. Wilson said, "I don't think we were out altogether for no more than about 30 minutes. They roughly got it back up in about 30 minutes."
The system was slowly coming back on-line by about 7:30pm, much to the relief of the police and fire departments. It couldn't have happened on a worse night with the Vice President expected at the plaza.
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19 Dec 00 - Info from San Diego CA Area
Group:alt.firefighters - Subject:Re: Should all Firefighte - Organization:Shakey Jake's Free BBS from Santee, Ca... Date: Wed, Dec 20, 2000, 1:04am (EST+5) X-Trace: (Tue, 19 Dec 2000 17:04:40 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, Dec 19, 2000, 5:04pm (EST-3)
Quote - Since there wasn't a feasible paging system, our countywide dispatch agency had to maintain the 154.070 MHz system anyway.
Reply - The "big city" department around here [?San Diego] still uses at least 2 VHF frequencies - (1) paging and (2) alert monitors to open station doors when they receive a dispatch. This is years and years after being suckered into an 800Mhz trunk system.
Quote - We spent about $13 million on the 800 MHz infrastructure (8 ? sites). But, sometimes our fire department has to relay messages for the Sheriff's office. I don't see us getting equivalent coverage without adding 3 more 800 sites, to look down into several different valleys.
Reply - Motorola __loves__ those cost-plus and add-on contracts that cover its ass when signal penetration isn't everything they claimed over cocktails. Motorola even hosted an open bar (or two) at the County Fire Chiefs Association monthy luncheon(s). I was the bartender at one, so I __KNOW__ who picked up the tab for the liquid refreshments.
added - 20 Dec 00
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NIOSH Reports - Year 2000 - NIOSH released reports on the deaths of firefighters in Kansas City Missouri and Worcester Massachusetts. Worcester was using a EDACS TRS system and it is reported that emergency radio alarm activations caused major interference to fireground radio traffic. Kansas City Missouri was also using a EDACS TRS. Problems with portable radios malfunctioning due to getting wet were cited, as well as the fact that a "simplex" radio channel had to be used because it was believed that portable radios would not work inside the structure if the TRS Tac Channel 5 was utilized.
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The following info is from the 10 October 2000 issue of the NewsHound from www.911dispatch.com
Columnist Nick Budnick writes in the "The NewsBuzz" section of the alternative weekly magazine "Willamette Week" that Portland's (Ore.) public safety radio system went dead for 10 minutes last Tuesday, which he said, "came as no great surprise to cops," since there are dead spots "sprinkled all over the city." The News Hound doesn't exactly see the connection between dead spots and a total failure of the system, but even so, the Portland Police Association has filed another complaint with the state's OSHA. The union points out the city has warehoused a radio tower since 1994 or so, trying to save some $7 million on the system. Budnick claims the city is negotiating with nearby Vancouver to build a joint-use tower, and says they've upped the radio frequencies from 24 to 28, which should help relieve busy signals on the trunked system. As you recall, the city was tagged $3,600 by OSHA in August for radio problems, but the city has appealed and is confident of a reversal.
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Updated - 14Nov00 - Nashville TRS crashes - 20Dec00 - bar tab - KCMO + Worcester - 26Dec00 - Portland OR