System status is located at the bottom of this page.  The initial Incident ICS-205 is HERE.

Pike County Regional Communications System Project

 

The first stage of the project was a four Tx  / Rx site, four channel voted conventional analog VHF system providing county-wide communications for all regional first responders.

We selected this format for many reasons, including the ability to immediately use over 250 existing mobile and portable radios. The project also included end-user equipment for agencies unable to provide their own conventional VHF narrow-band mobiles and portables.

All sites can operate stand-alone and all have backup utilities. 4.9GHz microwave is used for the backhaul, giving Pike County a reliable, redundant system that is independent of public utilities for power and interconnection.

The design of the system has allowed Pike County to add additional three receiver sites with minimal expense.

Current SYSTEM NOTICES are at the bottom of this page.

 

Pike Response Maps

.gif format


North West


USCC Sites
North East

 


Pike County  


South West

 
South East

 

   

1300-BRRY

BARRY FIRE DISTRICT MAP

1500-HULL

HULL/K FD DISTRICT MAP

1700-NWCN

NEW CNTN DISTRICT MAP

2300-BAYL

BAYLIS FD DISTRICT MAP

2500-GRGS

G'VILLE FD DISTRICT MAP

2700-NPFD

N. PIKE FD DISTRICT MAP

3500-SCFD

SPR CRK FD DISTRICT MAP

3700-PHLL

P.HILL FD DISTRICT MAP

4100-PITF

P'FIELD FD DISTRICT MAP

4700-EPFD

E. PIKE FD DISTRICT MAP
 

ComStudy 2.2 MLS Voting Maps

"Most Likely Site" Voting Map - Pike County


Map Updated December 2010

System Overview PDF (Document)

ComStudy 2.2 'Field Strength' Coverage Maps
(RF Density Maps, all including 14db total environmental losses)

Pike County Radio System.pps (PowerPoint)

Portable to Any Receiver

Combined Transmitter  to Portable Combined Transmitter to Pager

 

   

El Dara Transmitter Only

Griggsville Transmitter Only Pea Ridge Transmitter Only

 

   

Hull Transmitter Only

Barry Paging Only New Canton Fire Private
Proprietary Repeater
(Not Interoperable with any other agency)

UHF ALPHA Cross-Connect Portable to Base

Pleasant Hill School/City/FD Shared Base Station Proposed Flood Repeater

 

Existing Pike Highway Dept Base

And just for giggles, I applied a less stringent portable to base criterion to the Ill State Starcom System  

Radio Programming Worksheet

Radio Frequency List

The All-Important item:

TECHNICAL STANDARDS (Rev. H)
2012 3rd QUARTER

Pike County Topography

 

 

Pike Regional System Status

Component

Notes

Updated 02/05/16 

Narrow Band Conversion
Schedule

Paging 20K0F3E until 05/2012, then 11K2F3E. Receive-only pagers and radios may be changed at any time after that, if necessary. Many will work in their present setting with no changes required.

LAW

20K0F3E until 05/2012, then 11K2F3E

ALPHA

Already Narrowband, 11K2F3E

BRAVO

Already Narrowband, 11K2F3E

CHARLIE

Already Narrowband, 11K2F3E

Other Channels

Mostly 20K0F3E, conversion schedule pending individual users and agency schedule.

PAGING

155.1000
Wide
127.3

No mobile transmit allowed.

El Dara Primary

Fully Operational.

El Dara Auto Replay

Fully Operational.

Griggsville

Fully Operational.

Pea Ridge

Fully Operational.

Hull

Fully Operational.

Barry

Fully Operational

ALPHA

Mobile TX:
158.9850
Narrow!
162.2 CTCSS

Mobile RX:
154.1000
Narrow!
114.8 CTCSS

El Dara Transmitter

Fully Operational.

El Dara Receiver

Fully Operational.

Griggsville Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Griggsville Receiver

Fully Operational.

Pea Ridge Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Pea Ridge Receiver

Fully Operational.

Hull Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Hull Receiver

Fully Operational.

Baylis Receiver

Fully Operational, transmitting from  El Dara.

Pittsfield Receiver

Fully Operational, transmitting from  El Dara.

Pearl Receiver

Operational, transmitting from  El Dara.

BRAVO

Mobile TX:
158.9250
Narrow!
91.5 CTCSS

Mobile RX:
154.1300
Narrow!
114.8 CTCSS

 

El Dara Transmitter

Fully Operational.

El Dara Receiver

Fully Operational.

Griggsville Transmitter

Occasional Line Faults causing missed audio and transmitter miss-voting.

Griggsville Receiver

Pea Ridge Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Pea Ridge Receiver

Fully Operational.

Hull Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Hull Receiver

Fully Operational.

Baylis Receiver

Fully Operational, transmitting from  El Dara.

Pittsfield Receiver

Fully Operational, transmitting from  El Dara.

Pearl Receiver

Operational, transmitting from  Pea Ridge.

LAW

Mobile TX; Regional Roaming:
159.1800
Wide
123.0 CTCSS

Mobile TX; ELDR RX Only:
159.1800
Wide
223N DCS
Not reliable for portable use! Use Roaming CTCSS.

All Mobile RX:
154.785
Wide
114.8 CTCSS

 

El Dara Transmitter

Fully Operational.

El Dara Receiver

Fully Operational.

Griggsville Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Griggsville Receiver

Fully Operational.

Pea Ridge Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Pea Ridge Receiver

Fully Operational.

Hull Transmitter

Fully Operational.

Hull Receiver

Fully Operational.

Baylis Receiver

Fully Operational, transmitting from  El Dara.

Pittsfield Receiver

Fully Operational, transmitting from  El Dara.

Pearl Receiver

Operational, transmitting from  Pea Ridge.

Pittsfield Legacy Receiver
(Supporting the Old 155.910 114.8 Mobile Tx Protocol)

discontinued!

This system is no longer supported!
Continued use may result in communication failure or potential injury, and will interfere with other systems using the former mobile TX frequency.

Charley

Mobile TX:
458.3750
Narrow!
114.8 CTCSS

Mobile RX:
453.3750
Narrow!
114.8 CTCSS

 

El Dara UHF Repeater & VHF gateway cross-connect

Fully Operational 24/7.

Cross connected with ALPHA

Note: upon one hour notice, the CHARLEY can be converted to 4TAC41 operation with gateway connection to ALPHA, BRAVO or LAW.

JPS/Raytheon SNV-12 Voting System

 

CPM-3 Software Version:
 1.5 updated 5/2010

 

 

Default Console Transmit Site:

El Dara

Console TX Site following mobile TX:

Voted Site for mobile.

Return to Default El Dara Console TX following mobile transmit time:

30 Seconds

Revote Criteria

>3db improvement sustained for >0.700 seconds, all A/B/L receivers

Alpha Transmit Steering Lock

PSAP remote or El Dara manual override

Bravo Transmit Steering Lock

El Dara manual override or JPS remote command

Law Transmit Steering Lock

PSAP remote or El Dara manual override

Mobile TX PTT to Vote & Dispatch Audio RX Time

<0.125 seconds

Receive link fail timeout

15 seconds

Carlson TB-LL Microwave Systems

ELDR//PSAP 8CH
097o, 4.38Mi. 4.9Ghz, 60, 5-43-V Operational

ELDR//GRGS 4CH
053o, 10.73Mi.

4.9Ghz, 50, 8-103-V Occasional Interference

ELDR//PRDG 4CH
164o, 14.25Mi.

4.9Ghz, 80, 3-38-V Operational

ELDR//LAMO 8CH
218o, 14.94Mi.

4.9Ghz, 70, 2-51-V Operational

LAMO//HULL 4CH
156o, 19.74Mi.

4.9Ghz, 50, C-101-V Very Occasional Interference

ELDR//BAYL 4CH
351o, 7.92Mi.

4.9Ghz, 80,7-200-H Operational

System Notices

 

 

ADVISORY NOTICE

HULL SITE ISSUES

 

Various microwave interference issues cause occasional outages of the HULL ALPHA/BRAVO/LAW system. These issues are transient and are being investigated.

The Pea Ridge, El Dara and Baylis sites will provide redundant coverage during any outage.

PAGING IS UNAFFECTED BY THIS ISSUE!

WARNING NOTICE:
HIGH POWERED MOBILE RADIO FAILURES

[Permanent]

Alpha, Bravo and Law are designed to operate properly region-wide using low-powered portable radios. Using a high powered mobile to communicate short distances WILL FAIL due to the excessive RF radiation from the high-powered mobile overloading nearby receivers to the point they cannot hear tower repeaters.

Also, automatic repeater selection is based on mobile transmitter signal quality as received by the system; use of high powered mobiles may cause the system to vote to a distant transmitter rendering local communication difficult. Raytheon/JPS is presently modifying their voting firmware to improve this situation.

Users are advised to use mobile ERP's of less than 25 watts whenever possible. In this case more isn't better, it is absolutely much worse and may fail entirely.

ADVISORY NOTICE 12/20/2010

PEARL SITE NOW ONLINE

[RESOLVED]

The Pearl receive site is on-line as of 12/2010. No user intervention is required; the system will simply work better from the South Eastern parts of the region.

Users may find that locations that previously voted to the El Dara site (or didn't work at all) now vote to the Pleasant Hill site.

Final adjustments will take a few weeks of actual use to iron out, and the system may mis-vote from some locations. Users are cautioned as always to simply use correct (and patient) radio procedures. Please document any problems with mis-voting and forward them in written form to the ETSB for resolution.

PAGING IS UNAFFECTED BY THE NEW SITE!

Policy,
Use of LAW Roam
 

[Permanent]

Per the Pike County Sheriff: Transmitting on LAW is restricted to Commissioned Peace Officers, Fire Chiefs, or from authorized Emergency and Government-owned Vehicles. The ability to transit on LAW Roam shall be disabled in all other radios, including portables and mobiles belonging to Non-Commissioned First Responders. Contact Sheriff Petty for authorization.

ALL POINTS BULLETIN:
3/01/2010

[Permanent]

DO NOT USE the LAW Legacy Mobile TX Protocol!
(De-program the former 155.910 114.8 Mobile Tx Protocol; the 154.785 114.8 base transmit protocol is unchanged.)

This 155.910 mobile transmit frequency has been DISCONTINUED.

The former mobile TX frequency is being assigned to other uses-  mobile users attempting to communicate on LAW by transmitting on 155.910 will not be heard. Continued use will also cause problems in other unrelated systems.

Local and visiting agencies wishing to use the LAW channel MUST use the 'new' (March 2008) mobile transmit roaming protocols of 159.1800 20K0F3E 123.0 CTCSS.

ADVISORY NOTICE:
5/2010

[Permanent]

Users and our own investigation have shown local cable TV providers to be leaking TV audio from their 'closed' cable distribution system, This locally affects frequencies between 155.6 and 155.8MHz. Use of the appropriate receive CTCSS codes will reduce the nuisance audio but not eliminate the harmful RF interference from leaking Cable TV systems.

The Pittsfield system is known to interfere with Adams Sheriff on 155.740 and V-CALL (aka 1CAL10) on 155.7525 by leaking TV-Ch20, QVC. The 127.3 CTCSS should be applied to Adams Sheriff. The national standard for V-Call is CS receive and 156.7 CTCSS TX. Providing all transmitters are properly programmed with the 156.7 TX CTCSS, adding the same CTCSS to the RX frequency will remove the nuisance interference, but users should be cautioned that some vendors fail to program their transmitters with the NPSTC required 156.7 CTCSS, so open monitoring may be required.

NOTICE:
8/1/2009

[Permanent]

Numerous radios supplied by vendors other than B-K Electric have been found with incorrect programming on Alpha/Bravo/Law Transmit. These three channels DO NOT use the same CTCSS tone for TX and Rx. Alpha/Bravo are narrow-band 11K2F3E channels and will not perform properly in 20K0F3E wide band mode. Please advise your vendor to download the latest TECHNICAL STANDARDS (link) information and verify that their products are programmed as required.

 

 

 

Send mail to jim@b-kelectric.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2013 Fire Electronics division of B-K Electric, Inc.
Last modified: 02/05/16

IMPORTANT NOTICE:  It is imperative that public safety communications users NOT schedule any emergency incidents (fires, manhunts, floods, earthquakes, etc.) that require faster than a three-day response to allow for deferred planning, distribution of communications equipment, and training to be accomplished.  In some jurisdictions a local ordinance will be required to prevent unplanned emergencies.