RFS going P25 + new paging system

[scanSydney]

Posted to all volunteers earlier this week:

It is essential for the NSW RFS to upgrade these networks as they approach the end of their practical life so we are embarking on two exciting projects: the Statewide Emergency Paging Network Upgrade and the Radio Network Upgrade.

These projects are collectively referred to as the Communications Systems Upgrade Program. The Program will run for just over three financial years from 2010/2011 to 2013/2014 and infrastructure will be replaced progressively.

Paging systems will be upgraded to replace ‘single broadcast technology’ with the latest ‘simulcast technology’ and operating systems will be standardised across NSW.

Radio systems will move to a newer ‘Digital P25 technology’, providing added capabilities and resilience. This will also enable us to adapt the system to the changing and developing needs of the organisation.

Radio technology assessments to determine the most appropriate product for a statewide solution are currently underway and will be completed by June 2011. Following these assessments a detailed implementation program will be developed.

It is important to note that the Program is about upgrading the backbone communications infrastructure, not the radio handsets or pagers themselves. The progressive upgrade will not replace or diminish the need for planned or scheduled maintenance, as networks will still require this during the timeframe of this Program.

My understanding is:

• All RFS PMR is going P25;
• A new paging system will mean essentially all RFS paging repeaters are going to transmit all district pager messages.

You'd think those paging repeaters would be running constantly if it was sending messages out from all over the state?

[Bigfella237]

Yeah great, another statewide radio profile upgrade to contend with!

I sincerely hope they will take the opportunity to set up conventional vote groups the way Mother intended (with common input freqs on all vote group members), the way they have it working now (and I use the term 'working' very loosely) is a joke, with different input freqs on each vote group member you only have to move out of one area into another and your transmission will not go through until the radio receives a signal from the new (closer) repeater. This has been a major source of complaint with the current radio systems, not to mention a big safety concern!

And I reckon that they couldn't possibly send all pages statewide to all transmitters (although it would be fun for those of us who monitor PDW), I receive pages from 5 different D/T/Zs at the moment and I quite often see garbled messages due to 2 districts paging at the same time. Obviously a system covering a wider area would have some sort of message queuing but even that would most probably result in pages being delayed? My guess is that pager systems will stay grouped by district or possibly by region at the most?

Andrew

[centralcoastscanman]

great, another waste of tax payers money upgrading rfs comms to p25. The nswgrn is already p25

I agree in areas where there is no GRN coverage rfs do need their own pmr network, but in areas where they operate that has grn coverage running a pmr system is a waste of money...

How they are going to get the funding will be interesting given the government's stand on agencies running their own show when they are pushing them all to go onto grn...

[vk2fear]

Guys RFS PMR are not going P25 they are just replacing the Base with ones that can do P25,when they need to be replaced.The RFS are going to run the AFTER hours FIRE CALLS from HQ,they have been puting in PMR-GRN linking,for all bases,with the paging system they are up grading it all so it will work when HQ send the Page,also most DTZ get there FIRE CALLS by PHONE and PAGER now.

[ivahri]

Oh brother... try to read such announcements as a "Corporate Plan". Plans are... well they are plans! A bit of dreaming, a bit of crystal ball gazing, and a healthy dose of wishful thinking! Most of the major agencies are thinking along the same lines but we all are currently bogged down with spectrum planning uncertainty, overall authority (read: Telco agency) uncertainty, and bugger all money.

And please don't refer to voting in terms of the way "Mother Moto intended!"... I think I know a bit about how voting works- and the best form is Base or Comparator voting- which is the way Moto prefers as this is what is mostly used in the US. It is dependent on "hot" and individual links between sites- something most of us non-site owning agencies can't do. It fills up huts, loads down towers, is as spectrum inefficient as you can get, and costs multiple times more than "mobile" voting. Mobile voting DOES work- but it depends on the networks being properly designed (that is all bases key up within 20ish millesecs of each other), and the mobile voting properly set up. Some agencies just don't understand that... and that isn't the fault of the radios or their manufacturer. The current XTL firmware has a voting algorithm that was influenced by much field testing done by NSW SES & a freelancing Tait RF tech. It works- I've driven a lot of km with a spectrum analyser proving it does. P25 voting can work much the same, but there are "challenges".

Cheers,

Richard

[vk2fear]

https://www.myrfs.nsw.gov.au/myrfslive/ ... ryCode=SOP

[Bigfella237]

And that's for only 1 district, how do they plan on running 47 of them out of the same room? I can see a couple more floors being added to HQ!

Also interesting that the RFS has now sprung for Centracom consoles too, not that long ago they couldn't afford them...

Andrew

[ivahri]

Well I think the management of the RFS deserve a heap of praise. They've fought the fight & received just under $17M for their radio projects, an amount that will do a lot for country radio- not just for them but the other agencies as well through improved huts & towers. I wish my agency's management had that vision, instead of deluding themselves that GRN & 4G phones will solve the comms needs of the state. Too many stupid, naive IT people corrupting communications decision making while the RFS are getting out and doing their jobs.

Cheers,

Richard

[criten]

The improved quality of P25 sounds great!

Although I would like to see the RFS move to the GRN as others have also stated. Makes sense to utilize an existing system. If coverage is an issue, surely it'd cost less to migrate RFS sites to become GRN sites than it would to migrate all RFS sites to P25 compliance.

[vk2fear]

more info

https://www.myrfs.nsw.gov.au/MYRFSLive/ ... ryCode=SOP

https://www.myrfs.nsw.gov.au/MYRFSLive/ ... ryCode=SOP